Hopp til innhold

Kategori: forskerliv

forskerliv

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Three crazy weeks
So I started this blogpost on Sunday, actually, but it was first now I’ve had the time to continue and finish – and of course, most of what I wrote on Sunday (like being at Gardermoen, drinking a glass of wine, on my way to conference) is not true anymore. Now I amat the Nuclear Data 2016 conference, and this first one of three crazy weeks is going to an end.
So here’s s small recap of this week:
-       I gave my talk yesterday – it went quite well, I think
-       We have discussed quite a lot about what to do about the neutrons that we know are part of what we see in our gamma detectors (I’m really looking forward to get all the new detectors, that will be able to distinguish between neutrons and gammas!)
-       I still get quite nervous about talking to other scientists, but it’s better now than it was before
-       it’s very hot here – more than 30 degrees
-       it’s very hot in my hotel room (no AC) – probably more than 30 degrees, and if I open the window, I get many many many mosquito bites (temperature and mosquitos are the reasons why I only slept for max one hour at the time this night, and that I had to get up three times to take a super quick shower just to cool down)
-       Bruges is a very beautiful city. Unfortunately there’s not much time to see much when you travel to these kinds of conferences, but I’ve seen enough to know that this is a place I need to get back to with Anders – it really seems like the ideal place for a romantic weekend <3
-       the top people in IAEA, NEA and other such organisations are not able (at least none were able this week) to give a speech with any kind of substance. For example, one of the top people of one of these organisations basically said I’m a biologist, you’re nerds, I’m too important to stay here for the conference*, water’s becoming more and more important. Maybe I’m naïve, but I’d think those kinds of people were able to at least give motivating speeches to 400 scientist…
-       I’ve learned a little bit more about (prompt) fission gamma rays
-       I now know we need to analyse the plutonium experiment so that we hopefully can use that as a test to if we manage to estimate how much neutrons we measure together with our gammas
-       there are a lot of things I don’t understand, and I feel kind of stupid for much of the time (I don’t think it’s all my fault, though, since I think many of the speakers don’t really think about us in the audience – that we should be able to understand what they’re saying, and maybe even learn something)
-       Americans are mostly good at giving talks, and not just because they don’t have language issues; they’ re simply (often) good at explaining what they’re doing, in a simple language, and they don’t forget that 90% of the people in the audience are actually not experts in exactly the same field as themselves

-       there are actually people wearing corderoi pants here
-       I just heard someone using the word ”guesstimate”, which is just an awesome word, completely covering the process of getting rid of these neutrons 😀

II
The ”crazy” part of these three weeks is that I’m going to be ”on the road” for most of the time:
On Sunday I left Oslo, for Brussels, and then Bruges. Tomorrow I’m going back to Oslo, only to go directly on the boat to Copenhagen (Family trip, with Anders, Alexandra, my sister, her kids, and our mother). We’re coming back to Oslo on Sunday morning, and then I need to get back home and quickly re-pack my bags, before I’ll meet NHO just after lunch. Then I’m starting the two weeks long #jenterogteknologi-tour: we’re going to visit en different cities all around Norway – a new one every day, and I’ll be giving a talk in all of these cities. It really is all around Norway; from Kristiansand in the south, to Alta in the North, and we’ll be driving around in a van 😀 Luckily I get to go home and see Anders and Alexandra next weekend, but it will be sad to only see both of them once a week for three weeks (I saw them last weekend, and I’ll meet them this weekend, and then the weekend after).
I’m looking forward to October now, and ”only” having to finish my PhD…
Unfortunately, I’ll miss the very end of the conference, since  have to be back in Oslo by noon’ish tomorrow. This means I have to be on the train from Bruges at 6AM. Hopefully then I can sleep on the train.
 ---------------------------------------------

*He din’t say that he was too important, but he made a point out of leaving just after the first Keynote session. The other things he actually said…

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Another side of PhDLife: Banquet in Oslo City Hall
Last night Anders and I did something we've never done before: we attended a banquet in Oslo City Hall, to celebrate the laureates of this year's Kavli Prize! 
There were several firsts, yesterday, for example:
  • first time I've heard the prime minister speak live
  • first time in the City Hall (and it was really awesome - so much better than it may look like from the outside!)
  • first time Anders wore a tuxedo (definitely not the last!)
I got my dress just a couple of weeks ago, from Tina Ritzi, in Kirkeveien - the best place for ball gowns in Oslo, really <3

