YATRALOGUE

Reb Butte Canyon Hike Revisited....

2011-10-09T20:43:00.000-07:00

My girls went all the way to the summit and down in 1h 15 min. It was a beautiful Sunday topped off with a wonderful hike.

Taking a break half-way to the top

The Summit

Going downhill

Yeh...finally done.

In front of the new building of Utah Museum of Natural History

Some more fun "self-singing and dancing"

Nice smile....we will continue some other weekend...

Hike to Silver Lake/Twin Lake Trails and My Immature Photography

2011-09-04T18:23:00.000-07:00

Four Hikers

THE YOUNG

the old

immature shot-1

THE YOUNG watching fishing in Silver Lake

docky

my immature shot-2

immature shot-3

THE YOUNG and the old

looking down on Silver lake from Twin fall trail

Drained Hikers

Drained but not dejected hikers

the wild in the wood

Yeh...THE YOUNG made it to the SUMMIT

THE YOUNG playing frog leap in Twin Lake

More fun for THE YOUNG

Immature shot-4

Respite after a strenuous hike

the old carrying THE YOUNG for almost the entire hike :(

Descending hikers

Tired YOUNG for the last pose

Hike to Nowhere and my immature photography

2011-08-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

Today, out of whim, I went on hiking under scorching heat. I had an hour between my experiments and decided to go on a trail just behind the University. So here is the trail. I didn't even know the name of the trail and where it goes to. So... hiking to nowhere. The views of the salt lake were, however, amazing.

A view of foothill on Southern side of the Salt Lake

The summit of the my hiking trail. A lone hiker, I did not have a desire to reach up there.

This sunflower was so prepared to be photographed. I could not resist its urge.

A busy fly on his job.

Uphill trail.

OK, here I might be able to read the name of the trail... but too much of work to bend my head to read it.

Survival of the fittest

Summit getting farther as I descended on my way back to the parking lot.

My immature photography may make you feel this trail not worth hiking. Yet, I believe that no matter how sophisticated your camera is and how good your photography is, a camera cannot catch the amazing views that you behold with your eyes.

Smriti's hair cut and Yashaswi's swimming class

2011-02-02T06:32:00.000-08:00

Smriti had her first hair cut on Jan 23rd,2011 when she was exactly one day over 20 months. She looks like a grown up kid after the hair cut. She also looks prettier in her new hairdo, and she is enjoying it as she looks herself in the mirror over and over. For Yashaswi, the last two weeks have been the time to learn something new. She joined the swimming school and is learning to swim. First day was very exciting for her to be in the pool her as she loves any physical activity. Next couple of days were not so because she could not follow her teachers instructions in English very well. I asked her teacher to use a body language and give a demo along with verbal instructions so that Yashaswi will know what to do. After that, learning process is going smoothly. She is now enjoying more being in the pool and learning new skills.

Yashaswi's Pre-School

2010-08-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Wednesday-August 24,2010-marks an important day in my elder daughter Yashaswi's life. She officially started her academic career yesterday as the first day of her preschool. Yashaswi is a very animated kid, sometimes even annoyingly over-active. I hope she will learn more and more over time in her preschool and utilize her enthusiasm in a positive way. She has never been hesitant to mingle with her peers, therefore I have no doubts that she will easily make friends and get along with them pretty quickly. As parents of a growing kid, this is also a learning experience for us and we are trying our best to make schooling as smooth as possible for Yashaswi. Let's see how she will do and we as well in the coming future. For now, all our best wishes for Yashaswi.

Summer in and around Salt Lake City

2010-07-27T21:16:00.001-07:00

These are the pictures from our Donut Fall hiking in June.

The trail is very easy and scenic. Anyone who wants to enjoy effortless hiking will like this trail.

A rivulet from the Donut fall flows all along but opposite to the trail to the fall.

In June, the trail was still covered with patches of snow which just started thawing making the trail a bit muddy. So with our two very young kids (1 and 3 yrs of age), we did not adventure to the mouth of the Donut fall but managed to get to the point where the fall leads to the rivulet.

We hadn't expected that we would have so much fun during this hike. Since it was an easy hike, we are planning to come back again.

Newest Family Member

2010-06-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Smriti-the newest member in the family-is our youngest daughter. It's hard to imagine how fast time flies. It feels like she was born just yesterday and here she is a year old.

Quotable Quote

2010-04-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

"The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days."

-Smooth and Easy Days with Charlotte Mason

Molecule of the Month

2010-03-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

Ribosome is an essential component of the protein producing machinery. It is a megacomplex of several proteins and ribosomal RNAs. 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists for their outstanding study leading to identification of ribosome structure to the atomic level. There are many web sources describing the structure and function of ribosome but I found the following link a simple and yet most informative one.

