A Short Update

It's been a while since I've written anything, so this post is rather overdue and I'm sorry for my lack of blogging or updates on what's happening. It has been a busy spell for me recently. I'm currently applying for jobs, practising/doing various psychometric tests, going to Christmas parties and, of course, working. Thanks to having quite a lot going on and to some extent a lack of inspiration I haven't got around to writing anything for the blog for a while. It seems like I'm using up all my writing powers on adding a couple of words to my thesis every day! But it's nearly Christmas (yey!), so I'm hoping that I'll have time to recharge and to get back on a more normal schedule. 

My current plan is that I'm going to have my next post released in the week of 5th January, I'm not sure what day yet, but keep an eye out! After that I'm going to try to get back onto my weekly schedule, but I might go to fortnightly if I can't keep up with a post a week.

See you in the New Year!

The ESA and the Shirt

Last week we landed on a comet, which was a fantastic. But we also saw a glimpse into the ESA that was not very positive. When a scientist appeared on camera for the ESA wearing a shirt covered in scantily clad women in some interesting poses, that sent a message. An unintentional message, but a message all the same. To me, it said that the ESA does not put professionalism front and centre. It said that it is appropriate for men to wear something like that to work in a field with real problems with female uptake and retention. In the grand scheme of things, wearing a shirt is a small thing, but it throws a light on some of the still present problems in science.

The scientist in question has apologised, which I welcome. To be honest I wouldn't have had a problem if the scientist had worn the shirt on his own time. But here's the real kicker, He has apologised, but not the ESA. Where is their apology? My main problem with the whole episode is with the ESA's lack of action. How did the higher ups let someone go on live broadcast wearing that shirt? Why would they think that such clothing was appropriate for a prestigious and important event? Why did no one ask him to change? Why are they not taking some responsibility for the incident? That's the thing that worries me. Not that one person did something which was misguided and a bit silly. It's the fact that the ESA stood back and let it happen, I'm sure they didn't think, but that's a problem in itself. What else are they not thinking about?

Another aspect to this story is how Boris Johnson has waded in. He had a piece published in the Telegraph yesterday where he laments that people have picked up on the shirt and the issues it hints at. In some way's Boris' article is laughable, He calls people who mentioned that the choice was less than stellar abusers. I'm sorry Boris but if you want to see abuse, maybe have a look at what women in the video game industry have been bombarded with. Did the scientist get rape and death threats? No. Did he have to leave his house? No, but women speaking out about the video game industry did. Why aren't you speaking up for them? In this case people pointed out that the shirt wasn't the best choice and I have yet to see any of these bullying tweets, but surely if there were any they would be all over the newspapers wouldn't they? So Boris well done for telling us we should apologise, and well done for ignoring the real issue. Maybe you should have read Alice Bell's wonderful article before you started writing.

Link Round-Up 10th November 2014

Welcome back to the link round-up! Here are a few things on the net that have caught my eye.

1. It's hopefully not crunch time for the Rosetta probe.
   
   It's nearly time for the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta probe to send the Philae robot down onto the surface of the comet Rosetta has been orbiting for a while now. Starting tomorrow the ESA will be webcasting the landing process, which is scheduled to be completed on the 13th. Fingers crossed Philae will make it safely onto the comet! If you would like to find out when interesting things are happening keep an eye on @ESA_Rosetta on twitter.
2. The Your Life campaign launches.
   
   Today the BBC covered the launch of the Your Life campaign, which aims to increase the number of students taking maths and physics at A-Level by 50% over the next 3 years. Although the government backed campaign is looking to raise numbers across the board, they are particularly keen to boost the number of girls doing A-level maths and physics. At the moment all that the website seems to do is to give some interesting stories about where science and engineering might take you, but it suggests it's going to do more in the months ahead, so fingers crossed it'll engage and encourage people to do more science.
3. Watching the birth of a new solar system.
   
   Whilst testing out a new high resolution mode for the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope, astronomers have managed to capture a disc of planet formation around a young star in beautiful detail. What's particularly interested the scientists is that the star at the centre of this new planetary system would normally be thought of as too young for planets to form around it. Therefore, this one image could lead to a re-think on how planets form! Now, if that's not a great test run I don't know what is.

And finally, as season 8 of Doctor Who came to a pretty good conclusion this weekend here's a Fan Made 50th Anniversary Trailer from last year I'll be watching until Christmas.

Currently Listening to The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan, I've become an audio book junkie and its a really efficient way to listen to the ultimate fantasy epic that is the Wheel of Time.
Currently Watching nothing! I've finished my current series and I need to pick something new or an old favourite to re-watch.

Big Bang Fact

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up, things have been a bit busy recently! I'll try to get back on track next week.

The Big Bang Theory is one of the biggest television shows on in the USA right now and it's pretty popular here in the UK too. So, I thought I'd have a look at the way Big Bang Theory presents science and how that matches up to what it's really like. This is all pretty much based on the episodes I've seen  (a lot, but only the random selection E4 keep airing) so there may be times when things are presented differently, but this is how I think the show represents academia overall and how that differs from real research from a UK perspective.

Big Bang Theory: You don't have to interact with undergraduate or graduate students if you don't want to.

Research Reality: Erm... no. Sorry to burst the bubble, but it is pretty much impossible to isolate yourself from students of any kind. If Sheldon were a real university scientist at the same stage in his career he would most certainly be supervising a couple of post-graduate researchers. I know that this season with Sheldon's associate professorship he has to take a class, but if you want to get a permanent position, teaching experience is essential and you actually begin teaching as a PhD student.

Big Bang Theory: Research funding magically appears!

Big Bang Fact: Research funding is hard to get! You need to apply for grants and awards which, in the UK at least, is a pretty exhausting thing. If you're doing some 'sexy' science you might be able to get some kind of deal going for a campaign in the alumni magazine/newsletter but most of the time you have to fight to keep money coming in.

Big Bang Theory: You have lots of time for pet projects.

Big Bang Fact: If you can get all the work that your funding is mandated for done and find yourself with some time on your hands and a pot of money with no designated project attached you might get to have a pet project. However, its much more likely you'll get the undergraduate project students to work on it as its the only way you can get time and money to do it.

Big Bang Theory: Our whole universe was in a hot dense state then nearly 14 million years ago expansion started! Wait.. Earth began to cool....
Big Bang Fact: Yep. Pretty much!

Link Round-Up 14th October 2014

Sorry for the delay on getting this post up, yesterday was a busy one! I set up my first lot of students on their lab experiment, went to a careers fair and was a conduit to google maps while I navigated supervisor to Staples. That's not even a joke. 

As one of the useful things I did yesterday was all about graduate recruitment, and as it's the time of year when quite a few firms are hiring, for week's link round up I thought I'd look at some of the different graduate careers websites.

1. Prospects
   Prospects is one of the biggest recruitment websites. The best thing about prospects is that it doesn't just have job adverts, it also has careers advice, career matching quizzes and extensive information on what you can really expect from pretty much any career you can think of. Prospects doesn't just do jobs, it also has a lot of information about post-graduate study, making it a one stop shop for what to do when you graduate! As a tool for searching for work Prospects seems to be a very popular place to advertise graduate jobs as well as industrial placement years and summer internships, so its a good starting point for a job search.
2. Target Jobs
   Target is another of the big recruitment sites offering graduate job listings and internship opportunities. Like Prospects, it has plenty of career's advice and some good pages on applications. They don't have as much information on specific jobs, but it's certainly worth checking out for some extra opportunities and application information.
3. Milkround
   Another of the big recruitment websites, Milkround isn't that great for advice, but it does list a lot of work opportunities.
4. University Careers Website (Leeds)
   Most universities will have their own careers web pages. They tend to have lots of information on choosing a career and on how to make the best application possible. The only downside is that any vacancies they advertise may only be viewable to their own students.

And finally, here's Foxes cover of Don't Stop Me Now from Mummy on the Orient Express. Or, the even more awesome Brett Domino Trio's Doctor Who Song 

How do you choose a degree subject?

