#biology grad school

[the-amethyst-artist]

Some non-fanart for you all! Thought all the wildlife enjoyers might like this! It’s going to be hung in my lab space to make my windowless room a little more pretty 🐟🦋

[katiajewelbox]

Today I submitted my PhD thesis.

[cosmicvaca]

Happy New Year!! My first drawing of the year! He looks so at peace here my sweet son 💚🥲

This is from a reference sheet Im making of Nori's tattoos and pecrings for my jotakak university AU that lives rent free in my head and Im might not even post it.

[greenteacology]

why did they name it PNAS. who thought that was a good name for a scientific journal.

[dirty-bosmer]

Applied for my first Big Girl job after five years of grinding at this PhD (the end is in sight!!), and guess what folks— my degree actually supplied me with skills relevant to the job posting. My skills are needed. There’s a place out there for me. The utter shock of it all!!

[inheritance-beyond-genes]

17.05.24

After a depressive episode i decided to reromantisize my relationship with living things. One thing i used to enjoy a lot is fielwork which i am not doing anymore so i sneaked into other's people projects yesterday. Felt so energised and passionate even for short time!

[lichenaday]

One of the things I really like about being a PhD student is that I don't really have average days. I don't have any teaching commitments at the moment so I can kinda just plan my own work schedule. This takes A LOT of self discipline which I don't have tons of so it can be challenging at times, but also means I get to work at my own pace. Since I don't have an average day, here's a peak at what I am up to today.

I wake up around 7:30/8. That's the time my cats have decided is wake up time, so I have little choice. Today we have a lab meeting over zoom at 10, so after running to the store to pick up cat litter and cat food, I head into the office.

I live about an hour away from my lab via train (I can't afford a place in the city), so my long commute is taken up listening to podcasts and staring out the window.

The lab meeting goes long today (as it does most weeks) and then it's on to EMAILS. I have a lot going on at the moment as I am planning my field work in Iceland in 2 WEEKS jeez how did it get here so fast! I also have to submit a presentation abstract for a botany conference I am attending in a few months. Luckily my supervisor was able to edit it last night so I can submit it today.

Then I go for a walk because the weather is nice and I need it.

My office is at the botanical garden so it is hard to resist. Spring is here! My misery can end!

Then it's lab work time.

They are doing construction on our normal lab so I have to go use the one in the creepy basement. I get a stern talking to from one of the other lab folks for not signing up for a scheduled time slot, which I didn't realize was a thing since it is my first time working in this lab. So I scurry away to figure out how to do that.

It's a lot of running up and down this grand stair case back and forth between my office upstairs and the lab in the basement.

I am running an agarose gel on some PCR products to see if I was able to amplify fungal DNA in some rest samples. I have to do this using ethidium bromide which is a hazardous chemical™. The German "danger" skull and crossbones doesn't have teeth for some reason?

My gel results are not good and so it is back to the drawing board on that one, but this was just a test anyway.

I am also working on extracting spores from lichen apothecia, which involves sticking apothecia on the lid of a petri dish, watering them every day for a week, and praying that they rain down spores into the dish below. Pipetting a drop of water onto each apothecia is tedious, but also satisfying.

Now I just have to kill time until I head out to choir rehearsal @ 7:00PM. So I go back to emails, annoying my coworkers, and my side hustle editing for an academic blog.

And that's what my day looked like. Some days I do more lab work, most days I do a lot of writing, and soon I will be doing LOTS of field work which is my favorite!

[quicksilversquared]

So the "down" arrow hasn't worked on my computer since September, but I've been too busy to be able to spare my computer for several days while being fixed, so I've just been working around it. Until this morning, when I discovered that the program that I now need to use for my research (....because the old version of it relies on a program that's been discontinued) requires that I scroll through options with the arrow keys, and I can't just scroll up and loop around. Which... is lovely.

