One Cute Geek

Aren’t these cute? I’ve always wanted business cards, but I’m still a student so that never happened… until now! Well, they’re not technically business cards. But now I have something to give out when I meet people at networking events and conferences. I got them made at www.shopmbmb.com.

The other day, I was making a solution of baking soda and salt to clean my silver jewelry when I noticed that the Arm & Hammer box said it’ll donate $50,000 to feed hungry children with the help of my purchase. This sounds charitable at first, but then it really bothered me.

What’s $50,000 to Arm & Hammer anyway? Why can’t they say they’ve already donated the money to help the children? Did they really need my purchase to help them reach their $50,000 goal? If they are feeling charitable, then they should just give away the money. Their charitable givings should not be dependent on whether I purchase their product. Is it supposed to make me feel better about purchasing their baking soda? Did I help feed the hungry children? No, not really.

If it’s a marketing ploy so that I’d buy their brand, then it failed. I don’t read the back of the box when I grab the box off of the shelf. There was no campaign about their project. I knew nothing about it until I actually used the product. They could have just said, “We have donated money to feed hungry children,” rather than making me feel like their charity is dependent on whether I buy their product or not.

I want to write them a letter about this.

I want to buy Papers. It organizes PDFs of scientific articles for easy access, search, and reading. Right now, I have random print copies in a file cabinet and some electronic copies in various folders. This application makes it much easier to organize and store my papers.

Read more about it from NY Times.

The mortality rate for cancer has fallen for 20+ years, but that is mostly due to earlier detection methods and not so much due to any new therapies or treatments. Despite the large amounts of money that goes into cancer research for several decades, nothing revolutionary has been found. In a new Wired Magazine article (not yet published on the web), the issue of early detection methods vs. finding a cure is discussed. 

From my own research on “cancer” and what I know from the field, it is true that people are more excited to find therapies, treatment and cures for cancer. Even myself, I had the preconceived notion that early detection methods are not the real solutions to the problem. They are merely the means to an end.

However, the Wired article emphasized the fact that if detected early, 90% of people survive cancer as opposed to 10% for late stage detection. Why, then, is cancer research focused on finding cures for the 10% rather than saving the lives of the 90%? To save more lives, should research be focused on early detection methods rather than cures?

This is all easier said than done because an effective early detection method require robustness and specificity that would be difficult to optimize. Below are a couple obstacles mentioned in the articles.

1. The method must be able to detect malignant cancers.
MRI, CT, PET and other imaging modalities can detect abnormal tissue growth. However, not all abnormal tissue growth are malignant cancers. They could be benign and be taken care of by the body’s immune system. How to differentiate between these two tissue types? If all abnormal growths are treated, then some people are undergoing unnecessary procedures. Then again, is it better to treat all and save some than not saving any?

2. The method must be able to detect cancer when it is still small.
If blood or serum is used to detect for proteins that might be present when there is cancer, then it must be detected when the cancer is still small and has not metastasize. The problem is that at the earlier stages, the tumor might not generate enough proteins that can be detected via a blood or serum test. One simulated study has found that it is possible for a small tumor to generate enough proteins to be detected in a blood/serum test.

What do you think? What other obstacles are there in early detection? Should more money goes into early detection methods rather than to a cure for cancer?

When I visited a friend in Boston last spring, we spent a few hours at Beadworks. The shop has a variety of beads, jewelry supplies, and tables in the back for immediate creation of your purchases. 

I had never made jewelry before, so my necklace was simply strung beads. It’s supposed to be inspired by Greece: white houses and blue sea. The blue is the cord, which you can’t really see here.

After I returned to Davis, I found that we have a similar shop. A Better Place to Bead also has a table and allow patrons to borrow tools for making jewelry in the store. Sadly, I have been so busy that I have not been able to go. That all changed when I was inspired by a necklace I saw on freepeople.com, so I finally dragged my butt to the bead store this weekend.

Unfortunately, they did not have the beads I wanted. Next option? Joann’s Fabric. Got my beads for much cheaper, and I even got something to fix the necklace I made in Boston. The white and blue is now much more prominent. Here’s what it looks like:

I went crazy and made four in total. Two are inspired by Free People and two are inspired by the Greek Isles. 

I have enough beads left to make a few more, but I should start working on my Journal Club presentation for lab.

Ever since Season 2 of Project Runway, I have wanted to sew. I even bought a sewing machine without really knowing how to use it. My desire to sew didn’t translate into any projects, however. I tried once to use my machine and gave up.

A few months ago, I took a clothing alterations class through my school’s experimental college. It felt so satisfying to hem pants and skirts and make them fit me. Does that sound dorky? I don’t care. I spent an entire weekend once just hemming things. I’m shorter than the tall girls they make clothes for, so it felt good to finally have things fit me. Yeah, I could’ve brought them to a tailor, but I like to save money where I can.

My first non-alteration project is a camera case courtesy of a tutorial by Auymills. I made it as a birthday present for a friend. It turned out cute, so I also made one for myself.

I’m looking for a new project. If you have any suggestion of something semi-easy and cute to make, let me know!