人生交卷时,我们交卷的对象,不是其他人,不是父母老师朋友或别人...是我们自己 “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain-
when i read about the good news (1) that University of Malaya enter the top 500 of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) for the first time in 2011, i feel happy for the university. This news serves as a vindication for strategy employed by its vice chancellor. University of Malaya is currently ranked 401-500th among 1000-plus universities around the world.
United States dominated the Top 100 universities in ARWU, grabbing 52 places(!!!!!!! other countries totally outcompeted). Ten universities in the United Kingdom, all Russell Group universities, made it to the top 100 places (happy that The University of Manchester was ranked at 38th =)) Four Australian universities and four Canadian universities were ranked among the top 100.
A total of 151 US universities were ranked among the top 500. 37 UK universities were in the top 500. China has 35 universities in the top 500. Canada has 22 universities while Australia has 19 universities in the top 500. Ireland has 3 universities in top 500.
Singapore has 2 universities in the top 500,(extra one compared to Malaysia)
大学的讲师Dr Julie Andrews曾对我说过:“The bad thing about asking questions is that thing becomes complicated, but it is good that you think.." 这句话让我内心有种感动,
"it is good that you think"简单一句,鼓励了总是好奇好问的我。
感恩小学后的我并没有放弃爱问问题的学习方法,没有对填鸭式教育妥协
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经过14年的正统教育(6年小学,5年中学,2年A Level和 1年大学),我体内科学的种子已茁壮成长,对科学也越来越热血。进大学后,对科学更有新的领悟,尤其是听了Dr Tim Hunt的演讲"Lessons from a life of science: how to get a Nobel Prize" 和 Prof Andre Geim的演讲"Random walk to graphene"后(关于他们如何得Nobel Prize的故事)。
科学最重要的是:“要有自己的想法,并且可以用实验支持自己的想法”
科学不是死背很多很多的facts,死背往往会捆住一个人。其实,所有科学的facts都是暂时性的,会不断地被改进。人是不可能背完所有主流知识体的facts;我们应该做的是活用其他科学家之前的经验和发现,加上自己的想法和用实验,以便贡献出新的知识。就好象每个人都知道graphite is made up of multiple layers of carbon with weak van der waals forces between the layers, 但又有没有人想过如何得到single layer of carbon?“要有自己的想法,并且可以用实验支持自己的想法” Prof Andre Geim和他的team成功extract出 graphene (single layer of carbon)是很好的例子。Think out of the box =)
我们要有自己的想法,要有勇气挑战主流知识体,因为很多时候,越有突破性的发现,开始时越会被主流知识体所排斥。就好像二十多年前Dr Tim Hunt提出cyclin为mitosis regulator时,他的paper被reject,其中一个referee更评论他的paper是 “wild speculation based on faulty logic”...但后来事实证明Dr Tim Hunt是对的,现在我们每个人都知道cyclin regulate cell cycle,Dr Tim Hunt更在2001年得了Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine =)当初的Prof Andre Geim第一张关于graphene的 paper更是被Nature(科学界一个很权威性的Journal) reject, 但后来Prof Andre Geim却因graphene而在2010年得了Nobel Prize in Physics =)
共勉之:
"How shockingly little we know about the world around us" -Andre Geim-
"Science is about finding the tiny clues that give the game away." -Tim Hunt-
"Failure are not as often as one can expect." -Andre Geim-
“No English dictionary has been able to explain the difference between the two words 'complete' and 'finished' in a way that's easy to understand: Some people say there is no difference between COMPLETE & FINISHED But.. there is an explanation,
When you marry the right one, you are COMPLETE.... And when you marry the wrong one, you are FINISHED..... And when the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are ... COMPLETELY FINISHED !!!”
答:"Knowledge is power, and the right knowledge lets man perform miraculous, almost god-like tasks... Laying a phone cable, perhaps to a modern man, is a far cry from being a god. But if George Washington (1731-1799) knew that we had become a race that possessed the power to speak to one another across oceans, fly at the speed of sound, and set foot on our moon, he would assume that we had become gods, capable of miraculous tasks." - (The Lost Symbol)-
问:为什么过去50年的科技的进步远远超过之前1000年?
