Naturally Obsessed is a documentary following the lives of students in a research lab in Columbia University Medical Center working diligently under Dr. Shapiro. The research project that was mainly covered in the documentary was the crystallization and x-ray mappings of the AMPK protein molecule. It was less of a science based documentary though and was more about the emotional aspect of three students and their mentor working and interacting in a lab to get their PhD’s, research never before seen proteins, and live their lives as research students. The protein, though it was not the main point of the documentary, is the main emphasis behind their research so it will be discussed as it was mentioned in the documentary. This protein is called …show more content…
AMPK and it controls appetites. When a switch within the protein is turned on, a person wants to eat. When it turns off, this suppresses the appetite and makes it so a person knows when to stop. It also controls storage and burning of fat. Many researchers believe that understanding this molecule will lead to more advances on preventing diabetes and obesity. Sadly, little is known about this protein because it is difficult to study. The crystallization process of the protein is very difficult to do and requires very precise technique. Nobody is certain of the right way to crystallize it and as Kilpatrick says “There are a thousand different techniques and a thousand ways of doing them. You just gotta be able to find the right one.” This is the focal point of the research conducted by the group throughout the documentary. This documentary seemed centered more on the people and their emotional ups and downs within the lab and less on the experiments. The experiments really affected every one of them though and impacted each of them differently. Dr. Shapiro was the one who recruited the graduate students. He seemed very kind hearted and had upmost confidence in every one of his mentees. He seemed the ideal mentor in a stressful environment. He was not really ever good with maintaining grades but had a passion in research. He put all of his time and effort into his research and less time on his classes. He figured that the classes were simply not his style of learning and he loved the laboratory and research scientist life. It may not make tons of money but it is what he loved. Now, he wants to pass on the work to his mentees and is a guiding hand that helps them do their own research and work their way to their own PhD’s. He constantly re-assure and pushes them through harsh times. Always there to answer questions or let them know how to use certain equipment. He gives them tips on how to better do the experiments, though he doesn’t give them all the answers because he doesn’t know them himself. These aren’t like class labs where you get the experiment done and leave, they are entire new fields of study and the answers aren’t always in front of them. He simply helps out and passes on the knowledge he has. At the end of the documentary, it states that he now has been tenured by the Chicago University college of medicine. Gabrielle Cummberley was one of the lesser characters out of the three who were followed throughout the story.
She worked diligently in the lab and had high aspirations. She constantly worked, yet she was very hard on herself whenever she failed. Also, she didn’t quite seem to have the experience as some of her fellow lab students. In one interaction, she was using some machine wrong and someone corrected her, yet apparently she had tried to use the machine many times before and had always made that mistake. This is a real bummer in research because now you don’t know how that affected your earlier works. Yet, she was very diligent and kept working, always aggressively asking questions and seeking advice from those around her. Though Dr. Shapiro was always very kind, she was intimidated by him and didn’t feel comfortable going up to him and asking questions. She didn’t want to look like she needed help, yet she seemed capable of asking questions of her peers. By the end, she dropped out of the PhD program and went on to work as a junior scientist at the Chicago Biotech Company which made her very happy. She “fit much better into that line of work” she …show more content…
said. Another Graduate Student followed in Naturally Obsessed is Kil Carrol. Kil was very ambitious throughout the documentary. He went through many ups and downs but always stayed in the lab. He seemed very determined and made many strides throughout the documentary. In one instance, he made pretty nice crystals and traveled to the national crystal x-ray machine to test out if it would work. He was very hopeful and excited. Yet, it turned out to not work and got very down on himself. It took him awhile to bounce back and he didn’t find joy in being a scientist. Then, a little while later, he said he was getting happier and excited about these two different projects he has been working on and is finding hope. Yet, he also had troubles with his fiancé about the work he was doing. There seemed to be no end in sight and his fiancé did not like the amount of money that he was making. 34,000 dollar a year by working in a research lab did not seem like nearly enough, especially with no end goal or time in sight. Eventually, he and his fiancé broke up and he was able to talk to Dr. Shapiro and speed up the process towards his PhD. He believed he was ready for the world and Shapiro agreed. He also liked business and combine it with research. He ended up as a biotech and a pharmaceutical consultant with his PhD in tow. The main and final person followed in the documentary was Rob Townley.