The Kavli Prize is a partnership between The norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, The Kavli Foundation (United States), and The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.
The prize recognizes scientists in three research areas: astrophyics, nanoscience, and neuroscience, and each of the three prizes consists of $1 million U.S.
Read more about the prize, and the winners this year HERE .
Highlights of the evening:
  • Anders in a tuxedo
  • the Prime Minister's speech - especially the part where she talked about the end of the movie "Interstellar"; she asked Kip Thorne (who was one of the laureates, and also was the scientific advisor on "Interstellar") to explain what goes on at the end of the movie, when they fall into a black hole, and instead of being torn apart by gravitational forces, there are a lot of bookshelves...
  • the food (in particular the starter and the dessert) and the wine <3
  • being in City Hall; it's really beautiful there, and for some reason I was not expecting that
  • the entertainment 
  • the entertainment had a highlight in itself also; when suddenly Darth Wader appeared, playing the theme from Star Wars on the carillon of the towers 😀

And now we have to look very serious... -Anders

2

Publisert 2 kommentarer til "De smarteste vi kjenner"

 

I dag skal jeg være med på programmet "Hallo P3", i spalten "De smarteste vi kjenner" (på P3)!
Opplegget i denne spalten er at programleder finner spørsmål fra diverse forum på internett som ikke har fått de svarene de kanskje fortjener, og så er det "de smarte" som får lov til å svare på disse. Den andre som er "smart" sammen med meg i dag er Karina Hougen, som er lege, og visstnok har vært med i denne spalten mange ganger før (første gang for meg 🙂 ). Vi snakker om tre ting i dag:
  1. Bly og strålebeskyttelse. Jeg avslører et stoff som beskytter 5 ganger bedre mot gamma- og røntgenstråling enn bly, og jeg forteller om gull er bra å bruke mot gammastråling, eller ikke.
  2. Kolonisering av månen. Vil det ha none effekt på jorden, og hvordan kan den brukes som mellomlandingsplass?
  3. Å donere kroppen sin til vitenskapen. Hva kan man gjøre for å bidra, og hvordan går man frem?
Spalten går på luften ca klokken 18 <3

 

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til It's reading day!
I was at my office at nine this morning, and after a quick discussion with Gry (with whom I share my  office), I realised today has to be reading day. I need to read stuff - and a lot of it.

My biggest problem right now is that I need to correct my data for neutrons: 
The thing is that we have different kinds of detectors, and one of these detectors measure all the gamma radiation that comes when the nucleus fission. The problem is that when a nucleus fissions, it will also send out neutrons (in addition to gamma radiation), and the detectors that is really there for the gamma radiation will also measure the neutrons, and it can't see the difference between these two (the neutrons and the gammas). So when I have a nice plot from the detector that's only supposed to measure gammas, it's also showing me neutrons, and they all look the same. Therefore I need to (try) to make a correction to these plots, so that they're more less telling the truth about the gammas from fission - this time I don't care about the neutrons, except I want them to go away 😉 (Dear neutron, please forgive me, you are still my favorite particle <3)
Now I have this gut feeling that I can do this correction in a straight forward and simple way (I've actually already done it), but I need to read more what other people say about the subject to (scientifically) justify the way I do this. It's not exactly enough to say well I have this gut feeling so this is right, I'm kind of sure about it...that's not science 😉
Gut feelings can be helpful though; they help you to get a starting point, and know where to start looking. Hopefully, by the end of this day, I've justified my choice, and can defend it in the article (number three!) and the talk in Bruges!
Most of today will be spent on reading "Energy and Isotope Dependence of Neutron Multiplicity Distributions", and "The prompt response of bismuth germanate and NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors to fast neutrons". These to articles will hopefully tell me more about how our kind of detectors (NaI(Tl)) see neutrons, and what the shape of the neutron spectrum looks like *fingers crossed*.
Maybe two articles don't seem like much, but trust me, reading this is though, and if I'm going to read all of it thoroughly, it will take time...

This is the gamma spectrum that isn't just gammas, but also some neutrons - probably around 20% of this thing. I made it three dimensional yesterday- isn't it pretty? <3<3<3

Ok, now back to my articles; I think I'll start with the one about multiplicities 🙂
Wishing you all a happy day <3

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Push me to push "send"…
Yesterday I did it!
I finished my "first" draft for all the co-authors, and I sent it.
I was sitting down at the cyclotron lab with Sunniva, and just went through her very last comments, and the she said You'll send it now, right? Before the weekend and everything. And I was more like Well, I'll send it on Monday, since that's better (for no reason what so ever). Luckily she made me realise there was nothing to wait for, and around three PM yesterday I sent it to the 18 co-authors.
Immediately after I sent the e-mail, I felt the most amazing rush through my body - I seriously got high 😀 I was (and am) so happy. Even though it's scary to send a paper like this, since now I'm dreading the comments, thinking all the co-authors probably think I'm stupid...:P
Still, now it's finally getting real, and in just a couple of weeks I can probably send this to the journal where we hope to publish it! My eternally optimistic supervisor (Sunniva, not Jon - he's more on the pessimistic side 😉 ) even thinks I'll be finished with the entire thesis by mid of October - we'll see about that, though...
--------------------------------------------
Hope you're all having a great Saturday!
I'm soon going to the Univeristy, since I need to clean out of my old office, and then I'm going to attend a dinner with all of the new physics students. Best of all, though; tomorrow I'm getting my Anders back home from the US again <3

