Science update

So I should talk about science. You know, as this is a science blog and all.

So I've officially started my journey to becoming a scientist. The kind of scientist that gets to put Dr instead of Miss in front of my name. I so can't wait to do that. Sad I know. For now though, I am still the annoying newby PhD student in the labs. I do some cool stuff, some not so cool stuff, some boring stuff, and some stuff I can't talk about.

One thing I do a lot of is labelling little plastic tubes.

Little plastic tubes for one experiment

And when I say a lot

Little plastic tubes

 I mean a lot

A satisfying layout of teeny tiny plastic tubes

And lots of little tubes means lots of pipetting.

So what actually am I researching? No, I'm not researching into how many teeny tubes you can label before you go crazy. I'm looking into the effects of ageing and exercise on the nervous system - how they change its health and the levels of a specific metabolic pathway. Its pretty cool.

Of course, there is also the fun side of science:

 That is what happens when you put dry ice, washing up liquid and warm water in a flask!

Ok, so I haven't really told you much about my PhD. But I can't/won't talk about a lot of it, so tough. I did have the annoying thing of having to do so much of the work I have been doing since march all over again -_- very annoying. The results I already have are ok though, but I can't use them to compare them with other stuff I'm doing and I need them comparable. Grr.

In other news, I get to go on my holidays soon! Off to France with my family for a while which will be lovely. We get to go to an aquarium, and all sorts of other cool stuff! Plus it will be really nice to see my family again. Biggest downside to the PhD is you don't tend to get prolonged periods of time off, making it hard to go home for more than a weekend.

So that's all for now. Bye!

The Discworld

So I read a lot of books, and have done ever since I was a kid. Some of my best and strongest childhood memories are of my dad sitting on the edge of my bed, book in hand and doing all the voices whilst I listened wide eyed and open eared, hanging onto every word. I think our favourites were the Wyrd Museum Trilogy by Robin Jarvis (Something all of you should read if you are into dark fantasy) and the Truckers series by Sir Terry Pratchett.

These guys always spring to mind when I remember those books

They even did an amazing movie back in the early 90's for Truckers. I had it on video and watched it so many times. I always wanted my own "The Thing". I also remember us constantly renting the video of Johnny and the Dead from the library, and me and my sister laughing hysterically at it over and over again.

I tried reading some of discworld in my early teens, but to be honest I couldn't get into it. I don't think it helped that my first book was "Thud", one of the many stories about Sir Sam Vimes and his motley crew of the Ankh Morpork Watch trying to stop an all out war between the Dwarves and the Trolls. This book has a lot of discworld history in it, and is not the best place to start.

The Discworld, travelling through space on the back of four giant elephants standing on the back of Great A'tuin, the sky turtle

Since that time, I've actually read pretty much every single discworld book in existence, as well as all of the other side books. I love every single one, especially the beauty and the well thought outness of the discworld. No one else could ever be as genius as to come up with that punny, reflective and complex world.

A lot of my Pratchett love stems from my mum, who has been the biggest Pratchett fan for as long as I can remember. She has every single book, most in hardback, plus all the extras, the calender and the diary each year, and a regular subscriber to discworld monthly. We are also all now becoming experts at the Ankh Morpork board game she got last year for xmas. I think without that influence, I would never have read all the books like I have today.

I couldn't choose exactly who my favourite is. I love the witches and wizards, the sheer craziness and stupidity that follows them around, especially Rincewind and his luggage. I also grew to love the watch, originally my least favourite, as they got more and more depth and I got to know them better. I love Death and his family, including death of Rats (SQUEAK), and how he tries so hard to understand humans and completely fails in the most beautiful and innocent way imaginable, and covers for it with sheer sass.

The best crew

So today I heard the news that Sir Terry Pratchett, the man who gave us this beautiful world, has passed on. I'm not ashamed of the tears in my eyes when I read that. I'm glad I got to read his books, and I'm glad I got to hear the music inspired by him (Go listen to the Wintersmith album by Steeleye Span).

