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Month: June 2017

Mental Health PhD

CBT progress- PhD chilling out (finally!)

Posted on June 23, 2017 by A Scientist called Erica

Reading time 7 minutes

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☀️There is something so nice about going in the greenhouse, especially when it is super warm and sunny! - The other week I collected samples from some wheat plants 🌾 I am currently growing, these have been selected to have a mutation in specific genes linked to starch synthesis. - When you do crosses in wheat to select for certain traits you can end up with offspring which are wildtype (normal gene expression), heterozygous (one normal, one "mutant" gene) or homozygous (contains 2 mutant genes)-in this case mutant doesn't mean anything like 🧟‍♀️ it just means that the gene has been changed in from normal- in this case my gene of interest is prematurely stopped meaning it will not be expressed. - Through a process called genotyping I was able to determine which of my plants were wild type, heterozygous, and homozygous for my gene of interest. Yesterday I took down my information and labelled up all my plants so I know whats what! - I am really looking forward to these plants getting to maturity so I can see what effect this gene has on the structure of starch! - #science #scientistsofinstagram #postgrad #plantscience #biology #instascience #sciencelife #academia

#Mentalhealthawarenessweek - 🖐 this is me. Can you tell from this image that I have anxiety? - Those of us suffering with mental illness do not go around with a massive lit up sign saying "anxious AF". We may not look like we are ill and we often put on a "outside" face. - What I am getting at is that it is hard to see what is going on in someones head. I did a doodle a few weeks ago (swipe right) of a few things that were going on in my head at the time. - At first I wasn't going to share that on here, but I think it's useful to see some of the thoughts that you can feel with anxiety. Some of you may be like "what in the world, why is she worried about that" logically I think that too! But, anxiety laughs in the face of logic. - Writing down these thoughts can sometimes help me as I can see them, address them, acknowledge them and move on... - Mental illness comes in all shapes and sizes. People can , like me, have high functioning anxiety. In others, anxiety can manifest itself in a way that means they can not leave the house. Does this make one version of the anxiety worse than the other? No. But it does illustrate the point that no person with mental illness will display the same symptoms, or react the same way. - This can make it extremely hard for, not only yourself, but for others to understand- which is why awareness schemes like mental health awareness weeks are so helpful. - Don't judge how someone is by there outward appearance. Do ask how they are and lend a kind non-judgemental ear. - With more awareness, and more people speaking about their experiences we will help ourseleves and each other, removing the stigma and increasing understanding. - If you see a loved one suffering, or if you yourself are currently struggling-remember you are not alone. You are stronger than this. There is support. - My DMs are open, or you can message via my blog site- I am happy to talk and share about my experiences and try and suppprt any way I can. - Hope this somewhat rambly post has been useful in some way. Be kind to yourself and each other. - - - #mentalhealthinscience #mentalhealth #anxiety #science #womeninstemm #postgradlife #postdoc #scientist

Preparing some fiddly samples for SEM! - - I extracted starch from some wheat grains yesterday and thought it could be interesting to also look at the structure of the starch granules on the SEM (scanning electron microscope). - For this I had to stick this super sticky backing onto some SEM stubs (its like double sided sticky tape but witht he stocking power of duct tape). Onto of the sticky backing I then added a small circle coverslip, and onto that a small drop of my starch suspension. Sounds easy! But as with everything to do with microscopy its actually pretty darn fiddly. The main difficulty is seperating the little circle cover slips to pop on the stub! - - Also, not seen- after doing this my supervisor came by and showed me a easier way to put the black sticky round onto my stub 😅 that made everything a lot easier. I can be pretty cack-handed at times 😂 - - #whatscienceislike #science #scicomm #scientist #realscience #instascience #womeninstemm #plantscience #biology

