Classes for the last semester

Reflections on the first day.

The semester began yesterday, and I hope it lasts for a loooong time. Mostly because of the classes I am taking. Yesterday’s classes portend a fun semester of things and projects I want to do (something I haven’t really felt in the last few semesters) and that’s a good thing. There are also a lot of people in my classes I know, which makes things way better!

Class #1:

Weight Training.

Every senior should have some slacker class, or so I’m told. Well, instead I chose a class which would be fun, but also a little challenging. I’ve always wanted to lift weights properly, so when the opportunity to take a course presented itself, I latched onto it. This is my earliest class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and requires me to be warmed up and ready to lift by 9:05 AM. That’s not particularly bad, since it allows me to incorporate a varied exercise schedule which looks something like:

Sunday: 2 hrs exercise bike

Monday: 1 hr walk/elliptical/jog

Tuesday: Lifting

Wednesday: 30 minute

Thursday: Lifting

Friday: 2 hrs exercise bike

Saturday: rest

Class #2:

Quantitative Analysis of the Macroeconomy.

Suffice it to say that the instructor began the class saying: “this is the class I wish I had taken as an undergrad.” I have the syllabus in front of me right now, and here are the items that we will be covering in the course: Economic measurement (micro & macro,) Dynamic Programming, Numerical Methods, Log linearlization: Impulse Response functions/computations, applications in Endogenous labor supply, taxes, stochastic technology shocks, etc. Looks like a semester packed with a lot of interesting stuff, no? The course was designed by Ed Prescott, who won the Nobel in Econ in 2004. Pretty cool. Of course, this is all from the Minnesota school of Economics, so things must be taken with a grain of salt.

 

One of the first assignments in the course is to listen to Prescott’s Nobel lecture, which ought to be interesting. We also have a lot of group projects in this course, which means it’ll involve a lot more of making new friends and developing old friendships. I know 5 or 6 people in this class, which is pretty awesome. Need I mention, all the recommended reading for this class is available online. You know what that means? A $150 stimulus in my pocket. That’s right.

 

The required reading for this class is: The ABCs of RBCs by McCandless and George; Dynamic Economics: Quantitative Methods and Applications by Adda and Cooper; Dynamic General Equilibrium Modeling: Computational Methods and Applications by Heer and Maußner; Numerical Methods in Economics by Judd; and Applied Computational Economics and Finance by Miranda and Falcker.

Class #3:

Macroeconomic Policy.

This class is taught by Justin Barnette, whose intro macro class I took freshman year. I remember the class being kind of boring freshman year, most likely because it was really easy. This class promises to be pretty fun. It’s going to be very technical, but Justin has promised to incorporate some of the pressing topics of today into the coursework. Based on my memory from 3 years ago, I think he’ll do a quite excellent job.

The class is slated to cover the Neoclassical Growth Model, Ramsey Optimal Fiscal policy, Commodity taxation, Competitive equilibrium under taxation, optimal taxation in NGM, Capital taxes, consumption and labor taxes, Cash in advance models, Ramsey monetary policy, Cash-credit goods model, Utility functions with money, and the New Keynesian model. We also need to write a paper for this class, which I think I’m going to use as my final paper. There is no required reading for this class either, so that puts another $150 in my pocket. Awesome.

Class #4.

Computing in Biology.

This class is going to be a killer. It is taught by Chad Myers who’s a fairly young guy and seems very approachable and easy going. The class, as the name implies, focuses on the computational side of biotechnology. The goals for the course are to understand the current state of technologies/methods in genomics and proteomics, understanding the kind of analysis that can efficiently be performed algorithmically, write scripts to manipulate data and extract info, and learn some basics of programming in the process. This sounds pretty great, as it’ll give me some employable skills which I can extend to other classes as well. GOSH. Why didn’t I take this class before?!

Class #5.

Renewable Energy and the Environment:

This seems kind of like a career exploration course, but I took it because it was a lib-ed requirement. I probably should have gone with the Health informatics course or something. This one proceeded awfully slowly, and I don’t see myself being motivated enough to go to all the classes, especially since everything is going to be so easy. There are apparently tests with 120 available points but only 50 of which will be graded. I feel like I’ve done all of this before, can’t I just get out of it?!

