KNACKERED in Lausanne

Hi, my name is Hallie Rozansky and I'm a rising junior at Yale University, majoring in chemistry. I'm originally from Rydal, PA, a suburb outside Philadelphia, and this summer, for the first time in my life, I'm living for two months outside the United States. I'm spending my summer in Lausanne, Switzerland, working in the Swartz laboratory at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). As you may have gathered from the title, my past two weeks in Lausanne have left me absolutely knackered. For anyone who doesn't speak British English or doesn't have a good friend who does (and for both of those things, I feel sorry for you -- one of the highlights of the past two weeks has been repeating back, in my best British accent, the wonderful phrases I hear from Delwen, my Belgian friend who has an English "mum"), the definition of knackered is:

knack⋅ered

Use knackered in a Sentence

–adjective British Slang. exhausted; very tired: He is really knackered after work.

I should clarify though. Knackered may seem like a bad thing, initially, but considering that I'm only knackered because I've spent all my time either: a) working in a fascinating lab, learning how fibroblasts affect tumor cell migration b) hanging out with the 25 other students in my program, who are smart, funny, love science as much as I do, and are giving me a captivating window into other countries and cultures (we comprise, I think, 14 countries among us) c) traveling around Switzerland and d) playing volleyball, soccer (football for the non-Americans), and swimming in the breathtakingly gorgeous lake that's only a fifteen-minute walk from my apartment, I couldn't be happier about it.

So where to begin? I think my only option is to break down this blog (and apologies to everyone reading this, this is about to be a long one) into those four sections.

a) The Swartz Laboratory. My lab's overarching theme is the lymphatic system, a system of vessels, capillaries, & other pathways through the body that is similar to the circulatory system, except it carries lymph, a combination of fluids & proteins that is similar to blood plasma. The lymphatic system is important as a transport system and as a regulator of fluid flow through the body (it prevents fluid accumulation, and therefore swelling, in tissues) but is maybe most familiar these days as the transport system for tumor cells, which can travel through the lymphatic system to the lymph nodes and metastasize. My work is primarily based off the finding that fibroblasts, a type of cell, seem to be able to aid tumor migration, and perhaps in that way aid metastasis.

I'm lucky -- my work is both really interesting and fun, and my experiments are fairly short (about 1 day each) so I can get results quickly and then decide where to go from there. The people in my lab are also really wonderful, and my post-doc is an excellent mentor, and has taught me a ton in just the last two weeks. I'm looking forward to the next 6 weeks here -- whether or not I get any conclusive results (although that would be GREAT), I’ve learned a lot already and look forward to even more, and the experience I’ll gain here will be invaluable in whatever I choose to do next.

b) The other students in my program. There are students from the United States, Turkey, China, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Serbia, Morocco/Canada, Russia, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, and Romania. And this is just the students in my program. The students we hang out with from outside the program are also from Taiwan, Algeria, France, and Canada, to name just a few. As I've written home to nearly everyone, it sounds corny, but learning about other people's cultures has been one of the most incredible parts of this program. Not only do I now have some fabulous vacation spots where I can stay for free whenever I decide to travel the globe, but I also am meeting people with backgrounds and perspectives that are vastly, vastly different from mine. I've learned more about Eastern Europe in the last two weeks than I think I have in my whole life, and whether we're talking about the country’s cuisine, poverty issues, the police force, or the night life, I'm constantly amazed by the experiences and the insight of my fellow SRP(Summer Research Program)-ers. The best part is, we really are so so different -- different backgrounds, languages, culinary tastes, sometimes senses of humor -- but we connect so unbelievably well, and we are so similar underneath it all. Sometimes the jokes we make are phrased differently, but the same ideas are still funny to everyone. We all love science and get into conversations about patch clamps or cell cultures that would be incredibly boring and nerdy to any outside observer. And generally, we all share the same curiosity and desire to learn about each other and each other's cultures, to travel, and to explore our new home, and we all love to hang out with each other. Some of the best times I've had so far have been sitting in Planete Bleue, the complex where the majority of the students are staying, throwing Smarties into each others' mouths, playing run-around ping pong, nearly breaking dishes with our insanely bad volleyball skills, and just generally laughing and having a good time.

