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Month: August 2019

Meet the Scientist: Sarah Miller

August 29, 2019August 29, 2019Posted in Biology, lab life, Meet the Scientist, Science, Women in STEMTagged Meet the Scientist, Science, Women in STEMLeave a comment

Hello everyone, its time for another Meet the Scientist feature. For this post I want to introduce to the wonderful Sarah, the face of @t.cell.sarah

Continue reading “Meet the Scientist: Sarah Miller” →

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Evening! - What did you guys get up to today? I had a few things on my to do list but postponed all the things that involved walking to the glasshouses as the weather was crazzzyyyy! 😂 - Instead I lurked in the lab and did a starch extraction-part of which is shown in the short video. - This involves mushing up some wheat grains in water with a mortar and pestle, before filtering. The next steps involve a solution called percoll-this seperates out the starch granules from the proteins in the extraction mix. Finally I washed the starch many, many, many times! - This starch extraction will be used for lots of different things- I will have a look at the overall starch makeup in my wheat lines (the ratio of large A granules to small B granules), and can look at any morophological changes in the starch granules. - - 🤞 the weather is better tomorrow, and I can get to the glasshouses without ending up like a drowned rat! - - #instascience #postdoc #plantscience #plantbiology #biology #academia #scicomm #womeninstemm #womeninscience #scientistsofinstagram

SEM time 🔬 - - The scanning electron microscope (SEM) is amazing! - This is a type of microscope that produces a image by scanning the surface of a sample with a focused beam of electrons. - The SEM is so good because it can distinguish points that are super close together (in the v.low nm range). This also means a SEM has great resolution, enabling us to take very zoomed in photos in high resolution of extremely small things-like in my case starch granules. - I 💖 doing microscopy. Before my postdoc I had never used the SEM before, and everytime I use it I am amazed by the images it can take. - The only thing I don't like is how cold the room is. Which is kept at a regulated temperature, which is slightly cooler. It's not even that cold 😅 just when you are sat not moving you can get quite chilly! By the end of a session I have bundled on so many layers and am like a living iceman ⛄ (swipe right!) - - #postdoc #postdoclife #scicomm #scientistsofinstagram #biology #plantsci #plantbiology #instascience #sciblogger #womeninstemm

#Timetotalk - Today is the official time to talk day. Mental health affects 1 in 4 people. Mental health comes in all shapes and sizes and can affect anyone to any degree- anxiety, depression, OCD, Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia... the list goes on. - - I myself have generalised anxiety disorder. This is also accompanied by mild depression, OCD like symptoms and panoc attacks. I started openly talking about my mental health a few years ago. And I have seen so many benefits linked to talking openly about my mental health- both to myself and others. - It has helped friends and family understand "me" a lot more, and I have even had a few people come to talk to me about things like counselling, ways to get help, and to just generally chat. - I am also a part of the newly formed mental health and wellbeing committee at my work place @johninnescentre and it has been so amazing talking to other like minded people and helping to change how people talk about mental health. - At first talking openly about my anxiety was hard, and at times it still is- especially trying to explain why I am feeling anxious or what I am feeling exactly, but now I feel a lot more comfy about it, and the benefits far outweigh the bad. - So lets talk more about our mental health and experiences- starting with today, and continuing on everyday 💕 - - - #TimeToTalk #mentalhealth #anxiety #wellbeing #timetochange #shinealightonmentalhealth #letstalk #wellbeingwarrior #scientistsofinstagram #scientist #biologist #academia #postdoclife

4 months later and my wheat plants are ready for harvest! 🌾🌾 - - This is my 3rd generation of plants- wheat plants take a while to get from grain to grain! - Today I had like 120 plants to harvest today 😅 but luckily a lovely labmate helped me with the harvesting and so we managed to get everything harvested in just 2 hours 🤗🤗 - - The next job will to be thresh them all...!! But, I am leaving that for a bit! - - I also have some other plants growing at the moment- for another experiment, and will be collecting grain at a earlier timepoint (before they have fully matured like these ones) unfortunately those plants decided they want to be harvested at the weekend, so I am in work again over the weekend! - - Have a great weekend guys! - - #biology #plantscience #postdoclife #instascience #science #scienceselfie #scientistsofinstagram

I'm Learning R!! 👩‍💻 - - - For anyone who doesn't know, R is a programming language used for statistics and graphics. - I didn't learn R in my PhD, and a lot of the people I knew didn't really use it either... so I never really thought about it.But, last year a new postdoc in the lab, who was pretty darn good at R, made me realise how good it is! - So, this year I decided to sign up to a beginners introduction to R. My first session was monday, and my second part is this afternoon. It is going to take a while to fully get it, but I am already beginning to get the hang of it... maybe?! With the help of a few others I have successfully made my first graph in R! 😁 - So right now, I am feeling pretty successful and chuffed!! - I am looking forward to getting more stuck into R and learning even more! - Are you guys learning anything new this year? - - #science #instascience #instascientist #biology #plantscience #postdoc #postdoclife #learning #newskills

Happy New Year Everyone! - - I am back in the lab after having a very nice relaxing xmas holidays. I decided to also to have a complete break from all social media 🤳 across the holidays so sorry for the lack of posts/ responses, but I am now back! - - On todays agenda: - remembering what I was doing before my break 🤔 - writing a to do list for the week of my most important things - easing myself back into work by doing a few of the quick experiments 👩‍🔬 (as photographed- running a few starch samples through the counter counter... basically cataloguing starch granule number and size) - wrestling with my computer trying to make it realise that it also is back to work - copious amounts of tea drinking - - What are you guys getting on with on your first days back? - - - #postdoc #postdoclife #academia #science #plantscience #biology #scicomm #instascientist #instascience #whatascientistdoes #womeninstemm #womeninscience