I thought today I'd have a look at choosing a degree subject as we're in the middle of university applications season. Fingers crossed I'll provide some useful thoughts how you might go about working out what to do at university.

Choosing a subject if you have a specific job in mind:
You've got a job in mind? Well that's great as it can help simplify things a lot. Want to be a doctor, do medicine. Want to be a nurse, go for nursing. Want to be a lawyer, you don't actually have to do law... So here's the kicker some jobs don't have specific subject requirements. A lot of the big law firms will accept graduates from a range of subjects, why? Well if you get a good degree, it sort of acts like a sign says you are a strong independent learner and that you have vital skills in research and analysis. Therefore, is possible to apply and get a job even if you don't have the most logical degree for it, especially if you do a relevant summer placement or have work experience. As an example, law is actually a career destination for science graduates, particularly in patent law where you have to understand technical documents to assess potential patents. Another good example of not needing to study a specific degree is teaching. To me personally if you want to teach, why not go for the degree and PGCE option? You'll give yourself so many more options and may be more employable as you'll have focused subject expertise. 

Choosing a subject if you have no idea what you want to do after university or if your ideal job has degree flexibility:

It probably goes without saying, but start with the subject or subjects you like the most or things related to them. My favourite A-level was physics, but I was also interested in computer science and engineering courses to begin with. So how do you narrow down that short list? I implemented two main tactics. Firstly, I went through a set of prospectuses and looked at structures of courses I was interested in doing. This was so I could see what the modules were, and I got an idea of the compulsory elements and whether I'd be happy doing them. Secondly, I looked at websites to see what graduates from different courses do. A really great place to look for this information is prospects.ac.uk, which has a section on "Options with you subject" where you just click on a subject and get information on which careers use that degree and careers where having that degree would be useful. In my case, after looking at course details I worked out that computer science or physics would be the right degree choice for me and I made the final decision on which to do based on careers I could pick. I ended up going for physics as it seemed to leave more options open and, as I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, that seemed like a good idea to me!

What if you want to do a subject but don't have the right qualifications?
Firstly, don't panic, you will still be able get where you want to go and there are a few things you can do. The first option is to look for foundation year courses, which allow people who don't have the required qualifications to get onto the degree course they want to do. These courses work by giving you the grounding you'll need to do your degree of choice and you are often automatically enrolled into the first year of the full degree program once you pass the foundation year. Secondly you could stay at school or college to get the extra qualifications you need. Finally, not all universities have the same entry requirements, so if you'd rather just get stuck in to a degree, there might be somewhere with flexible entry requirements that you could go to.

The main thing, however you choose your course, is to never be afraid to ask for help with the decision. Talk to teachers, careers advisers and directly to universities to get the guidance you need to make the right choice for you! 

Link Round-up 29th September 2014

Happy Monday everyone! Here's this week's link round-up:

1. Sexism in Space.
   Ok so I've gone for a slightly sensationalist title here. On the positive side Yelena Serova is the first Russian woman on the International Space Station! On the negative side at the pre-launch press conference Yelena was asked about make-up, her hair and if her daughter would miss her. Well done to the press for continuing to be the problem and not the solution.
2. The heart of the milky way smells like rum.
   Yes that's right, the alcoholic drink! Thanks to radio astronomy it's been discovered that a dust cloud close to the centre of the Milky Way contains molecules of ethyl formate, which gives raspberries their taste and rum its smell. However, the similarities to more earthly rum don't end there. The same dust cloud also contains billions of litres of alcohol! Unfortunately we won't be partying there any time soon as the gas cloud is around 27,000 light years away.
3. 
   
   Too few fellowships of the Royal Society for female researchers.
   On 19th September the Royal Society announced who would be recipients of this year's University Research Fellowships. Unfortunately out of  the 43 awards made only 2 were made to women. Now, could this be due to around only 5% of the applicants being female? No, in fact 19% of applications were from women, which isn't great, but that's almost 1 in 5. On top of this, looking at previous years the percentage of awards that were made to women was more comparable to the percentage of women applying in the first place. In the article above Professor Athene Donald discusses the figures, issues and what could be done to improve things in the future.

And finally... The piano guys are back with a medley of Batman music! 

Currently Reading The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks. The same book as last time because its 816 pages long!
Currently Watching Psycho Pass. In the near future people are constantly psychologically screened to assess their mental health with the aim of catching those with a 'criminal mindset' before they can ever harm society. Psycho Pass follows investigations of the Public Safety Bureau as they try catch both active and latent criminals. Spoiler alert, it's pretty awesome.

It's the Final Countdown...

... will things ever be the same again?

I can't hide from it any longer. In 9 days time I'll got a year to go on my PhD. How do I feel about that? Pretty happy to be honest. I've had a tough few months research-wise so instead of being the panic station this threshold would have been a little earlier in the year, I'm actually pretty relieved.

In many ways, now is a good time to take stock and to attempt to work out what happens for me next in terms of work and even applying for jobs. In many ways this year won't be much different from the others. However, it looks like I'm going to have extra pulls on my time in addition to what I'm used to. 

Firstly, I'm going to be doing 'official' demonstrating work this year. I'm not sure how this is going to effect things for me other than I should get paid for work I was already doing. However, at the moment I am revamping a lab script and desperately trying to remember how I did my 3rd year project; which was 3 years ago. Yeah, that's fun. Beforehand, with my unofficial demonstrating if there were things I couldn't remember I could pass the problem on, where as now... Well, that's not really going to be the case. I think a few days stood in front of the laser going, "Why? Why!? WHY!?" should be enough to help me work out most things. However, I don't feel like I've really got the time to be doing that.

I'm also beginning to look at and think about applying for jobs. I know I'm a year away from finishing, but quite a lot of graduate schemes are already open for applications! Therefore, if you're a final year of degree, beginning to look for work in September and October for the following year is not a bad idea. There are jobs that won't be open for application just yet, but by thinking about this early I'm hoping to be clarify what I want to do (by reading websites and going to careers fairs) and I'll hopefully be prepared for when the right jobs for me open up, or I'll be able to apply before the ones currently open close.  

Then there's that other little thing I need to complete. My thesis. 70,000 words of joy for me to write. I haven't started so much on the words yet, but I do have a plan and a thesis template set up, so that's something, right? I mean I'm ready, I'm prepared, but not quite started yet. I actually don't feel that worried about writing up at the moment. As the day when I stop getting paid looms I'm sure I will be, but right now I'm ok with it. I've written big documents before and I'll have plenty to say, I'm just not looking forward to rewriting things.

So, final year starts here. Roll on next September!

Link Round-Up 15th September 2014

It's September so, it's a time of fresh starts for a lot of people. However, some things aren't changing, like how it's time for a link round-up!

1. The Rosetta probe has a landing site!
   The European Space Agency (ESA) have selected a landing site for the robotic comet lander Philae from the Rosetta probe! The landing area, catchily named Site J, is far from a perfect place to land the robot, but it's the best available option. All being well Philae will land on the comet on 11th November, where it will hopefully make the first ever measurements of a comet, from a comet. To follow Rosetta's progress, pop over to the ESA's dedicated Rosetta blog at http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta .
2. Scotland and Science Funding
   With the Scottish independence vote to be held later this week, the BBC has reported on the discussion about how Scotland leaving the union may effect scientific research. It has previously been reported that a 'yes' vote would end existing funding arrangements, so an independent Scotland will need set up their own funding bodies. As a result it seems scientists aren't very certain that independence is a good thing, with 69% telling Times Higher Education that they will vote 'no'. 
3. After some debate, it looks like the Higgs boson is decaying as predicted.
   Scientists at the LHC can't directly detect the Higgs boson, instead they look at the particles it becomes when it decays. The Higgs decays into photon (light particle) pairs, but the LHC has detected more photons than expected. This has prompted speculation of a second Higgs or other particles being involved in Higgs decay. However, after crunching more and more of the Higgs data, researchers at CERN now think that the Higgs is behaving as current theories would predict after all. 

