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Sunniva recommends: Pandora's Promise

Sunniva15. mai 2016Legg igjen en kommentar

I'll make this short and sweet: I finally watched the documentary Pandora's Promise, where filmmaker Robert Stone profile energy experts and environmentalists who once were strongly against nuclear energy, but now embrace it.

You should watch it too, that's all I can say.

Watch it.
And Robert Stone, you get three hearts: <3<3<3

The entire thing is on Netflix.

Thursday blues

Sunniva12. mai 2016Legg igjen en kommentar

- bad conscience (I spend too little time on my degree, and too much time procrastinating)
- procrastinating
- writing for an hour as I feel bad (my conscience bugging me since I procrastinated when I got to the University, instead of writing)
- searching the University's web pages for a template for my thesis - turns out it doesn't seem to exist (help?!), but I found myself as poster-girl on the frontpage of the phd education. Lol.

- going to the MNKOM lunch talk, to listen to all the science communication students (as I was also making some notes from an article #multitasking)
- finding a template for master's thesises - works for now
- starting cleaning up and putting stuff I've written before into the template - looking kind of good
- writing a short introduction to my articles (that the thesis will be based on)
- thinking I know which order to put things in my thesis (which is supposed to sew the different articles together)...I've changed my mind several times, tough, so who knows what I'll end up with

And now I'm finally at home, drinking a glass of white wine and snacking on some kale chips I made (soooo good <3 ), waiting for Anders to get home again. He's currently in the air, and doesn't land at Gardermoen before midnight - so I might go to sleep before he gets here, since I'm quite sure I'll wake up the moment he opens the door here anyway 🙂

Hope you have great Thursday evening everyone! See you tomorrow.

Too fun!

Sunniva11. mai 2016Legg igjen en kommentar

Today hasn't been the best day, and it's totally my fault:

Or, the headache (which is finally gone) was just my own fault, but Anders left for a conference at half past four this morning, and therefore I didn't get any coffee to wake me up (he makes me coffee in bed every day <3), and it was really hard to get out of bed, and also I miss him (no, it's not the end of the world - he's coming back tomorrow night again), so those reasons are not something I'm in charge of.

But yesterday was a fun day; so fun, that I woke up with a headache this morning...:P

First part of the day was of course at the office, and I had a nice chat with Jon about the gamma radiation from fission of uranium-233, and we are quite certain that our results will turn into a nice article. He's coming here in the end of May, so I'm super motivated to do as much as I can on that analysis before he gets here! When he's here, we can also hopefully finally finish the article I've been working on for too long now - and after that I will award myself with a new bag 🙂

I left the office one hour earlier than normal, to go and get Alexandra in kindergarden; 'cause I had promised her to go and get her nails done: meaning we went to a salon (Star Nails at Grønland Bazar :)), and she got to choose nail polish. She LOVED it, and was so proud - I think she felt like she was a really big girl <3

Alex getting her nails done (pink nail polish and a gold diamond - her choice) at Star Nails, Grønland Basar. Just 50,- for kids, which I think is a nice prize 🙂

After the nail session, we met Anders who went home with Alexandra, and I went to meet some friends (Toril, Beathe, Anita, and Camilla, who I hadn't met before).

We went to place I sort of shouldn't tell you about, since it was so awesome in the sun, but I'll do it anyway; It was the Q Lounge Rooftop Bar at Grims Grenka, in Kongens gate. Fantastic location!

I had a Caesar salad that I enjoyed, and both the Prosecco and the Champagne tasted great 😉 It was such a fun night, and so tasty bubbles, that I woke up with the stupid headache this morning - like I said, totally my own fault, and also totally worth it.

Btw: I just found out it's Richard Feynman's birthday today, so happy birthday to him! He would have become 98 years if he'd been alive today. A suitable way to celebrate is to read the fantastic book Surely you're joking mister Feynman - which I got as a going away from Paris present from Jon, when I left Paris and the Insititut Physique Nucléaire eight years ago.

When can we say that a nuclear power plant is safe? 2

Sunniva10. mai 20162 kommentarer

Today is a beautiful Tuesday here in Oslo, and I just have to say a little bit about the safety of a nuclear power plant! I want to share an excerpt of a text written by someone that knows more about this particular theme than I do - Gianni Petrangeli, who has written the textbook Nuclear Safety (I have highlighted some of the points):

"Is it possible to conclude that a nuclear power plant is safe and, if it is, what are the conditions which make this conclusion possible?
The answer to the first question is: 'Yes, it is possible'.

