Can We hug?

 This post was inspired by this tree; as shown in these pictures. Every living thing grows, changes in shape, and generally moves towards or away its stimuli in order to sustain its survival. With time, every-living thing must to do that,but we all agree that it is not always easy.  We all have to fight, struggle and persist towards winning over our obstacles.

Any Possible Iron Acquisition?

This plant shows us the good results of persistence combined with problem solving. Despite disfigurement, it is evident that this plant is benefiting a lot from this fence in terms of strength and perhaps nutrition.

This is a mere mother-nature’s way of teaching us how to consider a lot of things we call obstacles. When in search for water and nutrients from the ground, plants encounter a wide range of underground obstacles;  mainly rocks. But these rocks end up helping plants to get more grip from underneath.

Why do we prune our fruit-plants? This is mainly to make sure that we get quality fruits from those plants when the season comes. They retaliate by producing much bigger fruits when some of their branches get cut. So is life, when you feel to have lost something, take it as an emotional pruning that will make you bear much more high quality fruits in future. Perhaps bigger than what you have lost or not achieved before.

Take risks and win all your bouts  

Hold me tight

Win!!

Therefore, that kind of setup strongly requires a strong leadership, capable of carrying the blame during disappointments as well as sharing the excitement during victorious moments. Not wasting some great moments or time on mocking the skeptics. Great leadership notice the necessity to move forward, progressing from the latest success to another.

However, to be honest, in major tasks taken in life towards success, failure and disappointments (F D) are reduced to nothing but turned into precursors of excitement after an achievement. With these, there is no point to surrender your good ideas and/or projects; Just Do It! ( as Nike often puts it).

Thomas Edison, the American scientist, inventor and businessman ahead of his time once said this; “I have not failed a thousands times, but eliminated a thousands ways to make this work” He said this when perfecting an electric bulb, the one we still use, a prototype that have given birth to many others that we see today. He did not give up, and hardly used the word fail in his laboratory book!

Win

This kept me thinking or kept me in the process of ‘self-making’ as per Buddha. It greatly inspired me. Buddha, reminded me of the great worthiness that resides within each of us. Read this quote again and again. Think about it. Let’s split these words into three (3) modules:

1. We are what we think.
2. All that we are arises with our thoughts.
3. With our thoughts we make the world.

“I think therefore I am” By Rene Descartes is the most popular and famous line summarizing the thought and self relationship. You can find it in high tension, concentrative scenes of mind- boggling movies. These words remind us that any point of our lives can be the origin to our destiny. The important part of it is to do the thinking, which will lend us to actions and actions will take us there. Our minds are the tool-boxes of our own destiny.

But this conversation of a French Marshall and his subordinate captures it all.

Marshall: Is it possible to start planting those trees?

Subordinate: It is really impossible Sir…

Marshall: Why?

Subordinate: This plant takes about 100 years to reach maturity.

Marshall: Ooh!…in that case no time to lose, plant it this afternoon.

Be your own Marshall The message is, there will always be great joy when seeing it happening. Regardless of when will the fruits get ready. But, just the charm of seeing it growing can take you there. Begin now, any project is do-able

Migration to the next reservation forest was a problem to these friends. It took so long and at the same time meaning that they have to cross the partitioning road that kept them from their home. Mind you, it would be blazing hot. But they have to soldier on to the next forest. As a result of the heat, the quarrel mostly ignited across this hot road to the next forest. The millipede was a slow crosser but a very good tracker while the centipede was a fast crosser and very poor with directions. Therefore, the centipede will have to depend on the millipede for directions and a guaranteed journey.

The millipede was so well reserved. He will stroll across the road, very slowly, leaving behind a beautiful trail. Dot-by-dot- his trail on the road, you can still see it miles away if you stop for a while and look back. They always argue why the millipede is so slow on crossing the road?

He will respond by telling the centipede that if it was not for his slowness, they were going to starve due to the fact that there will be no one amongst them to remember where the next forest is. He continued by telling his friend that, it is because he travels very slowly that is why he can remember clearly where their next destination is. Furthermore, they agreed to look back with his friend and all were amazed by the pattern that the millipede has created. Compared to the centipede’s the pattern was so beautiful. The millipede finally said that all this good things came to him because he was designed to take time to create them. On his own pace, the Millipede was a genius when it comes to recognition of places. Indeed, it is always said that most of the good things take time to develop.