 

BIOL 3007W: 2010 Nov 8

Lab summary of stuff:

	Chlorophyta	Cryptophyta	Rhodophyta	Euglenophyta	Dinophyta	Haptophyta
Chloroplast	Primary endosymbiosis	Secondary endosymbiosis of red algae	Primary endosymbiosis	Secondary endosymbiosis of green algae	Secondary endo of red algae	Secondary endosymbiosis
Pigments	Chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids	Chlorophylls a, c and carotenoids	Chlorophyll a, phycobilins	Chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids	Chlorophyll a and c	Chlorophyll a and c
Supergroup	Archeplastida	Chromalveolata	Archeplastida	Excavate	Chromalveolata	Chromalveolata
Flagella	–	2 flagella, interior slightly unequal; apical tinseled	—	2: one emergent, one non-emergent	2: 1 extending	0 or 2 flagella
Storage molecule	starch	Pyrenoids ???	Floridean starch	Paramylon: starch like	Starch	chrysolaminarin

/* Humor
Prof: “How do red algae differ from green algae? It’s obvious! Red Algae are red and Green algae are green!”
Class: “LOL.”
*/

/* Not Humor:
Prof: “Final is on Dec 18: 4-6 PM.”
Class: “BOO.”
*/

Unilocular sporangia always pertain to meiosis, multilocular sporangia pertain to mitosis (preservation of ploidy.)

Resumption of lecture:

Kelps: Important economically. Harvested as though it is a lawn being mowed. Apical meristem: keep growing upwards. Extracted for algin. Mucilagenous cell wall material. Protects the thallus from buildup of organisms. Used as an emulsifier in food, paper coatings, paints, etc.

NEED TO KNOW: Kelp life cycle. Alternation of generations.

Starting in spring: fertilization occurs, zygote forms, zygote grows into typical sporophyte (holdfast, stipe, blade.) They grow all summer. They will undergo reproduction (meiosis)  by producing unilocular sporangia. They will produce two motile cells to produce the male and female gametophyte stages. The male gametophyte appears more hairy?

Alternation of generations is obligatory: selection for sexual reproduction. There is no asexual phase of the life cycle.

/* TECHNICAL PROBLEMS. FORGOT TO PLUG IN INTERNET.*/

Video resumed. Some information on kelp and various ecological roles of kelp can be found on this website. I believe this is the video being shown in class. Very well made.

Stramenophiles: Moving on: Oomycetes, then progress to slime molds.

Xanthophyta: mainly freshwater. “Yellow-green algae.” They are stramenophiles that lack green algae. They mimic the green algae. They have chlorophylls a and b, they have typical motile cells, storage products are not starch based (differentiate them from green algae.)

We will be looking at Vaucheria. Similarity to the oomycetes (morphological:) oogonium fertilized by male gametes from the coiled antheridium.  Relatively easy organism to find.

Oomycota: the “egg” give the fungi their name. Resting stage is called the oospore. Oogamy: egg is much larger than the male gamete. THERE IS NO MOTILE MALE GAMETE IN THE OOMYCETES.

Similarities to the true fungi: heterotrophic nutrition, and acquire nutrients by extracellular degradation. secretion of enzymes to digest substrate followed by absorption of substrate.

Why are oomycota not true fungi? Zoopores with whiplash and tinsel, cellulose and beta glucan in cell walls.

Phytophthora: plant destroyer. caused irish potato famine. Originated in South America, crossed over the Atlantic. Late blight of potatoes and tomatoes. Sporangia disperse. The zoospores are the only motile cells in the life cycle and require water. Derives nutrition initially from living plant tiuuse, then from dead tissue.

The Bordeaux mixture: lime and copper sulfate, used as the first fungicide. Last summer, there was a major outbreak of p. infestans. Another species: p. ramorum. Oaks are susceptible. Brown stuff exuding from the bark is evident in infected plants. Nurseries spread it around.

Genomes of phytophthora: 3 have been sequenced. One is from P. infestans. – 2.5-4 times the other two. one of the other organisms is p. ramorum. Problem: It can change very rapidly. Most of the expansion is non-coding. The disease-causing genese are in the expansion region, and are increasing in copy number.  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7262/full/nature08358.html

Oomycota: Water molds: Did stuff in lab today with putting fly in lake water. Need to keep it dilute. Terrestrial group are the plant pathogens.

