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A scientist called Erica

Month: July 2017



The Internship

A Scientist called Erica

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July 25, 2017

Many of us doing a Science PhD will now be enrolled on four year courses, and as part of these courses you get the chance to do a 3 month internship.

Categories: PhD life•Tags: anxiety, Internship, PhD, PhD life, Science•

The Curious Incident of the 6pm Panic

A Scientist called Erica

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July 18, 2017

Have you ever had a panic attack? Maybe you have seen someone having one? For those who haven’t had a panic attack- be glad. They are weird things.

Categories: Mental Health•Tags: anxiety, Mental Health, panic attack, PhD, PhD life, Science•

Panic at the Conference

A Scientist called Erica

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July 7, 2017

This week I had a conference to go to in London. As a PhD student conferences are pretty common, but dealing with anxiety can make them less enjoyable than they should be, and more challenging than expected!

Categories: anxiety, conference, Mental Health, PhD, PhD life, Science•Tags: anxiety, Mental Health, panic attack, PhD life, Science•

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Taking a few minutes to myself outside the lab. I am fortunate enough to work somewhere where the most beautiful calming area is right on my doorstep. The last few days I have been worrying myself so much about the thesis writing process and blowing it all out of proportion. This hasn't been helped by social media. Social media can be great, but it can also spur on anxious thoughts- when I see the progress others in my year group are making/have made on their write up already, I can't help but compare myself to them- and my lack of writing so far. My advice for myself and for others with a hand in coming soon (mine is end of september)- everyone's thesis is different. Some people may stay in the lab till a month or two before hand in. Some will have started writing up already. You shouldn't compare yourself to others. And if you find yourself getting unnecessarily stressed, take some time out. I am going to flick past posts saying about how many chapters have been written so far... and I am not going to post about my own progress as I understand how it can unnerve others! #Phdchat #wellbeing #mentalhealth #phdchillout #gradlife #break #nature #UEA
Today I am collecting all my samples from my big experiment I started last Thursday! I am collecting samples for a variety of different processing things: samples in RNA later for RNA extraction and gene expression analysis Snap frozen samples- 1 for western blot (protein expression) analysis, and one for immunohistochemistry (staining of whole tissue with antibodies for specific targets), and 1 in paraformaldehyde for wax embedding and histology analysis (look at the overall structure of the skin). I have a lot of analysis to do on these samples, but will hopefully get some interesting data!! #Science #research #experiments #cellbiology #Biology #Phdchat #womeninSTEMM #labwork #gradstudent #gradlife #scicomm
---NEW BLOG POST--- Springtime is here- but how do plants know that it's time to start flowering? Flowering in plants is pretty complex, and a lot of research is being carried out to understand the many interacting signalling pathways that lead to plant flowering. Plants rely on several signals to both initiate flowering, and to prevent it- this makes sure that they open their flowers and set their seeds at the best time to allow for reproductive success. In this post I talk a bit about just 2 of the environmental cues plants use to detect it's a good time for them to flower- daylight, and temperature. This is not my area of expertise- but I find this subject area fascinating. In our ever changing world, understanding plant flowering has become even more important- and may help us to 'future proof' crops, or lead to high throughput and yield farming methods. I hope you find this area as interesting as me- I have left a bunch of much more in depth articles at the bottom of the post if you wish to learn even more! As always the link is in my bio! Enjoy ☺ • • • #sciblog #blogger #scicomm #plantscience #botany #Biology #springtimescience #plantbiology #flowering #Science
I try really hard to not come in to work at the weekend, as I think it's important to have some time away from the lab. Unfortunately I had to come in this weekend- For those who don't know my project spans 2 different institutes- the University of East Anglia and the John Innes Centre. I am mainly based at the UEA at the moment doing cell work- and some colleagues look after my plants for me whilst I am away. I have needed to genotype some plants for ages, and simply haven't been able to fit it in during the week alongside my other experiments... So here I am at the JIC on a beautiful sunny Saturday extracting DNA from tomato plants. 🤞 these plants have all the genes they are meant to- I have been having a lot of problems where offspring 'lose' genes 😥. For every 20 plants I grow from the positive parent line I only get about 1 positive plant...!! If I can have just a few more positive plants it would make my life a lot easier! Hope you Saturdays are more exciting than mine! If you are in the lab as well hope your experiments go well! #scicomm #gradlife #PhDlife #Science #plantscience #Biology #experiments #weekendlabs #womeninSTEMM
Day 2 of the big science experiment. Back in the hood, preparing the different media I need before starting. I have 2 pages showing the table of my 48 well plates and detailing the different groups of media's I need in the wells. Tick charts are my friends for this type of experiment! How do you guys keep track when you are doing more complicated experiments? • • #scicomm #experiments #tissueculture #Biology #Science #PhDlife #WomeninSTEMM #research
Enjoying the most of the spring time sunshine before starting a huge experiment! My mood is boosted so much by a little bit of Sun-and it makes my long day seem a little bit better! For today's experiment I have to take ~100 skin biopsies. It's going to take a while! Normally there are 2 of us doing this size experiment as it takes a long time to prep the Tissue, take the biopsies and do the plates. But today I am on my own as my partner in crime is at a conference! Wish me luck! #womeninSTEM #selfie #PhDlife #Phdchat #Science