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til 10 things I’m looking forward to this fall
I’m not at all a falls kind of person, and luckily it’s still summer – and I’m hoping it will last for at least one more month, and that September will be a warm, nice summer/fall month too. However, fall will come, even though I like it or not, and I guess it’s better to just embrace it.
As you may already know, this fall is my last semester at the University (or at least the last months I will receive any kind of salary from the University for working on my PhD – if I don’t finish before December 31, I’ll have to do it on my own time), and here are ten things I’m looking forward (or maybe not?) to this semester:
0. Alexandra starting school. This happens August 22nd, so technically I’ll say it’s still summer, but then again it’s part of the fall semester, so I’ll let it pass 😉 I cant’ believe this is already happening.
1. Finishing the damned second article. I've been working on it more or less, like, forever (yes, it's the one I've been nagging about, like, forever here, on the blog 😛 ), but finally it's looking like I'm reaching the end of the tunnel. Today, supervisor-Sunniva and I have been discussing the very last paragraph of the article, and I think I could actually finish it this weekend...:D 😀 😀
  
2. Friday dinners (chili <3 <3 <3) in Rose-castle. Since I bought my apartment, and thus got a place that was big enough so that I could invite all my friends to come over on Fridays, this has been a thing. When Anders moved in with me around a year ago, it has become ourthing – with his friends as an addition. The concept is easy: We make a big pot of something to eat (the default is chili con carne), we have some wine, people come at whatever time suits them (after work), and stay as long as they want, if they want to they can bring something to eat or drink, we have a good time.
3. Finishing the third article (notice: this one is not ”damned”). This is about gamma rays from fission, and even though I might be wrong, I have the feeling this one will be "easier" than the other one... #fingerscrossed
4. Go shopping after I submit my second article to the journal where I'm hoping to get it published – I need a nice leather bag, and I think this will be my reward after I finish this article 🙂
5.  Attending the Kavli prize banquet at Oslo city hall <3 With Anders <3
(I think the invitation is just so beautiful <3)

6. Go shopping after I submit the third article – shoes, I think J
7. Giving a talk in Belgium about prompt fission gamma rays (looking forward to, and dreading at the same time – I mean, giving talks about something, to the people who knows most about this theme in the entire world is not just a walk in the park…)
8. Going to Berkeley??? I don’t know if this will happen, but there has been a liiiitle bit of talk about it... At least I can hope, right?
9. Writing a ”popular” article on thorium based reactors; like, ”what’s the deal with thorium, really?”
10. Finishing the thesis. I don’t have to describe this one, I’m sure.
As you may see, this fall will be crazy; most of these things are stuff I’m mostly looking forward to finish, but are really stuff I’m dreading to actually have to do… Most of all I’m looking forward to 2017, when I’m done (#fingerscrossedagain) with the entire PhD drama, and I’m starting with something new... And who knows what that’ll be 😉 Any suggestions?

--------------------------------------------------
Here are a couple of pics from our trip up to Trolltunga in July (<3 summer <3) – it was a hard hike, but definitely worth it.

spectacular view on the way to Trolltunga
and suddenly we were back in Oslo again, wearing highs heels and accessories again 😉
Fall 2016: GO GO GO (soon – first, there’s more summer)!

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til I'm not dead (and I haven't stopped blogging either!)
I just needed a real break - a vacation - and I got it <3
I've been completely "off" from everything (physics and e-mail and blogging) during July, and it's been wonderful! But now it's time to start again; this is the last semester on my PhD (*troublebreathing*), and Alexandra starts school - so there's a lot going on in the Rose family this fall. Yesterday was Alexandra's first day at AKS (Aktivitetsskolen, which is where she'll be after school, before we're back from work), and Anders and I had our first day back again at the University. 

