{"id":4447,"date":"2022-05-04T22:23:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T22:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-the-words\/?page_id=4447"},"modified":"2024-07-29T16:40:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T16:40:03","slug":"wordplay-alex-ang","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/the-words-april-2022-2\/wordplay-alex-ang\/","title":{"rendered":"Wordplay: Alex Ang"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Zo\u00eb Roos Scheuerman<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Alex<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the last <\/span>Wordplay<\/span><\/i> of the year, I reached out to Alex Ang \u201822. <\/span>Alex is an Environmental Studies and Creative Writing double major from New York City. She mainly writes fiction and short stories, with a focus on narratives about identity and mental health awareness. After college, she plans to pursue a PhD in Phytoplankton Ecology, as well as continue her creative pursuits through content creation and creative writing.<\/span> Alex sent me an excerpt from <\/span>Drowning<\/span><\/i>, her novel-in-progress. The novel follows a grad student who works as a lab tech, and this excerpt is formatted like a lab report!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABSTRACT<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Algal<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Figure 1. A harmful algal bloom in Lake Eerie.<\/span><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The bloom comes without resistance. It grows undetected before it bursts into spirals of<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

vivid colors that dance on the surface (Figure 1). If you\u2019ve never seen an algal bloom, it will<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

probably be the most beautiful thing you see today. Almost six years ago, it had been that way<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

for her. The water has no choice but to welcome the invaders, as it doesn\u2019t interfere in the lives<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

of those who inhabit it. In just a few weeks, the bloom will strip the water column of oxygen,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

leaving in its wake a dead zone. So often do the most beautiful things turn out to be the most<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

devastating.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time she learned about algal blooms wasn\u2019t in her high school biology class, but<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

rather in a marine encyclopedia she swiped from the public library. When she finally opened the<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

book, now 3 months and 17 days overdue, it wasn\u2019t the charismatic creatures of the ocean that<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

she was drawn to. In every movie she had ever watched, it was always the underdog that shined the brightest. Somehow someone thought that the small and seemingly insignificant subject of<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

algae was only worthy of half a page in a 107-page book. Most people need more than that to<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

spark any sort of curiosity, but for her that half a page was just enough. For several years after,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

she chased the rush of flipping through hundreds of pages to find that scrap of a page that was<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

left just for her. With every half page, she learned something new that she took with her when<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

she applied to college. In undergrad, half pages became 20-page research papers and behind<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

those 20-pages research papers, were decades worth of experimentation and observation. She<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

decided then, that she wanted to know everything.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

INTRODUCTION<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Karenia<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Figure 2. Karenia brevis under a microscope<\/span><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hate counting this shit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Her thumb paused on the tally counter before looking up from the microscope at the<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    stranger seated next to her. Nothing surprised her anymore, especially not another cheeky white<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    boy from some Ivy League complaining. They came in and out like shoals of fish, always together and always under the illusion that they were bigger, stronger. She had seen plenty of<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    those in undergrad, and most if not all of them followed her into grad school.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cHey, nice to meet you. I\u2019m Lukas. I\u2019m the new grad student,\u201d his hands hung in mid-air<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    for a beat before he realized she wouldn\u2019t return the gesture. \u201cI\u2019m guessing you\u2019re new too. Have<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    you seen the lab tech yet?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    He poked his head behind her to see if he was missing anybody and looked straight past<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    her.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI am the lab tech,\u201d she retorted. She hadn\u2019t meant for it to come out vicious, but this<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    wasn\u2019t the first time she had to set the record straight. His eyes betrayed the rest of his face when<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    they widened at her reply.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cIs Dr. Davis in today?\u201d Dr. Davis, the lab PI, and her boss was never present and if on the rare occasion he made an appearance, it was always to check in on her for some reason.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cHe\u2019s out for the moment but if there\u2019s anything you need, I\u2019m sure I can help you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cOh, it\u2019s nothing really. I just needed to talk to Dr. Davis about my proposal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    He wasn\u2019t biting, so she figured she would indulge him.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cRight. What school did you say you were from again?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI went to UC Santa Barbara for undergrad. What about you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI graduated from Columbia University in 2016, and I\u2019ve been here for three years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWow, that\u2019s impressive. How do you like it here?\u201d She pondered the question for a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Three years had been enough to stifle any qualms she had about working here. It was enough to make her overlook the little things, like the lab supplies that were constantly misplaced and her PI not telling her that they were getting a new grad student. No workplace was perfect, but Lukas\u2019 unannounced presence was worrying. Putting more than one grad student in the same lab caused interspecies competition. Gone were the times of worrying about spilled experiments and inaccurate measurements. Her mind was now solely focused on keeping the spotlight on her, as she concluded her final year to her PhD candidacy, and nothing, not even this overachieving, privileged frat boy was going to take that away from her.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cIt\u2019s alright,\u201d she replied.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The first time she swam in the open ocean, she had a full-blown panic attack. That was<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    before she even knew what the word had meant. Her head disappeared under the water, and as<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    salt water filled her nostrils, a resounding silence followed. She was sinking, but it felt like she<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    was flying. Her limbs stayed frozen while her lungs burned. She blinked several times, but it<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    didn\u2019t matter because she couldn\u2019t see anything. She put all her trust into the water, as she would<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    so often continue to do. Rarely was her mind ever at ease, but the water gave her permission to<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Forget. When she could see again, she was someplace else. Strangers in the snorkeling boat<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    gawked at the young girl who refused to swim, and familiar arms threw themselves around her<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    body. Those embraces didn\u2019t have the same effect as the water had, but she welcomed them<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI thought she was dead.\u201d One of the strangers whispered to another. She pretended not<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    to hear him.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    METHODOLOGY<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Noctiluca<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    Figure 3: (left) Noctiluca scintillans cell. (right) Popped Noctiluca scintillans cell.<\/span><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

    In her undergrad lab, her favorite activity to pass the time between experiments was<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    playing with her subjects. Noctiluca scintillans, a harmful-algal bloom species native to the<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Arabian Sea, looked less like a destructive invader and more like a speckled, green balloon<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (Figure 3). Early on in her time at the Columbia University lab, did she learn that they lived<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    primarily in salt water. Any trace of fresh water would pop the cell immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It was almost laughable. Her PIs had spent close to a decade closely studying this species<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    and running experiments to lead to its downfall, and here she was, pipetting fresh water and<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    popping cells. Rarely in science was it ever that simple. Maybe she found solace in knowing that<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    even the strongest walls eventually fall for the most uncomplicated reasons.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Zo\u00eb Roos Scheuerman For the last Wordplay of the year, I reached out to Alex Ang \u201822. Alex is an Environmental Studies and Creative Writing double major from New York City. She mainly writes fiction and short stories, with a focus on narratives about identity and mental health awareness. After college, she plans to […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":4290,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4447","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4447"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7027,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4447\/revisions\/7027"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}