Your future, your way

It's almost May- where is the year going? The days and weeks seem to be rolling by and what do we have to show for it? April has been a big month for me. In some respects I'm welcoming May with open arms, but I'm also spending some time reflecting on what has been an adventure of a month, too. It seems a while ago since I've had to spend the months of April and May burying myself in books and making copious notes in an attempt to absorb the sea of information from my GCSE and A Level classes, ready for exam hell, but funnily enough, 10 years on I still find myself preparing for even the smallest meeting in almost the same way. Although I sort of know my research area quite well, I constantly ask myself "what if I get asked this, or what if I get asked that, and I don't know the answer!" How embarrassing would that be- the one chance to shine in front of very important people and to not know the answer to their questions. I can almost feel the blood rushing to my face at the thought of everyone looking at me waiting for an answer. But hang on a minute, I'm only human. How on earth am I expected to know everything about my research interest? After all, if we knew everything about a particular subject why would we bother researching it even more?

I remember being a 2nd year PhD student (at which point I would have been 6 years into university education) and having to present my research findings to my whole research group (scary stuff). One of my examiners asked me a question that I didn't know the answer to. So I answered "sorry, I don't know", as you do. It didn't go down very well with my supervisor, who told me that next time I was asked something I didn't know, I must answer as intellectually as possible. Fair enough, perhaps I got scared and didn't try hard enough to answer my examiner's question adequately, and I won't ever forget the words of my supervisor afterwards. But what if I had tried to answer the question, not knowing the answer? I would have fumbled awkwardly for reason, for explanations, hoping that the answer would miraculously jump out and present itself to me. What would have been worse? A moment of honesty, or a few moments of desperately clawing for an answer? Looking back, I'm glad I answered the way I did. To this day, I am always true to myself and if I don't know the answer, I simply say so.

This approach might not always work, however, especially in written exam scenarios where you are expected to answer the question logically (which often gets misinterpreted as "regurgitate everything you have ever learned in this subject and hopefully the answer will be there somewhere"). So what can we do to ensure we enter an exam, or a meeting, as fully armed and prepared as we can possible be? There's no one solution to suit everybody, but my advice would be to prepare as much as you physically can in order to do your absolute best. If you can look yourself in the mirror and know you have done the best you can to prepare for an exam, or presentation, or meeting, then that's all anyone can ever expect of you. And good for you.

Waiting for results is always a fun time, isn't it? That not-knowing, the uncertain, the catalogue of doom and gloomy thoughts playing havoc with your imagination as you picture the worst result imaginable. And then the results are in. The feedback from the meeting wasn't too bad afterall; the grade of the exam was a nice surprise; everyone applauded your presentation. And breathe....you've done it! Big pat on the back for you.

But what if the results weren't as good as you hoped? This has happened to me a time or two (which isn't my favourite thing to admit), but it taught me a few things, and also made me question my future- is it humanly possible to be good at everything? Well, no. Do I enjoy this subject enough to invest my heart and soul into it? Obviously we can't say 'yes' all of the time to this, but if I can give any advice, not doing very well in one or two scenarios makes you appreciate when things do go right, and really helps you focus on what you enjoy doing as opposed to what you are doing because you have been asked to do it. There is always tomorrow to rectify a bad day today. There are always other opportunities round the corner. You just have to want to go get it. Apply yourself in what you really enjoy, in what really matters to you, and the rest will sort itself out.

Chocolatey Happiness

It's Easter Sunday. To some, this is a spiritual, holy day of remembering and celebrating. For many this is also a day of sharing chocolate and sweet gifts with loved ones. I for one have been doing lots of giving, especially to my nieces and nephews who were very pleased to receive chocolate eggs along with their latest toy craze- princesses, pirates, nurses...I also have been at the receiving end too, and have unashamedly been calmly making my way through some of my favourite chocolates all day (diet starts tomorrow, of course!). I feel serene, content, and for some bizarre reason I feel no guilt. Everyone's at it today, aren't they? I have been quietly checking status updates to confirm that it isn't just me partaking in some chocolatey indulgence, and I feel quite confident that most of my friends and family are all up to the same tricks today (phew).

So these feelings of enjoyment that come as soon as one bites into the delicious, crisp chocolate shell of the egg- what's that all about? I definitely don't get the same 'mmmm' or 'aaahhhh' feelings when I bite into the crisp skin of an apple, so why does chocolate seem to make me feel happy? It's all to do with a chemical called serotonin. Apparently, when we eat chocolate, we inadvertently increase the levels of serotonin, the 'molecule of happiness', in our brains, which in turn makes us feel happier. This is because serotonin is made in our brains using an amino acid called tryptophan, which is found in milk and other foods. Milk is of course one of the core ingredients in the milk chocolate recipe, but serotonin and tryptophan are also found in the cocoa solids too. Bonus! As a neurotransmitter, serotonin is responsible for our moods, as well as memory, learning and behaviour. Serotonin is transmitted across the synaptic cleft and binds to specific receptors, where it is then absorbed and brings about certain effects, one effect being the feeling of happiness. Check out the diagram University of Bristol have produced to show serotonin binding to receptors http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/serotonin/serotonin%20as%20a%20neurotransmitter.htm. So voilà - I can eat chocolate forever and ever and be happy. Pffft... I wish. There are a couple of major setbacks to this dream diet scenario....

