The beginning
I am a new student of science, and this is my blog. I am enrolled in a 4 year honours degree in Biotechnology in NUI Maynooth, Ireland. My first day is a week from now, on the 18th, and I plan to catalogue as much as I can of the degree. The reasons are numerous, many of them for myself, but overall it seems a worthwhile thing to do. I don’t know anyone in the year, or anyone in the college, which is a reasonably small one, with some 6,000 students. A Nobel Peace Prize winner, John Hume, graduated from Maynooth. I do indeed hope to win the Nobel Prize for Peace, but also for Medicine. Also for Physics, that would be quite gratifying. Well, since I’m at it, I may as well go for the full sweep. I hear they have great after-parties.
As for photos, I splashed out on a Canon 400D in the last year, so I can in some way prove my attendance to the college, so as to rule out the possibility that I am just vicariously learning through writing a blog on a degree.
Given the looks I get when I gleefully inform friends of my degree of choice, I feel I should explain. As defined by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity:
“Biotechnology means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.”
As the definition hints, Biotech is a seriously wide reaching area, affecting all facets of life, from the foods you eat to immune system catalysts prescibed to should you be unfortunate enough as to have to undergo chemotherapy. As wiki states :
Biotechnology combines disciplines like genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, embryology and cell biology, which are in turn linked to practical disciplines like chemical engineering, information technology, and robotics.
To say I’m looking forward to the degree is an understatement. The closest thing I have to a dogma, I suppose, is Vorsprung Durch Technik. That’s me, and I hope I can push things a little forward myself once I’m armed with the knowledge neccesary.
That’s it. Mission statement accomplished. Will write soon.
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