c) LA SUISSE! I came to Switzerland fully expecting that, as an American living in Europe, I would do a tour of all the big cities. I'd jet off each weekend to Paris, Rome, Barcelona, London, and Prague, sleeping in hostels, hiking on weekends, and taking cheesy pictures in front of monuments – essentially, a scene straight out of any “young American tours Europe” movie. Little did I know that a) the cost of living in Switzerland is way too high for me to have tons of spare change to be tossing around the globe and b) ... even if that wasn’t the case, I wouldn't want to leave the country. Over the past few weekends, my friends and I have begun to start traveling Switzerland and I can safely say it is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I don't plan on leaving much at all during these two months. So far, we've only traveled to/explored Lausanne, Broc, Gruyeres, Montreux, and Verbier, but we've made a list of about 6 other cities, and plan to travel nearly every weekend. Two weekends ago, we started off by going to the Montreux Jazz Festival (http://www.montreuxjazz.com/), which actually felt like a bit of a misnomer -- some of the biggest acts were Prince, Lily Allen, and Alice Cooper, and we spent most of our time that day/night listening to a Brazilian band. But jazz or not, the festival was incredible. We strolled by the lake, listening to outdoor music, sat in the park and watched the Brazilian band play for hours while we all took a billion photographs, and then moved to the Jazz Club at night, where we heard the same Brazilian band play and this time, danced along, too. We then crawled our way onto an absolutely packed train and made it home in time to catch the pyjama bus, the legendary nighttime bus that runs from 12 a.m. - 4 a.m. every weekend, after the metros have shut down.

The next morning we woke up, and before going to the lake to swim and play volleyball and soccer, two of my friends and I (Liza and Delwen, for anyone interested) decided to check out a museum in Lausanne. We finally settled on the Art Brut museum (http://www.artbrut.ch/) -- not an easy feat, since there are at least 10 in the surrounding area, all of which seemed great -- and after navigating Lausanne with Liza as our guide (Delwen's and my senses of direction are not to be trusted anywhere), found the museum and spent the next three hours wandering around, awed by what we were seeing. All the art in the Art Brut museum is done by people who were either diagnosed with psychological disorders or, I believe the description says, are "outcasts or loners" or otherwise unusual people. The museum and the art were very different from anything else I’ve seen, and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Lausanne (Family, this is for you).

Basically, each weekend gets better than the last. Last weekend, instead of settling for just two cities, we decided to go for four. On Saturday, we visited the Cailler chocolate factory at Broc (yum), then walked over to the chateau and cheese factory at Gruyeres (yum again), took the train into Montreux for the last night of the jazz festival (good music and good Movenpick ice cream = double yum). Then on Sunday, we went to Verbier to watch one of the stages of the Tour de France. I know I’m raving about everything, but all these places were just so fantastic – so unbelievably beautiful, so much fun, and so different from anything I've seen before. The chocolate factory was cool in and of itself, but the grand finale at the end – a chocolate bar for visitors with bite-sized pieces of all the different kinds, was like something out of Willy Wonka. And I imagined, when I was heading over to watch the Tour de France, that it would be crowded and impossible to see the bikers – when Lance Armstrong rode by, he was about 8 feet away from me! Had I wanted to sabotage the Tour de France, I could have done so. (Instead, I cheered.) I also didn’t imagine the enthusiasm, singing, and free giveaways that were everywhere (we got some interesting hats), or the beautiful views from the side of the trail. All in all, this country is unbelievable.

d) Over the past two weeks, we’ve have taken to calling a certain portion of the lake “our lake.” Too bad for everyone else there. There are volleyball courts, a football/soccer field, beautiful warm water that’s perfect for swimming as long as you steer clear of the (apparently ferocious) swans, windsurfing and kayaking that we plan to take advantage of, and a grilling area that’s about five minutes away and was the site of our barbecue last night. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s the perfect place to go after work, and every time I sit there I’m struck by how beautiful the lake is and how lucky I am to be here this summer. Swimming, playing an intense game of beach volleyball, eating burgers and kebabs, or having a seaweed fight late at night – whatever we’re doing there, it’s peaceful and wonderful and just makes me so glad to be here.

