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Publisert 2 kommentarer til Pink – part 3: Why can we see pink?

Good morning, Wednesday!

It's cold, not too late, and I'm at the university library with my first latte of the day, and ready for the second day at the last writing seminar before christmas. I'm happy with yesterdays efforts (I finished all my Pomodoros), but I do realise that this takes forever... I'm seriously hoping that during the next months my "output" will grow more or less exponentially, or it'll be very hard to finish my thesis by the beginning of September (OMG!). At least I have to dedicate more days completely to just writing, like I'm doing today and tomorrow (and yesterday!) 😉
- dress: Vila // west: Gina Tricot // tights: HM (200 denier!) -
One thing I don't like about the cold is that it becomes so extremely difficult to find something to wear - I freeze, like, all the time. But on Monday I found this dress at Vila that's comfortable, cheap (199,-) and since it's made by cotton I think it works very nicely with warm winter boots. When I'm outside I put a big sweater on top of it, and it just looks like the perfect skirt. I love that it's quite straight - it's a little loose around the waist (which I think is nice when I'm at work, and will be sitting for hours and hours), but a little tight around the derrière. With my west from Gina Tricot, it's a perfect, comfortable winter work outfit 😉
They had it in several colours (like dark grey, black, dark blue, and others), and I also bought one in orange. Now that I know how much I like it already, maybe I'll even buy another one.
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Ok, over to todays title: the last guest blog post from my sister <3
(Read number 1 HERE, and number 2 HERE, to get the entire story about my favourite colour)

But why can we see pink?

Pink is a negative colour, if you will. When we look at a colour spectrum we see that the spectrum goes from gamma- to radiowaves, and visible light goes from red to purple, but nowhere is there pink. If an object absorbs all colours but green you get a sort of anti-green. Your brain interpret this as pink. Thus this is why we can see pink after all.
Lastly, I want to make a case for PINK. Even though pink is really a colour made by our brain, and not a real, visible wavelength, that doesn't make it any less of a colour. There are a lot of things that our brains make. Pictures and sounds are interpreted all of the time - that doesn't make the unreal! It is. however, neat to know how our brain works; if not for other reasons but to know what an amazing job it does every single day, and to understand how incredibly easy it is to trick a brain...

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til 10 days to go – 14th of December
Monday again, and this week I promise to (try to :P) be better at blogging than last week! My excuse is mostly Anders' exam, which affected me quite a lot too... It's just so much better when you're sort of working on a team with someone - but that's almost impossible when one person has an exam and works constantly except for the 8 hours he needs for sleeping, and the other one has a child 😉 Now he's finished with exams for quite a long time, and we're back to being a team again - working together in the evenings in our living room, going to bed early, and getting up early in the morning <3
Anyway, I'm super happy to have my team mate "back" from quantum field theory, it's the last whole week before christmas (for many, maybe the last week before vacation?), and it's the 14th of December, meaning there are only 10 days left to christmas. So I thought I should give you the 14th element today 🙂
Element number 14 in the periodic table of elements is silicon (short: Si). The reason why it's the 14th element is because it has 14 protons in its nucleus. There are 24 different isotopes ("types") of silicon that we know of, and the stable ones (the non-radioactive) are silicon-28, silicon-29, and silicon-30.
If you want to make stable silicon, the recipe is 14 protons, and either 14, 15, or 16 neutrons. If you use 14 neutrons, you'll make silicon-28 (14+14=28), and this is the most abundant type in the universe - actually 92.23% of all silicon is silicon-28. If you use 15 neutrons, you'll make silicon-29 (4.67% of all silicon), and if you use 16 neutrons, you'll make silicon-30 (3.1% of all silicon). If you mix your protons with less than 14, or more than 16 neutrons, you'll end up making radioactive silicon.
Silicon is the eight most common element found in the universe, if you sort by mass (before silicon, there's hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon, neon, iron, and nitrogen). Even if there is a lot of it here on Earth, it's not common to find it as pure silicon - meaning not as part part of some chemical compound (which is a substance that consists of two or more different types of atoms, like for example water, which consists of both hydrogen and oxygen). Pure silicon is actually quite important for us today, since we use it in all kinds of modern technology, and we like <3 technology...