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Evening! - What did you guys get up to today? I had a few things on my to do list but postponed all the things that involved walking to the glasshouses as the weather was crazzzyyyy! 😂 - Instead I lurked in the lab and did a starch extraction-part of which is shown in the short video. - This involves mushing up some wheat grains in water with a mortar and pestle, before filtering. The next steps involve a solution called percoll-this seperates out the starch granules from the proteins in the extraction mix. Finally I washed the starch many, many, many times! - This starch extraction will be used for lots of different things- I will have a look at the overall starch makeup in my wheat lines (the ratio of large A granules to small B granules), and can look at any morophological changes in the starch granules. - - 🤞 the weather is better tomorrow, and I can get to the glasshouses without ending up like a drowned rat! - - #instascience #postdoc #plantscience #plantbiology #biology #academia #scicomm #womeninstemm #womeninscience #scientistsofinstagram

SEM time 🔬 - - The scanning electron microscope (SEM) is amazing! - This is a type of microscope that produces a image by scanning the surface of a sample with a focused beam of electrons. - The SEM is so good because it can distinguish points that are super close together (in the v.low nm range). This also means a SEM has great resolution, enabling us to take very zoomed in photos in high resolution of extremely small things-like in my case starch granules. - I 💖 doing microscopy. Before my postdoc I had never used the SEM before, and everytime I use it I am amazed by the images it can take. - The only thing I don't like is how cold the room is. Which is kept at a regulated temperature, which is slightly cooler. It's not even that cold 😅 just when you are sat not moving you can get quite chilly! By the end of a session I have bundled on so many layers and am like a living iceman ⛄ (swipe right!) - - #postdoc #postdoclife #scicomm #scientistsofinstagram #biology #plantsci #plantbiology #instascience #sciblogger #womeninstemm

#Timetotalk - Today is the official time to talk day. Mental health affects 1 in 4 people. Mental health comes in all shapes and sizes and can affect anyone to any degree- anxiety, depression, OCD, Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia... the list goes on. - - I myself have generalised anxiety disorder. This is also accompanied by mild depression, OCD like symptoms and panoc attacks. I started openly talking about my mental health a few years ago. And I have seen so many benefits linked to talking openly about my mental health- both to myself and others. - It has helped friends and family understand "me" a lot more, and I have even had a few people come to talk to me about things like counselling, ways to get help, and to just generally chat. - I am also a part of the newly formed mental health and wellbeing committee at my work place @johninnescentre and it has been so amazing talking to other like minded people and helping to change how people talk about mental health. - At first talking openly about my anxiety was hard, and at times it still is- especially trying to explain why I am feeling anxious or what I am feeling exactly, but now I feel a lot more comfy about it, and the benefits far outweigh the bad. - So lets talk more about our mental health and experiences- starting with today, and continuing on everyday 💕 - - - #TimeToTalk #mentalhealth #anxiety #wellbeing #timetochange #shinealightonmentalhealth #letstalk #wellbeingwarrior #scientistsofinstagram #scientist #biologist #academia #postdoclife

4 months later and my wheat plants are ready for harvest! 🌾🌾 - - This is my 3rd generation of plants- wheat plants take a while to get from grain to grain! - Today I had like 120 plants to harvest today 😅 but luckily a lovely labmate helped me with the harvesting and so we managed to get everything harvested in just 2 hours 🤗🤗 - - The next job will to be thresh them all...!! But, I am leaving that for a bit! - - I also have some other plants growing at the moment- for another experiment, and will be collecting grain at a earlier timepoint (before they have fully matured like these ones) unfortunately those plants decided they want to be harvested at the weekend, so I am in work again over the weekend! - - Have a great weekend guys! - - #biology #plantscience #postdoclife #instascience #science #scienceselfie #scientistsofinstagram

I'm Learning R!! 👩‍💻 - - - For anyone who doesn't know, R is a programming language used for statistics and graphics. - I didn't learn R in my PhD, and a lot of the people I knew didn't really use it either... so I never really thought about it.But, last year a new postdoc in the lab, who was pretty darn good at R, made me realise how good it is! - So, this year I decided to sign up to a beginners introduction to R. My first session was monday, and my second part is this afternoon. It is going to take a while to fully get it, but I am already beginning to get the hang of it... maybe?! With the help of a few others I have successfully made my first graph in R! 😁 - So right now, I am feeling pretty successful and chuffed!! - I am looking forward to getting more stuck into R and learning even more! - Are you guys learning anything new this year? - - #science #instascience #instascientist #biology #plantscience #postdoc #postdoclife #learning #newskills

Happy New Year Everyone! - - I am back in the lab after having a very nice relaxing xmas holidays. I decided to also to have a complete break from all social media 🤳 across the holidays so sorry for the lack of posts/ responses, but I am now back! - - On todays agenda: - remembering what I was doing before my break 🤔 - writing a to do list for the week of my most important things - easing myself back into work by doing a few of the quick experiments 👩‍🔬 (as photographed- running a few starch samples through the counter counter... basically cataloguing starch granule number and size) - wrestling with my computer trying to make it realise that it also is back to work - copious amounts of tea drinking - - What are you guys getting on with on your first days back? - - - #postdoc #postdoclife #academia #science #plantscience #biology #scicomm #instascientist #instascience #whatascientistdoes #womeninstemm #womeninscience

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