The conditions for such a conclusion to be valid are:

the plant has been built within a legal framework that provides for the regulation of nuclear activities and for the clear assignment of safety responsibilities

the plant site has been chosen by a competent organization, following the stringent safety and radiation protection criteria internationally available

the plant has been conceived, designed and built following the best internationally available criteria and standards important for safety and for radiation protection (with all financial means necessary to obtain an excellent result)

the whole process has been submitted to the surveillance of an independent control body, capable (as far as possible) of foreseeing the possible technical licensing problems before it's too late to solve them

everyone involved in the construction, the control and the operation of the plant are permeated by a genuine safety culture

everyone involved have been trained to the best professional standards with continuing professional development schemes

operation is performed in connection with national and international organizations which have the aim of collecting and disseminating operating experience thoroughly and quickly

the plant is operated within an industrial system with a sufficient reserve of electric power

working conditions for plant operators are conducive to solving problems, and the psychological atmosphere in the plant is marked by alacrity and by serenity at the same time"

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When all of these nine criteria are met (I shortened some of them, so in the original text they are more comprehensive), then you can claim that a nuclear power plant is safe.

Was Chernobyl "safe"? NO, NOT AT ALL! I know for sure that Chernobyl broke the conditions, and definitely could not be concluded to be a "safe" plant.

Was Fukushima "safe"? To be honest, I'm actually not 100% sure of how well Fukushima met these 9 criteria...
The thing about the Fukushima accident was that it was caused by a "freak event" - a natural disaster that magnitude is very hard to foresee, since you can't foresee everything. If you could, none would have died from the earth quake and tsunami that hit Japan on the 11th of March 2011, but yet they did - but if you argue that since this natural disaster did happen, and therefore nuclear power isn't safe, you're really also arguing that Japan is an unsafe country to live in...
It's not like they din't foresee tsunamis on the coast of Japan, but they didn't expect them to be as big. So what if they had foreseen a 14 meter tsunami, and they were protected against that, but then a 15 meter tsunami hit them instead? Nothing is ever (100%) safe, and at some point you have to say this is as safe as it gets. Remember: it's always a piece of cake to say after something's happened that they should have done it differently...!
But was Fukushima as safe as it gets? Maybe not. Maybe the plant site (point 2) wasn't 100% ideal, maybe the plant didn't have sufficient reserve of electric power (point 8). Can we then conclude that nuclear power isn't safe at all? No.

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Have a fabulous, sunny day everyone! I'm going to get Alexandra in kindergarden very soon, and then we're going to get our nails done #motherdaughtertime <3

Monday

Sunniva9. mai 2016Legg igjen en kommentar

meetings, yes - plural

started reading about, and writing about the so called generation 4 reactors (the next generation of nuclear reactors, that will use their fuel more efficiently, reduce waste production, be more economically, and have even higher standards of safety and proliferation resistance)

then realised that everything that should be written about these reactors in my thesis could (and should!) probably be summarized in one or two sentences... So even though I haven't actually deleted any of it yet, that'll be the first thing I'll do tomorrow. Well, maybe I can view it as one or two HIGH QUALITY sentences 😛

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something that looks very much like SUMMER has finally come to Oslo, and here are some snaps from a beautiful weekend, with friends and my little family <3

Today's office 2

Sunniva5. mai 20162 kommentarer

When you're working on a PhD you never really have the day off - there's always something than needs to be done: an article you should read, an article you should comment, an abstract you should finish, an analysis you should work on, and of course, if you've done all the reading and the commenting and the analysis and everything, there's your scary thesis that you need to work on.

Today I've had a Skype meeting with Supervisor Jon, and then I went with Trine to Espresso House at Majorstuen to write.

The nice thing about a job like ours is that we can work in cozy places - like cafés.

The downside is that we don't have the day off, ever, since every day is just one day closer to the day you have to finish.

Here are two pictures of me thinking and drinking coffee and taking selfies instead of actually writing anything...:P (Love this maritime looking sweater from Pimkie, by the way <3)

Jon told me my article is starting to look quite ok now, so that's good! It means that I can continue working on these fission gamma rays. We're missing some of the gamma rays that we expect to see in our detectors, though, so we have to figure out if there's something wrong with the design of the experiment (very bad - can't be fixed), or the way we analyze the data from the experiment (more work, but can be fixed). I'm still positive that we have some very interesting results (which I of course can't tell you about yet) and that it will definitely be something we can publish in a nice journal...

I ended up writing about one page on my thesis today. It may not sound like much, but it is much more than nothing 😛

After I came back from Espresso House I had promised Alexandra to go swimming, but the swimming pool turned out to be closed today. Luckily we found out just before we left home, so we went just outside to pick flowers instead. Alexandra picked out her own outfit; tiara, wings, silver shoes, and a pink ballerina skirt - love the style <3

Goal of the day

Sunniva4. mai 2016Legg igjen en kommentar

After yesterday's not feeling so great and mostly procrastinating-day, I think I'll try baby steps today: My goal is to find/produce the figures of these fission gamma rays (they will be far from "ready", but I'll make them as good as I can), and send them off to supervisor Jon.