答:"Knowledge grows exponentially, the more we know, the greater our ability to learn, the faster we expand our knowledge base"-(The Lost Symbol)-
问:读书有用吗?
答:"Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you." - (The Shadow of the Wind) -
"I don't like the way you always stare at me, it makes me uncomfortable. And for your information, I don't understand what you are talking most of the time."
犹记得去年开始时不太敢和housemates讲话。现在,也较有勇气了,甚至主动找他们讲话。这些housemates让我对英国学生有了新的了解。其实,算很幸运,housemate们都很友善,party也没有太过夸张, 哈哈。Nick, Sam, Andy, Josh, Alex, Rasmus and Josh, wish you all very bright future ahead, all the best =)
all Ludovico Einaudi's masterpieces are really impressive, eg: I Giorni, Oltremare, Le Onde, I Due Fiumi, Come Un Fiore, Fuori dal mondo, Divenire and many more =)
it was a bad day on 25 may for my prescription checking in orientation to pharmacy practice practical exam... should avoid those mistakes, but time cannot be reversed.. the strict horrendous negative marking just ruins my mood
nevertheless, i will try my best to move on for the sake of next two papers...so i decide to dispense myself some motivation to be used stat and prn.. first quote:
"We get beaten about the face and head and instinctively insist we'll pick up pieces, lick wounds and go on."
and then end this post with another two quotes: “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”
today (20 may), i made one mistake about latin abbreviation used in prescription in my Orientation to Pharmacy Practice paper.. it was my second online paper for first year MPharm and the first subjective questions online paper (10 short answer and 4 short essay)... in real life, this latin abbreviation mistake may cause harm to patient, so i decide to write down this post to remind myself so that i do not repeat the same mistake
the question is: qqh =??
i wrote "take four times daily", which is a wrong answer
the correct answer for qqh is "take every four hours"
also, some revision: prn - "take when required" sos - "take if necessary" stat- "take immediately" ac - "before food" cc - " with food" pc - "after food" on - "at night" mane - "in the morning" noct - "at night" hs - "take at bed time" mdu - "take as directed" od- "once daily" bd- "twice daily" tds- "three times daily" qds- "four times daily" mn - "morning and night"
after pharmaceutical calculation part 1 got 96, got another good news: pharmaceutical calculation part 2 got 100, good start for final exam of first year =)
在The Millenium: The future of the profession这个2000年的文章里, 当时英国皇家药学会 (Royal Pharmaceutical Society)的主席Christine Glover说了她的目标:
“..With the dawning of a new century comes the perfect opportunity to develop a clear and positive vision of what we want for the future of our profession. What is the vision? In my mind's eye, it is to make pharmacy an integral part of everybody's thinking in the new evolving health service and to ensure that, when medicine is discussed, there is an immediate association with the pharmacy profession...”
文章的结尾,她又说: “...There have never been more opportunities for pharmacy and we are standing at the threshold of a new millennium which will offer new and exciting challenges. Ours is a past that we can truly be proud of and the future is ours to shape. ”
"还记得我以前中学时,是以Univeristy of Malaya (UM)为目标。中学的一个senior:Sim Mei是我那时很敬佩的人物。SPM 全10a1, STPM 4A, Ketua Pengawas, Pengerusi Rumah Pasukan Panglima, 超强。她曾经当过我4s1班的bio代课老师,虽然只是一阵子,但比原本的老师教得好很多。我也是Panglima/青组的一分子。后来,她进了UM读pharmacy。我进大学之年刚好是她大学毕业的那一年。我,很奇怪吧,为什么会记得一些人,很多时候那些人很可能早已忘了我叫什么名。" 以上是我在2010年12月的一个blog post。
我最近在fb看到该名senior的update... 更加敬佩她了:她得了Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society的Gold Medal Award。该奖是颁给本地大学个别 Most Outstanding的 Pharmacy Student。每间本地大学都选一个学生得该奖,而她就是UM最outstanding的... 敬佩敬佩,太了不起了