He was the most peculiar of the bunch. He has crazy ad untamed curly hair with a big goatee. He was not a student because he had dropped out of school. He was looking for work and research when he found Dr. Shapiro. He told Dr. Shapiro that he wanted work but that Shapiro didn’t want him because of his work ethic and how he acted. He was not responsible and no one would ever recommend him. Yet, Shapiro could see a future in Rob and insisted that he join his research team and work towards his PhD. Throughout the documentary, he came and left many times. He kept on quitting and returning and Shapiro let him come and go as he pleased. He was always ready to welcome him back and continually give him support. Rob wanted to leave but was always drawn back by that natural obsession of discovering new fields of science. He also didn’t want to quit what he had spent so long trying to accomplish. Rob had a wife and was hoping for kids, a PhD, and to stand at the top of the world. He viewed research much like rock climbing. You have to be patient and take your time with each little nook. Otherwise you my fall all the way back down. Yet, eventually, if you keep trying, you will reach the
top. He also had many ups and downs. Once, he had beautiful crystals of the protein. He showed Shapiro and Shapiro agreed. So Rob took the trip with his wife down to the X-ray to get the mappings and see if he had finally mapped out the structure of the protein. Yet, this ended up being a failure and he was very sad. He was quiet the entire bus ride home that he took with his wife. You could see the disappointment in his eyes because he had so hoped that he had finally gotten it right. He left the lab after that and didn’t return for a few months. He came back looking very different, with clean cut hair and a trimmed goatee. He got back to work with renewed energy and took on the crystallization challenge again. He eventually gets another beautiful crystal and it ends up providing him with a map of the protein structure. He is so happy and so are all of his colleagues. Nobody in the entire world knew what he knew and now he could learn more about the protein. At first, he thought he would leave as soon as he mapped it, yet he wasn’t able to leave the lab. He had to stay and learn more about this protein so he tried to find as much information as he could before he published his findings. The issue was that he was hurried because if someone else published this before he did; it would be disastrous and nobody would care as much. So he finally published his findings in a paper and got his PhD. He used to be a college dropout and now he is a postdoctoral fellow at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. This documentary shows the qualities that every scientist must have and shows the reality of life in the laboratory. It mixes emotion with science and lets you follow three students work alongside their mentor as they enter new fields of science and also live their lives. It shows the many changes of attitude with disappointment leading to hope and personal victories. It ends with a touching video of Rob with a newborn child and earning his very own PhD. It was a very well made documentary of everyday life and struggles that would help many students prepare for what lab research would really be like and see if they would enjoy the life as they reach for their doctorates and discover many things along the way.
Wait Till Next Year is a book written by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Wait Till Next Year is a book written in Goodwin’s point of view set in Rockville Center, New York. The book begins with Goodwin’s father teaching her the scorekeeping rules of baseball in the summer of 1949. After her father taught her how to properly record a baseball game she would sit in front of the radio and listen to the game every day and would record everything each player did during that game. Then when her father would arrive home from work she would relay to him all that had happened during the game of that day. As Goodwin looks back on this in her book she begins to think that it is because of these times with her father that she has a love for history and for storytelling.
What would you do for love? Would you break up a marriage or assassinate an Archduke? In the short story “IND AFF” by Fay Weldon the narrator must make a choice on whether or not to continue her love affair while examining the Princip’s murder of the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife. The story is set in Sarajevo in Bosnia, Yugoslavia where the assassination took place. Through irony, symbolism and setting, Weldon uses the parallel between the narrator and Pincip to show that seemingly inconsequential actions of an individual can have great consequences.
Written by Katherine Holubitsky, Tweaked is a novel that shows the readers how dangerous drugs are to both the user and their peers. With the two year meth addiction, Chase continues to financially and emotionally drain out his family however; the problems becomes worse when Chase escapes from his dealer's house. Richard Cross, the man Chase attacked, died and as a result, Chase is charged with murder. His mother secretly proceeds to monetarily support Chase but when she was caught, the bond between the family members exacerbated. Time elapsed and Chase was finally caught when stealing a car however, he dies shortly after and overdose and becomes brain dead. Tweaked shows us the reality of how hazardous drugs can be through the physical
Ayiti, by Roxane Gay, is a collection of fifteen short narratives about Haiti and its people, which gives the readers insights into the complex Haitian diaspora experience. The novel seeks to offer a deeper view into Haitian society and covers an array of themes such as the politics of survival, resiliency, and feminist culture in Haiti. Throughout the novel, Gay is highly critical of mainstream media because of how they depict and silo Haiti as a poor and helpless country. Haiti’s historical stance on censorship is well documented, and as a Haitian writer living in America, Gay is successful in giving agency to the voiceless by chronicling the stories of the Haitian diaspora. Ayiti explores stories that explain what it is like to be a Haitian
The play “Permanent Collection” focuses on an African-American man who has just taken over an art museum named Sterling North. While digging through storage, he finds eight African sculpture pieces and wants to add them to the collection at the Morris Foundation on the campus of a college. The Director of Education Paul Barrow is hanging on to the words of Mr. Morris and his vision because he doesn’t want anything to change at the museum according to Mr. Morris’ will, which contributes to the title of the play “Permanent Collection.”
