Quarter of a century

I am now a quarter of a century old! I celebrated my birthday with Mr. Jay and my parents, with a fairly low key day out. Mr. Jay spoiled me rotten- he is wonderful! He cooked me breakfast and dinner and bought me an iPhone. He is possibly regretting that slightly as I have been neglecting him for it! I may be a little bit too in love with my iPhone. At least I have not given it a name. Yet.

I don’t feel that there is anything particularly significant about reaching 25. I know there are plenty of people who achieved much more than I have by this age. I have a friend who is a year younger than me and has already published first author papers in the highest impact factor journals, and is starting a post doc at a very prestigious uni! I will not even be starting my PhD until October! However, I have absolutely no regrets about the way I have spent the last few years. I took two years out to travel the world, and I had would not swap those years for anything. I also spent the last two years working as an RA instead of starting a PhD straight after my travels. I do not feel any pressure to race up the ladder in my career, and I think in the long term taking it slowly is the right thing for me. For example, if I did not have my RA experience, I am pretty sure I would not have got onto such a highly regarded PhD program as I did. I hope I will still feel that my decisions were the right ones as time passes.

Hamster

Mr Jay and I love animals. We both grew up with pets including dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, budgies, and canaries. When we moved in together just over a year ago, of course we wanted our own pet(s)! Unfortunately we rent, and landlords don’t really like tenants to have pets of any kind. Also, we are both usually out of the house for twelve hours a day! Therefore there were not many pet options open to us. Introducing the third and final member of our little family... Hamster!

Although hamsters are typical pets for kids, Hamster is the perfect pet for us overgrown, immature, children-at-heart! She needs VERY little time, she is cheap to care for, and we can leave her unattended for several days. Most importantly, she is very cute and entertaining. Her best trick is to walk upside down along the ceiling of the cage like monkey bars, then let go, one paw at a time! We could take bets on where she will land. Hamster is currently immortalised as my profile picture.

PhD Interview Questions

Here are some of the questions I was asked during my recent PhD interviews:

1. Tell me about your research.
2. Why is your research important?
3. How much independence and control do you have over your work?
4. Tell me about a paper you have read recently.
5. Why should we be interested in rare, monogenic diseases?
6. What is the first thing you would do in an investigation to identify the mutation that causes a monogenic disease?
7. Why do you want to do a PhD?
8. Why do you want to do THIS PhD?
9. Does the scale of the work involved in completing a PhD scare you?
10. What factors control the expression level of a particular gene?
11. What do you think are the biggest problems which are currently holding back the field of human genetics?
12. What job would you do if you couldn’t be a scientist?
13. How many people have ever lived?

Welcome to Confessions

I am a Research Assistant working at a famous UK university. Last week I was interviewed for one of the most competitive PhD programs around, and was offered a place! This exciting development has inspired me to start my own blog: something which I have been considering for a while.

I tend to lurk around various science blogs, but now my own career as a scientist looks set to progress I feel compelled to get more involved. My main motivations for blogging include getting in touch with a support network, improving my writing skills (if, indeed, it turns out that I have any!), keeping a personal record of this stage of my life, and finally just as an outlet for miscellaneous thoughts.

I will write about anything that takes my interest. That could be science, social issues, genetics, feminism, recipes, health, wifehood, religion, book reviews, travel, maybe even the odd journal club-style paper review! The truth is I am not entirely sure which direction this new venture will take me in but I am happy to go with the flow.