I'm an electronics engineer and computer programmer changing fields to biology. I aspire to contribute to climate crisis mitigation efforts, in particular, to how can we remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it for geological time. Intuitively, I believe biology will provide humanity with the best approaches to this problem. A long journey awaits me. By beginning to study biology now (Jan. 2020), then in a decade or so, I will be ready to join other humans in working meaningfully on this problem.
I learn best by doing hands on work. My ongoing projects:
- Reading the literature.
- Learning how to grow freshwater algae in culture.
- Isolating microbial strains from an heirloom yogurt culture.
- Maintaining colorful E. coli strains for agar art at BosLab.
- Learning bioinformatics.
- Growing Nicotiana sylvestris plants, also known as wood tobacco, to learn how to maintain this model organism for plant bioengineering.
- Keeping grove snails as fun pets. I found these eating some of my garden plants.
- Devising and verifying a protocol to sterilize yeast growth media in mason jars in a pressure cooker in a home kitchen.
- Learning how to keep an electronic lab notebook. I wish all scientists would make their lab notebooks available for public viewing. Here's why.
Completed projects:
- Boslab Blue LED light box power switch repair
Projects on hold:
- Collaborating with fellow BosLab members on engineering E. coli to produce patchouli fragrance.
- As of December 2021, the members most interested in this project seem to have stepped back, and I as a beginner am not quite ready to forge ahead alone.
- Learn to use the the Milton-Roy SPECTRONIC 21 DUV spectrophotometer in the Boslab basement.