I think his Twitter group summed it up perfectly:

AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER
Terry took Death's arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
The End.

Goodnight Sir Terry, and thank you

Nothing much, science and gaming

So its been a while since I said anything on here. Its not from lazyness, just that nothing has really been happening for a while. I tend to blog when something interesting has happened, and nothing noteworthy really has!

I've done some science at least. That was fun. I got to extract the DNA and RNA and proteins and lots of other stuff from samples which took a few days and a whole bunch of eppendorf tubes!

over 200 eppendorf tubes for only 10 samples!

All of those tubes had to be labelled, by hand, twice each! That took long enough. There were also about this many again that I used a few days prior to this. Science requires many much tubes.
Still, the data I'm getting from my samples looks really good, so I'm happy with that :)

The only problem I'm currently having is this: All those tubes and sciencing were actually for my 3rd rotation. Which isn't due to start for another 2-3 weeks! So why was I doing that and not my 2nd rotation work? Well: my 3rd rotation is actually going to be my PhD, that was decided ages ago, so I was always going to run these samples. My secondary supervisor needed the samples running earlier than expected however, hence me doing them now. my 2nd rotation supervisor has been really good about it as he has been collaborating with my PhD lab. Still, now I'm like 2 weeks behind on my 2nd rotation work, and currently have sod all to show for it. So there goes my free time and weekends (and a concert) in order to catch up. The life of a PhD student eh? Its all work work work. Still, I'm loving it all the same. And I really don't miss undergrad or exams or lectures or coursework constantly.

Outside of the PhD? Well, I now have living space sorted for next year with two friends who are also going to be PhD/Masters students. The house is really nice, if a little out of the way.
All the SATT games are restarting up again. Our weekly Legend of the 5 rings game started off with a bang, with us entering the dream world, fighting off evil spirits and then one of our members going berserk and running off. Just another session. Also (fingers crossed) a new Thursday game will be starting soon, where we all get to play pokemon! Ok, so I don't know much about pokemon, but they're cute and the DM is a good one so it should be fun. Depends on whether there are enough spaces though.

Finally, I've been back playing Kingdom hearts. I got 2.5 remix for my birthday, but didn't feel right starting it until I completed the first one. So I did that, and am now playing Re:chained memories for the first time ever! Its exciting to finally get some new content after all these years. And to finally work out what the hell happened between the first game and the second game!

Nobodys - the new bad guys

The first leaves off with the main characters walking off down a road cheerful and confident. Kingdom Hearts 2 then starts with the main characters in what essentially are stasis pods with no memories, and nobodies running around causing chaos. Re:Chained memories solves this massive plot gap (Organisation XIII steal all of their memories to prevent them from preventing the organisation taking control of kingdom hearts. They fail).

The organisation - strangely with a number of lovable characters

Anyway, enough about me and gaming. I have science to do.

Amigurumi and more

So I promised to show more of my crafty skills, and here they are. Though first I should explain a little. It was my birthday just before Christmas, and for the day my mum gave me an amazing time. In the morning I got an hour long one-to-one crochet lesson, then the four of us went out to this beautiful place from our childhood and got to fly kites (something we always used to do as kids at this place) then we played board games and finished up watching a fantastic film called Joe's palace (directed by the amazing Steven Poliakoff)

Flying kites up on the hills.

So anyway, onto the crafting. I've been knitting for a while now, but for the longest time I couldn't get to grips with crochet. I could do the basic steps, and managed to make a scarf or two, but nothing remotely complicated. After my lesson though, I can now say I can crochet amigurumi :) 

What is amigurumi you ask? Well from what I have learned, it is a Japanese word which literally means knitted toy :) and you can make some damned cute stuff:

Amigurumi Bird and Snail

Teeny mice and my beautiful fish

Bird pattern: http://bittersweetblog.com/2007/02/19/birds-of-a-feather/
Snail pattern: http://amigurumibyknotty.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/free-snail-pattern.html
Mouse pattern: http://www.amigurumitogo.com/2014/04/little-grey-mouse.html (Youtube tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFEeRBwk5nE)
Fish pattern: http://apocalypseknits.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/fredde-fish-pattern.html

None of the patterns for these creations are mine - you'll find all the true artists at the links above. However, they allowed me to make these guys and I full on LOVE them. If you want to give it a go, I reccomend Sharon Ojala. She is the one who made the mouse, and has also done Totoro and stuff. You can also find her on Facebook, and she is lovely and commented on my first ever mouse.

