Down the Rabbit Hole

I have attended conferences where climate change was discussed from a food security angle. Increasing temperatures, drought, excess rain, and flooding would lead to food shortages. Therefore,  climate-smart  food sources must be incorporated into planetary health diets  so that people get their nutritional needs while keeping their impact on the planet at a minimum. During Solano County's Public Health Division-Wide Meeting this year, Mr Jerry Huber (Director, Department of Health and Social Services) and Dr Bela Matyas (Public Health Officer and Deputy Director, Department of Health and Social Services) highlighted the need to talk about climate instability from a public health perspective. This encompasses the associations between public health and clean water, public health and **exotic** disease-bearing vectors, and public health and wildfires, among others. Zooming out of these specific links to public health reveals that climate instability is the underlying common theme. Cli

We didn't have anything planned for Memorial Day weekend this year. Donan has swimming lessons on the weekend, so we couldn't really go farther than where a four-hour drive can take us. This limitation narrowed our options. We agreed to go on a day trip to Lake Tahoe since we have not visited the area in spring. I have been there three times in winter , with two of those trips for snowboarding . Mommy and Daddy have been there several times as well. It's Donan's first time to visit. Our route (I-680, I-80, US-50) led us to the Eldorado National Forest's breathtaking vistas, cold mountain rivers, and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. Our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe was at Echo Summit Pass (the highest point of our journey at ~7300 feet ASL). We drove under the shadows of snow-capped mountains and had a great view of Lover’s Leap as I navigated the zigzagging road. The route also took us through the remnants of a community burned to the ground during the 2021 Cald

I was invited to assist in laboratory activities in the Mycology unit of the Public Health Microbiologist Training Program (PHM). I'm excited to pay it forward because I know how challenging the program is. The trainers were hoping that I could help the current cohort while they figure out the best way to study concepts in Mycology. I am no subject-matter expert (i.e., my graduate degree was on something else). However, I retained many concepts for about two decades because the foundational courses at UPLB helped me understand how to study instead of just memorising key points. Also, my instructor in PPTH 104 (Introduction to Mycology) is one of the best mycologists in the Philippines, Dr Teresita Dalisay. After some thought, I list some tips for studying for a Mycology exam: Tip #1: Draw as many observations as you can Don't limit yourself to circles. Try to draw your observations as accurately as possible. I do this by shading my drawings to add texture and dimension. I'm

I realise that real-life forensics laboratories differ depending on the expertise available, the facilities in place, and the most practical set of tests that forensics scientists can do feasibly (what tests can be performed over a long time rather than what is trendy). I also know that crime TV shows like Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) and its different variants (for example, CSI: NY and CSI: Miami) have forever shaped what I imagined a forensic laboratory would look like: dramatic lighting, gleaming glassware, and giant LCD screens. Reality set in when I visited a county forensics laboratory. Friendly chemists (not the socially awkward ones typecast in TV shows) welcomed me and other visitors on a facility tour. Pieces of fancy equipment were not in shortage, as we were shown mass spectrometers attached to gas or liquid chromatography instruments. Old-school chemistry tests showing colour reactions for positives and negatives were demonstrated, just like the ones shown on TV sans t

On a fine Sunday afternoon when the weather was warm, we drove to Cupertino to visit one of the places I have always wanted to visit since I bought my first iPod: the Apple headquarters. Little did I know that the headquarters I wanted to see (the Apple Campus) has now been replaced by Apple Park (aka Apple Campus 2). Nevertheless, I wanted to see how the minimalist aesthetic of Apple products translates to the company headquarters.  What I saw did not disappoint. It actually wowed me. I was surprised that the campus was found in a suburban neighbourhood. It felt so peaceful to be there on a weekend. I'm sure the pace is more rapid on weekdays, with people rushing to work, but assuming that people living in the adjacent neighbourhood are Apple employees, the commute (or the walk) won't be too bad. I learned that visitors are not allowed on the campus but are welcome to tour the Apple Park Visitor Centre. The garden surrounding the visitor centre is lined with olive trees and n

  I had an exam in the City in mid-March and brought my meal-prepped lunch. So I hopped into a lift that brought me to Salesforce Park (for the first time). It is a garden 70 feet above ground, suspended over three or four city blocks in the East Cut neighbourhood. It is a sight for sore eyes after being on the BART and walking on San Francisco's concrete trails under the shadow of the tall buildings of the Financial District. Salesforce Park reopened in July 2019, a few months after I finished studying in the City . In fact, the construction site for the Transbay Transit Centre (on which the park is found) was under construction while I was a student at UC Berkeley's SF campus. And that is why I didn't get a chance to see it earlier. Walking along the paved path in Salesforce Park reminded me of my visit to Singapore's Flower Dome . The park is rich in greenery, with the path lined with plants and grass-covered hillocks. Since it was (literally) the last day of winter,