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torquillSo sick of spending all my time on biochemistry. The urge to goof off is strong in this one.
I need to make a notecard for Plant Devel, too; the concepts are easy, but he's going to want to know specifics about where certain genes are expressed, and I can't spare the brainspace to memorize them. Maybe if I weren't already stuffing it full of arcane trivia about the pentose phosphate pathway...
I feel like I have a shot at this midterm, but I'm getting to the point of diminishing returns. There's less stuff I actually need to study (I'm filling in details from the book, as the bulk of memorization is done) but the amount that I can absorb gets smaller and smaller all the time. My brain is full.
I need to stuff in the last bits about unsaturated fatty acid metabolism, too, and I'm starting to have the very real fear that if I jam six more enzyme names into my head I'll lose a couple out my ears.
It was gratifying to realize that I could summon up the entire sugar-juggling part of the pentose phosphate pathway yesterday, while Abel himself was getting a little lost about what happens with sedoheptulose-7-P after you create it from two pentoses. A couple of people looked at me oddly as I rattled off the various carbon lengths (5 and 5 make a 7 and a 3, then the 7 and 3 recombine to make a 4 and 6; the 4 combines with another 5 to make a 6 and a 3). If the prof couldn't remember it without looking it up, I know that I've surpassed the level of understanding I need of that particular part. (Not to mention the fact that he said he wasn't sure he could draw sedoheptulose-7-P... I know it by heart now. Overkill is good. It lets me stop panicking so much.)
I guess I should go tackle the book again -- I know I don't have all the details on photosynthesis yet, and the shuttle mechanisms continue to elude me. I'm just exhausted on all sorts of levels.
I need to make a notecard for Plant Devel, too; the concepts are easy, but he's going to want to know specifics about where certain genes are expressed, and I can't spare the brainspace to memorize them. Maybe if I weren't already stuffing it full of arcane trivia about the pentose phosphate pathway...
I feel like I have a shot at this midterm, but I'm getting to the point of diminishing returns. There's less stuff I actually need to study (I'm filling in details from the book, as the bulk of memorization is done) but the amount that I can absorb gets smaller and smaller all the time. My brain is full.
I need to stuff in the last bits about unsaturated fatty acid metabolism, too, and I'm starting to have the very real fear that if I jam six more enzyme names into my head I'll lose a couple out my ears.
It was gratifying to realize that I could summon up the entire sugar-juggling part of the pentose phosphate pathway yesterday, while Abel himself was getting a little lost about what happens with sedoheptulose-7-P after you create it from two pentoses. A couple of people looked at me oddly as I rattled off the various carbon lengths (5 and 5 make a 7 and a 3, then the 7 and 3 recombine to make a 4 and 6; the 4 combines with another 5 to make a 6 and a 3). If the prof couldn't remember it without looking it up, I know that I've surpassed the level of understanding I need of that particular part. (Not to mention the fact that he said he wasn't sure he could draw sedoheptulose-7-P... I know it by heart now. Overkill is good. It lets me stop panicking so much.)
I guess I should go tackle the book again -- I know I don't have all the details on photosynthesis yet, and the shuttle mechanisms continue to elude me. I'm just exhausted on all sorts of levels.
