University: My Room

When you move away from home and into new accommodation like I did last year, it's difficult to make it feel like home. I had a really bare room for a while which made it feel a bit empty and hospital-like. So, grab your cushions, cute bedding, photographs and stationery to jazz up your room. It is a home from home after all. 

I recently moved in to my new flat that I will being living in during second year and decided to make it a little more colourful this year. It's still not finished, I have plenty of photos to go up but I decided not to feature those in the video because they're of family members, friends etc. and I've been scouring Etsy for more cute things to make my room look homely. You'll also notice the pile of books I got from the library yesterday. I have plenty of reading to do before Uni starts again and so a trip to the library was a must. :-)

This is the first video I've made in a long time (I haven't used movie maker since about year 7) and so I apologise for how amateur it is. 

Music: Mazzy Star // Fade Into You

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'An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth'

Disclaimer: I admit that I'm extremely late jumping on the bandwagon by reading this book, but space exploration is something I've only recently become interested in, thanks to all the amazing astrophysicists I follow on Twitter. So thanks, spacey people. I applaud you. 

Probably one of the best books I have ever read, 'An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth' is a self-help guide as much as it is a fabulous tale about Chris Hadfields experiences both on Earth and in space. I had to stop myself from reading it all in one day just so I could savour how good it is and I can't recommend it enough, especially to those people like me who at times don't have a lot of faith in themselves when it comes to achieving their dreams. It's truly inspiring and I just can't praise it enough.

Chris has faced so many knock-backs and unfortunate circumstances, some of which he couldn't control, like being Canadian! He knew there was a slim chance of NASA ever wanting to send a Canadian into space when there were so many Americans wanting to fulfil the role. Yet, he never let this stop him. Instead, he persevered and worked hard, becoming a fighter pilot, working weekends and completing extra training exercises in the hope of taking a step closer to becoming an astronaut. He says at the beginning of the book that he has wanted to be an astronaut since he was nine years old and first saw the moon-landing. Since that day he has taken every measure possible in order to achieving that and it's amazing that someone can be so dedicated to a particular goal.

Chris Hadfield

Whilst not everyone wants to be an astronaut, Hadfield provides valuable advice for people pursuing any career. He talks about the power of negative thinking and truly being ready for anything that may stand in your way of achieving your goals. Possibly the best thing I took away from the book is the quote coined by NASA- 'Working the Problem'. It's a methos NASA use of approaching a problem by 'descending a tree' and working through the problem in a logical and methodical way, covering all possibilities. The problem could be anything from a fire on-board the ISS or a complex maths problem, yet the process is still the same. I've tried to incorporate this quote into my way of thinking when I encounter a tough question that must be solved. It gives you a lot of faith that you actually can succeed if you in overcoming an obstacle that requires 'out of the box thinking'. There is always a solution.

The book is full of amazing career advice and tips, particularly to never measure your success by whether you achieve your goals the way you wanted to. Working hard and enjoying the journey is just as important as the final destination, because we might not always end up where we originally planned and if we measure our success on our journey's-end then we will always feel disappointed. This has filled me with optimism about returning to University to work hard, prepare and enjoy myself.

It's not all deep life-lessons though.  Before reading this book, I knew nothing about life in space, simply because I've never been and as I said earlier, it's only just become an interest of mine. I was really happy to discover it's exactly as I imagined it. Reading about the physical effects on the astronauts bodies both in space and when they return to Earth is amazing. By the sounds of it though, it all seems very worthwhile. The stories of races under zero gravity through the ISS to gather bubble wrap, preparing breakfast and carrying out scientific experiments by having to stick test tubes to the walls via Velcro. It's all fascinating. I can only imagine what it's like to look out of the window and see the Earth. It must be incredibly beautiful. If you haven't read 'An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth', please do. I can't stress how brilliant it is.

A summer of Learning

I haven't been blogging as regularly as I would like to lately, but I've been busy travelling all over the country this summer. I'll be back up and blogging properly on Saturday as that's when I return from my holiday and will have an actual laptop to type posts up on (using my phone is quite fiddly). This summer, I've definitely explored more of my interests and also things that i didn't previously take any interest in or didn't know anything about.

I've almost finished reading 'An astronauts guide to life on Earth' by Chris Hadfield and so an in-depth review of that is coming up as its one of the best books I've ever read. As I said, I've been exploring new fields this summer and so an influx of very mis-matched posts are to be expected. It's all part of the fun though. :-)

Useful Books for Undergraduate Chemistry Students

I love books, like really love books. If you're starting University and studying the physical sciences, I've devised a list of books that may be useful in your first year of University. Every Uni has their own list of recommended reading but obviously not all lists will contain the same books, so I've taken some books that my department recommended and some I discovered myself, that have been really helpful/interesting, so I hope this is of some use if you want to get some books together before starting your course. :-)

