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!

Amazing science in the world around us

National Science and Engineering Week is over, but that doesn't mean emerging, exciting science stories are over too. I've been involved in one or two events this week so I'm just managing to catch up on the science news headlines from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment/) and its incredible how advanced modern life has become- from 3D printing of human face parts to bionic 'cyborg' limbs, I find it hard to comprehend this kind of technology (even though my school days weren't that long ago)! To think that we live in an age when faces can be reconstructed by simply being printed off before our very own eyes is unbelievable. But it is true, and it's true because of the efforts of scientists and mathematicians and engineers continually trying to develop our world and make it a better place for us. How cool is it to think we are alive NOW when all this is happening? In the late 1980's DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) fingerprinting was used for the very first time to capture a criminal, the murderer Colin Pitchfork. This all happened around the time I was born, and since then DNA fingerprinting has moved leaps and bounds in it's development, meaning the identification of people nowadays can be made much quicker and by using tiny amounts of DNA of between 100 to 1000 base pairs (DNA building blocks). To put this into context, the gene for ginger hair (MC1R gene) has nearly 90 million base pairs! These developments help to make the world around us a safer place to live, knowing that criminals will be caught, but also offer hope to those who may have lost loved ones in past conflicts. In fact only this weekend it emerged that 10 soldiers who died during World War I had been identified using modern day forensic DNA analyses, allowing families to close the chapter on their relatives last moments. What else will scientists and engineers discover or create in this world (or other worlds?) whilst we are alive? What discoveries will you make?

Nottingham's ScienceGrrl first meet and greet

What a fantastic turnout of people at the first ScienceGrrl meeting at Nottingham! Lots of exciting opportunities and events coming up in the Nottingham areas over the coming months. First one for the diary is Science@Sutton Bonington on Saturday 22nd March! See you all there!

It's National Science and Engineering Week!

Wow- this week is busy busy. I had an amazing time at Science in the Park on Saturday, meeting lots of young, aspiring scientists. It never ceases to amaze me how inquisitive the young(er) mind is, especially when I think about how I was as a young person, taking the world in and wondering what lay ahead for me. I should be heading out to East Leake Academy this week too, and also have an appointment with some ScienceGrrl's at Univeristy of Nottingham on Thursday and then giving a talk at Science@Sutton Boningtonon Saturday. Sometimes it's hard fitting the day job in, buts it's all worth it.

So what's everyone else up to this week? I like talking about my job and how I ended up here, so that's what I'm mostly going to be doing. Hopefully it might inspire someone else to consider a career in sciences. I've moved around a bit to be honest, from forensics to pharmaceuticals to food sciences, buts it's been a natural progression and I've followed what's interested me. I love the gut (sounds a bit wierd) but I'm fascinated about how it knows what nutrients we need for our bodies to function. It's an awesome world in the gut, in the intestinal tract! It's why I spent 4 years looking at it and growing it in the lab - a conversation for another time maybe. But it's why I'm currently working for a company in Nottinghamshire that investigates the gut and the food we eat. I like food, so science projects that combine food and the gut are great for me to get involved with. What else do I enjoy? What do you enjoy? What's around the corner for us? Hmmm....

Back in the UK, ready for Science in the Park

I had a really useful time at the 3rd International Conference on Food Digestion in The Netherlands this week. I heard about fantastic research, met great scientists and world experts, and came back with my head full of new ideas and possibilities.

Now, today, I'm preparing for a Saturday event I really love called 'Science in the Park'. It's an annual FREE festival of science for the whole family held at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham (also famous as Batman's house -- it was there that the scenes at Bruce Wayne's home were filmed for The Dark Knight Rises).

In my spare time I'm Secretary of the Nottinghamshire branch of the British Science Association, The BSA, and we've organised the Science in the Park festival for families and science lovers for the past six years. Tomorrow's event runs from 11am to 4pm at Wollaton Hall, across the road from The University of Nottingham's main campus, University Park. If you live nearby, come along! Here's a map: http://goo.gl/bbp0dh

This month I'm celebrating a year at the food and ingredients research company where I work, Eminate Ltd. It's been an incredible year in general. That's part of the reason I'm starting my ScienceJennie blog. I want to share some of the things I'm discovering, about science, my subject, and life!

In the past year I've completed my PhD and passed my viva (the face-to-face exam testing me on my doctoral thesis) and I'm working on some amazing projects. For Science in the Park, I'm taking most of the Eminate team to Wollaton Hall with me.

We'll be giving visitors the chance to try up to several real-life experiments related to food. We're calling it 'Science of the Bake' to show that every time you bake and make food, you're doing science!

 

If you like 'The Great British Bake-Off', you'll enjoy diving a bit deeper into bread for 'The Great British Yeast-Off', another set of experiments looking at what yeast is and how it works. Another experiment looks at the chemistry of cupcakes. It'll investigate all the clever processes that ingredients that go into gorgeous cupcakes.

Also, do you know what milk is? I mean, do you know what it really is, how it works and what the point is of separating curds and whey? That will be one of our experiments, called 'Micellar Milk'. We'll also show how to make rainbows in milk (yes, really!) along the way learning about things called surfactants and emulsifiers.

Come and meet us there and have a go. Find out more at https://www.facebook.com/NottsBSA

In case you can't come, I'll put pictures and more information up here next week. Also follow @sciencejennie on Twitter, here https://twitter.com/sciencejennie