Friday, Nov 30: What an amazing day! I sat in the same room with Dr. Francis Collins, the person who managed the Human Genome Project at the NIH, and witnessed him give an inspirational speech about genomics, medicine, ethics, and education that ended like this:
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Wednesday, Nov 28: Biotech enthusiasts, Nerd Fest’07 is in full-swing! I enjoyed an informative tour of the CDC today. The ten-pound Biosafety Level 4 plastic suit felt much heavier and far less flexible than I expected. Here’s a picture:
As expected, our tour of the CDC was rather limited. Our tour guide said that security became extremely tight after the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City – prior to that, people were able to tour labs, etc. We had to pass through airport-type security in order to access the main entrance of the building. Although I wasn’t able to see any labs or dummy freezers, it was an exciting tour nonetheless! One side note: As we left the CDC, I started to take a picture of the building but was stopped by a security guard who remarked, “Hey lady, you can’t just take willy nilly pictures of whatever you want!” You’ll be glad to know that your law-abiding teacher quickly put her camera away.