My advisor's solution, while I'm trying to find a place that will do a fast repair: connect an extra keyboard to my laptop. Pretty sure I can hear my remote sensing prof (who has already criticized my laptop for being old, my external hard drive for being outdated and slow technology, and my mouse for randomly turning off) screaming in the distance.

[marinebioblr]

I'm hopefully going to try and post some more here again - ironically, it's been hard to post fun marine bio stuff since I've started grad school, despite it being a master's in Marine Conservation 😭

That said, if anyone is interested about grad school for marine sciences, I suppose I am now a resource! Feel free to ask me anything, and hopefully I'll get back to posting semi regularly soon 🦈

[dannygpino]

I bet Nick donated/sold most of his belongings right before he moved to California. Clothes, furniture, accessories like ties, watches, etc, books, little knick knacks. Most of his remaining dinnerware cause he had donated the others after his divorce was finalized and he didn't think he needed all of it. While this was clouded by his anger and his sense of defeat, he also really felt like he needed to have a clean slate. He needed to let go of the past. Maybe he donated even more things after he moved that he had placed on a "purgatory" list because he thought he wanted to keep them then found he would be fine without them. He would find new things in California that didn't have memories attached to them. He would buy new clothes. He would keep looking ahead.

When he first moved, his apartment was very minimalist but he liked it. Over time, he filled it with things he picked up and bought that held new memories, that did not hurt to look at. Things that did not remind him of what he lost. Maybe it was easier to move on by doing this. Maybe it wasn't. He was glad he did it either way.

Maybe one day, he realizes being a PI isn't feeding his soul or his spirit. He wants more. He wants to feel like he's making a difference again. He wants to help people. A friend mentions how their girlfriend works as a geneticist on cold cases. Nick asks to speak with her and she gives him all of the information he could possibly need. He applies to graduate programs, briefly wonders if he'll have to temporarily relocate to Sacramento to go to UC Davis. Fortunately, he's able to stay in Southern California. He chooses a forensic science program at San Diego State and a genetics program at UC San Diego, and he's on his way.

When he thinks about New York, the sting isn't there as much as it used to be. He feels settled. He feels okay. When he sits on the beach to watch the sunset, wearing a SDSU hoodie and feeling like a college freshman rather than a graduate student, he smiles. California was a blessing in disguise.

Even when life and the job knock him down, Nick will find a way to get back up again. He always does.

[the-amethyst-artist]

How to memorize taxonomy fast no borax no glue

[linstudy]

17.12.2023, sunday

im still working on the same tasks, my sickness has become more impeding than anticipated

i really really don't like reading cell articles and this one is not an exception whatsoever, hopefully i can finish on time and present it

also im really nervous about seeing my PI tomorrow

[katiajewelbox]

Dear people with PhDs, I would greatly appreciate your insights...

Now that my thesis has been submitted, I am awaiting the viva voce exam. For those not familiar with the terminology, a viva voce is the UK equivalent of the PhD defence in the USA, but it is a less formal affair featuring a private meeting between the PhD candidate and two experts in their field selected by their supervisor.

My viva isn't until April 30th, 2025, but I'm interested in being as prepared as possible for this meeting.

If you have done a viva voce as part of your PhD, I would like to know about your experience. In particular, I'm curious about the types of questions asked and the level of detail expected in discussions. If your PhD was in biology I would be very interested in hearing about your viva impressions.

You can PM me or write your thoughts in the comments, either works for me.

Many thanks in advance!

(Art: My original AI generated art from 2023 made with DALL E 3)

[from-beyond]

Still soooooo disappointed I wasn’t able to get my “lesbian reanimator” short film made last year. I literally had the script, cast, and locations, I just didn’t have enough time 😔😔😔

[flavit-sc]

This is in one of the figures of the paper I'm reading. Love this man inspired by the triangular shape of an antibody

[dirty-bosmer]

Being an organismal biologist is so wacky. You meet someone new, shake their hand, then have to explain that you're a doctor of fish.