Last full day

Hello,

It's the last full day of term today, and I can't believe how quickly it's gone! I went to a bbq with the students from my church last night, and said goodbye to all the finalists. A few of my friends are staying up to do project work or exams but most people leave tomorrow.

I've written up my notes from my project research so far and my supervisor is pleased with how far I have got so it's a good point to stop and be ready to come back next term with an aim to prove (or disprove) the theory I've come up with. He also mentioned that there is a good chance I will be able to get my work published at the end. I've had a go at some of the techniques that I will be using but there are still more that I will nede to learn next term, including marking parts of the chick embryos with particles of carbon so that I can follow where they go. I'm intending to use that relatively simple technique to start with and then progress to others if I need more evidence to back up what I find.

There's not really anything I can do on my project from home so today I'm just finishing off loose ends of research as well as doing end-of-term jobs like taking books back to the library and getting carnations for my first year medic children who have exams next week (college "parents" give their "children" a white carnation to wear for their first exam, pink for their middle ones, and red for their last one, so that everyone knows how stressed/happy they are). I will also take a copy of the project research that I've done so far to another second year medic who is doing a related project in the hope that he will let me have a look at his because although our projects cover different questions, having a look at the areas in which they overlap could helpful for both of us.

I'd better go and get on with my jobs and then start a pre-packing tidy!

Bye.

Hi,

I still haven't started practical research for my project, but I've been back to practice identifying the parts of the chick embryos. I'm still investigating possible solutions to the problem of heart reversal. As well as looking at previous papers in the library and drawing diagrams, I've been playing with plasticine to help me understand the 3D folding processes. I've only got a week left now this term so it's unlikely that I'm going to get started on the experiments now but I'd like to have everything ready to go when I come back next term if possible.

I'm going to see my supervisor again on Monday. He has a theory of what could be happening during heart formation but I need to work it out for myself as he'd rather I came up with the idea myself rather than just hearing it from him. Hopefully something will pop into my head soon!

Another medic in my college is doing a project in experimental psychology and she has started collecting data. I volunteered to be a subject for her experiments so on Wednesday I spent an hour and a half or so watching dots move about on a computer screen while she measured the visual evoked potentials from electrodes on my head. The procedure was a perfectly harmless apart from being a bit boring and I even got a record token to say thank you. I expect it's even more boring for her to sit and watch while she records data from lots of volunteers but I'll be interested to see her results.

Yesterday we had a college medics' talk and drinks. Usually we have a medics' dinner with a talk every term but this term there was no dinner because of the hall being busy. The speaker was a doctor from the John Radcliffe hospital who spoke about imaging plaques in arteries and the new technology that is being developed and could be used for screening patients to see how vulnerable to rupture plaques are. Medics' talks are a good oportunity to talk to students from other years, especially the clinical students who we don't often see, as well as hear an interesting talk. Unfortunately, the first years are all too busy revising now to come to talks, as thier exams start in just over a week.

Right, back to my plasticine now...

Bye.

Starting to get practical...

Hi,

I went to the anatomy department on Thursday to get an idea of what the chick embryos I will be using for my project look like and how to get to them inside the eggs. I practised removing the blunt end of eggs and the membranes underneath to see the developing chicks. Removing the covering membranes involves staining them with a blue dye and peeling them off carefully with sharp forceps. This is done under a microscope as the embryos are only a few millimetres long and are easily damaged. The embryos I saw were 3 or 4 days old and already had beating hearts and the beginnings of blood vessels developing.

I talked to my supervisor about possible solutions for the problem that my project addresses and after helping me to see the most likely possibility he sent me away to think about it more and draw some diagrams, since the 3D nature of the complex embryonic folding makes it hard to describe in words. On Tuesday I will go back to discuss my findings with him and to see some more embryos and learn more practical techniques.

The 2nd year medics at my college have been divided into 2 groups of four, each of which has been assigned a tutor to keep an eye on our work. Yesterday I had a meeting with my tutor, to make sure my project was progressing and that I was aware of what else is involved in the FHS course. He also suggested we find a book related to our Options to read over the long vacation, and informed us that we will probably be set a collection (college exam) at the start of next term, possibly on the critical analysis od a scientific paper. We have been given a list of possible titles (ones which were used last year) for our extended essays, which we can use or come up with our own. While it is interesting to start to think about this now, choices don't actually have to be made until next term, when we will find supervisors for our essays.

Now I'm off for an afternoon of fun and games with the KEEN outdoor sports session, All Sorts.

Bye bye.

Legoand etc.

Hello,

Fortunately the weather was better for the Legoland trip. I had a good time and I think the girl I was paired up with did too. She loved the ferris wheel and carousel, although she wasn't so pleased when we got squirted with water on the train ride. After we got back to Oxford on Saturday I went down to the river to have a quick look at the Summer Eights rowing, where college crews and "beer eights" compete to see who can bump into the boat in front first.

On Sunday I cooked for a christian union barbeque in the university parks. Again, the weather was sunny and everything went well. My parents, brother and Aunt came up for lunch on Monday, because it was the Bank Holiday. Bank Holidays are generally ignored here because the short terms mean there isn't time to stop, but since I don't have any lectures at the moment all I had was a meeting with my project supervisor in the afternoon. He discussed my essay with me and gave me an article to read and think about, in the hope that I'll get ideas about how to solve the problem of heart reversal. Tomorrow there will be some chick embryos at the right stage so he is going to show them to me and I might get a better idea of what the practical side of the project will involve.

I also talked to my supervisor about working in the summer holidays. For my project, as with most others, it is not absolutely necessary to work in the holidays but I would like to get as much done as possible before I have a lot of other work to do. Since my supervisor is away at the end of this term, I will probably come up to Oxford a couple of weeks early next term and make a start then. That will also allow me to be involved in organising activities for international freshers who come early.

Bye.