Fireworks, Forensics and Food!

I think we've all enjoyed the beautiful coloured stars and heat of the raging fires at various bonfire events up and down the country this week... I attended a family event and then went to the local pub, The Redgate Inn for a spectacular display - here's my attempt at capturing a firework as it explodes using my phone! Fireworks can reach speeds of 150 mph and reach heights of 200m- no surprise that our favourite social media platforms have been filled with blurry images all week then!

I was very fortunate to be invited along to the science department of The Market Bosworth School in Leicestershire this week to talk about my career to date, as well as covering topics about food science and forensics. My forensics portfolio, insects exhibits and chocolate tasting activities went down a treat and certainly sparked some interesting debates and questions from the pupils. Can you ever imagine eating insects as part of your daily routine to get your daily amount of protein? What foods would you design for healthy lifestyles? What about our expanding population? What about making access to food more sustainable and environmentally friendly food production? Is forensic science all about dead bodies? Can you think of  any foods that aren't processed? What subjects do you have to take to do food science or forensic science?

Lots of questions, and I can't wait to go back there for more discussions and activities with such inquisitive minds!

It's Chocolate Week!

What an awesome lecture last night by David Baines, talking all about the chemistry of flavours, the interaction of amino acids to create flavours, the importance of pyrazines in chocolate and the Maillard Reaction, and how evolution plays a huge part in how we detect flavours and aromas. One of the in vogue taste experiments at the moment that David showcased brilliantly is the tasting of high % chocolate whilst holding the nose closed (demonstrated on C4's Sunday Brunch at the weekend)... what do you think happened? Well, the bitter, foul taste of the chocolate whilst holding my nose was lifted as soon as I let go to reveal that famous chocolatey taste we all know too well. Why? It turns out that there are 6 million receptors in both sides of the nose and that pyrazines that come off the chocolate are detected through the retronasal route (one to Google for sure!) without detecting these compounds we don't enjoy the taste! Thankfully I normally eat chocolate without holding my nose, so I can continue enjoying the delicious taste for many years to come...phew!

David also explained how cultural differences alter the way in which we capture, cultivate, prepare and consume food. In addition to our culture, our "eating experience" is influenced by several factors, such as the noise (the crunch of a crisp, for example), our appetite, the taste, the smell and appearance, and even the environment around us affects the way in which we interpret flavours. Who would have thought?! A simple but effective experiment to illustrate this was using 2 different images whilst smelling one aroma (passionfruit) and to see how the audience responded.

The evening ended discussing the popular but controversial MSG, mono-sodium glutamate, and its use in various processed foods. I have tasted MSG on its own before in another lecture, but I couldn't resist having another taste last night either. What foods rely on MSG? What is MSG used for? Where can we find MSG naturally? Definitely worth another Google search.....

It's not just Monday Blues, but a Weekend Full of Colour!

What a weekend it's been! To brighten up this gloomy Monday morning I am reminding myself of the exciting developments that were made over the past few days- firstly, please follow the link to ScienceJennie's Chemistry Kitchen to watch the footage of when a group of home-educated children came to the University of Nottingham and Eminate to learn all about food chemistry! The footage will be showcased at the Food Matters Live exhibition later on this Autumn.

Saturday marked Nottingham ScienceGrrl's first chapter meet up, where more than a dozen men and women from Nottingham met to discuss plans to provide lectures and guest speakers to local schools, as well as other interesting and fun science events in and around the area- watch this space!

To close my weekend, I couldn't resist the lights and sounds of the Goose Fair, Nottingham's annual fair that has been running for more than 700 years!I think you ought to check out this blog Tripping light fantastic to get a sense of the spectacular imagery captured at this year's fair.

The Arrival of Autumn Bringing a New Start for Many...

The summer is nearly over, what with the falling, bronzing leaves and the misty early mornings, but what a great summer it's been. For me, I can't pretend to ignore the holiday on the volcanic island of Tenerife last month; 2 weeks of blue skies and blue seas was just what the doctor ordered (excuse the pun!) but I must admit I was taken aback by the stunning charcoal sands beached against stunning rock formations, a pure echo of the islands volcanic and motile history. Overshadowing the view from most of the towns and villages that I managed to visit was the magnificent Teide, the hole in the earth from where the lava spewed more than 100 years ago, forming some of the landscapes that weren't a million miles away from where I stayed in Santiago del Teide. 