Amigurumi is so much fun to make, and surprisingly easy. I want to make more, but I haven't decided what is next. I have too much work to do for now anyway. If anyone has any suggestions/requests please shout.

As a quick note on my work, I've started my next and new lab this week. I'm already excited as its back into the field of Neuroscience. Its a bit more focused on genetics than I'm used to, but its already interesting. So far I have a bunch of reading to do and some software to learn, but come Monday I start my research.
See ya next time

Crafty edible goodness

These winter holidays I discovered something. I discovered I can do crafty things. And no, I'm not an evil villain from a movie being crafty. I mean I can make things from other things that look cool. Here, let me show you.

So something I've always admired is cake decoration, though I've never been able to do it myself. This year, like every year, my mum made her amazing Christmas cake like always. Proper home made 3 months in advance with all sorts of yummy stuff in it. Even the marzipan was home made. I helped her put on the marzipan and the icing, and then she gave me the rest along with some food dye.

The first thing I did was play with the marzipan, and this is what happened:

Marzipan fruit

I made marzipan fruit! For reference, we have kiwi, oranges, banannas, apples and pears. They were so much fun to make (if rather messy). And rather delicious.
Then I got given icing and the honour of decorating the christmas cake. And well, I might have gotten a little bit carried away...

Our most wonderful xmas cake

All of the icing started out white, and much food colouring was used (and covered my hands) to make this.

Robin, tree, snowman

I'm especially proud of these guys. They all have a centre of marzipan (even the snowman's hat) and are covered by coloured icing.

tree, robins, present, snowman, holly, star

All of these toppings are icing alone and took forever! All of it took forever tbh, though I have to say it is a darn good way of spending an xmas eve.

I also did more crafty stuff over the holidays, but that will have to wait until next time. I have 5 huge review papers and a long set of notes to read through, on top of learning some new software to get done before Monday. So, lunch break over.
Until next time!

Creativity

Well, its December. Lots happens in December, and to be honest I find it exhausting. But anyway. I've been making things of late, so I thought I would show you all:

Knitted plush dogs

I knitted these two for my new and good friends H and Ames. Check out their crafty blog Here: Bonnington Craft Haven. They make all sorts of awesome stuff which is worth checking out.

These guys took me around a week or more to make each one, doing a couple of hours each day. It was fun though :) They're not too hard to make.

I wanted to make more stuff for people but I ran out of time. I'll put up any more things I make.

I've come home now for the xmas hols. This is probably the last time I'll be home this early or for this long but hey. This is the first xmas since I was 15 that I don't have to do exam revision all day every day I'm home. Its odd, and tbh I'm already a bit bored. Hopefully people will be around to meet up with, and there is reading to do for my next rotation.

In other creative news, edible creativity has been occurring:

Cherry Cake

Mmm Cherry cake with lemon icing. My fave type of cake ever. Its quick, easy and nice. Even if it looks a bit messy. Food presentation is not my strong point.

Candy peel

This is supposed to be candied orange/grapefruit peel. Something went wrong, because to be brutally honest it was disgusting and ended up in the bin. Oh well, better luck next time. I don't even like candied peel.

Marzipan fruit

Ok, this I'm kinda proud of. It took me like 3 hours, but this is (homemade by mum) marzipan and food colouring made into fruit. Its not amazing, but I'm happy with it. You have banannas, oranges, kiwi's, apples and pears. Grapes were a bit too hard.

