About this blog FAQ

(5/2019)
Thought I would give you a bit more background about me and the blog. Not really an FAQ :)

• The idea in the blog is to start top down, collecting the pieces of knowledge that I realize I miss and dig on whatever I need/feel to. Hence the resulting randomness of topics almost like exploring different portions while creating a map. Call it a "back of the envelope to biology".
• This is the reverse of the traditional bottoms up approach trying to create a solid base but at the expense of huge energy and time. Thick books, lots of new words to remember... can become dreadful really quickly. In a sense, this approach is no different than any other scientific matter, like mine, electrical engineering, for instance. It can be very discouraging. 
• I don't intent to create any new material or come up with a new theory of something. It is more about creating a map to give you the answer as fast as possible. For example, researching a topic I'll dig through different papers and then just put in the blog the best one or ones (IMHO). Something like "read this to understand how to sequence DNA".
• I am an electronic engineer who always wanted to dive in biology, genetics, etc. Probably the best word to describe it is "fascination". As an engineer it is easy to realize that nature's engineering, specifically behind life, is far beyond our knowledge and superior in many aspects. And as such, I started digging on this topic to try to answer some of the many questions I had and find what is actually the latest on our knowledge on this area. But I feel it should be easier. Answers shouldn't be hidden by pages and pages of supporting information. So, I created this.
• Disclaimer: for you, the reader, please understand that I am no expert in this matter, so, take everything with a grain of salt! As mentioned, my intention is actually more to create a map to point you to the right places, than to actually re-write or create any content. And for those experts on the matter, please apologize all the shortcuts and simplifications, or even errors. Please comment! No issues... (wondering if I could create this in a way that folks could contribute, but certainly don't want to create a parallel Wikipedia...)
• Why now (May 2019) after all these years? Well, my dad got diagnosed with ccRCC (yeah, a cancer). So, I felt it was a good time. Honestly, I had plans already to quit in few months my work, but bio was going to be only a side interest. This kind of re-shaped the priorities. Haven't quit yet, though, at the time of writing this.
• Update (June 2019): My dad past away a week ago. A pneumonitis took his life and I still quite don't understand what happened. May had been radiation induced (from the radiotherapy to the spine) or due to bacteria/virus (pneumonia). I will investigate that later. This blog will be now dedicated to his memory.
• Why the name cell0908? Pufff... A bit of long story. Originally I created Cell0907. This was a blog supposed to collect a lot of random thoughts, work, stuff... related to me. I was Cell0907, one small "cell" in this world and was trying to contribute to the community. One day (back in 2013 or so) I started typing the work I was doing in Android and OpenCV, for my own reference and in case it could help anyone, and soon got many readers. Then I started creating cleaner and nicer posts and the audience grew a lot, making Cell0907 mostly about programming. At one point one of the pages was popping in the first page returned by Google for the topic I was working in! Anyhow, it has been about 4 years that I didn't post anything but still get hundreds of visits a week, so, I thought that instead of creating a new topic within Cell0907 I would create Cell0908.
• A lot of this blog revolves around cancer although this is hardly the worse thing that can physically happen to a human being. There are many devastating other diseases and I invite others to do similar work to this, here or elsewhere. At the same time, a final reflection... I have no doubt that we must work towards ending these plagues and the suffering they bring. We have no other choice. But as I type this, there are transcendental questions that pop just by thinking on the possibility of one day conquering such diseases: aren't those bad times needed to support the good moments in life, what our life would be without death, will we lose our spirit (always alive but without understanding/appreciating it), can society survive if their members live significantly longer, etc. And beyond us, maturity of the human race has to pace and be a prerequisite to the progress on the cure to these illnesses, or we run the risk of we, ourselves becoming a cancer to this planet. We should invest more on that.

Now back to work.