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til I didn't make it (#phdlife no. 284610798)
I'm a little bit upset and angry at my self right now, since I didn't even get close to my milestone/goal of these last 14 days :/ I was supposed to finish the analysis part of my paper, but then it turns out I haven't even touched it, since I've been busy giving talks. Going on "tour" around Norway to give talks just takes more time than I like to think that it does - I guess it's time for me to realize this now...
I have to become better at planning (not that I'm horrible at it, but I'm definetely not perfect either...). 
Tomorrow I think I have to start the day by making a DETAILED plan for the next week - to get through what I should have done the last 2 weeks. I understand that I have to change my next 14 days milestone a little bit, but I don't want to make the biggest changes either; I want to try to get very close to my original plan, which means three things: 
1 part PLANNING
1 part STRUCTURE
1 part DICIPLINE
Come on, Sunniva, you can do it! Don't let yourself down 😉
love this new notebook from IKEA - perfect size, and perfect amount of coolness and pink <3 
Hope you all had a great weekend, and sorry that I'm not happy and inspiring just now - at least I'm honest... I'll keep you posted on snap (sunnivarose), with #teamsunnivarose <3 <3 <3

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Publisert 4 kommentarer til Good luck with all your exams!
I know many of you have already had your first exam, so I guess I should have wished you luck a little bit earlier, but I also know (from all the great #teamsunnivarose snaps you send me - some of you are really working hard; GREAT JOB! ) that many of you have one or more exams left so I just want to say:
Good Luck to all students who are having exams these days! 
I also want to give you one tip, in addition to telling you to remember it's all going to be worth it, of course (and also remember that if it goes to h**l, that's actually not the end of the world either; worst case you have to do it over again, there are far much worse things in the world than that 😉 ): try the Pomodoro Technique if you're one of those who are having problems with concentration and procastination... In short it goes like this:
  1. Decide on some task to be done (doing exercises, reading, writing a summary, answering e-mails or whatever)
  2. Set a timer to 25 minutes (this is one Pomodoro
  3. Work until the timer rings (and don't do anything else than the task you decided on in those 25 minutes)
  4. Take a break for 5 minutes (go and get a coffee, check Facebook, go to the toilet or whatever)
  5. Do another Pomodoro, and after 4 you have to take a longer break - at least 15 minutes, but it can be longer 😀
I guess this is sort of the academics answer to interval training 😛
And remember: when you're working hard, be proud and show it at #teamsunnivarose <3
I'm rooting for you!

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Surprised and inspired
Today's been quite a good start of a new week; I was at the university at half past eight this morning, and left at half past seven. I din't get through my entire to do list, but then again, I never do (maybe I need to rethink my way of making lists? 😉 ). I did do quite a lot, though, and I'm (almost) ready for my talk at Arbeidslivskonferansen tomorrow (don't know what to wear yet, and I have to make a couple of notes - but I'm close), and I worked on my article, and started reading a new article from an experiment we did at our cyclotron, on uranium-238.
There are two words that sort of sum up my day today: the first is Surprised and the second is Inspired. 
Inspired is what I become from reading that article about uranium-238 - it's simply just so well-written (so far - I haven't read all of it, but I'm hoping the rest of it will continue as the beginning of it), and explains everything in a great way, and I actually love some of the sentences:

"To shed light into this puzzling observation... 

This has never been done before and is the aim of the present work... 

Britt and Cramer noticed that (...) the fission cross sections obtained via the surrogate reaction was significantly lower than the corresponding neutron-induced cross section. They attributed it to the breakup of the deuteron. Deuteron breakup is actually a rather complex process..."

I can't explain exactly what it is, but it inspires me to continue my work, and to try to make my own article as well-written and interesting as I can possibly manage.
The Google poetry came to be since I had to read a little bit about deuteron breakup - and I still have to read more about this tricky thing...(why can't the d**n deuteron just stick together?!?)
my kind of (Google) poetry <3
Surprised is what I become when people who themselves know A LOT about science (but don't work in a climate science related field themselves) don't believe in human induce climate change, for reasons like "CO2 is just small part of the greenhouse gases". I don't work with a climate science related field either, but I know two things: 
1) The scientist that I do know, that work with issues related to climate, tell me there isn't any doubt about human induced climate change, and
2) Based on the very silly misconceptions people (also other scientist that don't work in the field of nuclear physics) often make about, for example, thorium based nuclear power plants, I have seen how easy it is to know so much about something that you may think you understand the entire picture; but then it turns out there is some small effect from something you don't know about without having worked in the field for a long time - some effect that completely changes the picture. Since that's the way it is in my field of science, I'm pretty sure it can be exactly like this in other fields as well, and I think it's a little bit arrogant to think that because you know everything about one field, you probably know enough about any other field to say that this field is just BS...
And I think this is the only thing I should say about climate and stuff... Now I'm going to fix Alexandra's christmas calendar, and then I have to decide what to wear for my talk tomorrow, and then I have to make notes so that I'm sure I won't forget anything during the talk.
Kiss kiss <3