So, that's all for now. Just wanted to share pretty pictures. Happy xmas

Frankenstein and the Theatre

So this weekend I got to see something incredible:

Frankenstein, an incredible performance

This was a play originally performed live at the National Theatre, starring Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch. When it was performed, they also filmed it and broadcast it into cinema's around the country so that other people could get to experience it from afar. This year they decided to re-air it in the cinema's, allowing those of us who missed it to see it.

Now, I adore the theatre. It was always my dream to work in a theatre, to be a theatre actor and experience the madness and sheer exhilaration of performing each and every night. Sadly my talents in this field are somewhat lacking, but my love of the theatre has never lessened. So to get to see these two great actors at work was really something.

The play had an interesting twist - the two main actors swapped roles each night, one time playing Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and the next playing the monster he created. This emphasised the idea of creation and humanity and such (according to the director).

Swapping roles each night, giving two brilliant interpretations of the same play

I was lucky enough to see both versions of the play, and both were just incredible. The two men portrayed both characters differently to one another, despite going through the same motions and having the same lines. Lots of people say they have a 'favourite' cast for the play, but I have to say it is hard to choose which I prefer.
BC's portrayal of the creature really showed his innocence and sheer joy at seeing the world for the first time, of experiencing sunlight and rain, and the feeling of grass on his skin, and the vulnerability he had when he first came to life and learned to walk. As the play moved on, you really felt the sense of sheer betrayal felt by the creature, which I found less so from JLM's portrayal. JLM on the other hand showed the creatures anger and burning rage barely kept under control as the play progressed, his voice stronger and body language harsher from the start. They both showed different sides to the creature, but both of them made you love him, sympathise with him, and feel an immense loss for the person he could have been had people not been so harsh.
JLM portrayed the doctor's progression as a slow decent into madness, which I loved. The doctors sheer exhaustion yet sheer determination at the end was just incredible. BC on the other hand really made the characters obsession and drive for science shine through, though showed less of the characters slow but sure destruction than JLM.

So you see, it's very hard to say which I prefer. In a way I would say I prefer cast A, with BC as the creature and JLM as the doctor. I think that is because that was the first performance I saw, and so the second was always being compared. Both were just incredible though, and I am so glad I saw them.

A quick word on the staging - incredible. Ok, I know I have said that a lot, but seriously it was. They had a huge display of lightbulbs that lit up and flashed at times throughout the performance, showing the flashes of electricity that brings the creature to life, as well as the strangeness of it all and those flashes of inspiration that came to Victor Frankenstein throughout the story. They also had a rotating centre, allowing for different staging to appear, and a set of tracks (like a railway) which were used to great effect (especially when a fully steampunked up train and crew came roaring on stage). Also that make-up for the creature: just wow.

If any of you ever get the chance to see it then do so. They aren't releasing a DVD of it, which is sad but a decision made by the performance team and one I respect. It would loose something I think.
Here is the trailer they released, so you can have a flavour:

As a final note, if anyone ever wants to see anything in the theatre, please give me a shout. I want to see more things at the theatre, as I always have and always will love the magic. 

Kingdom Hearts - my childhood Pokemon

So, many people are currently getting excited over the upcoming release of this:

Yup, that's right, Pokemon!

This (for those of you who either live under a rock or care none for games), is the remake and upgrade of two of the most popular pokemon games. The original games were released alongside Pokemon emerald, which hasn't been remade (maybe it was rubbish?), on the Nintendo Gameboy Advance around 2002-2003 according to Wikipedia.

You may have guessed I don't play Pokemon. Nor do I have a particular wish to. I have my reasons, which I won't go into here.

*cue shock and outrage*

Ok, I will go into one reason. I have never owned any of the handheld Nintendo consoles. None of them. So, whilst most of you who enjoy the series have a huge rush of nostalgia back to an era where colour was a luxury and the envy of all when it came to handheld gaming, I only have a vague memory of being a little jealous I didn't have one. So I didn't play the series as a kid.
Ok, 2 reasons. The other being I like in depth and detailed story-lines that are the main focus of a game. And no, I do not count 'to be the best pokemon trainer ever' to be an in depth and detailed storyline. I also don't enjoy having to do endless battles for 6 hours solid before being told 'great, you are now strong enough to do the next 6 hours of endless battles'.

