And Thats A Promise

Hey Guys and Gals

So I realized a few moments ago that I forgot to make a video this week. Sorry about that but I had family round and it was all a bit hectic. So, what I thought I'd do is stop promising to make a video every week and make them if and when I can therefore meaning you don't get too disappointed and I don't get annoyed with myself for forgetting. Hopefully that will mean my videos will be better and more thought through. I also noticed that I keep making promises to you lot that I rarely ever keep. I'm sorry about that and I'll try to stop that. Instead I think I'll just tell you when I've actually done whatever it was rather than telling you I will and then never actually getting around to it. And thats a promise!


Anyway, now that all out of the way back to school. That is, back to how my school day was, I'm not actually commanding you to go to school this very instant. But yes, I started off getting the half seven bus to the station and then catching the train from there with the amazing Thomas whereupon he kicked over a can of energy drink making the entire carriage sticky and horrible. As you can imagine we vacated the train pretty sharpish after that. Then we had a chill out in the hall and then a free period where I pretended to revise for Physics whilst Tom struggled to read Clockwork Orange. From what I gathered, its a really messed up book. Then I had a Physics test where I failed dismally. Then I dossed about a bit before getting the train back to Wokingham where I saw a guy on a moped drive into the side of a car. It wasn't a very big accident and I don't think anybody was properly hurt and it looked like the drivers were going to share insurance details and then go on their way. That was until about 20 minutes later two police cars and an ambulance arrived. Total overkill if you ask me. I don't know what happened next because thats when the bus left. Saw Josh on the bus. He's awesome :)

Thats all folks

Good Night xxx

PARTY DUUUUDDDEEE

Hey Guys and Gals

So views shot up yesterday at around 8 o'clock, I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it was the title being Cake that made everyone desperate to click on it. But I'm glad you did because it made me smile.

Right, today. It wasn't too bad. My parents flew to Barcelona this morning and before you start showing up at my house cheering "PARTY DUUUUDDDEEE" (Not that you would, considering we don't live in a bad film from the 90's) my Grandparents are here still to 'look after me'. I'm still not sure of the logic behind that considering I'm more than capable of looking after myself. I think my parents actually do think we live in a bad film from the 90's. Strange.

In other news my brother went back to university today and then I ate some cake.

That is it I think. I cant believe my entire day can be documented in 6 lines. That cant be right....

Apparently it can.

Sorry for it being such a short post tonight but its been a throughly uneventful day.

Good Night xxx

Cake!

Hey Guys and Gals

So today felt kind of empty without having to go into work, never mind. It means I can have a lie in now. Well, I say lie in, I was up at 10 o'clock which really isn't a lie in for me.

So I got up and started on my history essay I've been neglecting all week. I've finally done it now and now have all of Sunday to relax, oh wait, I still have other homework to do...

So it's my mums birthday on Monday, but shes going off to Barcelona with my Dad tomorrow so I wont see her then so we did presents and stuff today. My grandparents came up for the occasion and my mum got lots of nice jewelery and stuff so she was happy. We also had this amazing cake that was like chocolate and orange sponge covered in marzipan and chocolate icing. It was bloody amazing.

We had a Chinese for tea which was noms. By the way, that was a Chinese takeaway not an actual Chinese person. That would be wrong, and probably illegal.

Anyway, I haven't really done much else today. Sorry about that.

Good Night xxx

Glow In The Dark Mice

Hey Guys and Gals

So today was my last day of work experience at the MRC and I must say it was rather awesome. I started off in the Spermy embyoey type place talking to some people about how you freeze mouse sperm. That wasn't particularly exciting but nevertheless I shan't complain. Then this Guy Jeremy (the guy with all the microscopes yesterday) managed to get us a tour of the Diamond facility next to the MRC. The Diamond is a synchrotron light source that generates intense beams of light (All across the spectrum, not just visible) by accelerating electrons at speeds near to the speed of light and then making them change direction causing light to be given off. So essentially the place I went today was a smaller version of the Large Hadron Colider in Switzerland, apart from the synchrotron doesn't collide the particles like the LHC only uses the light that it gives off. So that was really awesome and made some of my friends jealous. Then we went back to the MRC for lunch before heading to the Mammalian Genetics Unit where we had a look at all the different types of phenotyping they carry out there. But before we went in we had to change into scrubs, then put on these big clunky shoes and then a boiler suit and hairnet. Then we had to have an air shower.  As you can imagine its basically a chamber where you stand while loads of vents shoot you with air jets. It was serious business preventing any disease getting into the facility. They even disinfected the rooms with hydrogen peroxide vapour. So then we looked at how they test the mice's behavior and stuff.