It’s 12:43 my time and I have to wake up in less than seven hours for lab, so it’s probably time to get going … this post is ridiculously long anyway. But there it is – the beginning of my “Suisseventures,” as Liza calls them. Can’t wait to have more : )

Hallie

First week in Switzerland

Hi everyone,

I am Julian and the first year Ph.D. student in Architecture at Texas A&M University. Regarding thinkswiss program, I am doing the study and workshop at the Media and Design Center, EPFL with Dr. Jeffrey Huang.

I took a very long distance trip in four days. You can find my flight from the picture: China,Shanghai-Atlant-Houston-Amesterdam-lyon-Lausanne; that is almost one circle of the earth.
However, any tired feeling disappeared at the moment when I got on the train from Lyon to Lausanne. That is a very impressive trip with so many great lanscape. The scattered white buildings with red roof look like grow in the mountain; that is, Alps! The beautiful lake, lac Léman, is partly hidden and partly visible.

After arrival at EPFL, I communicated with the professor and did a short presentation to introduce myself and my interested research. Acturally, EPFL has very good environents for studying. Different departments are related each other. Just like my lab, they did joint projects related to architecture, engeering, computer science, climatic and environmental research. As for me, I will be invovled in one or two research projects which are exploring the biological issues and architectural needs in reality. My interest is for energy efficiency from the inspiration of biological shot term adaptation responding to the climatic stimuli, like temperature swings, solar movement or seasonal wind.

For relaxtion, I took much time to walk around the Léman lake and trvelled from Lausanne to a town of France by the boat several times. Great view and great weather!

Week 2: all by my onesies, volley & futball, Lucerne, and Tour de France

Hi All!

My second week was just as grand and even more eventful than the first. It flew by so fast - partly because of all the events and partly because I was on my own in the lab! My post-doc took a holiday in Italy and left me with a laundry list of experiments and data to collect. Come Monday I was quite intimidated by the expectations to repeat techniques I had just learned the week before . . . By the end of the week, however, I found that I had completed everything I had set out to do and without any major catastrophes! It was really nice to be trusted with some responsibilities and confirm to myself that I am ready to start doing my own experiments as a grad student.

July 15th, Ouchy: Although a group of us weren't able to see Harry Potter since it was sold out, we caught a beautiful sunset in Ouchy instead! The picture on the right shows the port in Lac Leman. Other attractions in Ouchy include the huge Movenpick hotel (the best ice cream you will ever consume), the Chateaux d'Ouchy (a ritzy hotel right on the water), good food and an esplanade. We ended up buying a half gallon of Movenpick and picnicking on the grass at the waterfront. At one point, a couple of tourists stopped and ask where we were all from. At that moment, we realized we each represented a different country!

The couple happened to be from England and Greece themselves (with their Mexican dog), so all together we represented England, Greece, Mexico, Canada, Russia, America, Hungary, Romania, and Taiwan. Below is a picture of the us the kind tourists insisted on taking - I still think it's amazing how so many different people can come together in one location and find commonalities with which to share with each other.




Saturday, July 18th: Lucern or Luzern? This sign was posted outside of a small resaurant in Lucerne - my first experience in the German part of Switzerland - and I think it sums up the Swiss culture pretty well. This small city was especially warm and welcoming and there was so much to see! There is a lot of history in Lucern like the old 1400 year old wall and the dying lion carving commemorating the Swiss Guards in 1792 before the bloody part of the French Revolution began. The old city wall is still standing with towers every few hundred feet you can climb up to see a view of the city and lake. Below you can see one of the towers and also a little chalet in Schwyz where we spent the night at my first European hostel! Which was also a great experience.
Finally, Sunday we went to the 15th stage of Tour de France! We went to about 4k before the finish line at the ski resort Verbier and it was simply amazing. The views were breathe-taking and I literally could have touched the cyclists as they passed us by. Check it out! More excitement next week I hope . . .