How many of such things can you remember from the top of your head? Time is a great architect of everything that we see. I still believe that the first thing to be created is time. And all those that we see now came as a result of time. Hence, many text books about origin will always start by saying “ Many, many years ago…” or when science claims to be accurate, they will start by saying “ billions of years ago…”

Take time to be who you are. Regard less of this fast-paced universe’s speed. You can be sure of your own slot of time, and with time everything is possible.

Oh, just these pictures can stop you from writing and posting Lopson-Kay, Huh…?, Yes, I like pictures because they can save me from ‘driving through grammatical red-lights by saving me from using a lot of words.

There were a lot of activities that were carried out at the retreat camp held at BestBrook Farmstay. But what really interested me was a story we were told by one of the tour guides. I really feel sorry that I cannot remember his name well, shame on me!. He was so knowledgeable with history of the early settlers in Australia. Now and then during his narration, he will pull  out a piece of paper from his pocket to remind himself of the years.

The way they were travelling, and living was outstanding and really got me attached to how we traditionally do things at home.  The story further drew me a picture of one of those novels that I liked to read with a great deal of inspiration on determination, hard-work and innovation.These attributes of inspiration were mainly fueled by a process of survival. The need to feed. Therefore, let me dwell on the making of food.

The part and the story that I really liked was the one on how to make butter, some bread and tea. We were told this was the main feed during those times. Milk and bread, but the way they were prepared was what really struck my mind. Here is the pic-story;

The milk boy was traveling around the settlements delivering some milk.

The milk was then poured in a special pot that was used to turn the milk into butter.

The principle behind this mechanism is so interesting.  It is the same to the old one used to precipitate DNA material. This was before current extraction kits were invented. It creates some friction in the walls of the container at the same precipitating the ‘butter’.

Here is the ‘precipitated’ butter. Yummy!

Tea time!

Dough made out of just flour and milk was used to make some ‘scones’. The wires were used to hold the bread right over the fire while toasting. The water to make some tea was boiled from the iron tins.

I really enjoyed the meal. With a lot of water to drink regularly. There were no pressures for the next meal indeed. Bread and butter. Simple!

N.B I am appealing to all interested people to help build a science infomercial in a form of a blog. The main aim of this blog can be found from this link.; allscientificbotswana.

Regards.



I should have said this post was supposed to be posted long time ago when I was still in Brissy, but due to my time management imparementsI could’nt manage.

Anyway, here are the pictures, soon I will be missing this path and my push-bike, but ideas that were born here will forever stay and give birth to many more for the rest of my life. Again some few posts from Astralia are to come before embarking on writing about my home country, (Botswana) where I live now. There are a couple of drafts I made while in Aussie which are still pending. Stay tuned Peace and one love.

Mind you these ants are hardly there under normal circumstances. We never had ants problem in the office. The piece was still there though, the poor small ants were just salvaging from the soup. I had to quickly take out the box and wash it straight away, the moment I touched the box, they all started to run around, confused and fleeing- or better on, ready to attack. I went to the kitchen to do the washing, and made a cup of tea in that mean time. While washing my dishes, a thought crossed my mind; ‘these much of ants within that short period of time…?’ One thing for sure is that one ant came first and met a piece of meat, then went back to ‘call’ others; or the food ‘smell’ called all the ants at once-but its difficult to see a group of ants marching to a target all at once for the first time. They disappeared at the ‘same’ time too when I got back to my seat.

This reminded me of the good times when we were growing up with my younger brother at the lands. We used to entertain ourselves by watching how ants response to various stimuli, like shock (noise) and sometimes food availability. We will hit the spot next to their home. One ant will get out and then quickly back in their ‘house’ and then the few moments later a couple will get out then back. This will continue with the numbers growing and growing. In less time, than longer, we will have to flee from the attack.

Sometimes we will just be kind to them and bring them some food. And the same mechanism of response will be similar to that of a shock. But now these ants will be carrying some food back in the house- peacefully. We were always left with the imagination of their housing network inside as well as their mode of communication. Which often left us with a wonder and a big joke. Because, we have always observed that when there is plenty of food at a certain spot from their ‘house’ by tomorrow,  a new home will be built there.

