Sam Talks About...

When I was thinking about doing some research related work, I looked to see what was out there and found very little information that actually came from people who had actually done a year in research or had a job in research. So I thought that, as I'm coming to the end of my year in research, I'd share a little about my experience and what I've learnt from other people's experiences aswell.  Get ready to use on of these pipettes, A LOT The Supervisor Most supervisors are generally nice, fair and very very very busy. Some of them may expect a lot of hours from you (but that's just because they are so passionate about their field) while others are more lenient, however they are always always very busy. Some supervisors can be a bit critical and not be great teachers, but most of them are very good teachers and understand that this is still a learning experience. Having a good relationship with your supervisor can only be helpful (particularly when it

Evolution, the great divider, the topic probably accounts for about 80% of all arguments on the internet. But why? Simply, it's a lack of understanding compounded by an unwillingness to look at evidence that might differ to your opinion. While I can't really do anything about the unwillingness, I can certainly help with the lack of understanding.  First, a little introduction on what evolution actually is, as a lot of people don't really know. Evolution itself is just another word for change. The theory of evolution by natural selection is a very good explanation of how the species we see today came about; through the creation non-random survival advantages by random mutations in the genome. For example, an animal in an environment full of grazing animals that carried a mutation that gave it a slightly longer neck, enabling it to eat from places that others could not reach would put it at a selective advantage, meaning it is more likely to survive and reproduce than o

Now there is little doubt in the world of rational people that climate change is real, and it's already happening. Yet many people are still opposed to wind farms or solar farms or really any other green source of energy.  Now there used to be a very valid reason why many of these technologies haven't been adopted, and that was price. As these technologies were very new a decade ago, they were incredibly expensive and not very efficient. However, things have come along dramatically since then, and as these technologies begin to mature it makes more and more economic sense to start using them more and more.  This is only really here because it looked cool :) With numbers like 65% growth in solar power over 5 years, US solar costs at 97% less than in 1975 and the recent  news  that solar power is now the same price as conventional energy in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Australia and Spain, clearly solar is the current golden boy of the green revolution. The best indic

You might sometimes wonder, as I do, what your impact on the world has been. This post hopes to give you (and myself) an insight into what your global footprint is, in a number of different measurements- not just on the environment. Now these surveys and sites are general approximations, because there is inherent uncertainty in the data and also the detail you would need to give for a 100% reading would be mind-boggling! So take these as good estimates of your footprint, rather than exact numbers.  1-  Slavery Footprint I heard about this site at a lecture about slave identity at the University of Nottingham by Prof Zoe Trodd, I learnt a lot from that lecture- slavery is a much bigger problem than I imagine many people believe. With an estimate approaching 3 million worldwide (and an esitmated 2000 in the UK), there are almost as many slaves globally as there were at the height of the slave trade in the 16th Century! Now I'm not talking about sweatshops or child la

The body clock (or circadian rhythm) is a system of smaller cellular clocks that is responsible for our daily cycles, we have peaks and troughs in almost all aspects of our biology, including alertness and stress. This rhythm is tuned to the day/night cycle, and helps to make sure our bodies are prepared for the behaviours that are appropriate for that time of day eg becoming sleepy when it gets dark.  However, recent research suggests that our 24/7 society is causing an increasing number of us to become out of sync with our natural rhythm and that this may be having adverse effects on our physical health and mental well-being. All animals, in fact all cells as far as I'm aware, have an internal clock. these cellular clocks are controlled by a larger network of cellular clocks in the brain, called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). this cluster of cells is kept in harmony by the day/light cycle. Using ancestral light receptors in our eyes called retinal ganglion cells, they det

With deadline season truly looming I thought I'd stick with yet another post to help out! As we all know, procrastination is the demon that turns even the best laid plans into a day wasted in your pyjamas binge watching Game Of Thrones, watching all the Lord Of The Rings in one sitting and having a room so clean you have to re-dirty it in order to hide the fact that you spent your entire afternoon sorting your socks by cotton content! Whatever you do to procrastinate, I'm sure you'll be aware of the effect it can have on your exams and assignments. So what can you do?  Well it turns out that you can actually do a lot! It just takes some organisation and self discipline.  Make A Timetable and Stick To It! So this seems obvious, but the amount of people who say they're going to work 9am-5pm but actually end up working closer to 9pm-5am! Not only does working at these hours hurt your revision at the time, but it will also make it harder to remember what lit

Sleep, this is probably the hardest to get right as a student or gamer, with late nights and really late mornings. However, it's important to try and get 6-8 hours of good quality sleep every night. So here are the benefits of sleep, It is a major time when our bodies recover and grow, which is obviously beneficial. It also contributes to mental well being (everyone knows how hard it is to focus when you haven't had enough sleep or when you feel groggy after sleeping for way too long) It helps to consolidate memories learning and generally helps your brain to recover from the stresses of the day you just had, often the best cure for a headache is a quick nap. This is honestly the best photo of somebody asleep that was safe for work and also didn't look horrendously staged What Happens If You Don't Sleep Right? If you don't get enough sleep then , for one you'll grumpy all day, you won't be able to focus and you won't want to workout or d

Transhumanism is an interesting movement that believes that the human race is heading towards a new age of humanity, in which human and machine is united to form a new super race of bionically enhanced humans, or post-humans. Now this idea has been around for years and years, I'm sure most of you reading this have thought about the future of the human race. h+ or H+ is a common abbreviation for the transhumanist movement While largely inspired by Science Fiction movies and novels for a long time, the actual science is starting to catch up with the ideas of transhumanists. I've briefly touched on this topic before with  how humans can gain sensations  but the transhumanists believe there will be an even more intimate connection with technology than most of us would be comfortable with.  The ideas brought forward vary wildly; from cyrogenic suspension to bionic eyes, to telekinesis and smart drugs.  wired.com  even had their own transhuman week, which I str