Unfortunately, a light appears at the end of the tunnel

Salut tout le monde! (Hello everyone!)

With less than 2 weeks of work left, I am starting to realize the brevity of my stay here in Switzerland. I come to this point with mixed emotions, as I miss the people from home (not to mention sharing a time zone with them) but am so loving my time here. The people in the lab are so helpful, nice, diverse, fascinating, and overall great to work with. I think, though, that I will return home with absolutely no regrets. I have pursued this experience, both the science and the travel, with no holds barred.

I realize at this point that I have not said much about my research since I first introduced myself, so I'll take this opportunity to explain. I said before that my work would include UV-induced DNA damage responses. In layman's terms, UV radiation (among many other things) can damage a cell's basic instructions for life, i.e. its DNA. Depending on how these instructions are altered by UV radiation, the cell can make poor decisions that lead to tumors. Cells don't normally figure out that they're damaged until they're about ready to divide and replace themselves. At that point, they are faced with two options, they can either fix the damage or kill themselves (called apoptosis). Inside the cell there are a lot of voices to be heard, and the decision between repair and death is made by committee. I work specifically on one voice in the crowd (a protein called PIDD) that we have reason to believe is quite important, and I get to figure out who its friends are. PIDD's friends influence his decision, so it is important to figure out who he talks to and when in order to understand or control the overall fate of the cell.

Given that, I do a number of different things in the lab to figure this out. One thing I've done much of is irradiating cells in something that looks like a microwave, then seeing how PIDD and his friends react to the change. I also do something called an IP (for immunoprecipitation), meaning that

I break cells open and figure out which friends PIDD is stuck to (and thus talking to) currently. You can see these proteins via something called a western blot, where you put protein into a jelly-like matrix and use electrical force to move the proteins through it. Imagine an adult and a child trying to get through one of those playhouses at McDonald's with all the tubes...the child is

going to go faster because he is smaller and less restricted by the size of the maze. Same goes with proteins, the smaller proteins move faster than the big ones. You can't really see anything yet, because proteins aren't visible to the naked eye (or even under microscopes). Instead, we transfer the gel's protein (using electricity again, but in a different direction) to something easier to work with that proteins love to stick to, which looks a lot like glossy paper. Then we subject this paper to a solution containing antibodies (just like those in our immune system) that sticks only to the protein you're looking for (for example, the antibody recognizes PIDD). You still can't see the protein, so you use another antibody that sticks to the first one. Sounding silly yet? Not really, because the 2nd antibody helps you see where your protein is. The 2nd antibody has something attached to it that will glow in the dark if you put the right chemicals on it, so we basically add the chemical to our protein-containing paper and place x-ray film over it in the dark room. Voila, you get dark bands on the film corresponding to the presence of your protein. And this is how we biologists see things that one can't really see with modern science, at least this is one of the easier ways!

After a week of work, I went out with some other ThinkSwiss Researchers and their friends to the Festival de la Cite in Lausanne. Every year the city puts on this grand event with manycultural and musical expositions. There is food and drink galore, served at one of many temporary carts around the Cathedral in the old town. The Cathedral just shines at night in the green and purple lights they use to illuminate the tower (Picture 2). I had some excellent African food, thanks to the number of African immigrants from French-speaking nations. There was also plenty of Asian and European specialties, all of which looked delicious as well. One of the most interesting Swiss traditions is this rock-stacking, whereby a highly skilled man puts one oddly-shaped stone on top of the other, creating a very stable, but unstable-looking, tower of rocks (Picture 1). It was a great night, and I only wish I had enjoyed more nights of the great food and atmosphere there!

