Unlike other OPIGlets (looking at you, Claire), I have neither the skill nor the patience to make good figures from scratch. And making good figures — as well as remaking, rescaling and adapting them — is incredibly important, because they play a huge role in the way we communicate our research. So how does an aesthetically impaired DPhil student do her plotting?
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You’re getting on my biscuits
Jaffa cakes are God’s own snacks and I will brook no opposition. I don’t mind if they’re McVitie’s brand Jaffa cakes, or Pim’s, the suspicious European variety. Even Sainsbury’s Basics Jaffa cakes float my balloon. Take a soft sponge base, slap some jam and chocolate on that puppy, and you’re golden.
But if you describe your love of these glorious creations, the conversation takes a familiar turn. Are they cakes or are they biscuits? it goes. HMRC tried to classify them as cakes – or was it biscuits? Something like that. It had to do with VAT…
Continue readingCommon denominators between a PhD and an Oxford ball
One of the things I love about Oxford is the way it pushes you to become a well-rounded person. It does so by means of a wealth of talks and lectures, and also through the college system that encourages meeting people from different disciplines, but above all through the strong culture of student projects. This place will encourage you, perhaps even push you, to take part in fantastic projects that will make the already very demanding workload even worse… but also teach you incredible skills and get you to work with wonderful, inspiring people.
Continue readingInvisible Women – Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed by Men
If you are looking for an excellent, data-focussed present to buy for yourself and everyone you love, check out Invisible Women – Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed by Men by Caroline Criado Perez. Having lent my copy to most members of the SABS DPhil program already, I will quote stats from this book to anyone who will listen.
Tsar Nicolas II and the curious case of the mismatched bases in his maternal mitochondrial DNA – was Tsar Nicolas II really killed in a cellar in 1917?
The Death of the entire ruling Romanov Family in 1917
In 1917, Tsar Nicolas II, together with his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, their five children (Maria, Anastasia, Olga, Tatiana and crown prince Alexei), and four servants, was executed and hastily buried in non-marked graves. His death ended the monarchic rule of House Romanov in Russia; no Tsar would ever sit on the Imperial throne again. A house which included famous Tsars Peter the Great and Catherine the Great was literally eradicated overnight.
Continue readingA collection of prion factoids
It’s been several years since I last presented a talk on prions to OPIG, so I thought a neat way of getting up to date would be to read “The prion 2018 round tables“. What’s the current understanding and are we any closer to determining a structure of PrPSc?
Continue readingWhy you should care about startups as a researcher
I was recently awarded the EIT Health Translational Fellowship, which aims to fund DPhil projects with the goal of commercializing the research and addressing the funding gap between research and seed funding. In order to win, I had to deliver a short 5 minute startup pitch in front of a panel of investors and scientific experts to convince them that my DPhil project has impact as well as commercial viability. Besides the £5000 price, the fellowship included a week-long training course on how to improve your pitch, address pain points in your business strategy etc. I found the whole experience to be incredibly rewarding and the skills I picked up very important, even as a researcher. As a summary, this is why I think you should care about the startup world as a researcher.
Continue readingChat bots and the Turing test
When I recently tested out the voice activation features on my phone, I was extremely impressed with how well it understood not only the actual words I was saying, but also the context. The last time I used voice control features was years ago when the technology was still in its infancy. There was only a specific set of commands the voice recognition software understood and most of them were hard-coded. Given the impressive advances we have made utilizing machine learning for voice recognition and natural language processing to the point where I can tell my phone: “Hey Google, can you give me a list of the best BBQ restaurants near me?” and it will actually understand and do it, it is interesting that we still struggle with a language based technology that has been around for ages: chatbots.
Continue readingA new way of eating too much
Fresh off the pages of Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism comes a warning no self-respecting sweet tooth should ignore.
“Liquorice is not just a candy,” write a team of ten from Chicago. “Life-threatening complications can occur with excess use.” Hold on to your teabags. Liquorice – the Marmite of sweets – is about to become a lot more sinister.
Continue readingOh lord, they comin’ – a diversity of units
For scientists, units are like money: a few people obsess about them, but the less you have to think about units, the better. And, like switching a bank account, changing your units is usually tiresome and complicated for little real advantage. But spare a thought for the many units that have been lost to the inexorable march of scientific advance, and for the few that are still in regular use.
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