And finally... if you've not heard of the Lego Academic twitter feed, check out this article on the New Scientist website.
Also, I'm launching a new blog! Overly Excited Opinions is a review blog, so if you want to know what I think about media and literature, rather than science, head on over and check it out.

Currently Reading The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks, the next volume in the Lightbringer series. I'm not very far in yet, but the fall out after the events of the last book is still being felt and it's shaping up to be a great read. I just hope my favourite characters survive!
Currently Listening to The Awesome Mix Volume 1 aka the soundtrack to one of the best films of the summer, Guardians of the Galaxy. Will it make me want to dance around the lab? Why yes, of course it will, and I don't think I'll be able to resist.

Final Thoughts on Photon 14

As a finally summing up about my experience at Photon 14, here's short list of some ideas and thoughts about the conference and what I might do at conferences in the future.

Just in case you missed my original Photon conference diaries, they can be found in 3 parts here, here and here.

So after Photon 14 I think that....

1. Poorly constructed talks really annoy me so I promise to do my best to always construct my talks well.
   At the conference I saw a few talks that really missed the mark for me. Most of the problems stemmed from a very simple sentence, "I'll just skip over this slide for time". Now, to me that smacks of being under prepared and to an extent I think it doesn't look very professional. Another pet hate I had was "Here's a concept that is important to this work but my colleague will talk about that in a few minutes". If its important to your work you should describe it, I might not be here for the rest of the session. Other's peoples talks shouldn't be used to convey your key concepts, as we don't all have the luxury of that and it isn't fair. So rant over, to sum up this means that I think that it's important that you have rehearsed your talk well and that it is fully self contained.
2. Tablets are useful and yet not useful at the same time for note taking.
   I made notes on my iPad during the conference which, on the one hand, worked really well as I didn't have to write them up and struggle with my dodgy handwriting! On the other hand it was actually harder for me to type and listen than write and listen, but I got better at that with practice so I think that wouldn't be a problem next time. Also, there was quite a temptation to procrastinate as there was all of the internet at my fingertips. So, I found the best way to use a tablet was to turn the wifi off and use a note-taking program to help with taking my notes.
3. You should always tell people what you are doing.
   It's well worth explaining what you do to anyone you meet at a conference, as you never know where it might lead. I spoke to a couple of people about what I did and one conversation might well lead to a collaboration. So it's always well worth having an elevator pitch of your project to hand just in case!
4. You should take in concepts in talks that don't necessarily link directly to your work
   I found it was worth really listening in all biologically related talks as it actually helped me notice trends in research and work out where I might fit on the greater landscape of research (and what might make my work stand out). Even in some of the very tangentially related stuff it's worth taking stuff in. I found finding out about the amazing properties of fibre optic cables really interesting. It is something I'll remember and you never know, it might come in handy someday! 

And that concludes my coverage of my last conference of the year! 

I don't know if I'll be going to many more conferences in the next twelve months as I might just be chained to my desk writing. But I hope than my diaries and thoughts on my experiences have been interesting and (hopefully) entertaining too!

Nine Months of BLOGden Blogging

I hadn't really remembered until I saw a message on the Ogden Trust facebook page but, officially anyway, my time as a Odgen Trust Blogger (BLOGden Blogger) has actually come to an end as of 1st September. I started this blog as part of the BLOGden project to hopefully share my experiences as an alumni of the trust with other people. However, just because BLOGden is over, that doesn't mean I'll be stopping writing. Oh no. I'll still be here tapping away every week posting links, new articles about what I've been up to and bits of PhD/Science related information and stories that I manage to conjure out of my brain.

While I'm here, I'd like to say thank you very much for taking the time to read my blog. It's always nice to see that my traffic counter has gone up when I log on and I hope you've enjoyed what I've written so far and continue to enjoy the things I write in the future.

That's the main message done. As I'm a scientist, I can't help but give you some data to sum up my BLOGden time, but feel free to look away now!

Between 31st January & 31st August I have:

Written 33 posts

Had 1337 views (not all of those are from my parents... I hope)

Had an average of 191 views per month

With "I've got an answer, but what's the question again?" being my most viewed (clicked on) post with a grand total of 65 views

Wow. That's pretty awesome! Fingers crossed the next 7 months will go just as well.

Photon 14 Fun Times 3 (Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th September 2014)

Wednesday - Day 3

In comparison to the first two days of the conference Wednesday was a lot less exciting or busy. I had nothing to worry about and no real must see sessions to focus on so I went with the flow a bit. The first session I went to was on 'Ultrafast and Attosecond Physics', a pretty impressive title. So what motivated my choice? Well, firstly it sounded exciting and it had two talks on spectroscopy going on, so it sounded like the best option for me. There were some good presentations, but I don't really remember them very much to be honest, as there wasn't a whole lot to take in but, that's life. Sometimes you get lucky, other times you don't. After lunch (still not great) I went to the plenary on translating your research into a product. That was definitely worth going to, with the current head of the institute of physics talking about her opinions on how research should become a technology. Interestingly she said quite strongly that the trend for spinning out companies from universities to sell the research, with academics heading up the new company, is not a good idea. I found that very interesting as Leeds and Sheffield seem into creating new companies to make money. The proposed alternative was that you should licence your work to an existing company and not be greedy about the money. It's curious, because if spin outs didn't work universities wouldn't keep creating them. Anyway, I have some food for thought now. Unfortunately, I didn't have a similar experience from the second plenary. The speaker was talking about the integration of light with metal, so at first I was fine, until he talked faster and faster and jumped around a lot. I think the most frustrating thing about the whole experience was that before he started the speaker said this was going to be an introductory talk! Ha! It definitely didn't feel like one to me.

So with the whistle stop tour of business and "introductory" physics over I had 2 more sessions to attend. I went with 'trapping and manipulation', which looked at ways of trapping and cooling molecules or atoms using lasers. I then went for optical and quantum metrology for the final session as it's related to what a lot of people in my lab do. Again the theme for the afternoon was interesting but not relevant, not helped by the fact I felt like I was reaching conference saturation point by this part of the day!

Wednesday did not end with the talks though, we had the conference dinner to go to. The dinner tried so hard to be gourmet. It really did, but it just couldn't match it's own aspirations. I mean on bake-off night they made the error of calling a chocolate roulade a terrine! Mary Berry would not be pleased with that! Culinary confusion aside, I had a really nice time and there were lots of free drinks, so they got that right. I also managed not to let the networking opportunity slide during the dinner. I chatted to someone from Leeds I didn't know and one of my supervisor's collaborators I hadn't met before (Yey networking). The cherry on the top was when one of my lab mates won a prize for his poster. With the meal done we headed home via an impromptu networking session with some other attendees (aka a pub trip).

Thursday - Day 4

Day 4 finally! Time to go home! Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed photon, but I really wanted to be back home. However, I did have a good time in the last two sessions before home. I managed to find a talk on monitoring biology through some really complicated laser work. It was certainly interesting, but I'm not sure if it will catch on because of its complexity, but there were some really nice ideas about trying to observe the light given out by a protein when it was doing different things. Hopefully there might be a way to make the process easier so that we can exploit it in the future. The final session I attended was on fibre optic sensors. It was a session that probably won't help my project, but it was really interesting. It turns out that you can use fibre optic cables with special elements in to act as sensors for temperature, humidity, force and more! And, people are working on incorporating them into metals and concrete to give in depth analysis about what's going on inside structures. How cool is that! One of the talks even covered a way to set concrete using microwaves! Sometimes you forget that there is some really fun science in the world and I'm so glad my last session of the conference left me thinking, and with a smile on my face.

Photon 14 Fun Times 2 (Conference Diary, Tuesday 2nd September 2014)

It was time. Presentation day. It started earlier than I thought it would, as I accidentally got up at 630am, thinking it was 730am... Oh dear. At least it gave me time to run through my presentation in my head once more and write my diary of what happened on Monday. I was already starting to feel nervous, why? Well, I had to present in this room, the Great Hall. 

