Hailing from Shenzhen, China, Samuel Ng joins clay as this year’s one and only microbiology columnist. Samuel has attended TPS for four out of his seventeen years on this earth, and he’ll be taking a whopping six classes this year: AP Biology, AP Physics 1, AP English Language, Precalculus, AP Human Geography, and AP Computer Science. In addition to the “vibrant urban sprawl” that he calls home, Samuel often frequents the natural beauty of Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
When it comes to hobbies, Samuel loves to spend his time translating 20th-century Chinese poetry. “I enjoy the process of meticulously bridging language barriers and preserving with my best efforts the delicate essence of depressing humor that characterize the independent poetry of this era,” he writes. Samuel also enjoys looking out for the local avifauna in Shenzhen, working hard to make the myriad of high-rise buildings and skyscrapers safer for birds. Waking up around 5 am, Samuel takes notes as he walks around the area, documenting the birds which collide into the buildings’ highly reflective glass. Samuel will then present this data to local building operators, asking that they use decals on the windows to reduce reflectiveness and fine-tune the lighting of the buildings in the wee hours of the morning. “Amidst the walks amid the majestic yet austere towers of steel and glass, I occasionally feel a sensation akin to religious feelings,” Samuel says. “I get reminded of the lines ‘Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! No hungry generations tread thee down.’”
If given the choice to adopt a microorganism as a pet, Samuel would adopt a xenophyophore, a quite enormous single-celled organism normally found in the deep, dark depths of the ocean. “If I owned one as a pet, it would offer an awe-inspiring look into the enigmatic depths of the ocean,” says Samuel. “I love the intricate shells of the xenophyophores that is a beautiful representation of Turing patterns. They are also essential for maintaining the delicate balance of deep-sea ecosystems.” The abyss that xenophyophores call home causes Samuel to harken back to Nietzsche’s timeless quote: “If you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
Samuel has always been eager to learn more about microbiology; ever since, as a young child, his father told him that companies could manufacture germs to clean waste. This surprised Samuel, as he previously thought only chemical solvents could remove waste. Yet when provided with enough sustenance, these germs could clean indefinitely. These newfound revelations sparked a passion for microbiology in him and have led him to thoroughly investigate the endless possibilities of microbiology and its uses in creating a more sustainable future. To those who are also curious about this wondrous field of science, Samuel recommends following the journal Cell and reading the works of Woese and Pleczar.
Photo Credit: Samuel Ng