Watermolds are abundant in freshwater. Theyir nutrition is mostly saprophytic or parasitic. They reproduce sexually and asexually.  The vegetative state is a coenocytic filament. They have sexual and asexual phases. Transition triggered by deterioration in the environment. The antheridia grow to the oogonia.  Life cycle can be found here. NEED TO KNOW LIFE CYCLE.

White rust: Albugo. We get a white powder on the surface. They are obligate parasites. Can’t grow them in culture. They attack species in the cabbage families. Infects the leaves, grows inside the leaves. Makes chains of sporangia (sporangiophore) which pop out on the surface. The spores are distributed by wind. If conditions are good, they’ll make the zoospore to infect host.

BIOL 3007W Lecture

Part 2: Lecture 15

ALgal motile cells. Basic type: cells with two falgella pointing forward.

Looking at cryptophytes, strameophiles, haptophyta, dinophyta, euglenophyta, chlorophyta.

Chloroplasts occur in 4 supergroups: archeplastida: primary endosymbiosis. others: secondary or tertiary or exotic flavours.

Review of primary/secondary symbiosis. Remember to look at membrane arrangement in chloroplasts.

Beginning with Euglenophyta (Euglenoids.) Green or colorless flagellates. Mostly freshwater. They really like pollution (excess nutrients, etc.) Ancestor s were non-photosynthetic, and phagocytosed things.

Chloroplasts arose by secondary endosymbiosis (have chlorophyll a, b) with an extra membrane. There is no sexual reproduction.

They are widely distributed in freshwater habitats, but oftentimes they are found at air-water or water-soil interfaces. They are highly tolerant of extreme environments. Look at soil on euglenoid diversity.

They don’t have true cell walls. Flagella are apical. long flagellum with tinsels emerges out, but the second one does not emerge. There are a set of protein plates beneath the plasma membrane (called the pellicle.) They have eyespots to orient them towards light.

They have pyrenoids, where photosynthetic carbon is metabolized. However, these pyrenoids are negative for iodine stains, since they do not have starch. They store a material called paramylon. Euglena have contractile vacuoles for water modulation. Lots of contractions and expansions to maintain water balance.

moving onto Chromalveolate group.

Chromalveolates’ origins from endosymbiosis of red algae. Typically they have three or four membranes. Interesting uptake of chloroplasts. THey are not very common. They tend to be in deeper and colder waters. Important components of freshwater and marine habitats/

They have two flagella at the apex, which are differently decorated compared to each others. They have chlorophylls a and c, and phycobilins (light harvesting complexes) and carotenoids. Some are photosynthetic, and some are colorless. Remember: phycobilins are only found in red algae, glaucophytes and cryptomonads.

Outer membrane of chloroplasts (4th) is continuous with host’s nuclear membrane. Review Gene transfer slide. (transfer from plastid to secondary host, plastid to nucleomorph, nucleomorph to nucleus, etc.

SIDE NOTE: the professor is pretty boring.

BACK TO SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING.

Haptophyta. Cells can be unicellular or colonial. Mainly marine. Cell structure is pretty unique. They have two whiplash flagella, with a funny thing coming out of the middle, called a haptonema. They have both chlorophyll a, c, and carotenoids (especially fucoxanthin, makes them look brown.) They store chrysolaminarin in vacuole.

They have scales, which are sometimes calcified (then called coccoliths.) They can take up dissolved nutrients or ______. Haptonema have a sticky tip which adheres to microbes or other food particles. Upon attachment to a food source, the haptonema brings the food closer to a membrane, which allows the haptophyta to engulf them.

Often called coccolithophores. Round, calcium bearing organisms. They can have multiple layers of scales. They come in a remarkable set of patterns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccolithophore

They have a big impact on carbon and sulfur cycles. A big CO2 sink, since the calcium carbonate captures it permanently. They drop down to the bottom of the surface. They also make Dimethyl sulfide, which rises up and provides nucleation sites. Less light on oceans. The sulfur comes back down, enhancing acidity.