The Great Hall at Imperial College

Pretty big right? Much bigger than the room at TERMIS, the only glimmer of hope was that it was relatively quiet on Monday so hopefully it wouldn't be too full. Still, I got ready and headed out for the morning plenary. I had considered skipping it so that I could go through my slides, but I'm really glad I went. The talk was given by Proffessor D Walker and was talking about the interplay between academic research and industry and was an extremely candid account of his successes and struggles in industry and in trying to deal with conflicts of interests his work entailed. Prof. Walker was a fantastic speaker and I took loads of notes of hints and tips to look back on later.

Before my session kicked off there was a coffee break, and after feeling pretty calm in the plenary I was starting become more nervous again. After adequately caffinating myself I thought it might be a good idea to have some calming camomile tea (well it always worked for Peter rabbit), before heading to the great hall for the first 2 talks of my session. Let's just say the camomile tea didn't work, in the first 2 talks I didn't feel less nervous, but I did just want to get my talk over and done with and let whatever was going to happen, happen. During the questions section of the speaker before me, I got set up with a radio mic and got ready to go. I'm some ways it was strange, when I was announced and walked up onto the stage my nerves faded a bit. I was here now, I was on stage and I just had to get on and do it. So I got on with the show. Although I went through the slides a little quicker than I wanted to, I managed to say everything I wanted to say with only a slight bit of uming. The best thing was that my hand didn't shake too badly when I laser pointed at the screen which I like to think created the illusion that I was more together than I really was. The next hurdle was the questions. To be honest, this was what I was dreading the most. I was steeling myself for criticism. But I got lucky. The worst I got was a, "would a standard set up beat this?", something I could confidently answer with a no. The other question I possibly left myself open for and was about exactly how much easier our set up is to create, but I think I gave a good account of myself and explained how I might improve things in the future. With that I could escape relatively unscathed. On the whole, I think my talk went pretty well, I was better at TERMIS, but I also practised more and wasn't as worried about the audience. That being said I didn't crash and burn so I'll call that a result!

After my talk there were 5 more talks, they were good, but it felt like a very long time. Especially given my tea consumption. Unfortunately I didn't have any feedback coming out of the session as my supervisor ran to my lab mates talk straight after mine. But I got some at lunch, firstly from another lab mate saying it went well (phew!) then a really great bit of feedback. A conference delegate came up to me and thanked me for giving a good talk that he was able to follow, and contrasted it to the other talks. We then had a chat about how surprising it is no one has done my experiment before and he suggested it could be possible to look at putting motorised lenses in. That made my day, you can't really ask for more than that. If at least one person from outside my lab understood and enjoyed my talk I could go home happy. Unfortunately, I didn't get any feedback over lunch from my supervisor as he was busy talking to various people, but I assumed I'd he him later. I didn't know his departure time so I ended up missed him, but he passed in that he thought my talk went well so that's quite nice I suppose. In case you're dying for another lunch update, it was similar to Monday in terms of sandwich fillings but with fancier bread which made it hard to tell what you were getting, so I'll keep my rating at 2.5 out of 5.

The first talk after lunch was 'How to get Published' and I was in two minds about whether to go or not because I've been to 3 how to get published talks in the past and, well, they haven't got me published! I made a few notes, but it wasn't a world altering talk so maybe it was a good  gentle warm up after lunch activity. We then had 2 more talks sessions to go to, firstly I went to another session in biomedical techniques where I heard about some interesting technologies for live microscopy. They were pretty cool and looked at imaging cells in zebra fish, so the idea was that this could help with drug development studies. However, I would question that, as if I've learnt one thing from my tissue engineering studies it's that as animal testing isn't that effective! 3d models in the lab with lots of cell types is the way to go if you ask me. My final session of the day was all about new imaging techniques, which I chose as the most relevant set of talks out of a lot of things I don't really do. I learnt a couple of things, but not anything useful in my project, but that's the thing with conferences, you have a few relevant things and a lot of irrelevant things and I can't complain as I've had over a day of relevant talks, much more than at TERMIS. So, the art for the rest of the conference with be working out tangentially relevant talks to go to, or just going to what seems interesting to broaden my horizons, and I'll let you know how that goes later.  Right now I think I need a sit down with a good book.

(The Lies of Locke Lamora, if you're not reading it read it I've told you enough times. Oh. If you're under 18 you possibly shouldn't... But still make sure you get a copy when you're old enough. I should shut up. I'm rambling, see, this is what conferences do to you!)

Photon 14 Fun Times 1 (Conference Diary, Monday 1st September 2014)

Ah sleep, how I love it so and yesterday the first day of Photon started with not much of it. After a 430am start and a first train at 545am we made it to Imperial College for the first day of Photon14!

Things kicked off, as they invariably do, with a plenary lecture. A plenary is basically a big invited talk that everyone should probably attend. Our plenary was given by Professor Sir Peter Knight (I bet that being Professor Sir makes filling in forms tedious) on quantum technologies. It wasn't really about the science behind quantum technologies, more the work Prof. Sir Knight had done to secure funding for the field and what the government might expect us to produce in the near future as a return on that investment. It was quite a refreshing opening plenary, but it did make me wonder who was involved in setting government expectations.

After the plenary, we broke up into different sessions, with various specialist themes. There wasn't much that directly related to my work, so I plumped for "Adaptive and Active Optics" because it was going to be about laser related stuff. I think I probably made the right choice as although I don't know if I'll use what I learnt. However, I'd say that I now have a greater idea of how adaptive optics work, mainly through using deformable mirrors which you can change the shape of to optimise your optics set up. As this session concluded the morning, it was time to see just how well photon was going to perform as a conference by sampling it's lunch offerings! Conference lunches are important ok! You need something to look forward to and it needs to get you through a very long afternoon. So, the food. It was average, although I don't know if that's fair as my bar was set by Italy and I don't honestly think anyone will ever beat that, but they should still try to! The buffet was a mix of standard university catering sandwiches and fruit, but there were some nice surprises in the form of mini-meat pies and mozzarella sticks. So I'd give it a rating of 2.5 out of 5, however, change could be afoot on Tuesday and Wednesday as that is when we require tickets to get our lunch!

After being fed I wen to a careers talk entitled "making the most of your early career". We were told at the start it wasn't a hard sell for the institute of physics and their careers services, but it definitely was. I basically learnt what booklets I should look at downloading from the institute's website and the other advice was highly generic. I wanted to know what would make me stand out! How to know what to choose! There was one thing I hadn't thought of and that was becoming a journal reviewer, but I think that's for post docs really. At least the next plenary was good, and signalled the start of stuff more important to me, with the speaker talking about imaging single cells in the eye using light microscopy. It was interesting, although it seemed most of the functional imaging relied on the use of chemicals or viruses to create contrast and it don't think doctors would be too happy with that.

The next 2 sessions were focused on biomedical optics, firstly looking at spectroscopy (in slightly different forms to what I do) and then clinical methods. I didn't get as much out of the first session as I had hoped, but the second section was great! There's some exceptional work going on to manipulate endoscopes to make it possible for them to be used as microscopes. This could mean that you just use an endoscope to look at a tissue sample, rather than doing a biopsy, or you could get a better biopsy. Even better in cancer surgery the surgeon might be able to check if a tumour was fully removed while surgery is still happening, rather than having to send off the tumour for analysis, a process which takes days. Therefore, people will only need to have 1 operation rather than 2 if not all the tumour is removed in the initial cut.

After dropping stuff off at the hotel we nipped back for the poster session and drinks reception, aka the networking session, but we won't call it that. To be honest I neither networked or read many posters, mainly as I did my round of the posters at lunch and I really didn't feel up for networking. The other networking barrier was the fact my supervisor wasn't there. At TERMIS one of my supervisors introduced me to a lot of important people in the field, but that opportunity wasn't open to me last night. Oh well, there's always tomorrow! If I survive my presentation that is...

Conference Time!

Hello everyone! This Monday, once again, it's conference time for me! I'm heading down to London for Photon14 (a conference focused on all things related to light) run by the Institute of Physics at Imperial College. So, I'll be repeating what I did for TERMIS and write a set of diary posts detailing what I get up to at the conference.

