London Part Deux

        Arriving in London after an incredible weekend of Acrobatics, I felt great. I had already spent 4 days exploring the city while staying with my friend Steve before going to Copenhagen in January, so instead of the unfamiliar rush that comes with entering a new city for the first time, I was greeted by the comfort of the Tube, the Heathrow Express, and was well-prepared to look to my right first when crossing a street. Also, since I had some time to kill before my flight out of Hamburg, I had been able to get one of those in-Airport massages that I've often walked by with a smirk, wondering who would ever want a massage before a flight. However, after three days of sleeping on a gymnasium floor and lifting and throwing people nonstop, there was nothing I wanted more. Suffice to say, I was ready for a week of touring biotech research centers.
      Throughout the week, we visited companies such as Spirogen, the UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering, The Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, and the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science.  At each of these centers, we saw different aspects of the biomedical research process. Spirogen is a huge developer of anti-cancer drugs, and has in phase 2 clinical trials. There, we were given a chance to tour the labs and see some of the equipment they use for high throughput screening to identify drug candidates. At other centers we were shown facilities that do cutting edge stem cell research, develop nanotechnology, and use extremely powerful microscopes and 3D imaging to better understand cell division and protein interactions. With this diversity of research interests and facilities, we were shown a clear picture of the drug discovery and development process.
        Academics aside, we also got to see some really pretty buildings--so take a brief blog-intermission and have some eye candy. These photos are from the Blizard Institute (which I promise actually does really legitimate research on cancerous stem cells).

                                                                 View from the main entrance

                                                      Open labs, as seen from the main entrance upstairs

   The conference room, because of course it is.

  As far as we were told, this room is the 'PR room' designed to impress interviewing students. I do not believe it serves any functional purpose.

It sure looks fancy though.

            Outside of our academic visits, we were given the opportunity to do experience a lot of the rich culture that London has to offer through various, appropriately-titled 'cultural visits.' Rather than waste time describing these visits for you and asking you to conjure mental images of these excursions, I have decided to instead provide photographic illustrations of the events, which I hope will suffice. These are those photos:

 Tower of London, past location of horrible tortures and present location of a gift shop with a frustratingly-sticky candy called strawberry bonbons.

 London's Tower Bridge

  The Tower of London is all about chains. Chained up chain-mail animals serve a reminder. 

 London's State Motto

                    Before                                                                                           After

 Panorama of London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. Note my friend Christian in red.

 Panorama of Big Ben and the London Eye. Note the double decker bus turning into a van.

 Buckingham Palace

 In England, the toilets have genders.

 Urban Art during our walking tour of the East End of London

London's premier dessert shoppe

 Blenheim Palace

 That chick was well-groomed.

 Tea Time!

 Scones with butter, jam, cucumber sandwiches, banana bread, and a tea tasting

Rugby Match, Oxford vs. Cambridge

Where Malfoy made fun of Harry Potter in Goblet of Fire

            Our last academic visit before the end of the Study Tour was to the Wellcome Center, which is a museum featuring various exhibits on modern science and the human body. Selected Pictures:

 The entire human genome.

The H1N1 Virus

An actual cross-section of a human being

     After a very busy week, I decided to stay in London for 3 extra nights to stay with my friend Steve again. He was just returning from his spring break, so we had a relatively low-key, recuperative weekend. We also got the chance to see our friend Melissa, who went to high school with both of us and goes to Brown with me, which was great! Here is the one, blurry photo taken during these 3 days:

      On the 11th of March I headed home after a great second visit to London and an amazing time in Germany, but the adventures were just beginning; four days later, I left for Paris for four unforgettable days, which I'll save for the next blog post.