WHAT HAVE PLANTS EVER DONE FOR US? - - I am super excited to be one of 2 👩‍🔬 giving talks for pint of science 22nd May @mitrenorwich 🤗 - Our talks are focusing on the amazingness of plants. Plant science is often written off as being 'aged', 'irrelevant' and boring. In fact as a teen, I dreaded my plant science biology lessons! - But, plant science is actually incredibly important and exciting! Plants are integral to our lives-think of the materials used to make clothes, the origins of our medicines, our day to day diets. - With our progression of science and society, our understanding of plants is even more important. How can we make crops which are less susceptible to climate change? Are there new potential cures concealed in plants? Can we improve crop yield to cope with our increasing population? - In my talk I will be talking about starch, a molecule people dismiss completely, but which is important for manufacturing and diet. Meanwhile, Mikhaela will be talking all about 🥦, which contains amazing health promoting compounds. - If you like the sound of these talks and are in Norwich make sure to get your tickets fast! (Link in my Bio). Hope to see you there!! - #pint19 #science #Norwich #NorwichpintofScience #biology #scicomm #plantscience #plantsarecool #whathaveplantsdoneforus

***NEW BLOG*** - How do plants make starch 🤔 It's all around us, in the food we eat, the glue we stick our wallpaper up with and even the recyclable plastics we use. The different uses of starch are all due to its unique structure, which leads us to the question: how do plants make starch?? - - Find out more via my newest post on the @johninnescentre blog (link in bio)! And if this really intrigues you make sure you come say 👋 at #pint19 in #Norwich where I am going to be talking all about starch as part of the "what did plants ever do for us" night @mitrenorwich - - #plantsci #plantscience #biology #instascientist #scicomm #newblog #bloggersofinstagram #scienceblogger #science #Norwich #womeninscience ##womeninstemm

Its a slow science day... - Despite what you may think 👩‍🔬👨‍🔬 don't have experiments to be doing all of the time. Sometimes we spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for the next lot of experiments to be started! - At the moment I am still waiting for my little 🌾plants to finish growing. Until I collect the last time point sample I can't do a whole lot 🤷🏻‍♀️. Which means lots of cups of ☕ and reading 📖 - As it's Easter this weekend, and I am going home for a much needed break 🧖‍♀️ I won't be doing a lot in the lab this week, so my insta is going to be a bit quiet on the old science front! - What are you guys doing this week? Hope you are all taking some time to chill out over the holidays 😊 - - - - #science #realscience #whatascientistdoes #postdoclife #plantbiology #biology #scientist #scicomm

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☀️There is something so nice about going in the greenhouse, especially when it is super warm and sunny! - The other week I collected samples from some wheat plants 🌾 I am currently growing, these have been selected to have a mutation in specific genes linked to starch synthesis. - When you do crosses in wheat to select for certain traits you can end up with offspring which are wildtype (normal gene expression), heterozygous (one normal, one "mutant" gene) or homozygous (contains 2 mutant genes)-in this case mutant doesn't mean anything like 🧟‍♀️ it just means that the gene has been changed in from normal- in this case my gene of interest is prematurely stopped meaning it will not be expressed. - Through a process called genotyping I was able to determine which of my plants were wild type, heterozygous, and homozygous for my gene of interest. Yesterday I took down my information and labelled up all my plants so I know whats what! - I am really looking forward to these plants getting to maturity so I can see what effect this gene has on the structure of starch! - #science #scientistsofinstagram #postgrad #plantscience #biology #instascience #sciencelife #academia

#Mentalhealthawarenessweek - 🖐 this is me. Can you tell from this image that I have anxiety? - Those of us suffering with mental illness do not go around with a massive lit up sign saying "anxious AF". We may not look like we are ill and we often put on a "outside" face. - What I am getting at is that it is hard to see what is going on in someones head. I did a doodle a few weeks ago (swipe right) of a few things that were going on in my head at the time. - At first I wasn't going to share that on here, but I think it's useful to see some of the thoughts that you can feel with anxiety. Some of you may be like "what in the world, why is she worried about that" logically I think that too! But, anxiety laughs in the face of logic. - Writing down these thoughts can sometimes help me as I can see them, address them, acknowledge them and move on... - Mental illness comes in all shapes and sizes. People can , like me, have high functioning anxiety. In others, anxiety can manifest itself in a way that means they can not leave the house. Does this make one version of the anxiety worse than the other? No. But it does illustrate the point that no person with mental illness will display the same symptoms, or react the same way. - This can make it extremely hard for, not only yourself, but for others to understand- which is why awareness schemes like mental health awareness weeks are so helpful. - Don't judge how someone is by there outward appearance. Do ask how they are and lend a kind non-judgemental ear. - With more awareness, and more people speaking about their experiences we will help ourseleves and each other, removing the stigma and increasing understanding. - If you see a loved one suffering, or if you yourself are currently struggling-remember you are not alone. You are stronger than this. There is support. - My DMs are open, or you can message via my blog site- I am happy to talk and share about my experiences and try and suppprt any way I can. - Hope this somewhat rambly post has been useful in some way. Be kind to yourself and each other. - - - #mentalhealthinscience #mentalhealth #anxiety #science #womeninstemm #postgradlife #postdoc #scientist