 

As I'm in England at a university I should have decent internet access and will hopefully upload the posts during the week as I write them, before doing some kind of thing linking them all together (which will probably appear next week). The Day 2/Tuesday post will probably be the one to look out for as that's when I'm presenting so wish me luck! Incidentally I'm presenting at 10:45, the same time I presented at during TERMIS... Do I sense a conspiracy at work here? I suppose there's only one way to find out. To London!

Link Round-up 25th August 2014

It's another Bank Holiday Monday! Yey! This week I've found some interesting links mostly looking at gender issues in science from the gender balanceto Field's Medal winners.

1. Maryam Mirzakhani becomes the first woman to win the Fields Medal for mathematics
   Fantastic news! We finally have a female winner of the Fields Medal, which is a bit like the Nobel Prize for maths. It's just a shame that it took until 2014 for a woman to win one don't you think?
2. Arguing over whether girls can’t or won’t study science stops us fixing the problem
   An interesting article on the conversation caught my eye this week, about the argument (which I think isn't an argument at all) of whether girls aren't able to do science or just don't want to do it. It's a  really good read which suggests that we should get busy fixing the problem, rather than going on about the drivers behind it.
3. Ten myths that blame women for sexism
   Laura Bates (of Everyday Sexism) recently wrote a really great article in the Guardian addressing the 'reasons' people like to use to justify elements of sexism that we still see in society today. This is one of my favourite articles I've seen from Laura, but you should check out her other work too.
4. The heart might actually have a repair mechanism
   It's been a long held idea that heart tissue doesn't have a repair mechanism. However, a team from Vanderbilt University have observed that cells from the blood vessels in the heart can become heart muscle cells, albeit at a very slow rate. This is a fantastic and interesting piece of research, which could also indicate other ways in which heart diseases can damage the heart. Fingers crossed this knowledge might be able to be converted into medical treatments.

And finally, the results of the Hugo Awards, the premier awards in genre fiction, have been announced. Best Novel went to Ann Leckie for Ancillary Justice with the Game of Thrones episode The Rains of Castamere winning the Best Dramatic Presentation (short form) Award.

Currently Watching Doctor Who! The eleventh hour is over and the clock strikes twelve. I saw Deep Breath in the cinema on Saturday and I can't wait to see the rest of the eighth series of Doctor Who. Roll on next Saturday! 

Currently Listening to The Blinding Knife audio book. In preparation for the release of the next volume in the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks being released, I'm refreshing my memory of what happened in the last book. If you hadn't ready The Black Prism or The Blinding Knife, you should!

Nine Worlds Geekfest 2014

I'm now back at work after an awesome weekend (and following week off) at Nine Worlds geekfest. What is a geekfest? You may ask. We'll you're about to find out. A geekfest is a celebration (unsurprisingly) of all things geeky, from Doctor Who to SF and Fantasy books, from Steampunk and Science. It's actually quite hard to explain the scope of the event from the number of different tracks to the different activities you could do. Listen to an academic presentation, go see a panel of great authors be quizzed on genre fiction, get your books signed by said authors, learn to (I kid you not) water dance from the First Sword of Bravos (What do we say to people who don't get that reference? Not today), see a science comedy show, take part in a writing workshop, join in a LARP, dance away the night to a Queen tribute band and so, so much more. Whatever your choice of geekery (except boardgames this year *sad face*) Nine Worlds probably had something there for you. They even had a program item to do with (bubble) football.

As this post waxes lyrical, follow the link below to read more about my adventures.

Weekly Round-up Monday 11th August

When you read this I'll have just finished having an incredibly geeky weekend at Nine Worlds Geekfest in Heathrow. If you want to know more about my convention adventures you're in luck as I'll be bringing you my Nine Worlds convention diary next week. However, today it's time for a weekly round-up and in honour of Nine Worlds I'm going to be looking at some of the conventions coming up soon which you should be looking at going to.

1. Loncon 3 (World Con)
   On Thursday World Con, the world science fiction convention, comes to London in the form of Loncon3. Loncon will be celebrating all kinds of science fiction and fantasy works from TV to tabletop board gaming with a strong focus on literature. Some highlights include George RR Martin and Robin Hobb's readings and panels. Attendees will never be stuck for something to do that's for sure.
2. Sheffield Film and Comic Con
   The first ever Sheffield Film and Comic Con will be taking place later this month at the Sheffield Arena! So far guests include Burn Gorman, Eve Myles, Paul McGann and John Rhys Davis to name but a few. As it's so close to home for me it would be rude not to go and I wouldn't be taking full advantage if I didn't use it as a fantastic shopping opportunity either!
3. MCM Expo
   I've never been to an MCM Expo, something which I'm planning to change in the next year. MCM run a pretty packed program of conventions all over the country, so there's bound to be one relatively close by (normal venues include Manchester, London and Birmingham). The only downside is that guests are often not announced to the last minute so you don't always know who you're going to be seeing.
4. Nine Worlds 2015
   Should you be going next year? Definitely! Ok maybe wait until you read my diary,  (I'm writing this before the convention so you never know, it might not have been good this year) but then get your tickets booked at the super early bird rate. Nine Worlds is one of the more expensive conventions on this list, but it is also one of the ones with the most to do, so it all balances out.

And finally, it's slightly old news by now, but the season 8 premier of Doctor Who will be streaming to cinema's around the country, along with bonus content and a live Q and A from London's Leicester Square Odeon. Also, tickets are now on sale for the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular, a concert celebrating the music of Doctor Who, conducted by the amazing Ben Foster, which should be coming to an Arena near you.

Currently Reading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, so I'm behind the times, but I'm very much enjoying catching up on this excellent book. If you like Brent Weeks or GRRM you'll love this!
Currently Playing Dungeons and Dragons 5E, I may not have known what to expect at first, but I really love 5E so far and I can't wait to get my hands on the players handbook later this week. If you want to get into Dungeons and Dragons and don't know where to start the D&D Starter Set is a great place to begin your quest.

Bad Science - A Review

Every now and again you come across something you feel you have to shout about from the rooftops. Recently I've been reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre and it is definitely in that category. In short it's a must read for everyone. If I was suddenly made Prime Minister tomorrow I would put this book on the curriculum as a compulsory text. Basically, it's a really important book.

We live in a world built and defined by scientific advancement. Science and engineering powered the industrial revolution, many people are kept alive by a cocktail of scientific discoveries and we carry technology in our pockets everywhere we go which could only be found in science fiction in the not so distant past. Therefore, isn't it important that as a society we are well informed about the innovation that powers our lives? Is it right that the media are constantly reinforcing the message that science is hard? I think that it is almost impossible to make a viable argument that it is a good thing to have a public who aren't engaged in one of the most important cornerstones of their daily lives.

However, I digress. What is Bad Science about? What is it that defines it as a really important read? Bad Science is basically a guidebook to help people see the real science behind the fluff we are often presented with in the media. When did you last see a newspaper story claiming food X will prevent cancer? I'd guess it was pretty recently, and often journalists overstate the effectiveness of these sorts of studies. It's unfortunate, but in order to produce more exciting column inches and sell papers huge sweeping statements are much more appealing than working through the minutia of a piece of research. If you'd like to cut through this kind of hype and see the truth in science stories, then Bad Science is the book for you. It does a really great job of giving us a tool kit to try and see through the spin, advertising and news coverage into the heart of what's actually going on. By using case studies Goldacre looks at various fields from the tablets that make you smarter, to homoeopathy and the unfounded MMR scare. Don't worry this isn't a stuffy textbook; Bad Science is well written with a great sense of humour. However, no amount of humour can cover up the often concerning nature of the material Goldacre addresses. For example, from the book I learnt that the experts chosen and quoted by the media, might not be quite so expert after all and, even more worryingly, health scares tend to be reported on by non specialist correspondents. I'll certainly be bearing these points in mind when the next big scare comes along.