Acidic oceans: will the coccoliths breakdown? will the organims be able to compensate? http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;320/5874/336 At higher concentrations, they are able to compensate by building bigger coccoliths. Evidence for increasing size of coccoliths since industrial revolution. They have big impacts worldwide.

Last group: dinoflagellates. Diverse set or chloroplasts. Some have green plastids, though most have green plastids. Dinos  = whirling. When they swim, they spiral. One flagellum goes around the cell and the other flagellum goes back. The one that goes around is a tinsel flagellum, the other is a whiplash flagellum. Some have amoeboid stages, and some others have starch.

They have chromosomes which are condensed, but there are no histones. They always appear as though they are in division… i.e. always condensed. Possess chlorophylls a and c. They also have carotenoids, (predominantly perdinin.) They characteristically have plates, though some can be unarmored (only with vesicles.) They have a filament that emerges from the cell, an arm of cytoplasm comes down and engulfs the substrate. They are mixotrophic organisms.

They make elaborate cysts. They accumulate in sediments, and used in oil exploration (to date the sediments.)

Pigmented dinoflagellates may be symbionts in other protists or in invertibrates. Zooxanthellae: cells of dinoflagellates that get taken up from organisms. If they re-emerge from hosts, they will have the characteristic dinoflagellate shape. They synthesize many compounds used by the corals. In return, they get CO2 from corals.

Increase in temperatures may cause corals to expel zooxanthellae. Coral bleaching. Red tides. They produce toxins which are colorful, but also responsible for major fish kills. They are neurotoxins which accumulate in fish. Bioluminescence during night. Not known why they do it.

Some philosophising

Here goes.

I looked at my resume just now. It looks kind of stupid, honestly. Yeah, I’ve volunteered places. Yeah, I’ve had previous work experience. Yeah, I’ve taken some classes and can do some cool things. Honestly, though, it’s a goddamn piece of paper and I am sick of the amount of time I’m having to spend looking at it and trying to make changes that will make it infinitesmally more acceptable.

Up to now, I’ve done pretty everything from a rather detached position. It’s been pretty good historically. I’ve met people I wouldn’t have otherwise met, learnt some skills I wouldn’t have otherwise found necessary…. and that’s it. I guess it’s a good thing that I’ve been able to un-commit myself from things that I’m not particularly fond of, but there’s also the problem that I haven’t really been committing myself to things I am fond of!

There are very few activities I’ve really “enjoyed” doing so much that I’d like to commit the rest of my future in pursuit of those activities. There is quizbowl, which I was mad about for a few years, but I have tired myself out of it. The continued introduction to new and interesting personalities/scientists/historical concepts/art was what attracted me to it. Now, there is nothing exciting left about the whole deal. There was math team for a couple of years, but I knew that was just a hobby. I’ve spent time working with Do It Green, which has been fairly rewarding, but I am not sure it (or an analogue of it) is something I’d want to work with for a significant amount of time.

I envision my ideal future as one in which I participate in something new every day, every week, every month, every year of my life. Though I seem to cherish daily routines (I’ve been trying pretty hard for the last few semesters to get one set up) I only seem to enjoy things when they are novelties. In this vein, I’m sure there is no way in hell that I’ll be able to commit to a significant other. The song that probably most closely identifies my disposition towards that is:

Drunken revelry notwithstanding.

I think my only means of salvation is to love being a good student. Love classes with all my heart and learn to love pipetting/plate streaking/and other miscellaneous lab techniques. Perhaps that may involve being as disciplined as my roommate Max, if not more. Perhaps it may mean me being somewhat bored with life until I’m 28. Ultimately, here’s what I want with life: financial stability, so that I can do things without having to worry about where the next paycheck is coming from; intellectually stimulating companionship, so that I can continue to learn about various things everyday; an atmosphere of confusion-free, clutter-free expression, so that I can comment on various things I find interesting without having to worry about what future consequences might be.

By the by, this ultimately seems like an exercise in futility. To explain why, please consider this episode from the Mahabharata:

In the famous ‘Yaksha Prasna’ in the Mahabharata, the Yaksha asks Dharmaputra to answer a few questions and stipulates that if he does not give proper answers, he would be killed the same way as his other Pandava brothers were killed. One of the questions is – “What is the most astonishing thing in this world”? Dharmaputra answers :
“Seeing and knowing that people all around them are dying day in and day out before their very eyes, those that observe this phenomenon imagine that they themselves are going to live forever and go on indulging in sensuous pleasures without realizing that they are also subject to the same inevitable and inexorable death sooner or later. And, this is the most astonishing thing.”