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Publisert 4 kommentarer til Pink! Part 2
Dear everyone, and happy Saturday - hope you're all enjoying the weekend!
I attended this years first christmas party yesterday, and after a very busy week I was so exhausted I had to leave the party at midnight (and I worked hard to stay that long) - guess that's kind of the price you pay when you try to work hard, play hard. 
The great thing about leaving such a party that early, is that you wake up feeling fantastic the day after 😉 So far today I've been hanging out with Anders (finally!); we stayed forever in bed, and then we went to Colonal Mustard at Alexander Kiellands plass and had brunch, and now he's at the university (working with quantum field theory), and I'm at Espresso House at Majorstuen (preparing for my talks next week - I'm giving a completely new talk on Tuesday, so there is some preparing to do). 
A pretty ok Saturday, I'd say <3
Here are a couple of snaps from last nights party:
- me and Jo -

- just me, and my glass of wine, and my iphone, and the christmas tree... -
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I know yesterday was supposed to be Friday Facts day, and I'm truly sorry there were no facts (or no blogging what so ever :/ ) yesterday - or the week before that! I promise Friday Facts will be back next week, and while you wait I want to give you part 2 of my sister, Carina's guest blog about my favourite colour - PINK! (Part 1 is HERE):

What is a colour?

When light hits something, the energy from the light makes some of the atoms excited. In those atoms an electron jump from it's own ("normal") electron shell (a, in the picture below), to an outer shell (b, in the picture below). The energy, however, isn't enough to keep the electron in the outer electron shell, so it jumps back to it's own, original shell (c, in the picture below). When it jumps back in, energy is released as a lightwave (called a photon). 
In the back of our eyes we have cones that react to these emitted wavelengths. An object might absorb some colours, and those colours are the colours you won't see emitted. White is a mix of all colours, this is what we see when all colours are absorbed, but none are emitted and caught by the cones. Black is the absence of colour, this is what we see if no colours are absorbed, but all are emitted and caught by the cones.  It's just that there isn't any wavelength for pink... 

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PS: I was reminded by someone leaving a comment today, that I haven't told the story about how the neutrino got its name yet - as I promised earlier. I had actually forgot that I wanted to tell this story, so I was happy to be reminded, and I'm planning on telling the story in the week to come 🙂 
Also, don't forget about Question of the month; I'm collecting questions continuously, so if you have a good one, maybe your question will be next...

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Publisert 7 kommentarer til On my team, everyone can join! #teamsunnivarose
The title really says it all...But to make it (super) clear: since I wrote about #teamsunnivarose I've received a lot of really cool snaps (not so many picture on Instagram - maybe we could do better there, and really "show off"? :O ) from some great students (and others). Thank you so much, you make me happy and motivated every time! 
It would be so cool, though, if even more people would join the the team, since there's room for more - let's motivate each other 🙂
Just believe me: 
I.

LOVE.

THIS!
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Here are a couple of the snaps (sunnivarose) and instas (@sunnivarose) I've posted lately:
Let's be proud, and let's not be afraid to show 🙂
Everyone can join #teamsunnivarose, and everyone's welcome <3
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I'm on my way to Stavanger now, where I'll be talking about why choosing science tomorrow 🙂
Tomorrow evening I'll be going back home to Oslo, and that'll be good, since I really miss Anders now (yup; haven't seen him since Monday, and I'm already crying myself to sleep...ok, not all of that is true, but you get the picture 😛 ) - falling asleep next to someone you love is the best, and safest, feeling in the world <3

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Publisert 2 kommentarer til Guest blog: Pink – part 1
Hi there people! Thursday already, and past ten already? Guess I should have gone to bed by now, since I'm getting up at six tomorrow (I have to, to get everything ready - look presentable before the talk I'm giving at nine, get Alexandra ready for kindergarden, and get her to kindergarden...should I do an outfit-post tomorrow, maybe, since I'm giving a lecture I could make a #scienceoutfitoftheday-post?), but I just sat down - literally, so I'm not through my to dos yet...:/
- me and my sister -
Anyway, to night I want to present you to my sister - Carina.
Carina is 25 years old, and studies biology at the university here in Oslo. She has two kids and one guy. She has giant snails in a terrarium, a rat in a cage that she's seriously allergic to, and she also just got a hedgehog that will spend the winter with her (biologists!).
She is really into science and scepticism, but still loves Harry Potter so much that's she's patiently waiting for a letter from Hogwarts telling her she's been admitted to the school. Carina's biggest dream is to own an elephant - preferably an African type - and she also has a blog, HERE (in Norwegian).
- me, and Carina, and our mother; at my birthday this year (Alexandra took the photo <3) -
- me and my sister getting ready in old Rose-castle - 
Carina knows how much I love pink, and therefore she has written a little something about pink (ok, I'm not sure it's completely true, but at least maybe she's been inspired by my crazy love for pink).
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Part 1: Pink as a girly colour
Pink is a well known, and for many loved, colour. Actually there are few other colours that get as much attention as pink; both positive and negative.