To me, the key thing that makes Bad Science great is its accessibility. You don't need any prior knowledge of science or journalism to enjoy it. In many ways it simply tells us that science is for everyone, and that with a bit of thought you can see through the journalistic haze right into the heart of an issue. One of my favourite aspects of the book was how it looked at the placebo effect in quite a lot of detail, and I now want to find out more about how our mind and body can be influence each other.

Bad Science isn't perfect. There are times when Goldacre talks about a subject and I found myself thinking "Yes that would be great in an ideal world, but is that achievable?". I also think that there are some issues with the "Bad Stats" chapter as there seems to be a skirting of experimental error (on which I have made my views clear in the past). However, as a window into the world of journalism and why so many people get swept up in bogus claims about wonder cures, it is brilliant. I will most definitely be getting myself a copy of Bad Pharma, the follow up to Bad Science which focuses on the pharmaceutical industry, very soon. So, do yourself a favour and get reading!

Bad Science is published by 4th Estate in paperback and has an RRP of £8.99. At the time of writing it could be found online for around £6.50 or as an ebook for under £4.

Weekly Round-up 28th July 2014

Happy Monday everyone! Here are a selection of things that have caught my eye on the internet during the past week.

1. Making plastic from food scraps!
   A research group in Italy has come up with a new way to make plastic from food scraps. You may have been given bioplastic bags (I believe One Stop use them) in the past which are sometimes biodegradable and tend to be made from plant starches. However, these are sourced from food crops, which isn't a great option due to the world's growing demand for food. The new plastics come from unusable food scraps from farming processes and the method to make the plastics is quicker and simpler. Unfortunately, due to the costs of manufacturing it may not currently be industrially viable to scale up this new method, but maybe in the future we'll be able to have more environmentally friendly plastics!
2. New Scientist looks at some of the new technologies to help people with disabilities.
   This week the New Scientist have produced a slideshow of some of the recent developments in technologies to help people with disabilities. From electronic chips to provide eyesight to robot carers, have a look to see what awesome inventions might be improving peoples lives in the future.
3. New form of radiotherapy for breast cancer treatment.
   A new form of radiotherapy is going to be offered on the NHS in the near future which will allow breast cancer to be treated with a single targeted dose of radiotherapy. In this new treatment radiation is delivered directly to an early stage tumour during surgery. The new method has a similar level of effectiveness to standard radiotherapy, except it reduces the level of radiation that other organs receive, along with the number hospital visits for the patient.

And finally, it was San Diego Comic Con last week and along with exciting new concept images for the next Avengers  film the biggest surprises came during the Game of Thrones panel with announcements of the new cast members for season 5 and the characters who won't make it from the books into the show. However, the biggest news came when GRR Martin dropped a revelation about a certain character who was omitted/changed in the TV show appearing in the prologue to The Winds of Winter (Book 6 of A Song of Ice and Fire). GRRM also said that he wouldn't be writing a season 5 episode so he can finish Winds of Winter. Fingers crossed this means we might be seeing Winds of Winter on bookshelves in the near future (haha, I wish).

Currently Reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. Bad Science is a fantastic book which looks to lift the lid on science in the media, homoeopathy and the current obsession with nutritionists. It's a fantastic book which I'll be talking about in more detail in another post in the near future.

Currently Watching Gurren Lagan on Netflix. All the Anime released this often discussed anime to Netflix in preparation for it's DVD/BluRay release next month. I'm very glad they did because I'm currently enjoying having its maximum rediculosity fill my evenings before Doctor Who lands next month!

The Work/Life Balance

Depending on who you ask, there seems to be 2 conflicting ideas about PhD lifestyles. Some believe PhD students work all the hours of the day, through the nights and at weekends with very few days off. Others might argue that we're spinning our wheels, working short days and wasting time before we have to go and get a 'proper' job. As with most things there is arguably a slight ring of truth in both versions, but really neither are fully correct. I don't work all hours, and would not call what I do wasting time. I tend to work from 8:30am to somewhere between 4:30pm and 5:10pm (so pretty much standard working hours), but I have had a few short spells of working overtime (which was not very fun). But really, for me doing my PhD has been very much like any other job really, but with the benefit of having relatively unrestricted flexitime.

From PhD Comics purveyors of humour and home truths.

Now I'm not going to say there isn't someone somewhere who works every weekend in order to hopefully finish their PhD, and I actually know of one person who works really long days (11 hours +) because they just absolutely love their project and actually want to be in the lab all the time. But, in my experience, this is not the normal state of affairs. What seems to be more usual is that most of the time PhD students work normal hours, but every so often you'll have everything happening at once and will have to spend a couple of weeks or so working all the hours you can, in order to fit everything in. When do these times crop up? Well they tend to appear at the end of the year when you have a lovely report to work on (see 'So what exactly did you do this year?'). I had a month of long days and weeks when I was writing my first year report, but other than that I've not had any other real nightmare stretches. 

So, where do people get the idea that PhD students are chained to their desks? I think its something that's actually our (the students') fault. We keep the idea alive via our interactions with communities both on and offline and I'm not really sure why that is. Maybe it's because people feel the need to seek help and support when they are at their most stressed and tired, so a lot of the chatter is about dealing with the workload at these points in time rather than the staus quo. Also, I think we actually quite like to moan. Not to say that out moaning isn't justified, but it does seem to be a favourite PhD pass-time!

On the other side PhD working culture coin is the slacker. Is it actually possible to get through a PhD by hardly working? Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. Now, I think its fair to say that we all have quiet weeks in between experiments, where we're in limbo without a large pile of work stacking up for us. I've had points where I've been waiting for equipment to be fixed and although I worked on other things, my days weren't quite as full as they normally are. But can you sit back and take it easy all the time? Nope. You'll get kicked in some form, either kicked out or kicked up the bum to actually do some work. If you get a kick up the bum, maybe then you might end up not having enough time in normal working days to get everything done, becoming the quintessential overworked PhD student after all, an interesting thought don't you think?However, I would not advise coasting along until you need to suddenly knuckle down, its not going to be fun in the long run.

Like many things, PhD workloads come in cycles. The busy times don't last forever and neither do the quiet ones. All you can do is power through as much as you're able and remember that things will go back to normal hopefully sooner rather than later.

Weekly Round-up 14th July 2014

Happy Monday! Here's this week's link round-up for you of freshly squeezed internet goodness.

1. What happens if you stick your hand in liquid nitrogen?
   Ever wondered what happens if you stick your hand in liquid nitrogen? I hadn't until this IFL Science post popped up on my facebook feed. Don't get me wrong, I love fun with liquid nitrogen, I've seen it poured onto hands and floors, as well as make a magnet float but still, dipping my hand into it never crossed my mind. However, it seems it has crossed someone's mind so check out the link and video above to see what happens!
2. Common science myths debunked.
   This week IFL Science have also lifted the lid on some common science myths that just won't go away. Have a look and see if you learn something!
3. The LHC warms up by cooling down
   CERN have begun cooling down the LHC ready to start a new round of experiments in early 2015, after a 3 year stop for repairs, which will let the LHC smash particles together at even higher energies. After lots of data analysis the Higgs appears to be behaving as expected under the standard model, but there is so much more to look for such as new particles and super symmetry (the LHC has already ruled out some forms of this). Fingers crossed the switch on goes well, but in the meantime I'm sure there will be further news on the properties of the Higg's Boson coming our way.

Finally, this week has seen two exciting reveals; firstly the cover for 'A Wicked Thing', my friend Rhiannon's first novel (coming out in Feb 2015 in the US)! Secondly, the first full trailer for Doctor Who Series 8, roll on August 23rd!

Currently Watching Tokyo Ghoul and Terror in Resonance aka this summer's 2 most hyped anime series. After 1 and 2 episodes respectively I'm impressed, both have interesting premises and characters as well as directors with impressive pedigrees so I can't wait to see what happens next! (I also tried Sailor Moon Crystal, but erm... I think I'll just watch the abridged series of that...) You can catch both series legally and free on wakanim.co.uk in the UK now.