Bolding mine. Source. To clarify, in no way am I affiliated with any Vaishnavite sect, and neither do I endorse the views expressed on that site. I just thought the example was apt.

–Gautam

Intro to Biopolymer Physics

I attended the first lecture today, and here’s what I think of it. Most of the people in the class are physics majors, so the Prof. kind of assumes that the students have a decent background. At the same time, I spoke with a couple of people and they said that their chemistry background was not that strong, so that might be challenging for the physics majors.

The syllabus for the class is available here. It’s a very topical course and he isn’t following a textbook. I think that might be somewhat of a challenge for me, as I like looking working with textbooks in front of me, but perhaps this might be a good way to explore resources through the library and physics TAs. We have a “Homework 0″ due on monday (the 25th) and the homework is available here. The first 6 problems seem mostly doable even with a brief stat-mech background.

The main focuses of the class are on DNA, actin/microtubule polymers, and other simple proteins. It seems like overall, it would be a very good course if you’re even vaguely interested in engineering-like applications involving biopolymers, or just want to look at the polymers from a ground-up view (what energy scales are involved, what interactions are involved, etc.)

Gautam

Disconnect

It seemed like the world turned over today; or maybe it was just that the people/media I follow on twitter were just creaming over the CES show in Vegas. Google launched the Nexus One, T-mobile upgraded its network (I’m now getting ~1 mbps download speeds, which means that it might just be worth it to tether my laptop to my phone in my apt.), etc. There have also been some pretty interesting things floating around. People managing the Philip K. Dick estate are not too happy with the Android/Nexus-One connection, and the BSE index has regained its Feb 2008 levels. In obviously beeeeeeees related incidents, some guy who likes honey a lot is probably going to suffer hell for the remainder of the week.

At the same time, I felt very, let’s say, disconnected. I really didn’t care about what was going on around me. I pretty much ended up just writing a few tossups for MUT, enquiring about the Language Proficiency Exam for graduation requirements, watching some of Dr. Thoma’s lecture videos on youtube, and … nothing else. I took too long to write the MUT questions, but maybe this is to be expected, due to the multitude of distractions around me. I didn’t continue reading about the Economic History of India, which was not a smart thing. Tomorrow, after I go about sending the emails that I was planning on sending, I will finish reading Chapt. 2 of that book and write a post summarizing the main points.

In general, people seem to be happy about 2010, which is a good thing overall. I am particularly looking forward to what the year has in store for employment prospects. There are a couple of job-related events which are coming up in Jan and Feb that I’m planning on attending, and the possibility of awesome summer research internships is also exciting. I am sure there is still cause for concern, what with the several warnings about sluggish employment growth in 2010. Prof. Veglia had suggested that I not worry about jobs so much; he suggested that I rather focus on doing well with my basics in the sciences, learn the right lab techniques, have a solid foundations of the theories in chem/physics/mathematics so that I can have a better base before I enter grad school. Dad suggested that I look at something like the Peace Corps so that I can have a phase in which I have a mindset predisposed towards expansionary ideas rather than contract myself into the sciences.

All that said, there are still a few months left for those decisions to be made. In the meanwhile, I need to focus on finishing up my Statement of Purpose and other writeables for internship apps. I also got an email today from Rita Garni at the Biochem Office about a course in Mass Spectrometry that is going to be offered next week; registrations are open, and I think it might be a good exercise to learn a new technique. I will thus continue to keep myself busy this week.

My plan of writing 100/100 for MUT ain’t happening, but I’m pretty sure that I can atleast get to 50 tossups, which isn’t all that bad. Assuming we produce 15 packets, that’s still about 1/6th of the total number of tossups that we need to produce, which can only be good.

Gautam

Dr. Quantum

I liked it. I mean, these videos are really going to revolutionize education soon. And if teachers don’t begin incorporating them soon enough, man, they are going to fail. I mean, don’t these kind of youtube videos make learning physics more enjoyable? Especially if they are used for young kids, I think this country “can” reclaim all those people in whom potential exists, but hate physics due to the mundaneness of courses and teachers.

