New Year, New Things.

So I er, didn't quite manage to get a post up last week. In short it's to do with a myriad of job hunting factors and a busy Christmas, but yeah, no post. I apologise and hope to get on track from now onwards!

2015 is here and everywhere has look backs at 2014 or previews of what's to come in 2015. I don't normal do the whole look forward/backward thing myself, but it feels like 2015 is going to be a particularly big year for me. If nothing else it will be a year of change, so here's some of what will be coming up for me in the next 12 months.

An End

2015 is the year I will complete my PhD. Hopefully. I finish my day to day work for sure this year (mainly as I stop getting paid), and I want to get my thesis in, but that could drag on for a bit longer. However, I'm aiming for a 2015 hand in for the sake of my sanity.

A Beginning

As my PhD is ending, I'll be starting a new career. I don't know what that will be yet, but hopefully there will be a job for me to start in September! *Crosses all fingers and toes very tightly*

Something Exciting

As well as the big things I've got quite a lot of smaller, but important events happening from things I'm going to see to things I'm in. I've got two performances which I'm a part of to prep for in the coming year, from the imminent Made in Yorkshire in February to A Midsummer Night's Dream in the summer. I'm also already booked to go see the Kaiser Chiefs in a few weeks at the Leeds Arena, where I'll also be seeing The Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular in May (Note to self remember tissues in case of Angels Take Manhattan or Regenerations). To add to that I'll once again be trotting off to various conventions this summer including Nine Worlds for definite and likely either MCM Expo or London Film and Comic Con.

Things to Watch, Read, Play and Listen
There are so many things that I'm looking forward to watching/playing/reading/listening to this year. I'm already looking forward to more Doctor Who and, of course, The Force Awakens next winter. But, in the near future I want to sink my teeth into the Wheel of Time audio-books, read Catherine Webb's  new and newish books under her new, new  pen name Clare North and watch Agent Carter, the new Marvel TV show following Peggy Carter after the events of Captain America. Sprinkle in some Dungeons and Dragons and a good deal of time playing the new Super Smash Brothers and that's my year in no way wrapped up. Come on! I also need to catch up with Hannibal and the Lightbringer books and Clariel and Tokyo Ghoul and Red Seas Under Red Skys... Oh! AND.... 

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!