Currently Playing (well about to start playing) Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition, and I'm both excited and apprehensive about it. As a fan of the much maligned 4E version of the game, the striping down of powers (I like being epic), optional nature of tactical combat and grids is a little bit worrying. However, I love the new back story features in character creation, and the look of main line adventure series, so fingers crossed it turns out to be good!

So what exactly did you do this year?

We're reaching the end of the academic year. Undergraduates are getting their exam results and starting their summer holidays and the school year is nearly over. You might think this doesn't mean much for research students as we, like the rest of the working world, book holidays as and when we want them (or when experiments let us) and aren't tied to the school holidays. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong. While we may be looking forward to a couple of weeks away, there is something else us PhD students need to be looking at doing, the joy of end of year reports where we get down to answering the question, "So what exactly did you do this year?".

At the end of every year of a PhD you have to hand in some form of report. A document that describes what you've spent the year doing, whether its the first year transfer/upgrade report, a second year progress report or the thesis itself. Needless to say, while in many ways summer is our quiet time in terms of teaching, demonstrating and problem solving for undergraduates; it is a hot bed of writing activity. However, not all end of year reports are created equal. Obviously the thesis, handed in at the end of your PhD, is the longest and most difficult to get right, but you'll have the most time devoted to doing it and although you may want to finish by the time they stop paying you, you can keep writing. First and second year reports are normally fitted in around your normal work with a couple of weeks devoted to just writing when your deadlines are fast approaching. In many ways it's this juggling of tasks makes it quite hard to get a grip on what you should be doing especially when your supervisor may have a very different opinion of what should be in your report that your examiners and department.

The first year report goes by many names in different universities. At Leeds it's the transfer report, at Sheffield it's the upgrade report or first year report depending on who your speak to, but the main gist of what you're doing is pretty similar across the board. You are presenting the work you have done in your first year, along with a comprehensive review of papers and books important to your project. This is in effect the first year examination in a PhD; if you pass you are upgraded/transferred from provisional PhD or MPhil status to full PhD, where the expectation is that you will complete a thesis of a sufficient standard to achieve your doctorate. Why do you have to do a report? Well, it has 2 purposes, it's designed to pick up anyone who may not been working hard enough in the year and its designed to spot where there may be a catastrophic problem with a research project. The most difficult thing to navigate when preparing the report is what your supervisor expects vs what the department expects. One of my supervisors told me I should just write and submit a less than 10 page paper for my report as it shows I have made enough progress to create a document ready for publication. However, this contrasted starkly with the guidelines given by my department to include a through literature review and comprehensive report of the experiments I had performed. It's not that easy to be in the middle of! In the end I decided to follow the department guidelines, simply because it wouldn't be my supervisor marking my work (marking policy varies wildly between universities) and I could just picture my examiners pulling my 'report' to pieces. From my first year report experience, I have 5 pieces of advice:

1. Ask your supervisor about the deadline. These can actually be quite *cough*  flexible *cough*.
2. Don't worry about making it perfect.
3. When playing with data and making all the graphs you'll need, don't use a track pad it'll give you RSI, and you won't be able to do anything very quickly. Trust me on this one.
4. Give yourself about a month to write and remind your supervisor if they complain about you not doing 'useful' work that if you fail this you won't be around to do any work at all.

You may think I'm leaving out an obvious bit of advice, "Write everything up as you go along so you'll have less to do later!". Well, I think everyone knows that one. Also, you probably won't have time to write up everything and the things you write up might not actually be that useful. I'd written up my cell culture experiments as I went along, but I used very little of that write up in my report except as jumping off points. I'm not saying don't write up as you go, rather don't expect it to be an assembly job if you do and don't beat yourself up about it if you don't.

At the moment I'm beginning to think about making a start on my second year report although it's currently looking like I don't have to do very much. A thesis plan  how hard can it be? Probably much harder than it should be, but at least it should be useful! Overall, my plan for this report is simple, throw some words down and don't worry about it too much. I also have a plan in mind for if someone complains it's too brief; direct them to my supervisor and throw draft papers at them!

Weekly Round-up 30th June 2014 (Return of the Round-up)

Today after a short break the weekly link round-up is back! As well as looking at the things I've found interesting online I thought I would add on a little nod to the things I'm currently enjoying in the form of books, games, music and TV.

1. Super Cool Livers for Super Transplants
   The New Scientist Reports that an experiment to see if cryopreservation of livers allows them to maintain function after days in storage. At the moment a liver may only remain functional for half a day, meaning distance can effect who receives the organ. However, by freezing livers treated with chemicals to keep cell fluids liquid and protect cell membranes, researchers found that a liver transplant within 3 days of freezing maintained function in all rat tests. The researchers are now working to see if they can repeat their results in a large animal model, with a comparable to human liver size. Fingers crossed this advance will make it easier to transport organs to the people who need them.
2. Gravitational Waves or Dust?
   After a huge media storm around the discovery of gravitational waves, two independent analyses have concluded that the observed results could have been caused by dust in space. Interestingly, the discovery was initially revealed before the research paper had been peer reviewed, a process the initial study is currently undergoing. It will be interesting to see if the paper makes it through to a journal, but whatever happens it looks like we may need further data to conclusively prove the existence of gravity waves.
3. NASA Tests Their New Flying Saucer
   NASA have been testing a new form of landing craft which may be a key stepping stone on our journey to the red planet. The NASA flying saucer test was designed to examine the performance of a pair of technologies designed to slow a craft down in order to land on a planet. The key driver in doing this is to make it possible for heavier vehicles to be able to land safely. Fingers crossed this test and the tests planned later in the year help pave the way for our first manned missions to our nearest neighbour. 

And finally... The clock strikes 12... 

It's coming! The BBC have finally announced that Doctor Who will return on 23rd August (bank holiday Saturday) with the feature length episode "Deep Breath" ushering in the Capaldi era. Check out the explosive teaser below.

Currently Reading: Stray Souls by Kate Griffin, a fantasy novel set in modern day London where underground tickets have magical properties and sorcerers draw power from the rhythms of the city (the same world initially introduced in Griffin's Matthew Swift books). It's a fantastic book on its own, but I'd read the previous Matthew Swift books (starting with a Madness of Angels) to get the most out of it.

Currently Watching: Avatar: The Legend of Korra, the sequel series to the Last Airbender, which for my money, far surpasses the original series. It follows the story of new avatar Korra and her struggle to bring balance to Republic City. I'm motoring through the first series so I can't wait for the second to come out on DVD!

TERMIS - Reflections and Diary Links

Good afternoon! Now I've had some time to get settled back into the swing of things at home I thought it'd be quite nice to round off my TERMIS coverage with a bit of an overview of what I got out of it. My diaries mainly focussed on the things that actually happened, rather than the bigger picture of what I've taken away so here's a look at what I distilled from my experiences.

What did I learn?

• Most obviously, I picked up lots of new scientific information from the conference, which is exactly what you would hope to do. However, it's hard to guarantee how much you'll pick up before hand, as you only really know what you'll get out of a talk once you've seen it. 
• I'm not half bad at networking, especially if I break myself into it bit by bit. In the event of nerves, wine and cheese help!
• Drama techniques are fantastic to apply to presentations. (I presented at my old college today and that found not warming up made a big difference)
• Practice really does make perfect. It really felt good to be able to present on auto-pilot as it took a lot of the stress out of the experience.
• Conferences are as much about the social events as the presentations because these are where you make contacts and start collaborations. However, that means during the social events you are actually working, so you don't have chance to fully relax! I wasn't very well prepared for the social program to be so intense, but next time I will be.

What will I do next time?