Preparing some fiddly samples for SEM! - - I extracted starch from some wheat grains yesterday and thought it could be interesting to also look at the structure of the starch granules on the SEM (scanning electron microscope). - For this I had to stick this super sticky backing onto some SEM stubs (its like double sided sticky tape but witht he stocking power of duct tape). Onto of the sticky backing I then added a small circle coverslip, and onto that a small drop of my starch suspension. Sounds easy! But as with everything to do with microscopy its actually pretty darn fiddly. The main difficulty is seperating the little circle cover slips to pop on the stub! - - Also, not seen- after doing this my supervisor came by and showed me a easier way to put the black sticky round onto my stub 😅 that made everything a lot easier. I can be pretty cack-handed at times 😂 - - #whatscienceislike #science #scicomm #scientist #realscience #instascience #womeninstemm #plantscience #biology

WHAT HAVE PLANTS EVER DONE FOR US? - - I am super excited to be one of 2 👩‍🔬 giving talks for pint of science 22nd May @mitrenorwich 🤗 - Our talks are focusing on the amazingness of plants. Plant science is often written off as being 'aged', 'irrelevant' and boring. In fact as a teen, I dreaded my plant science biology lessons! - But, plant science is actually incredibly important and exciting! Plants are integral to our lives-think of the materials used to make clothes, the origins of our medicines, our day to day diets. - With our progression of science and society, our understanding of plants is even more important. How can we make crops which are less susceptible to climate change? Are there new potential cures concealed in plants? Can we improve crop yield to cope with our increasing population? - In my talk I will be talking about starch, a molecule people dismiss completely, but which is important for manufacturing and diet. Meanwhile, Mikhaela will be talking all about 🥦, which contains amazing health promoting compounds. - If you like the sound of these talks and are in Norwich make sure to get your tickets fast! (Link in my Bio). Hope to see you there!! - #pint19 #science #Norwich #NorwichpintofScience #biology #scicomm #plantscience #plantsarecool #whathaveplantsdoneforus

***NEW BLOG*** - How do plants make starch 🤔 It's all around us, in the food we eat, the glue we stick our wallpaper up with and even the recyclable plastics we use. The different uses of starch are all due to its unique structure, which leads us to the question: how do plants make starch?? - - Find out more via my newest post on the @johninnescentre blog (link in bio)! And if this really intrigues you make sure you come say 👋 at #pint19 in #Norwich where I am going to be talking all about starch as part of the "what did plants ever do for us" night @mitrenorwich - - #plantsci #plantscience #biology #instascientist #scicomm #newblog #bloggersofinstagram #scienceblogger #science #Norwich #womeninscience ##womeninstemm

Its a slow science day... - Despite what you may think 👩‍🔬👨‍🔬 don't have experiments to be doing all of the time. Sometimes we spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for the next lot of experiments to be started! - At the moment I am still waiting for my little 🌾plants to finish growing. Until I collect the last time point sample I can't do a whole lot 🤷🏻‍♀️. Which means lots of cups of ☕ and reading 📖 - As it's Easter this weekend, and I am going home for a much needed break 🧖‍♀️ I won't be doing a lot in the lab this week, so my insta is going to be a bit quiet on the old science front! - What are you guys doing this week? Hope you are all taking some time to chill out over the holidays 😊 - - - - #science #realscience #whatascientistdoes #postdoclife #plantbiology #biology #scientist #scicomm

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