Hearing conference weekend and science inspired art

This weekend marked the beginning if the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO)'s midwinter meeting. The meeting is a must-go for researchers in the hearing field and normally rotates between a Baltimore, MD or San Diego, CA location.

While I've been to Society for Neuroscience meetings, ARO is a smaller, more focused meeting, which offers lots of opportunities to run into your superstar hearing researchers and talk one-on-one with people directly in your field. The venue for this year didn't hurt either - the conference is held at the Grand Hyatt, smack dab in Downtown San Diego. There's many venues to try within walking distance, and the sunset view is beautiful.

Sunset at the train station

There's something really cool about going to any conference. Whether it's getting inspired to try something new, like reading comics, or even going to the lab to tinker with a new experiment, conferences can ignite a passion that may have just risen, or was a faint memory from the past. For me, this conference got me back into hitting the work research grind and trying to do more things that I enjoy, such as doing more art. In particular, I'm interested with playing with different art mediums to do science-inspired art. Below is a piece that I just did after attending the conference - the little black fingers are similar to what you see in the auditory brainstem, a region of the brain that's important for locating sounds in space.***











"Trying to do more things that I enjoy."

That idea seems so easy to achieve, but we just get caught up with so many things that sometimes the most important things get shoved aside. I'm happy that I'm getting back into art, and have even decided to try new things, like photography (amateur albeit) and pastel art (I used to do sketching mostly).

That said, this blog has done quite a bit of morphing from the original posts. It's become more than just neuroscience behind food. Whether it's a rant about exploring a new part of Orange County and showering you with nature photos, or a cool finding from a science journal, or even a culinary adventure trying to recreate a childhood dish, this blog has definitely become more open with its range of topics. One thing has stayed true though - the core of this blog is to appreciate all things food and science. And hopefully, you get some giggles out of this blog.

Anywho, I've rambled for far too long. Just wanted to update everyone on what's going on. Please stay tuned for future posts ranging from various topics that interest me. I'm playing with the idea of changing the blog's layout to be more accessible, so keep on the lookout.

Until then, happy eating all!

P.S. Special thank you to MOH and my sisters for inspiring me to get back into art! Thanks em ba for supplying the awesome paper and preservant! Thanks to MOH for not complaining one bit while I dirtied up the coffee table with pastel smudges. And thank you all for reading and tuning in to these random postings! 

***The finger-like protrusions represent contacts that are made on a region in the brainstem and are called the calyx of held, named mainly after the researcher who discovered the connection (Hans Held) and the striking resemblance it makes to a chalice, or calyx. Because the calyx of Held provides so many points of contact onto the receiving cell, it provides fast transmission of an electrical signal to the cell, allowing for high fidelity communication.