vertical farming.

a really fascinating concept. already live projects across the globe in japan, korea, chicago and manchester. I need to get to manchester before I leave or I fail at life.

if not i need to call in on this dude in chicago. 

heckyeatumblr#5.

http://tumblr.com/xsx1xkgzm5

5. Write a tutorial.

How to stay sane in final year.

You will need:

• friends
• a couple of series of awesome comedy shows
• a kettle
• organisational skills
• an amazing sense of humour
• persistence
• optimism
• last.fm account
• something to look forward to.

This isn't really a stepwise process, just more of a 'apply as necessary' scenario. But here are a few guidelines.

• Make the most of your friends; you can double up here in making them your something to look forward to. Try and go on at least one 'date' a week. It doesn't have to involve alcohol- but it helps.
• Take breaks. I guess if it's a nice day/ you don't live in Britain, you could go outside. If not, grab a blanket and a cuppa and bung in a DVD. Comedy shows are awesome cos they tend to be short and can alleviate any 'pending doom' atmosphere you may have unintentionally created.
• Drink too much tea. NB there is no such thing as too much tea, but it never hurts to test the boundaries.
• Plan ahead. If you're not a planner, at least don't be a panic-er.
• Learn to laugh at the utter hilarity that is your life right now. Cos if you can't laugh- then you will cry.
• One step at a time. Whatever happens this year, it will all be over in a year. Try not to let past failure affect your attitude towards your future success. 
• That said: feel free to let your past success affect your attitude towards your future success.
• Listen to awesome music. Listen while you study (if you can trust yourself to not sing along), listen with friends, listen and dance, listen and run (that running playlist is getting heckers I tell you), listen and SING, listen and smile. Some of my favourite last.fm tags at times like these: #disney #soul #prog rock #jamie cullum
• Book a frickin' holiday. Or at least make a facebook event. When the time comes, you better be ready to fucking celebrate.

No matter how shit things are, remember that in a year, you'll have a job, and things will be even worse! JOKES. Nah, just don't forget to live while you're getting ready to start living.

shady baby.

plants which sense competition from neighbouring plants do so by being able to detect the wavelengths of light hitting them. light which has passed through green leaves is has a high proportion of 'far red' light. lots of plants respond to this 'far red' by growing taller to out-compete their neighbours.

plants which are preyed upon by insects release a stress hormone which catalyses the plant's synthesis of compounds which are toxic to the insects. part of this response involves the stunting of plant growth: it has been assumed that this is to 'switch' the main energy consuming processes of the plant from growth to this toxic compound synthesis.

it has been hypothesised previously that far red light responses can happen because part of the far red light response inhibits the stress hormone 'growth stunt'.

i am investigating this!

i have 10 different modified lines of the plant model species Arabidopsis thaliana.

some of lines have a mutation in a signalling protein responsible for light and/or jasmonate (a plant stress hormone) responses.

some of the lines have significant proteins of interest (ie cyclin, which is only synthesised in actively dividing cells) hooked up to a 'reporter' construct which turns blue upon staining.

some of the lines have a mutation AND a reporter construct.

i have grown up 20x of each line in each of the following conditions:

white light without jasmonate 

white light with jasmonate

far red light without jasmonate

far red light with jasmonate

and i can assess each plants response to the conditions by:

i) measuring hypercotyl (immature stem)

ii) looking for blue spots after staining of the reporter lines

therefore I have 8 of the following plates:

this is my life at the moment.

this dissertation is worth 20 credits.

i am also studying 5 other modules worth 20 credits:

cellular signalling

genes, genomes and genomics

microbial biotechnology

cell biology and mechanisms of disease

food domestication and sustainability

all of these are assessed by 30% coursework and 70% exam.

I WANT TO GRADUATE ALREADY.