Before the 40's, pink was primary a colour used on boys. In the 20's girls were supposed to be dressed in blue, because that was seen as a soothing colour, and girls should be cute, and calm. Now almost every girl is dressed in pink. 
There's just one thing though; pink does not exist. This is not a philosophical postulation of sex or gender, but a comment on visible lightwaves.
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Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Experimental setup
Today I sent away the "Experimental setup" part of the paper I'm working on to Sunniva (supervisor) - we're supposed to discuss the paper tomorrow, and my goal ("milestone") this week is that that part of the paper is done.
I feel like I'm moving forward, but it's with baby steps, and it stresses me a bit. However, I am moving forward...<3
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I feel like I'm on a good track now, after I started #teamsunnivarose: I've been early at the office every day (before 9, or, like yesterday, 9:00 - but then I had already been for a walk, and passed the days Exercise goal :P), and even if I don't get through all my to dos, I think I'm doing better.

- love my Apple Watch <3 -
Here in Rose castle, it's quiet: Alexandra just fell asleep, and Anders hasn't left the university yet (#phdlife). I'm watching a ginormous pot of chili that I'm making, and trying to finish an opinion article Anders and I are writing, and the next Question of the month blogpost (which should already have been here, but I've been busy writing about the experimenatl setup of the Oslo cyclotron and the uranium-233 experiment 🙂 ).
Ok, guess I just wanted to say Hi - so: Hiiiii *hand wave*!

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Nerdy Baby!

I've translated a book! And written a preface! (Yes, I am yelling - in case you were wondering. I'm proud, that's why 😀 ) Prosjekt Baby, or the Human Infant Project!
a very very fresh Alexandra - ready to go home from the hospital (she's born in February, in Norway - therefore the woolen socks 😉 )

It's a baby book, written and illustrated by a fantastic artist - Tiffany Ard. This scrapbook is an alternative to all the pink and blue baby scrapbooks that are out there. The book is neutral when it comes to the sex of the baby, since the thoughts and feelings you have when you are expecting are more or less the same if you're having a boy or a girl. But most importantly it's pretty and funny and a little bit sciency 😉
I soooo wish I had had this book when I was expecting Alexandra. If I'm ever having another baby there's no question which book  will be used to save all kinds of memories from the pregnancy and the first years of the baby (from the very happy ones: the baby is amazing and I love him/her from the bottom of my heart, to the scientific: the top story in Nature is they've cured HIV and AIDS, to the not so happy: I slept five minutes this night, and am this close to throwing the f***ing  baby from the balcony)!

The book includes (quoted from Tiffany Ard's page about the book):
  • all the standard basic birth details
  • family background
  • anticipation! Whether you adopt or go through pregnancy or sit in the car while your husband steals a baby from rich people, the waiting is the hardest part...
  • parental sleep statistics
  • firsts - like bath, outing, babysitter, illness, toys, nicknames, smile, laugh, haircut, early physics experiments (which can include standing/walking/etc
  • favorite and least favorite things
  • motor reflexes (in motor reflexes bingo format)
  • height and weight chart
  • 1 year celebration
  • 3 year celabration
  • quotes by Neil deGrasse Tyson
  • beautiful drawings of cells (my words, not quoted by Tiffany)
  • place for handprints and footprints
  • spaces for attaching photos
  • several blank pages for any other details or keepsakes
  • plus much more...

Also, I think the Prosjekt Baby is so incredibly pretty, I can't believe it <3 (I know I already said that, but I just had to say it again.)

On Tiffany's Nerdy Baby page, it's also possible to buy books like Schrödinger's kitty and  Science Coloring Book (The World's Most Ridiculously Excellent); Alexandra will definitely get some of her christmas presents from Tiffany this year <3
LIKE Tiffany Ard and her Nerdy Baby Artwork HERE, buy the Human Infant Project HERE (English, original), or buy the Prosjekt Baby HERE (Norwegian, translated, and with my preface 🙂 )
<3 "a detailed lab report" <3