• This book is awesome. It may say that it's for A level Chemistry, but it's full of exercises and calculations that cover all aspects of Chemistry. It's really good for revising your maths skills and working through problems. It also has example problems at the beginning of each chapter so you know how to calculate the answers yourself and it's just really useful if you want to revise answering calculation questions. You can buy it here: Calculations for A-level Chemistry

• Another Maths book specifically for those undergraduate students studying the chemical sciences without having done A level maths. Again, example problems are given and it covers everything you will cover in your first year maths catch-up lectures. Covers lots of different topics such as differentiation, integration and matrices. You can buy it here: Maths for Chemistry

• Oxford Chemistry Primers are really helpful. They are small books each focussing on a specific topic in Chemistry and will contain some information that may not be given to you in lectures. They're really good for outside reading, are concise and informative and on the whole, easy to understand. I didn't buy before starting my first year and I really wish I had because generally, the University library will only have a few copies of each and they are really good! I've recently invested in a few to begin my second year and plan on taking them on holiday with me to begin some pre-Uni reading. Just search for Oxford Chemistry Primers on Amazon and there are tonnes of them. Some are more expensive than others and I'm unsure why, but I think I got mine for about a penny each. You can't go wrong. 
  

• Who says all educational books have to be text books? If you're studying a subject like chemistry, one topic you will cover in your first year will be the structure of atoms and quantum mechanics. It's difficult to get your head around at first because it's like nothing you've ever encountered before and it always reminds me of the famous quote: "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." This is where Brian Greene comes in. 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' is a brilliant book. It really helped me understand quantum mechanics, probability and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. It's also really good if you're interested in concepts such as time and space etc. Amazon have it here: Fabric of the Cosmos 

There are so many useful books out there to aid you in your university course and don't be afraid to try those that aren't textbooks; sometimes they're more helpful as they have a more personal approach and examples you can relate to. :-)

Surviving the first year of Uni

Okay, so I said the blog would mainly be about science, and I suppose I can throw some in by linking it to the course I do, but primarily, this is a different type of post. I wanted to write about surviving your first year of uni, seeing as it's possibly one of the most daunting times of your life. I'll focus on the academic side of things because I know there's lots of advice out there about social life, cooking, meeting new people etc. but personally, I wish I had known more about the learning style before I moved away to Sheffield last September.

As someone who achieved high grades and found school relatively easy, I was shocked when I found that getting 70% is not as simple as I thought it was. Sure, 70% is a first and is considered the highest 'grade' and at GCSE and even A-level, a bit of revision will get you that seventy. Um, not at University. Not meaning to say it's impossible or insult anyone's intelligence, but be prepared to work your arse off if you want a first. I made more notes for my 4 exams this summer than I did for the whole of A level.

If you're lucky enough, you'll get your textbooks for free (like I did ;) ), if not, you'll have to buy them. They're expensive but you'll need them. Also, remember to use them - for the first couple of months of uni I continued googling questions on lattice structures, forgetting that I had three huge textbooks on the shelf above my head containing all the information I needed. How very ditsy of me.

I think the most valuable thing I've learnt since being at Uni is organisation, and I mean being properly organised! Departments will send out emails for events/meetings months before they occur, and in the run up to them they won't remind you; you're expected to be organised and know exactly where you should be and when. I've made this mistake a few times because I hadn't written things down. So yeah, a diary's useful for organising your life. Also, if you have certain assignments to do every week like I do, then plan which days you're going to do them on and try and stick to them. For example, every week I have tutorial questions, a pre-lab assignment, a lab report and anything else I've got to do. In the first semester of uni, I was concentrating on settling in and wasn't really as organised as I should've been, so many a time I was still doing my lab report at 11 o'clock on Sunday night when it was in for Monday morning. I hate the feeling of being rushed and panicking about not having time, so I decided to plan out my week. I would do my report on Monday and Tuesday nights so it was out of the way, Wednesdays were reserved for tutorial questions and Thursdays for my pre-lab assignment. I really can't exaggerate the point of being organised enough. There's lots more commitments at uni than sixth form/college and you have to look after yourself and cook etc. meaning it's so easy to procrastinate. Let's face it though, procrastination is fun.

Probably the most important piece of advice is try to go to lectures. I can't say I went to every one, it's so tempting to miss them when you know that no one will notice if you're not there. Also when my depression got bad at Christmas and around Easter, I missed a hell of a lot of lectures because I simply couldn't drag myself out of bed and kind of gave up. I found catching up quite difficult, especially when you then return to lectures and you have no idea what your lecturer is talking about. Of course a lot of lectures are put online so you can go home and watch them again, but my Quantum Mechanics lecturer made the point of not putting anything online so you had to go to his lectures, otherwise you were screwed basically. Funny guy.

This post may make me sound like a complete geek who sat in my room for the whole year doing work, but please remember I did all these things so I could relax and have fun. I got all my work out of the way as soon as possible so I could go out without nothing to worry about and not have to write a lab report with a hangover (it's not pleasant thinking about gravimetric determination of nickel whilst your head's down the toilet, trust me).

I hope this is of some use and good luck :)