The Science and the Medieval - Elmer Zapata-Mercado

Hallo vrienden! (Hello Friends!)

The mill behind me is still used
 by a local bakery in Maastricht.

Welcome back, reader! For the past two weeks I have been fully immersed in the research. As a refresher, my team here at imec is trying to develop a lens-less fluorescence microscope. The project is called Integrated High-Resolution On-Chip Structured Illumination Microscopy (IROCSIM) and is funded by the European Research Council (ERC), whom funds the best research in Europe. Anyhow, lenses are a fundamental part of the light-path and resolution of a microscope, removing these components will mean that loss of resolution will occur. The team has been working on a solution to this by applying a lot of physics, way before I got here, but I will spare you that part. Now the team wants to implement their system into biological samples, and that’s where I come in. I have been able to apply the knowledge I have acquired at JHU for the past four years, into this project. Like everything in science, nothing works perfectly. Cells sometimes “wake up” angry and they don’t want to cooperate with science. So, I have been troubleshooting the system in hopes of good results. Due to confidentiality agreements, I cannot say much about the specifics, but believe me when I say that things are going somewhat well.

Now, not everything has been work and science, since here in Belgium people strongly believe that the weekends are for friends and family. This is one of the most interesting things about Belgium, and Europe in general. Maybe we could learn something from our neighbors across the pond. Another thing I think we should do better in the US is bread! I haven’t had bad bread in four weeks, come on America, we can do better!  

Anyhow, the past two weekends I traveled to two magnificent cities, Brugge (Bruges in English, Brujas en español) in West Belgium, and Maastricht in the Netherlands. Brugge dates to the Bronze Age, those early settlements have nothing to do with the current medieval city that you can see today. The first fortifications were built by Julius Ceasar, and during its golden age the city was fundamental for trade in the area. After surviving both World Wars, nowadays the city is an UNESCO world heritage site for its Medieval architecture. To read more about Brugge here. Another city you can find East of Leuven, is the Southern Dutch city of Maastricht (pronounced ‘Mas-trixt’). Maastricht’s first settlements are believed to be from 50 B.C. but was officially formed in 1204. One of Maastricht’s best attractions are the underground (manmade) caves, Grotten Zonneberg. Spanning for thousands of miles, the caves served as limestone mines, WWII refuge, and path to freedom from the Netherlands to Switzerland. You can read more about it here.

 Tot de volgende keer! (Until next time!)

Me looking at one of the mural inside the caves. There’s an elephant (look above my head towards the center of the picture) when clearly they didn't exist back then. You can also see a skinny Loch-Ness monster looking creature in the direction of my finger.