The Bittersweet 20.109

So far, I think I can say that 20.109 has been one of the most fun, yet challenging class I have had at MIT. I’m not saying that it’s the hardest one, per say, but I think I’ve learnt and grown so much along the class. In all honesty, I could’ve never imagined myself finishing these big topic assignments when I first sat down on the first day of class. In fact, I was somewhat intimidated by the amount of effort and knowledge that you have to put into each and every task to even do ‘okay’ in the class. Regardless, now that it’s over, I want to dedicate the rest of this post writing down my favorite moments in the class so far:

1.       If you can easily explain what went wrong, then that’s not biology

Yup, biology, to me, is never an exact science. You can be 120% sure that everything has been done accordingly to the protocol, yet you will still get weird result in your experiments (hint: FKBP12 and Western Blot). But that’s the fun of it, no? If biology has always been easy, I might’ve never liked it in the first place, and I guess to that extent, 20.109 has done a great job in simulating the real wet lab science experience.

2.       To my surprise, battery making is an actual art form.

Okay, I take my words back; perhaps 20.109 is one of the hardest class ever at MIT IF cathode rolling is graded as assignments. That was probably the one time at MIT so far that I actually gave up on. I don’t know whether our materials are just crappy (and cursed that JiFa couldn’t roll one cathode out of it) or if I was just a terrible artist, but props to everyone from other groups who successfully managed to create their cathodes on their own. You all are the real MVP!  

3.       Research Proposal Presentation = Inspiring

Going through the research proposal presentation, I was reminded by how I am surrounded with the most brilliant and innovative thinkers in the world. I was amazed by many of the seemingly simple problem that everyone has proposed, yet no one has actually worked to solve it. Personally, back in Indonesia I have never had the opportunity to think and develop of my own research ideas; we just never had the resources. Here, however at MIT, the opportunities are endless. Being able to go out there and talk of an idea on something you value was definitely the most exciting assignment I had in this class. Although it might have not actually been a real novel idea (cause Prof. Belcher apparently has patents on everything M13 related), I am excited to develop more ideas throughout my course at MIT, and perhaps work on it during grad school

4.       Embarrassing Valentine’s day

I don’t think this need any further explanation, but this definitely will be something I remembered from 20.109.

5.       And I’m getting there with the definition

So yeah, one last thing I want to address is the suggested prompt of this post: What BE means to me? Honestly, before taking this class, I was actually thinking of switching to biology major. As much as l like the idea of creating the next cancer therapy, I am more interested in studying how cancer actually works. After taking this class, however, I now have a greater appreciation for Biological Engineers, on how diverse the field really is. I began to think differently of the field; without BE, there is no way we can understand cancer better, not without the proper tools and devices that is. While I still don’t have a legit definition of what BE really is, I think I am getting there, and hopefully by graduation, I’ll hopefully be able to come up with an explanation for my career.  

Despite being relieved and pleased that 20.109 is finally over (except for that one mini assignment), I also feel kinda sad that it did. The class has indeed been a roller coaster ride, with many ups and downs, but I’m glad that I took it, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did J

Ps. Alex if you are reading this, thank you for being an overall awesome partner. You have done an exceptional job, despite not liking the class initially.