things that make you smile

n a non-work related note, what makes you smile? It's pretty normal to feel down occasionally but I think that it's important to make the most of what we have. My stress level have never been so high at the moment, strangely "twitchy eye" has not begun yet. I think it happens to most people, is when you are so tired and stressed that one of your eyes start twitching uncontrollably. Comic relief is what I need. 

Check this out: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/858815-rude-herb-facebook-crew-terrorise-supermarket-shoppers

Anyway, one of the things that most definitely can lift my mood up is LOL Cats: http://icanhascheezburger.com/ I do love the ceiling cat saga (by the way he lives in Chri's room now).

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Hilarious version VS not-so-hilarious version ( religious version) 

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Also I like to watch my friend Rob when is bakewelled (really really REALLY drunk) and my friend Daaaave, when he generally stands around breaking stuff and/or himself or just when swans come near him (he even has a facebook page about his specialness).  But that is a more evil kind of fun I suppose. He cooked me dinner last night so I should be nice to him. 

The other day for example, I locked Emma in the constant temperature room by mistake...good fun really but only because she could open the door from the inside (I am not that evil).

This morning, on the way to work, Radio 2 played "always look on the bright side of life". It did put me in a very good mood. 

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (from Monty Python - Life of Brian)

words and music by Eric Idle

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...

    And...always look on the bright side of life...
    Always look on the light side of life...

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.

    And...always look on the bright side of life...
    Always look on the light side of life...

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.


       So always look on the bright side of death
       Just before you draw your terminal breath

Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.


And always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the right side of life...
(Come on guys, cheer up!)
Always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the bright side of life...
(Worse things happen at sea, you know.)
Always look on the bright side of life...
(I mean - what have you got to lose?)
(You know, you come from nothing - you're going back to nothing.
What have you lost? Nothing!)
Always look on the right side of life...

Grow Plankton

Hello,

It has been a while! I must apologize. I have been so busy I had no time to do anything. Busy doing what you may ask...erm...work! The most important experiments of my PhD career have started. I have set up 3 phytoplankton "continuous" cultures (in the pic) and I am now waiting for them to reach a "steady state".

My continuous cultures

Ok I think a brief explanation is in order. Well, phytoplankton are the little unicellular plants that live and drift in the ocean. There are many different species, of a variety of colours and sizes:

Batch cultures I grow to feed zooplankton

What they need to survive (like any plant), is light and nutrients dissolved in the water. The main nutrients they survive on are Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorous (P) [Iron (Fe) too but in minor quantities].

We grow different species in the lab and in order to do that we have to make some nice nutritious seawater for them, full of those nutrients they like as well  as vitamins and minerals. It's a bit like cooking, just mixing powders and/or solutions with strange names all in a bottle.

Anyway, if you grow them in a closed bottle, the little ones will go on absorbing all the nutrients in the water until they run out. Which means they will eventually die. That is called growth curve:

http://microvet.arizona.edu/Courses/MIC205/Exams/05Exams/05Ex2key.htm
It says bacterias on the side but the principle applies to phytoplankton too (over DAYS not hours).

So...to keep them in the so called stationary phase I started to grow them in a "chemostat" or a continuous culture, where they receive daily rations of nutrients to keep them alive and going for a long time in a state of equilibrium (until the big carboy runs out of media that is). 

I must confess, set one of those things up is not that easy, there are a lot of things that go wrong all the time and the stress levels riseeeeeee. Every day there is something new to sort out...one day I will get it perfect! 

They are so colourful, nature is amazing.

Just add peas

At present I have the house all to myself and often I am not very motivated about cooking just for myself (although I love cooking). I must confess that sometimes I buy those ready made soups that sit in an old style milk carton container. They are not great but they are better than the canned ones. Anyway, I have recently found out a great trick to make them taste better. Looking at my sad tomato soup I decided, on the spur of the moment, to add frozen peas to it and dilute it a little with with veggie stock (the instant one). It worked great! You guys should try it too, I recommend it.

mushy‑peas‑what‑the‑hell.jpg

My friend Farah and I, have actually discussed this before, peas are great, we should eat more peas! I bet we could add sweetcorn too...yummy.

I think I will start a page on recipes etc. My mum and my aunties are such great cooks I must share their secrets with you. I am sure that not many people can say no to Italian food. The only problem is that I really don't measure quantities while I cook. I'll come up with something, watch this space!


Ciao

There is method in the madness

Hello,

in the past couple of days (years..) I have been trying to finalize some of the  methodology I intend to use to analyse my samples. It started all one morning, the sky was grey outside and the computer took its usual 20 minutes to boot up (all because of some UEA glitch), a pretty standard day if you ask me. Anyway I though..."let's analyse some of the samples I collected on the cruise!". 