Goal number two is to fix my abstract for PhD Day: I said I did it yesterday, but then there was some problem - probably that it was 100 words too long, so I need to shave it a bit, and retry. It will be done by the end of this day 🙂

Thanks so much to the best officemate ever, Gry, who's smiling and telling me that my thesis will actually be great, and that I've just buried my head down into some details that are not so fun, and very soon everything will feel better...<3

Crying in the cantina 3

Sunniva3. mai 20163 kommentarer

Tuesday:

- procrastinate
- coffee with Anders
- crying in the cantina
- dugnad in the kindergarden
- going home
- crying in the shower
- feeling stupid
- thinking (hard) about the thesis
- submitting abstract for PhD Day

It's phdlife.

Preparing for PhD Day!

Sunniva2. mai 2016Legg igjen en kommentar

This is a blogpost there are good reasons why I shouldn't write...but I do it anyway, and if you are a PhD candidate here at the University, you should definitely keep on reading (if you're not, you should at least read the end of this blogpost):

On June 10th, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and the Science Library are arranging PhD Day, and all PhD candidates at the Faculty are invited to participate in the Poster session (aka Poster competition). There's a 10 000 NOK prize for the best poster, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to win it... However, I also really want all PhD candidates here at the Faculty to know about this day, and this poster competition; it's more fun the more we are, and it's more fun in winning if there's a real competition 😉

Deadline for submitting an abstract for the competition is one week from now (May 9th). I'm pretty sure that if you actually try making an abstract you will be accepted to the Poster session, and that it's not like for a conference where it's normally a bigger chance of rejection than being allowed to make a poster or give talk... If your abstract is accepted, remember that your poster will be on display for students, fellow PhD candidates, professors, faculty members, and possible future employers on PhD Day 2016.

This is the third year that the Faculty and the Science Library are arranging this day, but for some reason, this is the first time I'm actually planning on participating in all that happens (Poster competition):

The poster is supposed to be more popular than if it was for a pure, nuclear physics conference; this day is, after all, for all of us at the Faculty, and not just nuclear physicists, but that's what I think is the most fun to prepare anyway - perfect for me, in other words <3 What I've also realized is that even thought this is a popularization of my research, the story that I'm telling is still the same as when I'm going to the ND16 conference in September, and preparing this for PhD Day is actually forcing myself to really try to find good answers to these important questions:

what is my story?
why are my results interesting?
what are the important things that we did?

I think (hope!) making this popular poster will contribute to making my talk at the conference better...:)

I've spent most of today reading about "prompt fission gamma rays", which is the topic of my poster (planning on finishing, and submitting, my abstract tomorrow). It maaaaay be that I'm calling gamma radiation for nuclear sweat … 😀 Don’t know with you, but I mean, if a nucleus is excited, or “hot” (as my nucleus is), it cools by emitting gamma rays - sounds like sweat to me 😉

Read EVERYTHING about PhD day HERE

Even if you're not a PhD student, and not participating in the poster competition, you should come to the Science Library this day: You can see all the posters, and hopefully learn about all the different, cool things that people are studying at our University, and you can vote for which poster should win the audience best prize (2000,-). The poster session starts at 11.

Then, from 3 it's the most awesome BBQ (food from Strøm Larsen), the bar opens, and at 3:30 it's "Smashing Physics: news from the energy frontier", by Jon Butterworth. This should be good!

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PS: My poster will be pink; I see no reason why a scientific poster couldn't be pink <3

SoMe lately

Sunniva2. mai 2016Legg igjen en kommentar

Good morning, and happy Monday everyone <3

I'm just here to say a quick hello, before going to the University; unfortunately it will be a short week this week, because of Thursday, so I have to be very effective today and tomorrow (on Wednesday I'm getting Alexandra in kindergarden and everything, so then it's just time for a normal, short day).

The clock is ticking too fast :/

Maybe it's a good idea to have one, main goal this week, instead of trying to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that? If so, my main goal this week is called "prompt fission gamma rays" - in there is gathering figures for supervisor Jon, trying to get a Skype meeting with Jon (we've been trying this for weeks now :P), reading stuff, working on poster for PhD day and more... Yeah, I think one goal is good 🙂

I also want to share some everyday snaps from Instagram and Snapchat - I've been a little bit "better" at this lately. Especially I've been inspired by Jill Walker Retteberg (professor in digital culture at the University of Bergen), and also by Anders, on how to use Snapchat to tell little science stories - my plan is to explore these possibilities in the future (when I remeber it, and have the time, obviously), starting last week, really. So follow me on @sunnivarose on Instagram and sunnivarose on Snapchat 😉