One's Beauty Might be Another's Thrash

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My recent input of research questions is officially thrash which is deemed unfit to be done at this point. Too backwards, pointless and over-simplified for this group I'm in. I wouldn't say what I want to do is something stupid, it is just more industrious rather than academic, more focused on forensics than evolutionary. So it's unsuitable, and uninteresting from another point of view. So, bye-bye full-on forensics genetics for now. I guess this can't be help, when I'd rather try to find what would cost less for a third world, developing country to apply, where I am placed right now has excellent methods, human resources, and hardware to execute sophisticated analyses. I guess I need to discard the third-world mentality and embrace sophistication for now.

A negative progress is still a progress. Indeed. It is.

The Fifth Month of PhD

In another seven months, I will either be deported back to Malaysia without completing a PhD, or successfully passed the benchmark of first year. I have three days before hitting the end of my fifth month here at Cambridge, and entering the sixth month of this caffeine-pumped, worries-filled life of mine.

Developing a proper research area and questions is something which has been bugging me since day one of my PhD. I know everyone is worried, especially the Man Above (MA). I do have some ideas forming at the back of my mind right now, but I'd have to test them out before talking to him. MA is a kind supervisor, but it is due to my own guilt of not doing enough that I find him fearsome. I guess I'd have to slowly work out that fear and guilt I feel within me when it comes to speaking to MA.

I'm still keen on doing forensics-related research which has connection with my team's main work on Molecular Evolutionary Genomic Analysis. It all has to do with my previous Masters research on DNA profiling. It is all possible, but I'd need to read more before presenting the baby to him. Let's just say I'm interested in the works on Kenneth K. Kidd for now...

Source: http://blog.illumina.com/img/dna_mag_300.jpg