Of course, there might be a kid who figures out that the videos weren’t completely true and shattered all his dreams, but I doubt that would be a big problem..

Anyway,

Un debate

Hicimos un debate en español. A mi no lo me gustó tanto. No era un debate, era más o menos una conversación, y solo tuvimos que memorizar lo que preparamos. No necesité mucho tiempo para hacerlo, pero creo que era bien hecho.

El sujeto era muy loco. Hablemos sobre la educación después de graduarse del colegio y si es más importante trabajar y viajar para uno o dos años antes de ir a la universidad. Por supuesto, y dije que es más importante continuar la educación sin hacer una escala. Esto es nuestro debate:

Gautam: Yo creo que es más importante ir a la universidad inmediatamente después de graduarse de la escuela.

Jessica: Yo creo que es más importante trabajar o explorar el mundo antes de ir a la universidad.

Gautam:
¿Por qué crees esto?

Jessica:
Yo espero que una persona sea inteligente y usa el tiempo después de graduarse para decidir su especialidad. Es mejor que una persona decida su especialidad y está seguro sobre la carrera antes de estudiar allí. No es tan fácil salir temprano porque muchas personas no conocen lo que quieren estudiar o si quieren hacer algo. Necesita un poco tiempo y mucha experiencia antes de ir a la universidad par estudiar. Más vale que el estudiante viaje y explore el mundo.

Gautam:
Pero, Jessica, no me parece bien. Cuando le das a los jóvenes que tienen 15 hasta 20 años tiempo para pensar y conocer quien son, ellos van a divertirse todo el tiempo y no pensaren nada. Los estudiantes pueden tomar varias clases y pueden hablar con muchas muchas personas en la escuela.
Yo creo que es necesario que una persona escoja su especialidad cuando está estudiando en el colegio. Es importante que el decida su carrera antes de graduarse.

Jessica:
No es la verdad. Cuando los jóvenes están en la escuela, solo están niños y no pueden decidir todo. Yo sugiero que el estudiante trabaje después de graduarse de la escuela. Los gastos académicos son muy caros en nuestro país. Es importante que el trabaje porque el puede ahorrar dinero para el colegio. Si el estudiante tenga tiempo después de la escuela para pensar sobre su especialidad, el puede ahorrar más dinero porque el no necesita cambiar la carrera.

Gautam:
¡Estás totalmente confundido! Primero, si una persona trabaja, no puede viajar, y si viaja no puede trabajar. También, si no estudias durante este “vacación,” se vas a olvidar de todo lo que aprendes durante estudias en la escuela. No es tan fácil estudiar y trabajar o viajar como así por uno o dos años. Por eso, necesitas gastar más dinero para sus estudios porque vas a repetir muchas clases.

Jessica:
Gautam, ¡es una tontería parada! No me voy a olvidar de nada durante este “vacación”. Si es posible estudiar y trabajar. Voy a conocer quien soy, y voy a aprender mucho más que me voy a olvidar. Es una buena idea conocer quien soy, ¿no? Es una mala cosa que los estudiantes no tienen suficiente tiempo para viajar y estudiar culturas diferentes.

Gautam:
Jessica, me parece que ¡es más importante conocer quien soy ahora! Ya puedo decirte quien soy. Recuérdame, si trabajas, no puedes viajar, y si viajas no puedes trabajar. Si quieres aprender sobre varias culturas, ¡puedes hacerlo en la universidad! Hay muchas muchas personas allí que quieren enseñarte sobre su cultura, y le encanta hacerlo.

Jessica:
No estoy de acuerdo.

Gautam:
No te creo nada.

Study: Instant Messaging (among collegiate students) is Surprisingly Formal :-)

Take this with a wink and a LOL: IM is more formal than you might think. But hey, guys, your punctuation stinks.

Instant messaging (IM) is a relatively new form of communication, in which two people exchange typed messages instantaneously over the Internet. Although written, the fact that IM is more immediate and direct than email makes it seem more like speech than writing.