• Take my own notebook. At TERMIS I just used the supplied paper in the conference pack, but it wasn't very good and I didn't really have enough, so next time I should just buy some and not be such a cheapskate!
• Write up useful notes as I go along. I had a full day of writing my TERMIS ones up when I got back and I don't want to do that again!
• Take a tablet, not a laptop. Tablets turn on quicker and are great if you want to flick through your slides without changing them or check e-mails.
• Practice, practice, practise any presentations. It's totally worth it.
• Be prepared to stay out late and party (for science of course).
• Try not to be afraid to speak to someone, people may not feel comfortable starting a conversation, but they will often join in if you kick things off.  
• Have a spare pair of suitable shoes! My feet got a bit shredded by the shoes I took and I didn't have an alternate pair of flats to wear.
• Get more involved with the young scientists program. I didn't get around to doing the mentor meet and co-chairing of seminars that the SYIS program offered, but next time I should make the effort to get involved.
• Poster harder. I didn't hit up the poster sessions as well as I could, so next time I need to focus less on the food and more on the posters!
• Take time off after the conference. I got home from Italy on Saturday night and I was back at work on Monday, but I think I really could have done with an extra day off to help me recover. I don't feel like I was very productive at work last week so it would have been better to write a day or two off as leave so I could've had a day to myself to just just sit and relax.

Just in case you missed my conference diaries the first time round my day 1 diary is here, my day 2 and 3 diaries are here and my day 4 and 5 diaries are here!

TERMIS Diary- Days 4 and 5

Here are my final 2 diaries from TERMIS and include highlights such as my presentation (eek!) and the conference dinner! I'm going to follow this up with a post linking to all my diaries, along with an overview of some of the key things I've learnt from my experience. Remember, feel free to ask me as many questions as you want!

Day 4

Ponente room, my presentation venue!

Today was D-day or rather P-day. I got myself ready at the apartment nice and early and dove straight into doing some of the vocal warm up’s I've learnt in my theatre group. They’re very effective, but sound quite strange to someone listening from the outside so either my colleagues are doing a great job of pretending they didn't hear me, or I actually got away without anyone listening in. I felt a bit nauseous before getting to the conference centre so I skipped breakfast and just went with drinking lots of water before going to the seminar my talk was part of. When I got to the room I needed to present in the panic really set it. To start with I’d forgotten the order of my slides, so I quickly used my netbook to run over them vaguely in my head before the seminar started. I then suddenly thought “What if someone asks me what the spectrum of bone is like?” realised I couldn't remember that either and desperately tried to get an image of the spectrum up using the conference internet. Unsurprisingly, this was one of the times when the internet just wouldn't work and I had to give up on that pretty quickly. I can't decide whether the timing of my talk was helpful or not from a nerves perspective. On the one hand, I was in the first session of the day. On the other hand, I was right at the very end of the first session and as the talks went on I started feeling more and more nervous, constantly noticing if more people were coming to the session or leaving (more were coming) and how tickley my throat was, but with an hour and a half to sit through I wanted to be careful not to drink too much water! Once the session started I was able to keep my mind on the talks quite well up until the one before mine. When I was called to the podium I managed to calm myself (up to a point) with lots of deep breaths, before launching straight into my talk. I made one slip up on the second slide where I said I would explain “What is tissue engineering?” rather than “What is Raman spectroscopy”, but I managed to recover. From that point on I was on auto pilot. I’d practised, practised and practised my talk so much that I was in performance mode, reciting my lines and playing the part of a knowledgeable scientist to the attendees. It’s strange. I can only really remember the bits of the talk where I laser pointed at the screen! Then it was over. I had one question. A very nice one about my thoughts on an interesting effect we’d noticed with some of my samples and I was done. The relief was immense! I was shaking a bit as I went to get my things and was roundly congratulated on a presentation well done by my supervisors and colleagues. I’d done it. My first conference presentation is over!

After the break, I went to see an excellent keynote on the nature of bone marrow stem cells in the body and how its seems that cells around blood vessels can actually become bone marrow stem cell like. I think it’s pretty common knowledge to some biologists, but it was all new for me and was pretty mind blowing. I decided to take a mini-break after the keynote to send texts home to tell people that my presentation went ok and to ring my better half (who had the conference program open on his laptop, trying to work out when I would be done). With that done it was back to the standard thing of watching more presentations! My favourite, was once again, the big plenary of the day by Professor Badylak, who's been doing some incredible work on repairing muscles in cases of significant muscle loss using tissue engineered scaffolds. The results he presented from the pre-clinical trial were simply incredible. 

It was then time for the 'Students and Young Investigators' evening. Which, after the success of the other social elements of the conference so far, was a bit of a let down. The bar we were in was beautiful, no doubt about that, but that meant expensive drinks and very small plates of food! The group I was with (Team Sheffield plus some lovely fellow students from Germany and the Czech Republic) nipped out for some ice cream (definitely worth doing) and came back to find most of the people gone, which was probably due to 330ml bottles of beer costing 5 euros. I did have a good evening over all (and was once again out later than planned), it was nice to be able to relax and chat. But for next time, in order to keep people together and networking, they really need a cheaper venue!

Day 5

I made it to the final day of the conference! There weren't many sessions that screamed out at me today as 'PhD useful' so I looked at what sounded interesting or fun and I ended up going to talks on simulating cells growing in a bioreactor on a computer, rapid prototyping and inkjet printing scaffolds. It was a nice and short day of talks, finishing at about 6pm to give us time to get ready for the conference dinner and pre-tours of the palaces of Genoa!

After changing at the apartment (going via a supermarket to pick up some Genoan  pesto to take home, you just have to) we headed down to the posh part of the old town for the palace tours. The two palaces we visited were filled with artwork, it wasn't really my thing, but it was a really nice opportunity to wander around some beautiful buildings. In the first palace we visited, we made it up to a viewing platform on the roof, which gave us some wonderful panoramic views of Genoa, right from the old town, to the docks and new town. It was a brilliant way to start the evening. Wandering around the houses and looking at the views, I couldn't help being strongly reminded my of the houses and city views in Assassin's Creed II, I could just picture Ezio running around the old town roof tops and shimmying into the courtyards of the cities richest families... yeah. I can never let the geekiness go.

Views of Genoa

Then came one of the highlights of the conference. The social dinner in the beautiful Palazzo della Meridiana, I'm going to go a bit George RR Martin and gush about the food now, so if you don't want a run down akin to the description of the feast of 77 courses, look away now!

Palazo della Meridana fresco

The conference dinner.

So, when we got into the Palazzo, we were supplied with a glass of prosecco and nibbles of yet more parmasan, which I'm starting to think should be the only way to start a formal dinner! The entry hall we were in was lovely, but it did make me wonder whether we would be standing to eat. Thankfully, my fears were most definitely alleviated when we were shown to the dinning rooms. It was breathtaking. The fresco on the ceiling, the carved stone fireplace, the platers on the table and not one but 3 wine glasses per person! It's safe to say I was more than a little awed. Then there came the food, all 4 glorious courses in true Italian style starting with seafood salad. Now, I'm not a salad person, but this was definitely my kind of salad as it was really just a seafood selection with a gherkin! We then had our pasta, a lovely thin pasta (small pieces to avoid having to slurp) in (not so surprisingly) Genoan pesto. I made a slight error as I didn't realise my server was waiting for me to say when to stop serving me (the others hadn't) so I ended up with quite a plateful (Maybe that was more of a happy accident than a mistake...). Next was amberjack fillet with pine nuts (there's a theme here) and potatoes. I'd never had amberjack before, so it was good to try something new. Finally, we got desert served with accompanying desert wine, a frozen mousse with grand marnier sauce, perfection! Even better was the fact Atra couldn't finish her's so I got one and a half deserts. You might think that would be the end of the culinary delights, but you'd be wrong. There was a selection of Italian pastries to enjoy (I managed one, it would be rude not to), a free spirits bar and espresso for those insensitive enough to caffeine to have strong Italian coffee at 11pm at night. Needless to say, it was a brilliant way to end the conference, full from a lovely meal, enjoying a disaronno on the rocks, chatting with my new friends from Sheffield about all things geeky. You can't get better than that! Well you could if you didn't end up going to bed at 1am and having  to get up at 7am. That could have been significantly improved... But, apart from the general lack of sleep, it was a fantastic end to a fantastic week. A week of firsts and fun, I might actually be looking forward to Photon14 (my next conference in London) now!