Now, before you all start yelling at me, I'm not saying they're bad games. I'm saying I don't enjoy them. Difference. Note it.

Now onto something I do love, and spent most of my childhood playing over and over again:

The original Kingdom Hearts

For those of you who don't know, this is a game called Kingdom Hearts. There are now something like 6 spin off games from this original ones, all of which are damned good. It was originally released on the PS2, also funnily enough back in 2002, 2 years after I first got my PS2.

Sora

The basic premise of the game is you play as this guy over here in the red ->
This is Sora, your traditional mildly irritating teenage protagonist, who I nevertheless kinda like. He is the legendary keyblade master (though of course he doesn't know it). The keyblade literally being a giant key (see image) that you use to beat up the bad guys. Deal with it.

Then Disney and the final fantasy series team up and go, hey lets team up and get into gaming. So, Sora meets up with Donald Duck and Goofy the dog (see other images) and goes about saving all the worlds you know and love (or don't) from all the old Disney films. You go to Wonderland, Agrabah, Neverland, Atlantica, Halloween Town, Tarzan's Jungle and Hercules training grounds. Plus there are a couple of other new worlds to play in. You really don't have to have seen the films to play the game (I haven't seen them all) but its fun to see the characters you know in new and interesting situations.

Shadow heartless, your basic bad guy

The story is a good one (IMHO). The worlds are being devoured by the dark evil beings known as the heartless, who come from the darkness in peoples hearts. Without you and your trusty companions, everything will succumb to darkness. At the same time, Sora's two best friends have gone missing, and he wants nothing more than to find them both safe and well. (yeah, like that's going to happen). There is a lot of character development for Sora as the game goes on and he realises that the universe isn't as happy as he thinks it is. There are also numerous things that occur that tie in with the story-lines of later games, which I think is cool.
The only problem I have with the KH games (bar the slight cheesyness) is my now irrational hatred of Mickey Mouse, which people just don't get.

So yeah, basically whilst you are all getting excited over Pokemon, I'm busy getting excited for the release of Kingdom Hearts 2.5 remix in a couple of weeks. 1.5 remix came out last year and I have been loving every minute of it. The remix versions are not only the PS3 shiny remakes, but they also have a bunch of new content, new enemies, new cutscenes and new goals to achieve, adding an extra dimension to the game. They also come with 2 of the spin-off games not previously available on the PS2 which I'm excited to play. (It got irritating when Nintendo snapped up a couple of the spin off games as exclusives as I don't have the console or the money to own one).
I prefer the storyline of KH1, but the gameplay of KH2 is on another level and I love it so much more. Plus KH3 is now in the works, much excitement!

So there you are. I like gaming. Sorry for the slow update, not much exciting has been occurring in my life recently.
I should have some exciting science updates for you soon(ish) maybe. I'm currently creating many much wiggly lines using an NMR machine which is fun (go look it up).

That's all for now!

Robin Hood

Robin Hood. The renowned archer who robbed from the rich to feed the poor, the hero of Nottingham and the nemesis of the Sheriff. This weekend Nottingham castle celebrated this figure of legend in a pretty spectacular way with the Robin Hood Pageant, which me and 2 very good friends went to on Saturday.

Around the grounds of the event were loads of tents with shops, demonstrations and lots of reenactors in full kit. The first shop was amazing, full of hand crafted leather and metal goods, including jewellery, drinking and calling horns, tankards, bows and arrows, bracer's, all beautifully carved with amazing detail. If anyone is ever over Sherwood forest way I recommend checking out his shop (The Forest Archer (theforestarcher.com)). Further on, we saw a woman spinning and dying wool in the traditional ways, which was really cool. Next we found a place that let you make your own candles, either by rolling them out of bees wax, or by dipping candles in coloured wax to make them pretty. H also got a hat.