So on to the traveling! I went to Zermatt the weekend before last, a beautiful little valley town beneath the Matterhorn. This is one case in which the Disneyland version is not moremagical. I went with Ishita, her roommate Nasreen, and Nasreen's friend Ifsa. Other than the obvious natural beauty, Zermatt is quite different than other places I've visited in Switzerland. It's incredibly "touristy", and amazingly popular with Japanese tourists whom I have not seen in my previous travels. The town is car-free, and even though I'm told you can drive to the town (although most people take the panoramic train), you would get immediately stopped and fined. They do have buses and small shuttles that run for free throughout the town, as well as some horse-drawn carriages. The four of us girls, however, opted first for a tandem paraglide (Picture 3, taken from the air, me and the Matterhorn). This was a first for all of us, and although a little expensive (150 CHF), it was worth every last cent! After coming down from a "high", both literal and emotional, we finished off our day with a trip to the Gornergrat (Picture 4). This viewpoint (about 3100 m) is reachable by cogwheel train and provides a great view of the Matterhorn (4478 m) and the town below. After coming back down, we strolled down the main street of Zermatt and along the river that flows right through the center of town (Picture 5). This was one of my favorite trips during my time here, but there was more to come the next day!

Although I had mentioned Interlaken as my Sunday plan, we were just too tired after Zermatt to do another active day. We instead decided on the city of Basel, a fascinating, cosmopolitan city situated on the border with both France and Germany. The town itself is full of history, and is the home of the Basilisk, a mythical monster of the Basel fountains and now one of the city's symbols. Walking through the city brings many sights, and like every other Swiss city, it too is cut through by a river (the Rhine in this case). Although it's not excessively touristy, it is very user-friendly, as the city has 5 distinct "walking tours" of old town marked out. You get a map at the tourist center (how I will miss the ever-helpful Swiss tourist centers) that shows 5 walking paths through the center of town each symbolized by the head of a famous Basler and a color. All walks start from city hall (the Rathaus) and are marked out with the head and color of the trail. One of the neatest things about Basel was the Tinguely Fountain (Picture 6), a large, shallow pool containing iron machines that just move water around in awesome ways. After walking through the city, seeing the bright-red Rathaus (Picture 7) and the historic Munster (cathedral), we walked through a park and into Germany. All we did was cross a creek, and we were standing in a wheat field in another country. It is so very unusual for me to pass over a border without any formality, but here it's an every-day occurrence!

This past weekend was also a whirlwind of amazing travel. I spent Saturday in beautiful Lucerne, the "gateway to central Switzerland". It sits at the foot of the Alps and right on picturesque Lake Lucerne. It is home to the "once-oldest" and oldest bridges in Switzerland, the Kappelbrucke (Picture 8) and Spruerbrucke, respectively. The Kappelbrucke, or Chapel Bridge, was built in the 14th century and is made entirely of wood. Attached to that bridge is the Wasserturm (water tower), the symbol of Lucerne and a prison/torture chamber/treasury during early city history. The Kappelbrucke was partially destroyed in the fire of 1993, so the Spruerbrucke (built in the early 15th century) then became the oldest. It is a similar style, but by the crowds on the bridge, you know the Kappelbrucke is still everyone's favorite. The old town is completely pedestrian, so you can wander through the streets freely and visit one of the many shops in the town. Lucerne is also home to the breathtaking "Dying Lion" Monument in memory of the Swiss guards that died in the Tuilleries during the French Revolution (Picture 9). Lucerne is home to many other natural wonders, like the glacier garden (a tourist attraction where you can see marks in natural rock from receded glaciers) and the mountains (notably Titlis and Pilatus). There was more to do here than time to do it in, but I would definitely go back to this beautiful city on the lake.

Sunday, however, was one of the best days in the entirety of my stay. Nasreen and I went up to the Jungfraujoch, the so-called "Top of Europe" (Picture 10). At 3454 meters, it is the highest cogwheel train station in Europe and is home to a famous glacier and ice palace (Picture 11). It's a 2+ hour train ride from Interlaken to the top, so our entire trip to Jungfraujoch from Lausanne was more than 4 hours. It is also one of the more expensive trains in Switzerland, but again, it was worth every cent. Up at the top, you stare over beautiful mountaintops covered in eternal snow and glaciers that stretch to the far distant peaks. You can even walk along the glacier and admire the below-freezing temperature at the top (it was -3.5 C when we went). The ice palace is really an unforgettable experience, as you walk through these tunnels made only of ice (you're even walking on an ice floor) and passing by many ice sculptures. This was probably also home to the most diverse set of tourists I've seen yet, with many Japanese, Indian, Middle Eastern, American, and European tourists. The number of languages and cultures walking around the top of this mountain just made the experience that much more interesting.

