#seminar

Hello, all my lovelies! I’m sorry for the late SAS post, but my family and I have been scrambling to make sure we have the capabilities to work from home for the next three weeks. Now that I have some time, I wanted to give my amazing mutuals some Alan content. 

I’m putting the following below a cut because it’s somewhat NSFW. Enjoy my loves!

Today’s theme: Alan’s very evident bulge

If you would like to be tagged in future Simply Alan Sunday posts, please send me an ask or a message. 

Tagging:@mostlyrickman@i-sold-danny-elfman-my-soul@wayamy@mrs-actor-agent-of-change@severusluciuslover@i-reblog-gr8-things@the-witches-son@adelinegryffindor@fewtoria@ford-stigma-brosnan@severus-snape-the-original-emo

Autumn Studying Challenge

4th November - Bake cookies or make bread?

I like both, and do both with some regularity. But if I had to pick… Bread. (Though cookies are good to bake in between, like while your bread is rising!)

Had a long day today bc it started early–one of my seminars got moved to this morning for this week. But it was a pretty good day: interesting discussions in my seminars, good coffee, and lots of thoughts in my head

Since the start of 2020 the world has been a different place. During March the UK Government instigated a lock down, with those who could required to work from home, this included scientists. Completing my PhD studying insect olfaction during a global pandemic was not something I expected, but how did I spend my days?

Computational Working

As a scientist I spend a portion, if not the majority of my time in a lab doing experiments. Pausing this work created several challenges, and as a final year student induced a serious amount of panic! To adapt, I focused more on computational experiments and extensive data analysis. Thankfully, I had some small computational projects already, which could be extended and explored further. This also included attending online courses and webinars to develop new skills – I really enjoyed SCI’s webinar series on computational chemistry and found it useful when completing my protein docking experiments!

Writing, Writing, Writing

As a final year PhD student, there was one task at the beginning of this year that was high on the agenda – writing my thesis. Many past PhD students will tell horror stories about how they were rushing to finish lab work and writing up in a mad dash at the end. Being forced to give up lab work, and having no social activities, meant a lot more focus was put on writing during this time. Personally, I have been privileged to be in a house with other final year PhD students, creating a distraction free zone, and managed to crack down on thesis writing!

Online Events

Despite in-person events, including many large international conferences, being cancelled, many organisers were quick to move meetings online. This made so many events more accessible. Though I am sad to have missed out on a trip to San Francisco, during lockdown I have attended numerous webinars, online seminars, two international conferences and even given outreach talks to the public and school children.

Getting back to ‘normal’

It is safe to say the world, and the way science works, is never going to be the same. But scientists are slowly migrating back to the lab, adorned with a new item of PPE. On top of our lab coats, goggles and gloves we can add…a mask. Despite the stressful time,  I managed to get my thesis finished handing it in with a lot more computational work included than I had initially planned!

Written by Cassie Sims.