A new wireless charging option of smart devices I found this week. No, that is not my telephone handset. A photograph of a bulk toilet paper dispenser with a mobile telephone sitting on it apparently left behind by the owner. Photograph by Gary Lum.
Posted on by Gary

Good times in high school

Dead Duck Dilbert the travelling duck. Photograph by Gary Lum.
Dead Duck Dilbert the travelling duck

Good times in high school

Two things happened this week which had me reminiscing about high school. The first thing was my youngest daughter winning an academic prize which she received at her school’s speech night. She’s in her final year of high school, so this is a nice academic finale to her high school life. The second thing is that Australia announced it has now achieved rubella-free status.

 

 

[maxbutton id=”10″ ]

 

My interest in rubella and academic prizes

I had a brilliant biology master (yes, that was how (back in my day) we referred to male teachers at school), he was the Subject Master for Biological Sciences. Along with my mother and father, he really inspired my interest in biology. I regarded him as an indoctrinator rather than a teacher. He was excellent at his job.

Over the two years of the fifth and sixth form (grades 11 and 12 [1981 and 1982]), we covered basic biology, genetics and evolution, microbiology, botany, and zoology. My life-long interest in microbiology stemmed from a few months studying it in high school biology.

Biology prize

In the fifth and sixth form, I won the biology prize each year, so it gave me a thrill knowing my youngest daughter won an academic prize. Her experience with the prize process was similar to mine. Winners were told we had won a prize, we were given a voucher to a specific bookstore, we selected a book, it was wrapped, and then presented to the prize winner on the night. The only difference is that in my day the books were embossed with the school crest.

A photograph of Gray's Anatomy embossed with the Brisbane Grammar School crest. Photograph by Gary Lum.
Coffee and Gray’s Anatomy

Rubella

Part of the sixth form biology prize was a result of a project I did on evaluating three immunoassays for the detection of rubella antibodies. I took a group of mice and immunised them with the then available rubella vaccine which at the time had some alleged problems with poor immunogenicity. I bled the mice by nicking their tails with a scalpel blade and drawing enough blood to centrifuge to get about 30 µL of serum for each assay. I evaluated an hæmagglutination inhibition assay (HAI), an immunofluorescence assay (FIAX™), and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In the laboratory, I was doing the project it had been using the HAI as its main method and was looking to introduce the ELISA or FIAX™.

I entered the project into the national school science prize (sponsored by BHP) but was disqualified because I had experimented on live animals and the rules at the time did not favour live animal experimentation.

The following year as a first-year medical student I got to present the work at my first medical conference.

Reference to my first presentation at a scientific meeting as a 17-year-old first-year medical student.
Reference to my first presentation at a scientific meeting as a 17-year-old first-year medical student.

More on rubella

I put myself through medical school by working in a medical testing laboratory. I started as a laboratory assistant, transitioned through to a technician, and then after earning a bachelor of medical science degree while studying medicine, I finished as a medical laboratory scientist.

Gary the chick slayer

One of my tasks every Monday evening was to take fifty (50) 3-day old chickens, anaesthetise them with chloroform in a glass chamber, and then when they stopped chirping, I pulled their limp bodies out, and with a scalpel severed their heads at the neck and bled them into a bowl of citrate solution. These 3-day old chicken erythrocytes (red blood cells, note I can use the word cells because circulating bird erythrocytes retain the nucleus unlike human red corpuscles, human erythrocytes are technically not cells) were used in the rubella HAI.

It’s a terrific thing that because of vaccination, Australia can be declared free of endemic rubella.

Live animal experimentation

I believe live animal experimentation needs to fit within an ethical construct and such experimentation is thoroughly peer reviewed for the need to use live animals. I think a lot of work which used to be done on live animals is no longer necessary. The data is available and we now have both cell and tissue culture methods as well as In Silico methods.

I expect the need for live animal experimentation will continue to decline and it may not be too long before the need is rare.

Public art in Woden. Photograph by Gary Lum.
Public art in Woden

Pedantry from my biology master

The erythrocyte matter referred to above, is an example of how my biology master inculcated into his students that we should be accurate with our language.

