A scientist called Erica

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Month: January 2018

Plant Science SciComm Science

Out of this world plants

Posted on January 26, 2018 by A Scientist called Erica

Reading time 5 minutes

Plant Science SciComm Science

Whats new in the world of Plants?

Posted on January 19, 2018 by A Scientist called Erica

Reading time 4 minutes

Advice and tips from current PhDs

Posted on January 9, 2018 by A Scientist called Erica

Reading time 5 minutes

Plant Science SciComm Science

Plants that do more

Posted on January 3, 2018 by A Scientist called Erica

Reading time 7 minutes

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Instead of a friday seminar, this week we had a friday quiz! Questions ranged from the history of the John Innes Centre, to christmas related guess the images (microscope images) and identify the scientist from the baby photo! We had a great time, and pleased to say the Starch team won! Woohoo! #teamstarch #sciencequiz #gradlife #science

***New blog post*** For this post I invited my friend Sophie to write a guest post about her experience of mental health during her PhD studies. "I knew a PhD would be hard, and I knew that poor mental health was rife in the graduate community; this is why it took me so long to realise that I was experiencing a bigger problem than work-related stress. During my PhD my world collapsed around me and I experienced a mental breakdown. I was diagnosed with Bipolar (II) disorder and this diagnosis changed my life, as well as the way I managed my studies. I am now back at university and whilst I still struggle, I am coping. I wanted to share my story, for the benefit of others. I’m open to questions and am happy to have discussion, but I do ask that comments are kept respectful. I am not a mental health professional and speak solely from a personal perspective. Thank you, I hope you enjoy my guest post". To read more about Sophie's experience follow the link in my bio to her full post. I want to say a huge thank you to Sophie for sharing her experiences in such a honest and emotional way, and hope this helps some of you and helps to open up more discussions about all forms of mental health in academia. #mentalhealth #mentalhealthinacademia #phdchat #gradlife #gradstudent #mentalhealthchat #mentalhealthawareness #bloggersofinstagram #bipolar #bipolardisorder #academia #recovery #conversation #visibility #support #strongertogether #endthestigma

Gels for the western all wrapped up! Today we have our MetBio departmental christmas meal, which means organising the experiments around the meal! Being optimistic I decided to use the short amount of time to prepare some gels for the westerns I aiming to do in the week. But of course, science had another idea, and my gels just do not want to set! Maybe the lab is colder than we thought! Or the lab gremlin has moved on to torment me after having enough fun with messing up others experiments! So the gels have been wrapped in wet paper, and clingfilm to set whilst I am away!... hopefully! In the meantime its time for some christmas celebrations 🎄🎅 Are you guys having christmas celebrations with your department/lab? • • • • • • #lablife #scienceandchristmas #postgradlife #experiments #biology #science

Cold and frosty start to the day ❄ #december #frosty #wintermornings

Some sunday selfcare. In the less than two weeks I have a mock viva, a interview and my actual viva 😱 I am feeling little mentally fried, so treated myself to a ginger bread latte to have whilst watching the Holiday. Time to chill. #selfcare #calmingthenervous #christmasfilms

New favourite machine 🤓 This is a multisizer. Basically you add a bit of your sample in solution into this machine, and it is able to sort out all the particles in your sample based on size. I am currently working on starch. One of the things we look at is how certain starch enzymes effect the formation of starch granules. This may lead to much smaller, or larger starch granules being formed. Using this machine I can quickly compare the size of starch granules in different samples. What I really like is that the graph forms in real time as the sample is taken up and the particles measured. It is quite a novel thing to be able to see data coming straight in front of your eyes and be able to see differences between samples in under a minute! Now time to analyse the data! I am pretty darn excited 😁 • • • • • • #scienceselfie #scicomm #biology #plantsci #plantbiology #scientist #researchlife #lablife #postgrad #scientistsofinstagram #instascience

Top Posts

Mental health chat: Progress
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Most Recent:

Guest Post- There and back again: A personal journey from doctorate to diagnosis December 12, 2018
Bad science in the headlines November 21, 2018
Balancing conservation and agriculture November 7, 2018
Tips and tricks for the final thesis push October 23, 2018
Mental health chat: Progress October 18, 2018

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Instead of a friday seminar, this week we had a friday quiz! Questions ranged from the history of the John Innes Centre, to christmas related guess the images (microscope images) and identify the scientist from the baby photo! We had a great time, and pleased to say the Starch team won! Woohoo! #teamstarch #sciencequiz #gradlife #science

***New blog post*** For this post I invited my friend Sophie to write a guest post about her experience of mental health during her PhD studies. "I knew a PhD would be hard, and I knew that poor mental health was rife in the graduate community; this is why it took me so long to realise that I was experiencing a bigger problem than work-related stress. During my PhD my world collapsed around me and I experienced a mental breakdown. I was diagnosed with Bipolar (II) disorder and this diagnosis changed my life, as well as the way I managed my studies. I am now back at university and whilst I still struggle, I am coping. I wanted to share my story, for the benefit of others. I’m open to questions and am happy to have discussion, but I do ask that comments are kept respectful. I am not a mental health professional and speak solely from a personal perspective. Thank you, I hope you enjoy my guest post". To read more about Sophie's experience follow the link in my bio to her full post. I want to say a huge thank you to Sophie for sharing her experiences in such a honest and emotional way, and hope this helps some of you and helps to open up more discussions about all forms of mental health in academia. #mentalhealth #mentalhealthinacademia #phdchat #gradlife #gradstudent #mentalhealthchat #mentalhealthawareness #bloggersofinstagram #bipolar #bipolardisorder #academia #recovery #conversation #visibility #support #strongertogether #endthestigma

Gels for the western all wrapped up! Today we have our MetBio departmental christmas meal, which means organising the experiments around the meal! Being optimistic I decided to use the short amount of time to prepare some gels for the westerns I aiming to do in the week. But of course, science had another idea, and my gels just do not want to set! Maybe the lab is colder than we thought! Or the lab gremlin has moved on to torment me after having enough fun with messing up others experiments! So the gels have been wrapped in wet paper, and clingfilm to set whilst I am away!... hopefully! In the meantime its time for some christmas celebrations 🎄🎅 Are you guys having christmas celebrations with your department/lab? • • • • • • #lablife #scienceandchristmas #postgradlife #experiments #biology #science

Cold and frosty start to the day ❄ #december #frosty #wintermornings

Some sunday selfcare. In the less than two weeks I have a mock viva, a interview and my actual viva 😱 I am feeling little mentally fried, so treated myself to a ginger bread latte to have whilst watching the Holiday. Time to chill. #selfcare #calmingthenervous #christmasfilms

New favourite machine 🤓 This is a multisizer. Basically you add a bit of your sample in solution into this machine, and it is able to sort out all the particles in your sample based on size. I am currently working on starch. One of the things we look at is how certain starch enzymes effect the formation of starch granules. This may lead to much smaller, or larger starch granules being formed. Using this machine I can quickly compare the size of starch granules in different samples. What I really like is that the graph forms in real time as the sample is taken up and the particles measured. It is quite a novel thing to be able to see data coming straight in front of your eyes and be able to see differences between samples in under a minute! Now time to analyse the data! I am pretty darn excited 😁 • • • • • • #scienceselfie #scicomm #biology #plantsci #plantbiology #scientist #researchlife #lablife #postgrad #scientistsofinstagram #instascience

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