Firstly, dark chocolate is really the best source of tryptophan and serotonin, as it's the 75-85% cocoa options that have the most benefits. In my opinion, dark chocolate isn't the nicest variety of chocolate as its quite bitter, and I wouldn't fancy eating more than a square or two in one go. Secondly, eating too much chocolate might cause negative health effects such as weight gain and increased blood sugar levels leading to health issues such as type II diabetes, and I certainly don't want to come across as advocating eating high fat, sugary foods on a regular basis. Luckily for us all though we can get our tryptophan fix from other, much healthier foods too, such as bananas, pineapples and plums, which is now going to create an element of confusion the next time we find ourselves at the chocolate fountain.

So where does this leave us? Well, we have to enjoy ourselves don't we? After all, a little of what you fancy does you good, or so the saying goes. In the case of eating chocolate, this saying might not be far from the truth (although other opinions say otherwise). Every once in a while, a chocolate therapy session isn't going to hurt anyone, unless you have intolerances to lactose or cocoa, or have insulin production problems, etc, in which case stay away from chocolate! So long as we don't rely on chocolate as the sole source of our serotonin production, then what's the harm? Happy Easter!

A big week as a budding scientist...

Wow what a rollercoaster of a week it's been. The first half of my week was dominated by one of the projects I'm leading with Eminate (the company I work for) that's looking into measuring probiotic activity in the colon, the middle part was taken up with my thesis (quite a large report that sums up all of my experimental research that I spent 4 years collecting) and then today's been spent explaining the science behind a novel food ingredient to a marketing company. I'm pleased to say that all events this week have gone about as well as I could have hoped for, so I can sigh a breath of relief until tomorrow's challenges arrive. And that's the beauty of working in a small biotech company  - you never know what tomorrow will bring. What I do know is that there will be plenty of conversations about ways in which scientists are trying to make the food supply chain more reliable for future generations, conversations exploring how the food industry can look to address the "waistline" challenge that is upon us. I'm happy to be part of these discussions, offering my view of the world and how I think we can make changes. 

If you'd have asked me over 10 years ago I never thought I would be part of these sorts of discussions, talking about global food strategies and future technologies for delivering food.  From quite a young age I thought I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up, but when I received my GCSE results I realised that I had more upstairs than I first thought, which led me to stay in education. In the end it turns out I love learning, so at the grand age of 28 I can finally say "I've left school". But this time I've left with a doctorate, and I'm pleased as punch that today I received word that all the things I'd written in my thesis had been approved by my examiner. What a rollercoaster of a journey that was, too. 

Looking back, I wouldn't change any of my experiences I've been lucky enough to have as a scientist. From a humble undergraduate (the name you get before you graduate) to today, it's taken over 8 years of university, a handful of job placements, and 3 years of college/sixth form to get here. Not without its moments, of course, like falling short of a grade I needed for my placement year, losing all my final year report that I'd spent weeks writing, and the occasional personal challenges thrown in for good measure. But those moments make it real to me; we all have stuff happening in our lives, but so long as you keep your eye on the ball, you'll get to where you're happy in life, even if it's not where you think you'll be right at this moment. 

The perks of being a railway engineer- water jets for landslides and digging up black death skeletons!

What with the thick smog that Britain has suffered from all week its surprising that anyone has been able to work outside without developing asthma or making their existing asthma even worse! But the guys at Network Rail have managed to rebuild the main railway line running through Dawlish that connects Devon with Cornwall. it took a 300-strong team and a whopping £35 million to rebuild the line, and also involved setting off a controlled landslide using water jets- you have to see the pictures-http://bbc.co.uk/newsround/26889145

Now lets move a couple hundred miles over to the east into London... here, excavations are underway putting in the infrastructure for London's Crossrail (a 73 mile rail link connecting more than 30 stations), and what do engineers unearth? Last year, 25 skeletons dating back to the middle ages when the Black Death claimed the lives of almost 60% of the population were discovered, and it has been confirmed through forensic testing that almost half of these skeletons had suffered from the plague. I think most of us have heard of the bubonic plague, or the Black Death http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/black_01.shtml, which is caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, but did you know that this bug is also responsible for the septicemia and pneumonic plagues too? The bubonic plague still remains a serious public health problem in some parts of the world, like in Madagascar, where plague is endemic in the animal population. Fortunately today we don't see pandemic outbreaks like we did in the 14th Century, and thanks to modern science, we also have antibiotics to treat the disease when caught in time.

These plague-victim skeletons also tell forensic archaeologists how people lived their lives in the 14th Century. Just by examining teeth and bones, forensic scientists can tell what types of jobs these people did, what their diets were like and even where they grew up! The oxygen that makes up our teeth and bones comes from the water we drink, which normally comes from the water in our rivers or sea, therefore scientists can use the 3 different oxygen isotopes (an isotope is a different form of the same element) found in our teeth enamel and our bones to discover whereabouts we lived. An isotope of carbon, Carbon-14, is used in the famous radiocarbon dating technique... why don't you try to find out why scientists use Carbon-14 to date bones and other organic material?

Happy researching!