Now here was the cool bit. We then into one of the 'wards' and one of the scientists showed us some of the genetically engineered mice they had. One lot even glowed in the dark. How cool is that? Like seriously, glow in the dark, live mice. They had done it by implanting a gene from a jelly fish into a mouse embryo. It was so cool.

So yes, that was my last day of work experience, it was rather epic and I've had a great week, thoroughly worth giving up my half term for it.

Good Night xxx

Microscopes are Awesome

Hey Guys and Gals

Just a quick one tonight seeing as Mad Dogs is on soon. Actually, saying that probably means that it wont actually be a quick one, it will end up being quite lengthy and therefore causing me to miss Mad Dogs. Never mind, I love you all enough for it to be worth it.

Today has probably been the best day of my work experience this week. It started off with the student I was supposed to be shadowing being in Portugal so I tagged along with Lea instead. Shes awesome. So we started off preparing a probe that would identify the difference between male and female DNA. When I say probe I mean a chemical that reacts with the xx chromosomes to make it go pink. I was a little skeptical because Lea said she had never made it work before but it worked today and we were both very excited. Then we had lunch and coffee and stuff and then we went off to the bioimaging are. Bioimaging is basically a posh was of saying microscopy which itself is another word for using microscopes. Anyway, Jeremy was showing us around and pointing out all the massively expensive microscopes. The one we were using cost £500,000. Like serious money these things. But Jeremy is awesome, he showed us all these amazing pictures and even printed some out for me and Nick (Pictured). I know it sounds weird but I really enjoyed our session on microscopes.

Anyway, more awesome things happening tomorrow

Good Night xxx

p.s. the bottom picture are cells taken from a Bulls foreskin. Yummy eh?

Lots of Abbreviations

Hey Guys and Gals

So my tiredness level are bordering on being ridiculous now I probably shouldn't have given up my half term of sleep to work in a lab. Oh well, its fun.

So today I was doing a Southern wash. As you can imagine it involved washing some stuff off a membrane which had been imprinted with DNA. It wasn't too bad actually, I also had a good chat with one of the students working there about courses and a stuff that she had done. Was really helpful. Then I went to talk to one of the PIs, I don't know what PI stands for but thats what all the PHD students call the people that like rule the place. To be honest I haven't seen them do that much but apparently they're in control of the place, so I talked to one of them about Summer Placements there. Unfortunately I'm too young to do a proper internship but I can hopefully do one next year, thats if I get a place. Anyway, then I went off with another PHD student to finish the PCR thing I started with her yesterday, it went quite well and I even managed to get this print out of our results.

OK I don't know exactly what they mean but the thinner lines mean that those results are the most accurate. Then we went for lunch and then started DNA extraction. Wow that makes me sound like a proper science nerd.... OK that may be because I am but nonetheless, its fun :D

Anyway, I'll leave you to go and figure out what all those abbreviations meant

Good Night xxx

Good Night

So... Very... Sleepy...

Hello Guys and Gals

Dear GOD I'm tired. Like actually could fall asleep at any moment.

*Thunk....snore.....snore....snore*

Ah, why didn't you wake me up?

Jeez, you just can't get the staff these days can you?

Anyway, day two of work experience. Was surprisingly good. Well, compared to yesterday it was. Got in before my PHD student shadower type person got there, so I was sat waiting, having a chat with some of the other PHD students. But then we got down to business imprinting DNA into a gell as well as a chemical ladder. It required massive precision, as you can imagine, I failed miserably. Never mind, no real harm done. Then, I went for a chat with a uni student who was there as part of her year in industry, we bumped into Nick on the way down to the cafeteria bit and what was intended to be a 20 minute chat about uni turned into an hour long conversation about some analysis method called a Western. I think I grasped about 20-25% of what they said, but it was interesting nonetheless. Then I went back to my PHD student and got the results of the gell thing we did earlier. It didn't work and we weren't sure why.

That was roughly the point when my PHD student ran out of things to show me, so I transfered to another student who was studying sexual development stuff. She took me into the cold store which one area was -4 degrees C which wasn't too bad. What was bad was the section that was at -20 degrees. Twas rather chilly to say the least. Then we did some interesting stuff to do with creating primers and DNA stuff. Then we did some more interesting stuff and then went home.



Now imma go sleep

Good Night xxx