Then came to my favourite parts. First they had an area to have a go at archery, which I jumped at. I got given an extra arrow or two, as the guy I was working with was lovely and seemed rather relieved to be working with someone who had some idea of how to shoot for once! (Ok, I'm not exactly great but I know the very basics of how to stand, hold and fire)

Robin hood in rainbow gloves

Then came the most beautiful part of the day. BIRDS OF PREY! Now, for those of you who don't know me, I absolutely adore any and all forms of birds of prey. They are the most beautiful creatures on this planet. My dream would be to work in falconry for a living, working with and hunting with these gorgeous birds. Its a bit of a strange dream for a very strict vegetarian who isn't keen on leather, but hey.

Lanner falcon cross, Harris hawk and Eagle owl

Yes that is my hand in the top left. That little guy was just gorgeous, and I got to hold him for a couple of minutes. I also got to fly the Harris Hawk twice to my hand which was just amazing! There was also a beautiful grumpy little barn owl, but I didn't manage to get a good picture of him.

There were a few more tents and things which had cool stuff in at the bottom, and then we headed up the hill. At the top were more shops, with hand carved wooden kitchen things, swords and daggers, gemstones, baskets, pouches, herbs, drink powders etc. It was all pretty cool.

We then had a pretty darn good afternoon of entertainment, with stories, sword fights, jousting and a falconry display. We got pretty darn cold sitting out watching for as long as we did, but it was so worth it. The characterisations were really well done too, with the Sheriff yelling evil things at us lowly peasants and Friar Tuck winning most of his battles with a tankard of ale in his hand, running away and falling over a lot.

The day show

We went out for dinner, and then we got to go back as they did a night time joust. It was incredible, with the knights charging down the green on horseback with flaming torches in hand, the incredible noises made by axe and sword meeting shields, sparks flying everywhere as metal met metal, and the final battle had the evil sheriff of Nottingham wielding a two handed flaming sword against Robin Hood carrying two single handed blades. All in all it was pretty darn spectacular, and we all had such a good day.

Night time jousting

I can highly recommend it to everyone for next year. Its brilliant fun, and I have to say I was surprised at the lack of LARPers.
Spending today chilling out as next week is going to be very long and very busy.
Have fun

Lab times and leafy friends

Inductions. A necessary boredom, but such a dull one. Especially when it takes 2 full weeks! It's now week 3 of my return to uni land, and so far it's been 2 solid weeks of induction and courses, 2 days of reading and half a day in the lab waiting for other people to do things!

I have to say the courses we did were a big let down. Only a small group of us got to do the 2 day imaging course, and at first it looked to be really good. It ended up being really dull, going into a bunch of the physics behind microscopy which you don't particularly need to understand/know/remember when you actually use the machine. And we didn't get to do much hands on stuff which was disappointing. 

Anyways, courses aside we finally got our rotation placements through. My chosen phd topic I want to do I will get to do in my third rotation, which I'm very much looking forward to. The group are amazing, my soon to be supervisors lovely, and the work fascinating. Before then, I will be working on bacterial interaction with lipids in membranes (current project) and miRNA in neuroprotection and development (after New Years). The first project is much more chemistry and physics based than I was expecting, so it's kinda difficult and scary. I'm just hoping I don't screw up and let any of the labs down by failing. I kinda need to be good at this.

Very pretty, very fake neuroscience pic

In other news, my latest postcard collection has now grown to 3 thanks to my parents going on holiday. I'm hoping I get lots more soon :) I love postcards. I also now have two new friends in the form of mini evergreen shrubberies which have yet to be named (submissions are welcome). 

My sister and an old friend of mine from my first secondary school came to visit last weekend which was nice :) haven't seen them for an age. 

Can't really remember much else exciting. Games are afoot once again, with the return of Bens's Serilla on Thursdays which will be most fun :) also, someone else should own diablo 3 on ps3 so I can game with people more often. It's a very good game.

My new leafy friends

Ok, I'm out of news and tired.

Have fun