Muscles do not contract and expand. Muscles contract and relax.

Faecal matter is not excrement. Excretion is a cellular activity. Kidneys excrete, cells excrete, but when we open our bowels we defecate. Urine is excrement but when you’re straining to stool you are not excreting. Note, emptying your bladder of urine is not excreting either.

Cells do not breathe, cells respire. Lungs breathe. Ridicule was avoided in the classroom by successfully differentiating between respiration and photosynthesis in plants.

What have I watched this week?

Daredevil

I’ve just started watching season three (2018) of Daredevil on Netflix. Daredevil is part of the Marvel Comics universe. It’s about a blind legal practitioner who fights crime at night.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

After finishing a rewatch of Star Trek: Enterprise last week, I’ve started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation again. At the same time, I’m watching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: Voyager.

The first two episodes run together and are named “Encounter at Farpoint”. My main question is how is the saucer section propelled after it separates from the battle section at warp speed? Does the saucer section have warp engines?

What have I listened to this week?

Just the regular podcasts with an emphasis on technology especially the Mac OS and iOS bits and pieces. Apple has recently released a new MacBook Air, iPad Pro, and Mac Mini, as well as an update to iOS 12 which now gives users access to group FaceTime. I also updated to MacOS Mojave this week too. Most of the podcast hosts for tech podcasts this week have been speaking positively about the new releases from Apple.

The main tech podcasts from the last week were MacOS Ken and Two blokes talking tech.

What have I eaten this week?

This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one image and scroll through the rest of them.

Yummy Lummy this week

Pressure cooker red curry chicken drumsticks

I cooked a red curry with chicken drumsticks using a pressure cooker.

Raw chicken drumsticks. Click on the photograph to see the recipe for the pressure cooker red curry chicken. Photograph by Gary Lum.
Raw chicken drumsticks. Click on the photograph to see the recipe for the pressure cooker red curry chicken.

[maxbutton id=”11″ ][maxbutton id=”12″ ][maxbutton id=”13″ ]

Final thoughts

Do you have highlights from high school? Did you have a favourite teacher?
How do you feel about live animal experimentation?
Are you embedded in the Apple Mac ecosystem? What’s your favourite operating system for desktops and devices?

A new wireless charging option of smart devices I found this week. No, that is not my telephone handset. A photograph of a bulk toilet paper dispenser with a mobile telephone sitting on it apparently left behind by the owner. Photograph by Gary Lum.
A new wireless charging option of smart devices I found this week. No, that is not my telephone handset.

High school

I went to Brisbane Grammar School from 1978 to 1982.

What should I write about?

 

7 Replies to “Good times in high school”

  1. Congrats to your daughter on winning an academic prize. Sounds like she works hard. In school I didn’t do biology…I wanted to but was not one of the students filtered out to take it. The experiments you describe sound very interesting. In high school I was always first in English (except for the final exam, what a bummer).

    1. Thanks, Mabel. I was very ordinary in English. I seemed to always be butting heads with English teachers. I regret that now. I wish I had paid more attention in English and history classes.

  2. Firstly Gary huge congratulations to your very clever daughter – you clearly are very proud and so you should be. And of course a time where there is no use of animals for experimentation is my absolute wish. I am sure it can be done and like you say there are substitutes for animals.

    On a slightly different subject, I have been buying cosmetics and household products that are not tested on animals for years and years and if those companies can make great cosmetics etc without testing on animals why can’t all companies!!

    1. Thanks, Sue. I am a very proud Dad.

      Yea, I hope eventually we can eliminate the need to use animals for research. I still see a need for a small number of uses, but I think the mindset has to change and aim for zero use eventually.

      I hope the moisturisers I need are not tested using animals.

  3. Congrats to your daughter and you for the tradition of academic achievement. I admire and applaud your stand against the pollution of science and the language of science and especially biology. Me thinks you are the master now. Keep spreading that smarts like applebutter on toast and we’ll all be glad we took a bite.

Comments are closed.