Okay, here's the quick update on the life and times of me: I've finished one internship (ah, still need to hand in one copy of the report) and started the next (Molecular Genetics - Model organism: Arabidopsis Thaliana (I'll do a post on it soon)). Well, started: after one week my direct supervisor left for 4 weeks, and my other supervisor just left for a week yesterday. Perfectly fine - I left for a week this week (to take a course on Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry), and after next week I'll be gone for another two (to take a course entitled 'Advanced Protein and Lipid Analysis').
Which brings me to the unavoidable science story of the post: A bit of background on the Chemistry Nobel Prize winners of 2002 (more info here). The two guys who won ¼ of the prize each "for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules" have backgrounds that could not differ more from each other. John B. Fenn was offered the prize when he was in his seventies, whilst Koichi Tanaka won the prize when in his forties. Fenn was working for some time at one of the prestigious US universities, untill they let him go when he reached retirement age. However, Virginia commonwealth University did find it worthwile to give the man an office, and he did the work leading to the prize there (at least, that's what I've been told). So, you can still do prize winning work at high age. Koichi, in contrast, did the work he was awarded for as a technician when he was 25 or so. Twenty odd years later, when he won the prize, he was still a technician at the same company. This is, however, where his story turns a little tragic: once he won the prize, he immediately became head of the facility, and as he was a bachelor, he also became a high-ranker on the most-wanted bachelor list. Having lost contact with the lab-work he enjoyed and being pursued by women at the level that it is very, very annoying, he wasn't feeling as happy as he was before he won the prize. In fact, he ended up leaving the company and the country, and now works as a technician doing the work he likes elsewhere...
Which brings me to the unavoidable science story of the post: A bit of background on the Chemistry Nobel Prize winners of 2002 (more info here). The two guys who won ¼ of the prize each "for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules" have backgrounds that could not differ more from each other. John B. Fenn was offered the prize when he was in his seventies, whilst Koichi Tanaka won the prize when in his forties. Fenn was working for some time at one of the prestigious US universities, untill they let him go when he reached retirement age. However, Virginia commonwealth University did find it worthwile to give the man an office, and he did the work leading to the prize there (at least, that's what I've been told). So, you can still do prize winning work at high age. Koichi, in contrast, did the work he was awarded for as a technician when he was 25 or so. Twenty odd years later, when he won the prize, he was still a technician at the same company. This is, however, where his story turns a little tragic: once he won the prize, he immediately became head of the facility, and as he was a bachelor, he also became a high-ranker on the most-wanted bachelor list. Having lost contact with the lab-work he enjoyed and being pursued by women at the level that it is very, very annoying, he wasn't feeling as happy as he was before he won the prize. In fact, he ended up leaving the company and the country, and now works as a technician doing the work he likes elsewhere...