But a recent study of IM-ing by college students found that the communication was more formal – in use of vocabulary and abbreviations – than might be expected in a speech-like medium. The research also uncovered significant differences in how men and women use the medium.

“The most important finding is that IM by college students does not look like bad writing,” said Naomi Baron of American University.

Baron reviewed 23 different conversations and surveyed 158 students. When divided along gender lines, the messages between females were more formal – with fewer contractions and better punctuation – than those between males.

“The female IM looks more like a written genre, while the male IM looks more like a spoken genre,” Baron told LiveScience in a telephone interview.

Overall, though, the messages surprised Baron with their level of linguistic sophistication – considering that IM gives the impression that it is something you do “as fast as you can,” she said.

No fashion statement

There has been a recent interest in how teenagers use IM – infusing it with the newest lingo and emoticons – as in the ubiquitous smiley face .

“I had anticipated from what I had read in the popular press about teenagers that the students’ IM would be full of acronyms and abbreviations,” Baron said.

The write way to say it There are as many emoticons as there are emotions, and then some. Here is a tiny sample: Basic smiley Winking Frowning :*) Drunk ~ Drooling >:-> Devilish :-& Tongue tied |-O Yawning/snoring :-/ Skeptical LiveScience SOURCE: The Unofficial Smiley Dictionary

Instead, she found in her sample that the writing was more “natural.” Out of 11,718 words, there were only 31 abbreviations (mostly “k” for “ok”), 90 acronyms (mostly “LOL” for “laughing out loud”), and only 49 emoticons (mostly the smiley).

Baron presented her results last month at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She thinks the more writing-like style found in her data may be because the average college student – as opposed to the average teenager – is less concerned with appearing hip to his or her peers.

“Teenagers want to strut their language,” Baron explained, whereas the typical young adult probably finds it takes too much effort to remember what the currently cool acronyms are, or how to make a particular emoticon.

There were also just 121 misspelled words. “I will have more misspellings in the papers my students turn into me,” Baron said. “And you have to remember there is no spell check on IM.”

Gender differences

The level of formality was higher among women than men. In places where a contraction (like “don’t”) could be used, a female IM-ing another female only used the contraction 57 percent of the time.

“I would have expected 90 percent of the time,” Baron said. “The females are using a more schooled, standard writing style.”

Guys used contractions 77 percent of the time, and their responses were often shorter than those of the women.

This is not to say there were no informal, speech-like aspects to the gals’ messages. For example, it took two women on average 41 seconds and nearly 10 exchanges to close a conversation. This is similar to the prolonged goodbyes that characterize face-to-face communication.

Men, perhaps not surprisingly, ended their IM sessions more than twice as quickly.

Multitasking

The study also found that most of the students multitask – searching the web, playing games, eating, studying – while instant messaging. Perhaps you have an IM conversation going as you read this.

“Adults do a little multitasking,” Baron said. “But students have raised multitasking to a fine art.”

They also carry on multiple IM conversations at the same time. The average was 2.7, and some students have 12 conversations going simultaneously.

“One of the students said that IM is language under the radar,” Baron said.

Like music playing in the background, the students do not put all of their attention into IM, Baron surmised. If that’s the case, they must have subconscious spell-checkers.

Source:Live Science
© 1999-2007 Imaginova Corp. All rights reserved.

Interesting Article:

I agree that our punctuation stinks. Sometimes, I feel lazy and skip the punctuation marks also. I don’t really know if there’s adequate sophistication. It is possible that the verbicide that one commits when he speaks is caused the perversion of ‘like’ and other such unnecessary words. God, I need to stop using them.

Life

Is nice. Prom was awesome. I don’t think I can say much more. Dansemusik wasn’t too great. I am going to make my own playlist and play it in my head. I still am recovering from the string of awkward sleep that I’ve had through the last few days, but it’s ok. I have learned it is really beneficial to show off my cube root skillz. Somebody promised me 5 dolla if I could find the cube root of 328509 in my head. Considering there are quick + dirty methods of finding cube roots, I won.

Portfolio was bitch as usual. Too much unnecessary work. Spanish is becoming a lot of unnecessary work también. What the hull. I will try to read Frankenstein assignment tonight…

NATIONALS IN THREE DAYS OMG ZOROUS REX. So pumped!

Gautam