It feels like we are entering a new post COVID era now where big events like conferences have started to be held in person as distancing rules are slightly relaxed all over Australia.

"The week has been chockers!", let me just quote what my supervisor said today, as the last week of November finally came to an end and we embraced the many nerve-racking moments that we went through in the past month and year, as we prepare to wind down for end of year.

It is obvious that real life does not always turn out what we expect it to. It applies to all the elements in life. Many things like school, work, career can be always perfectly planned but also can be instantly shifted, delayed or worse shattered, because of just like what COVID-19 has done to us all!

When I was in my undergraduate biotech program, I had so much interest in microbiology I thought I would one day have a PhD in virology and make vaccines. But opportunities came around and I took the risk to studying tissue engineering; as to this decade is still the state-of-the-art for growing/regenerating tissues. Although only few tissue engineered materials have been commercialized and reported successful in clinics, extensive research in the field holds a huge promise and carries an interesting multidisciplinary elements. And that's how I ended up in biomedical engineering.

The curse of knowledge!

Defined by Stephen Pinker as "The inability to imagine what it is like for someone else for not knowing something that you know".

So it is indeed quite a dangerous curse, and I am sure all researchers out there have it to an extent at any stage of their career. I could say that I was or maybe am still badly cursed, but I have been very aware of its presence since the moment I stepped into research. 

Now with only 1 person allowed in the cell culture room at a time, I often work in the lab all by myself. It is fun to have all that space but I also realize these little annoying things can be even more infuriating when I have no one around to complain to! Of course they are harmless, but can you relate to these?