Kirsty the Scientist

A YouTube director that I admire, Sammy Paul , talked on Instagram a while ago about the unique problem solving that comes with being a director, especially for low-budget projects. He described a situation where they needed a prop to move and stand up in a certain way for a music video. In the end, they created a 'velcro hinge' which could allow the prop to move but also be dismantled and easily put together again.  Sammy explained how this was a unique problem and it was part of his job to think on the spot and spur ideas with his small team to get the prop working as it needed to. And I couldn't help but see the parallels with science. I think a key part, and one of my favourite parts, of being a scientist is problem solving in unique and niche situations. New ideas - like the velcro hinge - might sound strange because they haven't been thought of before but remember...  Unique problems require unique solutions. 

Today is my last day working in the lab and it feels very bittersweet!   Over the past 10 weeks, I've had the best time.  A huge part of that was down to working in the most amazing group of people. Not only showing me the ropes of lab work, but welcoming me into their team with open arms. I also had the opportunity to learn from a fantastic supervisor - someone who really knows what they are doing and guides you under their wing whilst allowing you to explore and develop your own ideas.  So, although I'm really looking forward to the next stage - getting my dissertation written up and tying all my story together - I'm going to really miss working in the lab every day. This experience has completely changed my perspective about lab life. I'd never realised just how collaborative, supportive and friendly the environment can be (if you work with a good bunch!). And I enjoyed lab work more than I thought too - I loved problem solving at the lab bench, considering differ...

Read a newspaper or something online and it will tell you that there is not enough women in science. That girls can become disengaged with STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects at a young age, possibly from an old societal opinion that STEM is a male subject, and don't follow careers in science. I'm really eager to be involved in public engagement and encouraging children to get into science.  In the lab, there is about a 50:50 split male to female across all the students, post-docs and technicians. Although there is only one female PI (principal investigator - the lead person for a research group), from my perspective there is no prejudice or inequality between the genders - so much so that I hadn't even thought about it until today - when the only people in the lab were 6 female scientists and myself!  And this felt even more poignant today - to feel like an equal scientist to anyone else in the room and feel like I could go anywhere in my caree...

Today is the first day of my last week in the lab. One of my colleagues asked me today how I felt about my last few days and my project coming to the end. And to be honest I hadn't really given it much thought until today! A little part of me is looking forward to my project drawing to a close. These last 9 weeks have been intense and I'm looking forward to summarising all of my work - pulling together and closing this story.  Thinking about it, I have never worked such a long stretch of 9am-6pm days in my life! With exams looming, it's starting to feel like I'm on the blocks, and slightly chomping at the bit to get started with revision for finals (although I know I'll regret saying this day one of revision!). But a much bigger part of me will really miss my time in the lab. This experience has been amazing, I have made so many good friends and learnt so much from everyone, about everything from science, research and careers to life, friendships. I have fel...

Today was the first research group seminar since my group and the three other linked groups move labs. It was a really inspiring hour, with talks from three students at different stages of their PhDs, talking about their findings and results so far and their hopes and aims for their project. Each speaker had quite a different subject area which made the talks interesting and varied.  I definitely picked up a few tips for my presentation at the end of my project!

Working in a research lab for my dissertation project has definitely changed my perceptions of what working in science and research is actually like. Maybe I've just been part of a good group, but this whole experience has been so much more sociable than I'd expected. Science is quite a collaborative subject so there is always open discussion on what people are working on, but everyone has been so welcoming and inclusive that I've felt like a member of the team from day 1.  But lab life can be really tiring - you need to be on the ball all the time, keeping tabs on everything that's going on and  thinking ahead to the next step. 

The institute I'm working in has recently appointed a new director, a lovely Dutch genetics professor. This afternoon, he made everyone's Thursday by inviting us all to an institute-wide social event (at 4pm and with free drinks - it drew quite a crowd!). The event was a low-key way to introduce himself to the new research groups (including my group) and welcome them to the institute, and got everyone chatting about what they were working on and getting to know each other.  When the director joined our conversation, we were talking about careers - about how so many PhD students leave science and some of the pros and cons about working in science and research. And this got everyone talking about how they got where they are now. It's really thought-provoking listening to other people's career stories. I feel like there is a lot of societal pressure on young people in the UK to have career plans all figured out; to have a clear idea of where they are going to impress e...

This morning we headed across town with a box of dry ice to collect the cells from the liquid nitrogen store. We took them back to tissue culture to be defrosted, resurrected and ready to grow over the next few days. Also finished off the Western blot today, so should get some good results from those tomorrow!  Although it's been less than a week so far, I'm really enjoying working with and getting on really well with everyone in my research group. Now we're actually getting on with some proper lab work, I'm so excited for the next few weeks! 

It is only when you see a lab being set up from nothing, sit through all of the compulsory talks and have induction tours around all the labs and workspaces that you realise how much work can go into creating, building and maintaining the labs we're working in. I always talk about how much I like the idea of working in a multi-faceted team and the interlinking roles that all of these people have when they come together in the workplace and I think today, more than any, reflected the importance of everyone doing their bit in the chain (and bothering to establish a strong foundation in the first place!).  Yes, at times it has been annoying that we still don't have any cells ready to use yet  and the lab work we're doing is still just filling in time.  (The cells are still being stored in liquid nitrogen at -170C, hopefully we'll resurrect them in the morning.)  But today showed me what an amazingly efficient lab and technical team can look like at its start and best ...