So I think that's all for now, and I've only one more weekend to go. I'm trying to enjoy every last minute of this experience, as there are so many things I'm going to miss. Hopefully I will be able to visit wine country this week or weekend, and then I have decisions to make about where to go this Saturday. Au revoir!

Horror story beginnings and fairytale continuations

It was not a dark or stormy night; it was not even particularly cold. The scenery was not a hideous warped old forest but instead was the clean and pretty city of Lausanne. Regardless of the setting, I was frightened. I am a 20 year old student named Steph and this was the beginning of my first trip out of the United States. I was delayed on both of my flights and they lost my luggage. That was frustrating but not at all scary. It didn’t do much to dampen my mood. It was the failure to find housing that night that got to me. I had been delayed four hours and by the time I got to my apartment there was no one there to give me a key. I searched with a non-English speaking man for a hotel but, as I would later find out, the Festivale de la Cite Lausanne was going on. This meant that there were no vacancies. My first night abroad and it was looking like I would be sleeping on a park bench. I was very afraid of could happen in the night.

With the above as evidence, my first day and a half in Switzerland was not the best. I ended up sleeping at the house of the man who had tried to help me find a hotel. It was uncomfortable as I don’t speak French and he didn’t speak English but it turned out alright. He kicked me out at five am the next morning because he had work but not until I had eaten. This is a prime example of how nice the people here are. He and his roommate took in a random stranger that did not speak their language, let me shower, gave me clothes, fed me, and refused my money when I offered it.

After that troublesome experience, my trip has gone quite well. My apartment is spacious and clean. The other people in my suite are all very interesting and my floor is full of other students.

My time, when I am not working, is full of exploring Switzerland, be it just Lausanne or taking a train to see what there is too see. The first week was the Festivale de la Cite Lausanne. The cathedral was beautifully lit and was surrounded by music and food. I went there often. It was fun when the weather was good and still beautiful in the rain. Sitting under a tree there with a bottle of wine listening to a pretty little girl perform while watching sun showers pass over the city below will be an image that stays with me for quite some time. So far I have also gone to the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Blues Balls Festival in Luzern. Both of those cities were fun to wander through even in the areas that did not have tents or festival related paraphernalia. The day after my first trip to Montreux I hiked with some other students to Rochere de Naye. The sights were breathtaking. The mountains here are beyond words and pictures do not do the area justice. If you think the cities are nice wait until you breathe in that mountain air.

Pretty as the mountains are, Luzern was also beautiful. After spending a day there sightseeing and spending some time at the Kunstmuseum Luzerne, I headed off with some friends to Schwyz where we stayed in a hostel for the night. The next morning we were off to Arth-Goldau to hike over the mountain and down to Weggis on the other side. From there we took a ferry back to Luzern. The boat ride was like something out of a fairy tale; there were castles and patches of farmland amongst these majestic mountains. Coming to the city was like waking up from a dream because the city came from nowhere and took over the shore.

You don’t need a train ticket to see great things though. There is a ton to do around Lausanne. The lake is always worth going to, there is soccer to be played and there are parties to be had. Fuseball and ping pong are just two of the worthwhile pastimes I have found here. You can even go see movies if you want to (cough cough the new Harry Potter film cough). This really is quite a fun place.

My lab is the icing on the cake. As the main focus of this trip, I could not be happier with my research. The people here very nice not to mention the topic is interesting. I am working with an enzyme involved in to onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. There is a lot that remains unknown about the disease and the enzyme so there is a lot of ground to cover. This means that I am really making a contribution to the field in just the short time I am here. I couldn’t be more excited.

I wouldn’t change the lab work at all but sometimes I do wish my co-workers spoke more English. Anyone considering a trip to a foreign lab should really prepare themselves for the language barrier. Even if everyone can speak English enough to present their work many labs function in a different language. This doesn’t make the work any less interesting but it does make for quiet lunches and breaks. You also lose out on the lab experience where you can learn from those around you and bounce ideas off one another. The only English I get is direction which is great but not enough to have me start developing ideas or helping as much as I would like to in the lab. Still, my lab has really made this trip fantastic.

