Reading Week

This week is Reading Week, where the whole lab decamps down to my supervisor's lovely seaside home, and we spend the week reading neuroscience papers, and discussing them over huge meals and abundant bottles of wine. Alongside shorts, sunhat and various neuroscience texts, I also - with a vague sense of shame - packed GRR Martin's "Game of Thrones" to read in my spare time.

Which highlights a point of tension for me: should I even be reading for fun at all? Shouldn't all my reading hours be given over to papers, reviews and books about neuroscience? If I'm serious about this PhD shouldn't I be willing to sacrifice reading fiction for fun for a few years?

And it's not just a reading issue - what about my hobbies? When I was a wage-slave in the IT industry all those years, frustrated and bored at work much of the time, I lived for my free time, and hobbies were a big part of that. Paragliding, boardgaming, wargaming, mountain walking, cycling, drawing, even dancing for a couple of years. Now that I'm in the lab doing something interesting and exciting with my working day, it's not so urgently important for my happiness to be doing all these hobbies. Plus there's less time and energy left for them these days. But I am still pretty interested in some of them, especially walking and boardgaming and books. Should I still be making time for this stuff? My supervisor on my masters told me "science should be your hobby too". Even at this early stage, I can feel the totalizing pressure of science on my life, and I can see that for some of the really successful scientists it becomes an all-consuming passion. Should I let that happen to me? Or is there still room for a hobby or two in my life?

Sacred vessels

The rule of St. Benedict says, apparently, that you should treat your wheelbarrow as you would the sacred vessels of the altar.

In other words: respect your tools!

So today I plan to give the venerable electrophysiology rig that I use every day, with its upright Olympus microscope and online confocal microscope, some tender loving care.

The bath is flooding again, which was giving me lots of problems when I was imaging yesterday, but once I have sorted that out I will also clean up the stage and the objectives and the condensor and just generally wipe away the accumulated salt and dust. Also tidy away the old pipettes and clamps and bits and pieces that people leave lying around on the gas table. Make the old girl feel loved.

It's the right thing to do. St. Benedict said.

A rule of life

I love the varied rhythm of working in science:

• Experimenting. This is nicely practical, hands-on kind of work. Something I hardly ever experienced in my previous life as a software techie. Grappling with the cussedness of the physical world. Cleaning noise out of an electrical circuit. Getting a pump to pump at a consistent rate. Making a tiny grating with platinum wire and dental floss. Keeping living tissue healthy. (Endlessly) making up solutions.

• Reading. Another kind of grappling, with densely written, unapologetically expert papers. It gets easier with time, as I become more familiar with the field. Learning to read critically, not just accepting everything I read. Making time for reading (not just fag-ends like the daily tube).

• Writing. I've always liked writing. However, there is a certain fear-hurdle to be jumped with scientific writing. A feeling that I have to know everything before I can even start.

• Listening. At UCL there are many many opportunities to learn from the very best. Lectures, seminars, journal clubs, conferences, symposia. Fantastic. I just have to make space for at least some of this.

Softly, softly

With patching it really is "practice makes perfect". Yesterday I spent *hours* before I finally managed to get one. Today I was much much quicker. Softly, softly....that's the key. Being very careful about how much pressure you apply down the pipette. And it seems I can't talk and successfully patch at the same time. So from now on I have to cut out the running commentary for K's benefit.

So the neuron is nicely filled with dye now, and K is getting some images of lovely spiny dendrites.

Time for lunch.

The day of two rigs

Today I am attempting to use TWO rigs simultaneously. Probably not a great idea, as I often have trouble getting a result from just the one rig.

On the confocal rig I plan to patch and fill a hippocampal pyramidal cell with Alexa dye so that K, my undergrad student, can do her spine imaging experiment.

Then on the field rig I will be doing my usual tetanus LTP followed by chemical LTP.

Meanwhile outside the window, snow gently falls on Bloomsbury. I think it's going to be a late night.....