The story of “Unwind” revolves around three main characters that are all scheduled to be sent to a harvest camp and unwound. Connor is a sixteen year whose family believes that he has caused too much trouble in society. Risa is a ward of the state, and due to budget cuts, is too expensive to be kept in the program. Lev is tithe, and individual that has been born with the purpose of being unwound. Connor one day discovers an unwind order in the house and decides to run away. With the help of an honest truck driver, Connor manages to slip away. However, Connor keeps his cell phone and the tracker inside gets him caught. The police attempt to arrest Connor but he resists arrest, runs through the traffic on the road, and grabs a tithed to use as a human shield. This event in turn causes a bus full of state home wards to spin out of control and overturn. Risa is one of the individual on that buss. Risa, Connor, and Lev all run into the woods. The next morning, while the three are gathering supplies such as food and clothes, they come across a storked baby on the door step. Due to past experiences, Connor decides to put all three of them in risk and decides to pick up the baby while a police car slowly passes nearby. Risa, Connor, Lev and the baby all get onto the school bus in hopes of not being suspected by the police car. Once they arrive at the school, they find the nearest bathroom and hide in it with the baby. Lev sees this as an opportunity to escape. As a tithe, he believes that it is an honor to live with the purpose of being unwound, so he finds his way to the school office and turns himself and Connor and Risa in. He then asks for a call, and calls his pastor, who to Lev’s surprise informs him that his face was purposely k...
...d direct Pat back to the exploratory phase. I would try and instill to her the idea that it is ok for her not to be sure. I would then help Pat create a narrative so she can foster a sense of who she really is. I would want her to conceptualize and create her own story without the external forces. I would use that as a starting point to help her generate assessment and research opportunities for possible career opportunities. Importantly, I would help her make the bridge for any possible career options that she would get into immediately to help the urgency of her situation. I would tap upon her strengths and resources to help her realize a job that she could peruse that would fit into potential future career options.
She lived in constant paranoia; finding it hard to make amends and rebuild trust with friends and
There were many jobs that Rob had taken during the years; with each job he has there is a lack of passion and drive which results in his lack of commitment. Even from the beginning of the novel, Hornby writes, “Later I could see that it was a false momentum, because it didn’t belong to me at all” (Hornby 87). In the late 80s Rob was a DJ at a “club”, he loved the music and the feeling it gave him and the crowd he played for. As a DJ, Rob realized that the environment wasn’t from him, but the music that he played for others, it wasn’t his. Th...
Her detrimental relationship with her mother turned into a psychosomatic disease, which later affected her life and the people in it.... ... middle of paper ... ... 12 Nov. 2013. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=8255d75b-58ea-4383-be87-4f5601606c51%40sessionmgr13&vid=1&hid=26&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=lfh&AN=17088173>.
Nicolas Sparks over time has become a very popular, well known, amazing, writer. Although Nicolas Sparks had never planned to become a novel writer, he committed to writing, because he could see the positive impact his books had in people’s lives. Nicholas Sparks was born in December of 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the middle child of his siblings and the son of Patrick Sparks, a college professor, and Jill Sparks, a stay at home mother. Nicholas grew up in the world with his parents living on a very slim budget, he writes.
Moo-ve over boring books! Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin pulls in the reader with classic humor and great intellectual flare. It appeals to a wide range of audiences from animal lovers to mischievous pranksters, and has a simple storyline. The barnyard animals find themselves getting rather cold at night, but are not sure how to alert Farmer Brown about it. They find a typewriter and decide to leave notes for him around the barn asking for electric blankets. he says no, and they try again. This continues until the animals do something drastic to sway Farmer Brown's decision. Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type belongs in the Little Free Library because of its lessons about perseverance, simple yet intriguing storyline, and
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is about two boys, Kevin and Max. Max doesn’t trust other people and does whatever he can to keep them from getting too close. In daycare, he does this by kicking people, whom they call him Kicker. Then freak is the exact opposite of max, he is small, smart, confident, adventurous and called himself a robot man because of the leg braces he had to wear. Sometimes the most precious people in our life were meant to be there, to teach us a lesson and to help us figure out who we are.
Immediately in A Heart Breaking Work Of A Staggering Genius, we see that Eggers is conflicted at the time of writing in how to deal with many of his relationships, especially those that he holds with Toph. Eggers is suddenly thrust into loco Parentis, leaving his relationship with Toph to be presented as vulnerable, but for the most part, safe and secure for both of them.
As one may know, the world of technology increases very rapidly. There are no boundaries when it comes to new innovations. Although technology may have many breakthroughs, it greatly shifts the idea of human relationships and intimacy by changing the way of human interactions. As M.T Anderson depicts in the novel Feed, everyone has a feed and they cannot think for themselves. The chip, a piece of technology implanted into the brain, causes the characters to lack intelligence and not have a mind of their own. The feed then sends them advertisements and suggest that they buy certain products because it helps them feel better. The characters in the novel become so over-reliant on the feed that they are blind to what is actually