I woke up today lazier than usual. I have been getting into the habit of going to a bootcamp class at Dolores Park at 7am on Tuesdays, but it was raining all night as well as this morning so I didn't end up going.
At work today I found out that my friend Craig was going to leave next week and travel around the world for a year with his girlfriend. I've known Craig for nearly six years now and he'll definitely be missed. The news of his departure though erupted the thoughts I mentioned earlier about establishing a vision for myself. I became disturbed to the point where my productivity at work today was abysmal.
This evening I continued reading Rao's thoughts on making a dent in the universe. I haven't fully digested the article yet, but a few pieces are standing out to me so far. I will write more about this tomorrow.
Counter Culture, the DIY bio lab in Oakland, had a social night this evening and I went to visit. My goal was to get a sense of what people are working on as well as to get a better understanding if this is a field I want to continue fiddling with.
I had three conversations there worth pointing out:
1) Jill: Jill is part of the "mushroom group". She and her group explore use-cases where mushrooms are useful. One example she mentioned was accelerating the decay of trees as well as keeping them moist so they don't become a fire hazard when they are dead and dry. Another use-case is composting cigarette buds. She showed me the different strains of mushrooms they grew in the lab. Here's a peak:
Another interesting concept she mentioned was grafting. I had no idea what that is, but they have a class on it next Tuesday.
2) Another person I spoke with worked on the OpenInsulin project. In this project, they want to create a "blueprint" for other people and research facilities to make insulin. Currently, she says, insulin is sold by three pharmaceutical companies and is more or less an oligopoly.
3) John: John is a retired scientist. He walked me through his career of developing drugs. One was related to eye infection and another was related to blood clotting. He gave me a detailed explanation of the FDA approval process for drugs.
Was it useful going to that social? I think so. I plan to attend the grafting class next Tuesday since it's related to genetic engineering, which I have an interest in. I am hoping that would give me more data points to figure out if biology is one thing I want to continue pursuing or not.