Most people have a desk as a place of work. I’m lucky enough to have three workspaces as a chemist: my desk, my lab bench, and my fume hood, all for different aspects of chemistry research. Today I’m going to give you a tour around my lab bench! My lab bench is used to carry …
#postitperiodictable Group 2
The second column elements of the periodic table are known as the alkali earth metals. They are like group 1 in that they are relatively soft metals that react with water to produce hydrogen gas however they don’t react as vigorously. This is due to the group 2 elements having 2 outer electrons instead of …
#postitperiodictable Group 1
Every day last week I posted about each element in the first column of the periodic table to mark the International Year of the Periodic Table on my instagram account. Elements are grouped in columns based on their properties and in this post I'll talk about how the group 1 elements are chemically similar. On …
What do the numbers on the periodic table mean?
2019 marks the UN’s International Year of the Periodic Table or #IYPT. It’s 150 years since Dmitri Mendeleev presented his organisation of chemical elements to the world. The periodic table is used daily by chemists and other scientists as reference resource for the ingredients of the universe. Ancient Greeks defined “elements” as one of the …
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Science Conferences I went to in 2018
Over the course of a PhD, students are encouraged to leave the lab from time to time to go to conferences to learn about other kinds of research going on in their field. Science conferences gather researchers from academia and industry. In this post I will talk about the different conferences I went to in …
This Molecule Spells “Happy Christmas”!
It’s Christmas Eve! I hope you’re all getting to enjoy the festivities in some way, whether you’re taking a break from research/work with family and friends or taking advantage of it being quiet to get work done - or a special shout out if you’re one of the superheroes that keep the emergency services running …
Reflections on second year
This is my last week in the lab of 2018. It’s only really four days because we're having our group’s Christmas party on Friday (laser quest and pub lunch) and then I’m at a conference on Monday before taking the rest of the week off before Christmas. Towards the end of first year I wrote …
My Placement Year in Switzerland
Increasingly, universities are offering integrated masters science degrees over bachelor degrees. These normally include an additional year of study and/or a placement year in industry or an academic research group. In this post I’ll tell you about the science I did on my placement in Switzerland and how it is linked to a major drug approval that happened a few months ago.
Chemistry PhD: A Day in the Life
I find people’s routines really interesting. Everybody’s different. Some people are early birds while others are night owls. Some people work long hours and others manage to fit a lot of work into a short period of time. In this post I chat about what a typical day looks like for me and the various …
How do I know I’ve made the right molecule?
I spend my days in a chemistry lab making drug-like molecules. A lot of these end up being small quantities (less than 0.1 g!) and usually have the appearance of a white/off-white powder. Occasionally I get a colour which is very exciting. The question a non-chemist might ask is “how do you know you’ve made …
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