A POWERFUL ANTI-VIRUS TO BE MODELLED FROM ANT BEHAVIOUR

No matter what mechanisms ants use; programming scientists are starting to mimic their behaviour to build some strong antivirus and spyware softwares. A model is being devised to ‘steal’ their nature of response and survaillence. This will lead to a lot safer e-world as much as the softwares will be closer to what we have been observing with my younger brother K.B.

Check that out in full  here.

I love nature. Small and Big, from ants to elephants

To make things short, there was a need that I and other few students had to wait for the beginning of 2006 to be sent to Australia instead of Canada as planned before. My God, that was a bit of time-in-between without studies. From May 2005 to 2006 February, but there was nothing much I could do, instead I went to our cattle-post or farm to tend our small livestock and enjoy the serenity and peace of nature while looking after our goats.

'Mogobe' the drinking pond during raining season. The goats were doing well

'Jimbos' the loyal guard dog. I hear he is still doing well taking care of them goats here.

In the mornings before taking some goats out, I usually enjoyed doing some backyard simple ‘experiments’ like;

1. trying to build my own radio receiver from scraps ( I never did),

2. trying to create a vacuum from a Mayonnaise bottle by using a 20 litre water tank as a pump ( the idea did not work too- but theoretically still possible- imagine having a big tank with two holes. Fill it with water, then empty the water. Another hole will be sucking in some air as the water goes out from one hole. So I thought that will be strong enough to suck all the air from a bottle. But atmospheric pressure is so huge it kept the water in the tank instead of sucking out the air in the bottle.

3. ‘Proved’ to myself a line I got from a physics text-book, that when a motor rotates, it creates backward current that always opposes the inward one. Yay!- my red diode lit from that backward current from the spin of the motor with my fingers. Dynamo!!

4. Simple trigonometry: Sin90= 1( and the likes of opposite sides etc…) interesting that time for me,but dodgy. Do not know what I was doing. Silly me!

5. And the one which was enough to be patented was when I found a way of recharging a mobile phone from radio batteries (PLEASE DON”T TRY THIS AT HOME). I had a mobile phone that was always off in the farm because there was no power. I did bring it back in air with radio batteries. The idea became very useful to all the people in the near by farms, as I was designing some simple chargers and adapters to recharge my neighbours’ phones. Very simple but it became very useful.

In 2006 I had to start applying for universities in Australia\,and the University of Queensland (UQ) was one of them. I had to make a choice though since all the three I applied to accepted me. I found UQ to be the best for my interests; research, was cutting-edge. It was the same year Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine was making big headlines. Biotechnology course was very powerful at this uni with combination of science and commercialisation. The inventor of Gardasil, Professor Ian Fraser even lectured me in some of my second year courses.

Enough about that time and here is my statement of purpose that I would like to share with you. My mind was free-flowing, and each word was heart-felt. I will stick to the plan even though there are few to no clues with weeks left to get back home. Bless!

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

RE: BIOTECHNOLOGY

Biotechnology includes any process in which humans use the metabolism of living things to arrive at a desired product, ranging from bread making to gene therapy. Biotechnology has just begun to reveal its potential in various disciplines like agriculture, medicine, industries and even in electronic- engineering with the advancement of the so called nanotechnology, the field that can bring about some nanomechanical devices like sensors, switches, and tweezers as well as computational devices with greater efficiency than one can imagine.

Botswana,  has a semi arid climate, that is, it receives little to no rainfall, which brings about drought conditions hence less food production. But with the skills and knowledge gained from this course, I shall be able to   develop some drought resistant crops, which will be able to withstand these  drought conditions. Furthermore, with  experience in the course I will help in developing some crops resistance to some pests and diseases, like the (Bt corn) hence improving food security. Botswana  Meat Commission ,the country’s third largest foreign exchange earner last year lost P63.7 million (about US$12.7 Million) mainly of catastrophes like drought and outbreaks of cattle diseases like foot and mouth which with the understanding of biotechnology, i will be able to help in reversing their impacts  by helping the department of animal health and production in developing  breeds resistant or tolerant to drought and helping in control measures of cattle diseases.

