Back to my roots

                                                                                       
Coming up with a research proposal was probably my favorite part of 20.109. Before coming to MIT I used to always spend very many hours of my free time coming up with ideas I thought might work and hopefully make some impact in cancer research; however, ever since getting here I think a lack of time has made that very difficult. I am to focused on trying to take in information that I do not have time to come up with my own idea. On top of that I also feel like before coming here the world was an open book in a ignorance is bliss kind of way. My knowledge of biology was far smaller so with that lack of knowledge came a lack of limitations. However, the more I learn the more I find, oh that's impossible because reason X, Y, and Z. I think that and a general dissatisfaction with the way biology research is actually done has caused me to leave what I think got me into MIT in the first place, and that's coming up with ideas to help people.

It was nice to go back to my roots with this proposal. At first I started by reading papers and trying to figure out a good idea based on those papers. However, I was not coming up with anything that I liked. I felt like I was just kind of stealing peoples ideas and not really coming up with anything. When it comes to me I think I live by this idea that "we could have spent the rest of forever getting really good at making the horse and carriage to the point that it worked at 100% efficiency, but someone decided to throw away everything that was conventionally accepted and came up with this crazy idea of a car that is not better than any horse and carriage we could have ever come up with" (lol quote by me :P). When I was in highschool I didn't read papers to come up with ideas, I came up with ideas then found out if it was possible. So that is what I decided to do. I put down my computer put a sheet over my face and just thought. Together Chloe and I came up with this idea that I am actually very proud of.

I don't think I am asked to produce 100% original ideas very often here, but I think this project allowed me to do that. I think that is probably one of my favorite parts of biology and I am glad that I could do it again. So, yeah what a way to end 20.109, it was a great time and I think I learned a lot!!!!