RCSB Protein Data Bank : Molecule of the Month - 70S Ribosomes

If you want to see the video of "ribosome in action" go to this site from Venki Ramakrishnan lab:

http://www.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/ribo/homepage/mov_and_overview.html

Enjoy your weekend knowing the miracle of ribosome.

How to Succeed in Science

2010-03-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

If you're a young scientist working in the lab, you might find the following articles published in journal Nature very interesting. Though published in 2008, you might miss reading these ones. They are in two parts.
Part I
PartII

Have fun and feel free to drop me your thoughts.

Sam Gye Tang: the korean food I prepared myself for the first time

2009-12-25T07:11:00.000-08:00

I am always keen to taste any new food that looks tempting and excuisite. But rarely have I tried to prepare a dish that is VERY new to me. So I decided to start by preparing a new food which was not "so new" for me and I opted for Sam Gye Tang: a Korean Chicken Soup. I enjoyed it a few times before and had a feeling that I could prepare this dish. The only thing needed was a recipe which I got here:http://korean-cuisine.blogspot.com/2008/09/sam-gye-tang-ginseng-chicken-soup.html. The blogger put the recipe and cooking method so effectively with pictures that even a non-cook can prepare the dish. I made slight modification to the recipe: after stuffing the chicken with all the ingredients, I placed the chicken in my favorite slow cooker with plenty of water as shown in the picture. I set the cooking time HIGH for 2 hours and then LOW for 10 hours flipping the chicken once halfway through the slow cooking time. Started in the morning, the cooking was done in the evening by the time my family had waited impatiently to devour the chicken soup. I was little worry if my family like the taste of chicken soup because we mostly fry the chicken first for whatever chicken dish we want to prepare and sam gye tang was the only chicken dish that was prepared just by boiling. But to my delight, both my wife and my kid liked the taste and enjoyed the soup very much. Hurrah.....quite an achievment for me. If you want to give it a try go to the site I listed above and hone your culinary skills.

Mirror lake, Utah

2009-09-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

Mirror lake--situated in the Uinta National Forest in Central Utah- is a tiny but very beautiful lake. Its clean blue water perfectly adds to its natural beauty.

2009-09-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

Wow....it has been nearly three months since I last wrote in my blog. Well, this summer passed very well. I became the dad of a second child-Smriti. This time my wife and I were better prepared as parents than when our first child was born. The hardest part now is to manage time between the lab and the family. We have been through few experimentations to churn out an schedule that works best for all of us and we are still working on it. Talking about last summer, we had several get togethers, few potlucks, few short trips around Utah and other fun stuffs. Due to our very young children, we did not make any long trip and we are not hoping any for one more year. Hopefully, that won't let our "enthusiasm for travelling" let up. There are many interesting stuffs piling up in my mind which I will surely pour in my blog so stay in touch and I hope you also enjoyed your summer.

Marshy, balloony land raised above the ground....

2009-06-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

It was downpouring this late afternoon here at Salt Lake City. Fortunately, I happened to see an amazing natural phenomenon right infront of my apartment at the West Village: a swampy land filled with water, as if it were a balloon, and raised above the ground. The neighbors were having fun. This video shows how the marshy land looked like.

Female Winner of the Salt Lake City Marathon 2009

2009-04-19T20:55:00.001-07:00

Blurry Image.....huh! Nevertheless, I happened to catch in my camera the top female finisher of the salt lake city marathon 2009.

Male winners of the Salt Lake City Marathon 2009

2009-04-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

So we now know the winner of the Salt Lake City Marathon 2009. Fortunately, I happened to capture the first and second male finishers of the competition in my camera early during the race and here I put their image again with baloons showing who finished first and second with respective finish time. I am looking back at the images I took y'day to see if I can find the first female finisher. For now, this is it.

Salt Lake City Marathon, 2009

2009-04-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

Could our belief have a healing effect?