It wasn't the most productive day, but I made a long list with to dos, and I tried something new; namely programming support via Snapchat 😀 Anders was of course my guy, and he got it right, so that I can plot experimental results and theory at the same time (it looks like theory and experiment more or less agrees, and that's COOL.)

had to start by showing him the code that wasn't working exactly like I wanted it to

and of course an output; with 9 correct numbers, and 1 that wasn't even supposed to be there

I didn't understand what Anders meant, so I just had to guess...this wasn't right 😛
but then 😀 (Anders: is it working now? Me: well, what did you think the "9! ding ding ding" meant??? ;))
When I was on my way to leave the office yesterday, I felt quite good; I patted my back, and thought I was a good PhD student. Then, on my way down the stairs in the Physics building, I realised that what I've spent all day on, Anders could've done in 10 minutes, and then I just felt really bad :/ Today has been better, but I think I realise that this semester will probably not be my best ever...
It will be hard.
That's life, and here I tell you the truth.
Just really looking forward to the day I can write the blogposts "The article is submitted to the journal", "Another article is submitted", "Almost done with my thesis writing", "DONE" - you know, something like these 😉
Then I'm going shopping! (Yes, all of these blogposts deserve shopping, and I know what to buy when the next article is submitted to the journal.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you all had, or are having, a great summer vacation! And I hope you'll follow my phd struggles blogging here this fall 😉

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Not all done, and Alexandra's last day in kindergarden
Yesterday was Alexandra's last day (ever) in kindergarden... She started in August 2011, and now, more or less 5 years later, she's ready for new challenges. But it feels really strange, and a little sad - I'll be the first to admit. I think she's having mixed feelings too; one minute she's all about being a big girl and she can do everything and she takes responsibility, and she's really an angel - next minute she's winey and not cooperating at all, and says she isn't starting school after all, 'cause she's going back to kindergarden (all quite normal, I think 😉 ).
All in all I think we're ready (and excited) for school, and really looking forward to that next chapter in life, even though it's sad to leave such a great place as Universitetets barnehage, which really has been the BEST place these five years!
on her way to the first and the last day in kindergarden - notice she's wearing the same backpack (which will now be changed into a new one for first day in school <3 )
I must admit I didn't manage to get through my entire to do list yesterday that I was supposed to before the holiday could start. Some of it doesn't matter (I didn't get to clean my desk, and that's totally ok - the mess will be there when I get back in a couple of weeks), while other things do (I didn't finish my article so that I felt I could send it to my supervisors and Gry, who also promised to read it <3), and that means that even though today was the first day of vacation, I need to work just a little bit more (won't go to the university, though). Therefore, the plan for tomorrow is something like this:
- sleep until we wake up, coffee in bed
- breakfast together, all of us
- work intensely on the article for one hour - that may be just about enough (if not, maybe I'll work 1.5 hours, and if that isn't enough either, I'll do the rest after Alexandra's gone to bed, or something)
- do something nice from our summer holiday 2016 list 
Our plans for the next two weeks are for the most to stay in Oslo, and I'm thinking about writing a little bit about that tomorrow - but not before I've sent off my article. Then, when I press "send", it's holidays for real <3

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Figures: check. Tables: check!
I guess the title really says it all, but to be very specific: 
I'm done with all the figures and all the tables for the article!
What remains (TODO list of tomorrow):
  • read the neptunium-article, and find out how the results were interpreted 
  • place sentence about uncertainties in the analysis where it should be (aka. figure out where, which is the hard part - moving it is not)
  • check and fix all table and figure captions
  • read through everything and check that I'm referring to the right number of the figures and tables in the text
  • work on the discussion part and the abstract
  • send an e-mail to Fabio and ask about something from his master's thesis
  • fix a "Draft_FINAL" and send off to both Sunniva and Jon
  • clean desk
  • holiday

Now I'll make a #workingyourassoff Thai soup, and after we've eaten it's time for Anders and me to go to bed - tomorrow is the last day before two weeks with Alexandra, who has her last day ever in kindergarden <3

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Almost there…
This night I had another "nightmare" - simply that I hadn't done the last calculations that are supposed to be in the article, and I couldn't manage to do them, and therefore not make the last figure either. Pretty straight forward to understand what that dream was all about, I guess 😉
When I woke up this morning, it was also the case that I hadn't done all these things - but now I'm almost there! Today I fixed all the tables, and did the calculations. Since there are one and a half day left before Alexandra's done with kindergarden forever (OMG!), I think there's a quite good chance that I'll finish it all (not just the figures but entire article), like my goal is!!! I'll finish the figure before lunch tomorrow, and then I have the rest of Thursday and Friday on writing the rest of everything (this part takes longer than I want it to, though, since I think it's kind of hard to write scientifically). #Fingerscrossed
I'm soooo looking forward to at least two weeks of holiday with my favourite people now <3
Random selfie:
discovered this new crazy filter on Snapchat just now - instant heavy make up 😀
I'm in Sykepleien Forskning this month, btw. Got the magazine in the post today, and I'm so proud that they asked me to write a text for them, and it's really cool to be a "teaser" on the cover, and that my text about outreach (of science) is on the first page after all the "mandatory stuff" 🙂 

Now I'm going to get a quick shower, and then wait for Anders to come home (according to Find my Friends, he's still at the University, but he said he'll leave around now...). We'll probably watch one episode of Grey's Anatomy and then go to bed - we both have a lot to finish the next two days.