That is all for now. Sorry it was so long. I will try to remember to do this more often so you will not have to read through so much. I alos apologize for the scattered style of this entry. I will be better organized next time. I hope you are all having a fantastic time, where ever you are!

Hello from Liza

I suppose it is my turn to introduce myself briefly. I am Liza Litvina, coming from Wesleyan University in the US, where I major in Neuroscience&Behavior and Science in Society. I arrived in Switzerland two and a half weeks ago to begin working in the Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience (under the direction of Prof. Blanke) as part of the Summer Program in the School of Life Sciences at EPFL in (near?) Lausanne. I will learn and play here until the end of August. While normally I work on a mouse model of epilepsy, this summer I am trying out the other side of neuroscience by working on a project about gut interoception (conscious awareness of the stomach, or the possibility thereof) headed by a postdoc Dr. Ionta, my supervisor. This work is actually not the central theme of what regularly goes on in the Blanke lab. They are more focused on the somatic aspects of consciousness, dissociating different senses to probe consciousness, I suppose; the stomach work is the start of a visceral complement to this work. So far I have been recruiting and running subjects, spending the rest of my time reading. We are using EEG to record brain activity during the experiment and EGG (…gastro…) for stomach activity—and while I have a vague idea of what the EEG records, the way it is interpreted is a mystery to me to this moment (having a better physics background would help, I think). I’ve also been shown how some of the analysis is done, but this is another thing that is, at this point, out of my mental grasp as far as details go. It’s quite interesting though, and the background theory about the role of visceral afferent pathways in the formation of emotion/subjective self is exciting to think about. The lab appears to be pretty laid-back, but then again, it is summer. I imagine working is a little more hectic during the school year when all members are around and lots of students are willing to be subjects. The interactions I’ve had with my P.I. have been entirely positive (I’m impressed that he found time to talk to me through some of the background and framework for this project).

My stay has been pretty great so far. I arrived here a few days before the other students in the program, and got a jump on figuring out the city, transportation, food, etc.. I live very near campus in student housing with people who normally study here (and are not away for vacation, on and off), which is great from several perspectives… So far Switzerland, its people, its labs, and my fellow visiting students have all been friendly and welcoming. It’s great to interact with so many intelligent people from different backgrounds, countries, languages (I envy the languages). Having acquired a demi-tarif card, I am not working hard to make its price worthwhile by taking the train whenever wherever possible. Today, for example, I did a marathon through Fribourg, Neuchatel, and Yverdon-les-Bains—a fact I will use to excuse the rough nature of this particular entry.

More in the future, including pictures.

Ways to get free wi-fi in Lausanne - if you don't have access to the internet yet

I thought about sharing this with those of you who recently arrived in Lausanne and haven't been able to get consistent internet access yet. Having gone through the process of getting a working internet after work, it's rather unbelievable, but to acknowledge the hardships that a few of us need to get through to get wireless connection outside of work.

There are a few free wireless hotspots in Lausanne, if you need it (listed in order of availability)

1. The square in front of "The old Academy", right beneath the Lausanne Cathedral in the old town. If you see a square-shaped fountain in an wide open area, you're probably at the square.
This free wireless service is provided by the city of Lausanne. Service stretchs even into the Metro station beside the square, if you need shelter. Unlimited usage and availability.

2. The McDonalds in the Lausanne part of town.
Get out from the bel-air bus stop, and head up the hills. You will see a McDonalds' with red-glasses - that's the one. However you need a functioning cellphone for them to SMS the codes to you to use the wireless. From what I heard it's also unlimited usage.

3. Starbucks opposite the McDonalds in (2.)
If you absolutely need wireless, go buy a cup of coffee and ask the cashier for the wireless. Access is free but only for 30 minutes.

The downside is that you'll need to have good battery life since I haven't been able to find electrical sockets in either of those 3 places.
Good luck to those who are just arriving in Lausanne!