Hi Everyone!
I'm Philan. I'm grateful that you stopped by. On this page, you'll find my attempt at collecting all my art, projects & learning resources I have made throughout the years. Navigating through this site is a bit like looking inside my mind, it's a little chaotic. There's a lot here so if you've got some time to kill, please feel free to spend as much time as you like.If I'd have to describe myself in a way for you to take the slightest interest in what I do on here, enjoy the opening lines from my work CV: "A 25-year-old who is a curious, creative, and mathematically minded Biochemistry with Chinese language graduate with research experience in Structural Biology. Keen to share knowledge and holder of interests from a wide range of disciplines including language learning, songwriting, philosophy & science communication."
Recommended music to listen to whilst browsing this website like it's circa 2010:
With A Spirit by 009 Sound System
or
Kalimba by Mr. Scruff
or
Busy Walking by 👇 (for no early internet vibes)
Figure 1: a picture of me singing Kowarekake no Radio 壊れかけのRadio in Cul-Port かるぽーと. I wrote some English lyrics for the first verse.
Main Links
Fun Fact of the day when I can be bothered to update this:In Breaking Benjamin's Blow me away, he unfortunately does not sing "fire you ghosts".
A brief intro
I've compiled a bunch of my releases on this page. You'll also find some unreleased WIP stuff near the bottom. I update this regularly so you can follow along if you want to!
This week's highlight
Here's a recording of what Squares sounds like live when we played it in April last year.
Listen to it on
Squares
LyricsI wish that time won't tick past my alarm
The caffeine hits are what keeps me stick to my schedule
And they say that I should be saving
And I spend all my free time working but I'm still broke
But remember those times at uni
When you said that you're way to busy
What a jokeA world of squares surrounds me when I'm coming home
I'll take you there and we'll stop and stare through the bus window
At the sunset and the city as the sky's lights slowly leaving the streetlamps glow
But there's no one who'll be waiting as we approach the bus station we're on our ownA world of squares surrounds me when I'm coming home
The Music Video
The music video is the latest addition to Squares. It contains some organic go pro footage we recorded during our gigs and open mics playing as a band. These clips would be contrasted by AI interpretations of the lyrics. The raw lyrics were fed into freely available AI text to image, image to video & text to video AI tools.In October 2024, it was very obvious the clips were AI generated. However, today, it concerns me as to how indistinguisable AI clips have become. If I made the music video again today, I don't think I would have been as comfortable using the generated clips.
Listen to Squares here!
Squares was the first and only song we recorded as part of our band "Sprue". We formed Sprue near the beginning of 2024 with friends Frankie & Shennon. The lyrics were about my commute to and from work, when I was teaching GCSE Maths at a local school in Manchester. The first verse is about my morning routine, whilst the second verse describes sitting on the bus coming back into Manchester city centre.The song was self-produced in my Dad's garage. Shennon & Frankie would get the train down to my hometown where we would record the entire song for 2 days. We recorded between 30 to 40 tracks and I'd take another few weeks to mix and master it.We would go on to play Squares in every set we did, attending some regular Manchester open mics. Despite the song flopping, it means a lot to us and is probably the song I am most proud of in terms of production quality, collaboration, and sound (feel like we really made something unique with this one).
Credits
Strangers
LyricsBreak my heart
Cus I want to feel the start
Of something that will rid this apathyI don't mind if it's tough
Cus my heart has had enough
Encounters to know what's up when you talk to meBut I miss those times in my room,
When you sat on my bed and talked about the things you said that week
And you gave me an update on your historyAnd I wonder if you feel the same?
Do you browse and look back on old Facebook chats?
We were keen.
Remember the friends that we used to be.Cus now we're strangers,
Ever since you left for that new city
Feel like strangers
Occasionally check your social media feed
Feel like strangers,
Or at least not like what we used to be
Feel like strangers,
And I'm sorry if I was too shallow to see.Changed my bones
To let all this go,
Now can I pick myself up if I'm about to fall?Mind and soul
Are they the same?
I want to know
And I feel like reading Plato has not helped at all.Maybe you can enlighten me?
You could come round my place and we'll stay up till 3
Just talk like the way that we used to
How's that seem?And I wonder if you feel the same?
Do you browse and look back on old Facebook chats?
We were keen.
Remember the friends that we used to be.Cus now we're strangers,
Ever since you left for that new city
Feel like strangers
Occasionally check your social media feed
Feel like strangers,
Or at least not like what we used to be
Feel like strangers,
And I'm sorry if I was too shallow to see.Break my heart
Cus I want to feel the start
(Feel like strangers)
Of something that will rid this apathy
(And I'm sorry if I was too shallow to see)
Listen to Strangers here!
About Strangers
Strangers, like Squares, is a song close to my heart. The song was written (lyrics and chords) on an evening in May 2023. From May of that year to November, the song would be worked on. I recorded strangers with my friends Frankie & Amelia.The entire creative process for strangers was recorded on an old camcorder I still use. Clips from this would feature in the music video, but I'm currently debating whether or not I should make a whole video about it. I personally find it pretty interesting, it's just I have to siv through hours of videos and dialogue :(.There were a few different versions of strangers. The latest version (I released earlier this year (2025)), was a remix and remaster of the original. We'd also play a live version of strangers live in our band, where there are some added guitar lines by Frankie and an extra chorus added by Shennon.Strangers is a song that I'm pretty proud of, it was made over a 6 month period whilst I had a bunch of other shit I had to get cracking with.
Credits
Don't Hold My Hand
LyricsDon't hold my hand
I need some space, to be a better man
And I know I've said too much
I can't explain, don't deserve your touch
So why do I always feel this way
I use my heart never trust my brain
I fall apart, have I even changed?
