my exams were over just a couple of hours ago – i thought i’d be jumping with joy, but i’m not really sure why i’m not getting that feeling yet. maybe it hasn’t sunk it? or maybe i’m feeling a bit melancholic as i’ll be bidding goodbye to my student life?
anyway, in order to make this post somehow anime-themed, i’ll try to show how anime can actually help in memorizing factoids for biology exams =P which made me feel less guilty watching average of 3 eps of anime during the exam period hehe.
method #1: using mnemonics
what is being crammed: that the proteins nudel, gd, easter, snake and spatzle are involved in a serine protease cascade that triggers a receptor called toll…
how i crammed it into my brain: took the first letter of the five proteins – NGESS stood for..
neon genesis evangelion, shinseiki (well, shinseiki should actually precede the title to be precise, but i was content with being able to recall it that way).
method #2: drawing parallels between reality and anime
what is being crammed: that more fishes tended to change sex (yes, i kid you not) female -> male when the alpha male in charge of a harem dies, instead of male -> female when the larger female of a monogamous pair dies.
how i crammed it into my brain: in anime, doesn’t it seem that harem shows are way too common? =P
method #3: using onomatopeia
what is being crammed: males of the insect Pseudococcus nipae are males because they silence one of their chromosome sets (males of other insect species tend to be born only with one set of the chromosome – haploidy).
how i crammed it into my brain:
NIPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!
Hmm. I wouldn’t say I found many helpful links between anime and my last set of exams, but it was useful to relax. When you’re battling against Sir Thomas Wyatt’s sonnets, something simple involving giant robots smashing each other up is a welcome relief.
Also, I never knew that about fish. Amazed I am.
None of these seem to help much for my chemistry final, but at least I know what I should do to cram…
@icystorm: yep – subtitute sleep for anime, and you’re bound to score in your exams =)
@animanachronism: i didn’t know about it too, until the lecturer talked about it. if you’d like to know more about interesting facts about the evolutionary biology of sex, check out olivia judson’s “dr. tatiana’s sex advice to all creation”. it’s written with the general public in mind, hence no prior knowledge of biology is required =D
Thanks. I’ll remember it as a book to keep an eye out for – it has a rather fine title, if nothing else.
heh. that’s what you call “fanservice” in the biology world =D