I had a meeting with my supervisor for my fourth year project. He alternated between saying "I have no expectations of you, don't worry" and "you have the scope to get more out of this than just a project" and "this is part of something I'm being funded for" but "I have no expectations"......so yes, I am worried, actually! I'd prefer if he told me what...

I don't have time to write about it properly, but this paper - the new transcriptome study of autism-spectrum brains, from Nature, makes me really excited. Comparing gene expression in a high throughput way, using microarrays - creating networks and identifying significant modules - using genome-wide association study data to back up your conclusions...

Yesterday, I gave a tour of the department to a thirteen year old and her mother. When I was thirteen, I wanted to be a costume designer for films (blame Lord of the Rings).No, the girl wasn’t some kind of prodigy (although she did seem pretty smart). Her mum just emailed the head of the department, saying her daughter was interested in science and...

Fig 1: I has a bruise.I went to give blood last Thursday. Giving blood is something I feel quite strongly about, so I try to go as often as I can. Sadly I hadn't been in about a year - but I persuaded a friend to come and donate, too, so I felt less guilty! Unfortunately this time, for me, it didn't go too smoothly. I didn't actually manage to give...

Term is over, my lab project is over (well, the part that involves being in the lab is at least, if not the write-up) - and so to celebrate, I made C .elegans cake!Fig 1: Caaaaaaake. Photo by me. It was actually also as a form of bribery / distraction ^^;; You see, I had to do a ten-minute talk to the rest of the Genetics class, plus a few lecturers,...

I now have my very own box in the freezer in my project lab. (It has a bright green name sticker on it, because I feel I should keep up my reputation for liking shiny things :P) I feel like I belong there, finally!Okay, that's an overstatement, but it does feel like my project is finally starting to go somewhere. So far I, and the other girl doing...