The things I start never keep the paceTry stop my lies,
Is it in vain? I won't compromise.
How can I change if I close my eyes?
Tear up the page, it's not what I like
Words said that time,
I meant it then, but I've changed my mind
Another plan that I can't decide
Just take my hand and we'll leave tonight
Listen to Don't hold my hand here!
About the song
Originally wrote at the end of December 2022, don't hold my hand evolved into my favourite song to play with my looping pedal. The lyrics describe the self improvement process that a lot of us start fresh out of a break up.The original version was released in October 2023, and the live looping pedal version in July 2024. Would be interested to know which version you like better.
Credits
Latest Writing
Figure 2: A picture of me in the Yusuhara Community Library 梼原町立図書館
Contents
About this page
These topics mark some areas of interest that feel intergal to my sense of personal identity. Most content is educationally orientated so don't expect any rocket science.
Because my writing is never clear enough, the philosophy section is particuraly hard to read (it's also skewed heavily towards metaphysics, and I cba for ethics). I thought I'd tell you in advance beforehand.
Sections
Disclaimers
As an undergraduate, my degree program was skewed towards the biology side of things. Unfortunately, I actually didn't really like biology as much as the chemistry side fo stuff. I have forgot most of what I learnt, I only remember the chemistry stuff and practical things from working in the lab. Most of my knowledge is around protein production & expression in BL21 DE3 cells for NMR analysis.
Amino Acid Mondays
🥼
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins (I apologise this sentence feels like the biochemical equivalent to the "Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell") There are 20 of them you gotta memorise if you study biochemistry and don't want to look like an idiot in front of the lab technicians. To help you memorise all 20 canonical proteinogenic α-amino acids (unnecessarily long phrasing and there are actually 22 but don't worry about that), I made some videos discussing 2 at a time.The 20 are Alanine, Arginine, Asparagine, Aspartic acid, Cysteine, Glutamic acid, Glutamine, Glycine, Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Proline, Serine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Tyrosine, and Valine. the other 2, Pyrrolysine & Selenocysteine are rarer. the former is only really found in methanogens, the latter in all species but it's just it's big brother cysteine is way more common.Originally, I'd upload a video every Monday as a study aid for students in the School of Biological Science Society (SOBSS)😢 when I was a biochemistry student. If you are lazy like me, you can learn 2 amino acid structures a week. Then, after 10 weeks, you'll have added some surface area to your smooth brain.Also 2 important tips: First, because all α-amino acids have the same base structure, all you have to do is remember the sidechains (I have circled each sidechain in red in my silly hand-drawn amino acids to make you feel as silly as my silly drawings). Second, memorise the 1 letter codes for them so you can read protein sequences (This will be extremely important when reading the literature, you can thank me later). The first 2 videos don't contain them because I was too busy being silly (I've add them in the amino acid diagrams).
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Week 1: Glycine & Alanine
Figure 1: Glycine (left), Alanine (right)
CORRECTIONS:
Glycine is a helix breaker (not a major component in the alpha helix)
IUPAC name: carbon labelled 1 should be on the COOH not the methyl (CH3).Welcome to this pilot episode of Amino acid mondays. The plan is to cover 2 amino acids a week in a really quick video. I'll be going as fast as I can and will try to cover some facts I know about them off the top of my head!Some Juicy Sauces:
Alanine World Hypothesis Alanine Wiki Glycine Wiki Spidroin stuff
Week 2: Leucine & Isoleucine
Figure 2: Leucine (left), Isoleucine (right)
Week 2 of this, hope you enjoy! corrections will be posted here if needed.Music by me
Sources: Leucine Isoleucine Insulin Resistance
Week 3: Valine & Tryptophan
Figure 3: Valine (left), Tryptophan (right)
Corrections:
Isopropyl group should include the bond, bonded to the chiral amino acid carbon! For Huckel's rule tryptophan's pyrrole and benzene ring is treated as 1 system that has 10 pi electrons (This still obeys huckel's rule).Sources:
Tryptophan Valine Huckel's rule
Week 4: Phenylalanine & Tyrosine
Figure 4: Phenylalanine (left), Tyrosine (right)
Hello everyone, here's the 4th vid in the series hope you enjoy it, will post corrections in description if they come up:Sources:
Phenylalanine Tyrosine
Week 5: Methionine & Cysteine
Figure 5: Methionine (left), Cysteine (right)
We're halfway there! Welcome to video 5. It's all about the sulphur containing amino acids.Sources:
Methionine Cysteine
Week 6: Serine & Threonine
Figure 6: Serine (left), Threonine (right)
Welcome to video 6! Today we're looking at Serine and Threonine!Sources:
Serine Catalytic Triad Threonine
Week 7: Aspartic Acid & Asparagine
Figure 7: Aspartic Acid (left), asparagine (right)
Corrections:
Can call it aspartate, but aspartate refers to its ionic form, IUPAC name should be from the first carbon as shown in the video.
Sources:
Music Aspartic Acid Asparagine
Week 8: Glutamic Acid & Glutamine
Sources:
Glutamic Acid Glutamine
Figure 8: Glutamic Acid (left), Glutamine (right)
Week 9: Arginine & Lysine
Figure 9: Arginine (R--->), Lysine (K--->)
Sources:
Movie science mistakes lysine arginine
lysine methylation: Alberts B, Johnson A, Lewis J, Raff M, Roberts K, & Walter P. (2008). Molecular Biology of the Cell. 5th ed. New York: Garland Science pp. 390-405
Week 10: Histidine & Proline
Figure 10: Histidine (left), Proline (Right)
Last episode, hope you enjoyed the series!Sources:
Histidine Proline Trypsin
Sections
Philansophy
placeholder stuff here blah blah blah blah.
Influences
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