I analysed my lab samples before for certain parameters, like Particulate Organic Carbon (POC) on filters. However because my latest samples came from open ocean, a new pre-analytical step has to be added to it.  The problem started when I had to decide on the length of time the filters need to be treated. I really think there aren't many scientists that agree on that and it's surprising how many papers aren't clear on the topic! Because of this I will have to find out on my own...by doing some more tests! And in the mist of everything else I need to do really I didn't need this for sure! In the end I cannot just pick a random method, I need to know that works. This is because when the time will come for me to discuss and defend my thesis (yeyyyy...I dream of the day...) I will have to justify all my choices. It wasn't just POC but POP (Particulate Organic Phosphorus) as well and various others.

That morning for a moment I thought...the known quote " there is method in the madness" must come from science...but actually after googling the phrase, it came out that dear old Shakespeare had his finger in it. (I often think that Shakespeare and Oscar Wild must have come up with at least 30% of the world quotes. joking). Anyway this particular phrase comes from Hamlet (1602):

Polonius:

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?"

and the madness continuous... till next time, Ciao.

Why a PhD?

Hello all,

Since I have decided to produce a  mixed science-diary blog I should start talking about PhDs I suppose.

Well first of all I want to say, there seems to be a widespread impression that people doing a PhD must be cleverer then others, or something along those lines. I personally don't share this view. Although I met some really clever people at university, I feel that some of us are just very committed characters. From what I have seen so far, the thing that all of us undertaking a PhD have in common, is really just a lot of motivation and commitment for the job and the topic we have chosen. I, for example, don't feel any brainier than any of my friends that are not researchers (except for Dave maybe, ha ha joking) or some of the other "non-scientist" people I have met.

One of the reasons that made me decide to be a researcher is the belief that, as much as you can try to convince yourself "we don't live to work, we work to live", I think overall we often spend more waking hours at work than in our homes. I mean; most of the day light hours we are at work! There are 168 hours in a week and in average, assuming 8 hours of sleep per day, we are awake 112 hours from Monday to Sunday. We spend about 8 hours per day "in the office" (5 days per week, if you are lucky...) leaving us a mere 72 hours including weekends to do whatever we want/have to do. And to be honest a lot of those hours are spent doing chores and life style maintenance...and thinking about work! Therefore my conclusion is...we must try and pick a job that we enjoy (if possible of course) in order to maximize our chances of happiness.

The duration of a PhD, here in the UK, is theoretically 3 years. Where the first year is technically all about reading and training, the second year focuses on data collection and collation and the third...well...that is meant to be the writing up year. To be honest, very rarely someone finishes within this time frame. Particularly if your project is experimental, you are bound to overstep the three year mark (unfortunately often funds run out at the end of year 3...eeek!).

Why research then? Well...because I find it challenging and every day is different, I never get bored. I am inquisitive by nature and only through investigation and research I feel fulfilled. No matter the very looong days and working at weekends (occasionally). I, sometimes, can feel tired and a little down but then nothing is perfect and of course everyone has bad days, it's life.

I have noticed how each and every one of us in my office has a different opinion about this. We all have very different backgrounds and come from all over the world. Some, like me, are mature students, others never had a job. Some enjoy their PhD while others feel exploited, some others get so incredibly stressed that it's heart breaking to watch. It's full of ups and downs.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1420

and in the beginning.....

Ciao, this is my very first blog, ever! I am quite excited but I am also quite wary; I really don't think I have the gift of the word unfortunately so blogging will not come naturally to me.

Nevertheless I want to try and keep this sort of diary and corner for random thoughts. Mainly because I believe that there are thing that if you let go once you never see again (by I don't know whom)... not just thing but people and memories too. (And...My memory is particularly bad!).

The idea come to me after I received an old e-mail I sent to myself  (from the past) through http://futureme.org/?redirect=1 I then thought; "wouldn't it be cool to read about the things that I did during my PhD? the tears, the laughter and all that comes with that?" And also...science needs to be more interesting for people, I want to try to be an ambassador for science and do my little for the world.

A few friends of mine are keeping blogs and I think they are great! Check Emma's one: http://sowhataboutseaweed.wordpress.com/ she is very expressive and interesting.

I have some plans for this blog which involve getting my friends to introduce themselves and talk about what they do. I also would like to add a section on my research topic for whoever is interested in plankton (I am...ha ha). I intend to add bits about my hobbies too if I get the chance, so hopefully I'll end up with a little about everything.

Introducing myself, well what can I say without being boring. I suppose my profile will tell you all you need to know. What I can add is that at present I am going trough a very intense period of my life. I am in my second year of my PhD and although a PhD is stressful throughout I believe that there is nothing as stressful as when you are planning and carrying out your experiments and data collection. They will determine the success of the whole enterprise and pretty much your happiness for the next 2 years... more later!

Ciao