When I was 16 I read about telomeres in Scientific American and became convinced of their fundamental importance to cell division and cellular senescence. A few years ago I defended my dissertation describing the role of several telomere binding proteins in regulating telomere stability. While I haven't looked at a copy of Scientific American in many years I am thankful to pop science for making biology accessible to me as a youngster.
I'm a post-doc so I'm one of the guys you'll be working for. My undergrads do the dishes on the first day. I'm not going to let you f^c& up anything important! This is the real deal, not just some class or a "learning experience." If you do a good job at the menial stuff then I get the feeling that this is a person who can get things done and I start to teach you the real stuff. If you're too good for simple tasks then I inevitably end up kicking you out of the lab.
Also, plan to put in some real hours in the lab. My experience is that students who don't show up for 12+ hours / week don't retain anything I teach them and it's a waste of your time and mine. This is a serious commitment so don't fill up your schedule with 20 credit hours worth of classes that will tear you away from the lab for exams half the time.
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When I was 16 I read about telomeres in Scientific American and became convinced of their fundamental importance to cell division and cellular senescence. A few years ago I defended my dissertation describing the role of several telomere binding proteins in regulating telomere stability. While I haven't looked at a copy of Scientific American in many years I am thankful to pop science for making biology accessible to me as a youngster.
I'm a post-doc so I'm one of the guys you'll be working for. My undergrads do the dishes on the first day. I'm not going to let you f^c& up anything important! This is the real deal, not just some class or a "learning experience." If you do a good job at the menial stuff then I get the feeling that this is a person who can get things done and I start to teach you the real stuff. If you're too good for simple tasks then I inevitably end up kicking you out of the lab. Also, plan to put in some real hours in the lab. My experience is that students who don't show up for 12+ hours / week don't retain anything I teach them and it's a waste of your time and mine. This is a serious commitment so don't fill up your schedule with 20 credit hours worth of classes that will tear you away from the lab for exams half the time.