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Taking a few minutes to myself outside the lab. I am fortunate enough to work somewhere where the most beautiful calming area is right on my doorstep. The last few days I have been worrying myself so much about the thesis writing process and blowing it all out of proportion. This hasn't been helped by social media. Social media can be great, but it can also spur on anxious thoughts- when I see the progress others in my year group are making/have made on their write up already, I can't help but compare myself to them- and my lack of writing so far. My advice for myself and for others with a hand in coming soon (mine is end of september)- everyone's thesis is different. Some people may stay in the lab till a month or two before hand in. Some will have started writing up already. You shouldn't compare yourself to others. And if you find yourself getting unnecessarily stressed, take some time out. I am going to flick past posts saying about how many chapters have been written so far... and I am not going to post about my own progress as I understand how it can unnerve others! #Phdchat #wellbeing #mentalhealth #phdchillout #gradlife #break #nature #UEA
Today I am collecting all my samples from my big experiment I started last Thursday! I am collecting samples for a variety of different processing things: samples in RNA later for RNA extraction and gene expression analysis Snap frozen samples- 1 for western blot (protein expression) analysis, and one for immunohistochemistry (staining of whole tissue with antibodies for specific targets), and 1 in paraformaldehyde for wax embedding and histology analysis (look at the overall structure of the skin). I have a lot of analysis to do on these samples, but will hopefully get some interesting data!! #Science #research #experiments #cellbiology #Biology #Phdchat #womeninSTEMM #labwork #gradstudent #gradlife #scicomm
---NEW BLOG POST--- Springtime is here- but how do plants know that it's time to start flowering? Flowering in plants is pretty complex, and a lot of research is being carried out to understand the many interacting signalling pathways that lead to plant flowering. Plants rely on several signals to both initiate flowering, and to prevent it- this makes sure that they open their flowers and set their seeds at the best time to allow for reproductive success. In this post I talk a bit about just 2 of the environmental cues plants use to detect it's a good time for them to flower- daylight, and temperature. This is not my area of expertise- but I find this subject area fascinating. In our ever changing world, understanding plant flowering has become even more important- and may help us to 'future proof' crops, or lead to high throughput and yield farming methods. I hope you find this area as interesting as me- I have left a bunch of much more in depth articles at the bottom of the post if you wish to learn even more! As always the link is in my bio! Enjoy ☺ • • • #sciblog #blogger #scicomm #plantscience #botany #Biology #springtimescience #plantbiology #flowering #Science
I try really hard to not come in to work at the weekend, as I think it's important to have some time away from the lab. Unfortunately I had to come in this weekend- For those who don't know my project spans 2 different institutes- the University of East Anglia and the John Innes Centre. I am mainly based at the UEA at the moment doing cell work- and some colleagues look after my plants for me whilst I am away. I have needed to genotype some plants for ages, and simply haven't been able to fit it in during the week alongside my other experiments... So here I am at the JIC on a beautiful sunny Saturday extracting DNA from tomato plants. 🤞 these plants have all the genes they are meant to- I have been having a lot of problems where offspring 'lose' genes 😥. For every 20 plants I grow from the positive parent line I only get about 1 positive plant...!! If I can have just a few more positive plants it would make my life a lot easier! Hope you Saturdays are more exciting than mine! If you are in the lab as well hope your experiments go well! #scicomm #gradlife #PhDlife #Science #plantscience #Biology #experiments #weekendlabs #womeninSTEMM
Day 2 of the big science experiment. Back in the hood, preparing the different media I need before starting. I have 2 pages showing the table of my 48 well plates and detailing the different groups of media's I need in the wells. Tick charts are my friends for this type of experiment! How do you guys keep track when you are doing more complicated experiments? • • #scicomm #experiments #tissueculture #Biology #Science #PhDlife #WomeninSTEMM #research
Enjoying the most of the spring time sunshine before starting a huge experiment! My mood is boosted so much by a little bit of Sun-and it makes my long day seem a little bit better! For today's experiment I have to take ~100 skin biopsies. It's going to take a while! Normally there are 2 of us doing this size experiment as it takes a long time to prep the Tissue, take the biopsies and do the plates. But today I am on my own as my partner in crime is at a conference! Wish me luck! #womeninSTEM #selfie #PhDlife #Phdchat #Science

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