Karyogamy

ka•ree•o•gam•ee (noun)
the process in biology where two nuclei fuse to form a single nuclei.
Origin: Greek (karyo = nut, gamy = fusion; karyogamy = fusion of "nuts" => fusion of nuclei - if you can consider the nucleus the "nut" of the cell)

Karyogamy functions to unite the nuclei of two gametes, which naturally results in the doubling of ploidy.

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So, in early August, when I was at the UBC bookstore looking at textbook prices (OMG SO EXPENSIVE!) I saw that they were having a sale on some of their books, and, being a huge nerd, I decided to look at their collection and I found a book that looked interesting called The Shark God. The cover art and format of the book jacket made it look like a work of fiction, like Stephen King novels or something. Anyways, I've been reading it on the bus to/from school (when I'm not sleeping, lol I LOVE sleeping on busses XD) and it turns out that it was a non-fiction novel.

It's written by a Canadian from Vancouver Island, which is awesome in and of itself, but it also turns out that this book won several prestigious non-fiction awards. It's not about religion in the way St. Augustine's Confessions is about God and the attempt to define God, but it is a narrative that nonetheless very much revolves around religion; it brings up many, many, many interesting ideas and themes and it really got me to think about different aspects of religion and Christianity from both the viewpoint of atheists as well as people who are religious. Literally every few pages I had to stop reading and think about the ideas that author had invoked.

Needless to say: You should read this book! And then we can go over it chapter by chapter and discuss the things in it because these ideas are very significant (to me, at least) and I would like to hear what you have to say about these topics.

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AHHHHHH! TOMORROW MORNING I HAVE MY FIRST MIDTERM! Can I never do calculus ever again? >_> TT_TT We have a midterm on one Vector and One Dimensional Calculus. Ultimate sad face. I did some practice midterms and questions and everything, but I'm still really freaked out (esp. b/c the prof said that the midterm will be much harder than the practice). We'll see how it goes...

This week has been pretty okay for me other than that... working through course work and life-stuff is going well; at least I'm not depressed to point of despair. I was very happy to discover that I remember more Chemistry than I thought I would remember, so OChem is going well at the moment. My cell biology teacher is a useless waste of space and should not be qualified to teach, but that can't be helped.

I'm also slightly in love with my NVP Bio (Non-Vascular Plant Biology) teacher; she's this short, skinny, almost shriveled old Caucasian lady but she's so adorable! She's funny and witty and modern yet old-fashioned and her lectures are so engaging it's fantastic! I'm lovin my NVP Bio right now =P

Anyways, I know that you were too busy to post this week; I know campus life is very taxing, so don't worry about it =) I hope that everything sorts itself out and settles down for you soon.

Chat soon,
~Tim~

PS - I'm not sure that karyogamy would usually be in one's vernacular unless one was discussing the life cycle of a sexually reproducing organism, but that's my science-y word for this week =) hopefully you don't have too much trouble using it in your next post =P