2009-04-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

( Image :http://realchristianity.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/prayer.jpg)

Of late, I am reading articles relating religion or faith to health. Growing up in an oriental country where people believe so much in religion and have so much faith in God, I always wonder whether such beliefs have any curative effect on health, let alone there effect on many other countless wishes the devotees pray God for. It was a revelation to find that people in the western world also believe in religion and God. They may not seem to be as extravagant to show off their devotion as the Orientals, but they equally believe that their faith in religion and God saves them from various illness and misfortunes and helps them live a healthy life. A recent article pubnlished in TIME mentions that different forms of prayer like meditation, yoga etc. do help develop the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain; such development not only increases the ability of the brain to think and analyze it also helps living better life by rationally removing all the faulty predispositions coming to one’s mind. Equally important is another religious practice of fasting. It is now well known that the followers or at least devotees of all major religions practice fasting in some way or the other. Short term fasting is beneficial biologically as well. People eating little less than that required by the body were found to live longer than those eating plenty or in excess. A less stress to the digestive system means better functioning of the system itself and of the whole body. Fasting is believed to have purgative effect on the digestive system helping body get rid of any undigested, faulty materials and tune itself for better performance. Yes, pushing oneself to the limit in the name of religion and faith may have dangerous consequences; yet, little faith and little spirituality could actually do good to our health. So what do you think, go for the little ???

For more read: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1879016,00.html

Own stuff....

2009-04-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of weeks weather has not been so kind here in the Salt Lake. It was snowing intermittently, pretty cold--windy as usual--compared to the average temp. in March-April. In contrast, the same weeks have been very intense, warm and informative academically. I attended three great talks this week: first from Mitch Lazar, UPenn Medicine, who talked about nuclear receptor mediated transcriptional regulation of genes involved in metabolic programs. Mitch is a big stuff in transcription biology and so was his talk. I, together with one of my lab's post-docs, had the rare opportunity to present our work on transcriptional regulation of some metabolic genes we had been working on and got some invaluable inputs from Mitch. Thanks Mitch for attending our talk and for your own great presentation; second from Daniel J Klionsky, U Michigan Ann Harbor, on "Autophagy". Klionsky is a pioneer in autophagy. His lab identified cytosol to vacuole (CTV) pathway of autophagy. Klionsky's talk was very absorbing and he really kept all the audience entertained yet focused during his entire talk. Since I am also working on autophagy, it was a great opportunity for me to attend the talk; third from Zolt Arany, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard. Arany has pushed PGC1 (a family of key transcriptional co-activators of many nuclear-receptor regulated genes) to a new avenue of angiogenesis. His work defies the conventional view of HIF mediated transcriptional regulation of key angiogenic factors (genes). What I learned from Arany's talk is that you really have to think outside the narrow window of conventional and comfortable believes and have to constantly challenge them to emerge as a great scientist as Arany is.

I hope in coming weeks both weather and science will be entertaining alike.

Get set go...get in shape...

2009-03-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

It is not for nothing that I finally decided to run. It took me months of contemplation and lot of inspiration from folks around me to make the decision. People who know my physique also know I have no extra adipose to burn. Nonetheless, I can’t overlook the health benefits of running; neither can I underestimate how running is helping many to stay upbeat throughout the day. On top of all these, being in a metabolism lab, I feel obligated to stay healthy and fit and also share common interests with my lab members who are now established runners. BUT…I’m not gonna break myself up running to the hilt….running for me is just to stay healthy and keep my spirit high.
I started last weekend running just 6 k(m)/day. My target is 8 km (5 miles) max for next 3-mos. So wish me the best.

Salt Lake Temple

2009-03-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

Situated at the core of the famous temple square, Salt Lake Temple is the preminent temple of the follower of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). For more information please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_Temple. Here, just enjoy the picture. During the year end holidays, the lighting in and around the temple made the whole temple square an amazing sight to behold.

Oquirrh mountain ranges, Utah, USA

2009-03-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

Facts of Life

2009-02-28T23:14:00.001-08:00

"Life is no straight and easy corridor along which we travel free and unhampered , but amaze of passages , through which we must seek our way ,lost and confused ,now andagain checked in a blind alley.But always , if we have faith , God will open a door for us , not perhaps one that weourselves would have thought of ,but one that will ultimately prove good for us "
---A. J . Cronin

2009-02-03T14:03:00.000-08:00

Hoover dam,built in the Colarado river on Arizona-Nevada boarder, is a masterpiece of extreme engineering. It houses a hydro-electric power generating station. The picture shows the water draining back into the river after flowing through the mega-tubines generating electricity. A nice place to visit on your Las-Vegas vacation besides the vegas strip....

2009-02-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

Intake towers (top)--through which water is pumped into the turbines. Dam crest(bottom)-- provides required elevation for water to run through the turbines at a great speed

2009-02-02T21:50:00.000-08:00

It's winter in Utah. Frequent snowfalling covers the trees and the ground with white snow. I enjoy watching snowfall inside from my apartment. Snow in Utah considered the best in the World. Skiing is always a great fun here in winter ...