My confidence and determination to study  biotechnology comes from the fact that after obtaining the skills and techniques of the course, i will be in a better position of helping in combating AIDS, the major scourge of Africa with millions dying annually. In particular, since the government of Botswana is committed in launching a fight against the disease, it will make use of my knowledge of  biotechnology skills in making drugs to be readily available for AIDS patients. One thing equally important is that biotechnology will help me to further understand the basic principles of science and statistics which will in turn arm me to be able to go in the direction of trying to predict diseases and finally be able to prevent them from people hence saving a lot of money to be used in treating patients, since prevention is better than cure. Biotechnological skills and techniques are widely applied in medical schools, and since Botswana is about to establish its own medical school, quite a number of biotechnologists are going to be needed to provide their service in the school.

In conclusion, biotechnology has proved to be a master key to a better health ,better  food security or simply  to the realisation of the long term vision of  Botswana , “vision 2016”,  a healthy, productive and  educated nation. With all the above aspects in mind, to qualify as a biotechnologist from your institution will be a milestone not only for my future but also for some other fellow Batswana and even beyond.

Candidate’s Name: KEBAPETSWE LOPSON BALOPI

Pictures not only say a thousands words, they as well tell them right to the audience; not much not less! But before I do that, let me tell you about the website that sourced these pictures (http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info). In fact this is how their ‘about’ page reads;
“The AgBioWorld Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, and is run by Professor C.S. Prakash of Tuskegee University. The AgBioWorld community was established in January 2000 by Professor Prakash and Gregory Conko of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the foundation and AgBioView e-mail service rely upon the volunteer efforts of many friends and colleagues.”

I subscribed to this website in 2002, the same year I personally met the internet and acquired my first yahoo email address. I wanted to study medicine first after my high school, but when I got to the university I decided to switch and do something a bit broad but still very helpful in the developing world like my own country- Botswana. And again, I was not that a competitive student compared to a few list that wanted to study medicine. I used to read unusual stuff, about science and how it can be applied to humanitarian needs. I was holding this book, I cannot clearly remember in detail. But the book was about biotechnological applications in health and food security; and the scientist or writer said something that stuck in my mind even now; “If you want a successful career, go to where there are many fish but fewer fishermen”. Biotechnology was a way-lot naïve, to the developing world; well, at least compared to now.
I started to read my e-newsletters from agbioview.org, and sometimes write what was on my mind as well. Professor Prakash, will then publish my articles as raw as a first then a second year student can write about such a complex topic. It was not about expertise though, but just a debate on genetic engineering, agricultural production and famine in developing world. To keep things short, I was and I am still an active member of agbioview.org for about 7 years now, and have been interacting with Prakash and one of his PhD students from Zimbabwe whom we share ideas on taking some way forward in biotechnology, health and food security in Africa.

Enough about us and back to the hero; since Norman was a friend of Prakash and the “father of the greens revolution” his name was a favourite in the streams of articles that were regularly dropped in agbioview.org and else where. That is where I heard and known about his enduring works. Here are some of the few of his pictures emphasising this man’s greatness to the empty stomachs in most of the third world countries which he spent most of the time with the regular farmers perhaps than he did in the US where he is from. He slept in tents, and used ploughs!!

Photos (L-R) 1-4 (http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/topics/borlaug/borlaug-photos.html): Look at the smiles . Maize is an important crop in Sub-Saharan Africa. But, it is very vulnerable to drought, pests and weed. It is very rare to see it in such good condition more especially in regions with average annual rainfall of less than 500 ml, like where I am from in central Botswana. However, this man’s passion for decades was to make sure that farmers can be smiley as they are above. Malnutrition and famine will be a fairy-tale to the young ones (photo 3).Note the heights of the maize behind these people. (Photo 5) He pioneered the usefulness of leaving the lab coat and a bench to take it to the fields and monitor the experiments first hand-Hard work; The trends of the father of Genetics, Gregor Mendel!
In 1970, he was awarded a Nobel peace prize for his work. R.I.P Norman and May God bless you.

The next post will be my lost and found notes that helped me to get a government of Botswana scholarship to study overseas here in Australia. It has what I promised to learn and give back to my country after completing my degree which is now left with a month or two-GOD willing . The statement of purpose is very interesting, and was inspired by this true legend and others to be mentioned then; stay tuned.

Lopson-Kay