But back to reality, back to the UK, and back to work. I'm lucky enough to have my office located within The University of Nottingham's Sutton Bonington campus. and today is the start of term for hundreds of new students beginning their scientific careers in either plant sciences, nutritional sciences, veterinary sciences or- most excitingly for me- food sciences! Naturally, there are a lot of 'lost' individuals taking the time to explore the corridors and countryside that Sutton Bonington has to offer- the Sutton Bonington campus boundary is shown in red to give some idea of how close to nature we are! How exciting yet nerve-racking it must be for these students, some of whom are from across the seas, embarking a whole new way of life with so many new faces and in a brand new, beautiful environment. 

Let's wish each and every one of them all the best in their new chosen path, after all, they deserve the recognition that they have made such an important life-decision. Who knows where their paths will lead, but what a great place to start the journey! 

The science of ice cream- tried and tasted

Life on Earth needs food to survive- without food, we wouldn't have the energy to go about doing the everyday tasks we take for granted, like moving and thinking. Food manufacturers produce a huge variety of food for us to obtain our energy from, allowing is to have a varied, balanced diet (unless we eat one food group more than any other) allowing us to get all the nutrition our body requires to function (and sometimes more than we need).

The old saying "a little of what you fancy does you good" is one of those phrases that I find myself using when justifying buying my favourite sugary snack, like ice cream (as if we really need an excuse with the weather we've been having lately).

On Saturday myself and fellow ScienceGrrl http://sciencegrrl.co.uk/ Bethan Clifford made ice cream with a group of 12 Brownies from Girl Guiding Beeston  http://www.beestongirlguiding.org.uk/ 

Using simple ingredients from around the home- a tablespoon of sugar, 4 tablespoons of salt, some crushed ice and some semi-skimmed milk (full fat milk works much better)- the girls created tasty ice cream, which were topped off with some sprinkles, off course!

It tasted great, and it enabled the girls to learn about the physical properties of ice cream and how it obtains its famous foam structure. Learn more here http://www.eminate.co.uk/about-eminate/news/brownies-discover-science-ice-cream/

A Future in STEM is for You!

I have to laugh: as a child, my hours would roll into days as I often spent the soggy British summertime building my latest mansions with the world famous building blocks that go by the name of Lego. Admittedly, I don’t need much of an excuse to assist nieces and nephews in their attempts to build the tallest tower or the 3 storey town house these days, but yesterday I found myself walking into the Lego store in Sheffield to enquire about the latest female scientist character. Complete with conical flasks, the female chemist is a much welcome, slightly overdue addition to the Lego family. And I wonder what I would look like as a Lego character. What would you look like?

Creating a character or an avatar gives us the freedom to explore how we would like to appear to other people in an ideal world, and what our perfect career would be (just so we can select the correct accompanying tool to go with our avatar, of course).  Once we have the ideal, perfect vision of ourselves firmly in our own mind, we can start taking steps to make that a living reality. But let’s go one further and consider what we want to be remembered for; discovering life changing cancer therapies; making an impact towards low carbon technology; reducing the need for animals in science research; developing cheaper vaccines for low income economies; etc etc.

I am currently in the process of making a huge, potentially life-changing decision that has reignited a dwindling spark in me about what the future of science looks like for me. A career in science will always evolve to whatever you want it to look like, whether it be teaching the next generation of genius’s, researching your own questions about the wonders of the world or moving out of the lab and into a slightly different territory where lab coats and safety specs are a thing of the past. But the science, and the research and the curiosity remains. For me, the future career I want in science has already started to mould itself into my ideal job, and I’m in control of the next chapter of my life.

I can’t ignore the invaluable lessons I learned in the lab along the way: the hours spent on the spectrophotometer and deciphering my latest set of kinetic data; the care and attention to detail whilst purifying proteins through chromatography and other techniques; tending to my human cells in culture that I cared for for over 3 years. All of these experiences have enabled me to work out where my path is taking me next. A future in STEM is definitely for me. I always want to play for the curious team, the team that asks questions about the world, the team that asks ‘why’ and the team that pulls together to find answers to make our world a better place. Imagine this Earth without the mathematicians working alongside the geologists working alongside the engineers to solve erosion and drought that the tempest brings. Imagine our Earth when all bacteria become resistant to the antibiotics we so heavily rely on now. I love playing for the STEM team. The question is, is a future in STEM for you? 

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.