Hopp til innhold

Today I've spent time at the EXFOR database - hate it and sort of love it at the same time... 
So far it's the "worst" database I've visited, but so far it has also given me what I've needed *mixedfeelings*.
Then I've worked on my strength function plot, which is starting to look like something now. Tomorrow I hope to tweak it so that it will be ready for my next article 😀  #phdlife

Here are some details of today's plot:

//this may sound silly; but I was so proud of my self when I managed to make these labels (no, I do not love ROOT - yet) 😛

//shapes <3 
//this has to be fixed - the slope of the square points needs to be more in line with the two sets of triangles (task of tomorrow!)

It’s been a long time since I did a “10 facts” blog post (last one was about heavy water) - too long, I think, so it’s about time I do it again now 😉
I can’t promise there’ll one every week (I’ve tried those every week kind of blog posts before, and there’s always some reason - like my PhD work - why it’s difficult to see it through ), but it would have been fun if 10 facts could be like a Friday thing. Anyway, we’ll see how it goes, but today is Fission Friday; here are ten facts about fission:
  1. fission is when a (heavy) nucleus splits into two (lighter) nuclei
  2. an example of fission is when uranium-235 is hit by one neutron and becomes barium-144, krypton-90, and 2 free neutrons (same number of particles before and after fission: 1+235 = 144+90+2 = 236 :D)
  3. the light nuclei (like barium and krypton) are called fission products
  4. fission can be induced, which means that it happens because a neutron hits the nucleus (like in the picture) - a little bit like the neutron is a knife that cuts the nucleus into two pieces <3
  5. fission can be spontaneous, which means it just happens - no neutron or other particle hitting the nucleus - the nucleus just suddenly splits
  6. fission is my favourite decay mode (I think) <3<3<3
  7. a nucleus that will fission when it’s hit by a neutron is called (a) fissile (nucleus)
  8. the energy that is released in fission (when one nucleus splits) is 200 mega electron volts - which is the same as if 50 million carbon atoms burns and produces CO2 (yes, 1 versus 50 million to get the same amount of energy!)
  9. most of the energy released in fission comes from kineticc energy of the fission products - which is energy from motion of the fission products (they are moving fast away from each other)
  10. I think the energy release in fission is really really fascinating
If you think it's a good idea to do more "10 facts" blog posts, please tell me what you what you want to read about <3

Ok, I gotta run now, to catch my flight back to Oslo - since I've been giving a talk about motivation for science in Bodø today. If you follow me on Snapchat (sunnivarose), you can see the super cool LEGO rose i got after the talk (the talk was for First Lego League, so it was 100% right to get a rose made out of LEGO :D).

Tonight I'm super excited to tell you that I'm going to give a talk at TEDxBergen in just a little bit more than a month - 3rd of October that is!!!
The topic of the conference in Bergen this year is "The (Im)possible redefined", and they describe it like this on their web pages:

This topic addresses the human tendency of creating boundaries in our heads, which are shaped by what we know and what we can imagine. These boundaries are what we believe is "possible". This topic addresses not only the boundaries that are possible but, indirectly, impossible. With these thoughts we hope to create an inspiring TEDx event and to invite speakers that redefine the (im)possible throughout a broad variety of domains, such as science, nature, lifestyle and technology.

They asked me to be one of the speakers just the other day, so I have barely had any time to think about what I should/want to talk about this time, and I thought why don't I ask you guys for help: WHAT SHOULD I TALK ABOUT? I have some ideas already, but it would be so much fun if you had some thoughts, and/or maybe suggestions for a title - so please help! 🙂

I've talked at two other TEDx events earlier - the first one was in Oslo in 2013, and then at Institut Le Rosey (outside of Geneva) in 2014. In Oslo I gave the talk How bad is it really? Nuclear technology - facts and feelings - see it HERE, and at Le Rosey I gave the talk Why science should be more pink - see it HERE.

For en uke siden besøkte jeg Stavanger, da jeg skulle holde hovedtalen under den offisielle semesterstarten der. Et ærefullt oppdrag, som jeg tok meget alvorlig, og var ikke så rent lite nervøs for i forkant... Jeg har jo holdt masse foredrag - men en tale er noe litt annet, og taler har jeg gjort ganske lite av (mest i studentforeningssammenheng, hvor det liksom ikke er så innmari nøye - og dessuten er gjerne alkoholnivået ganske høyt, slik at ingen husker noe særlig etterpå uansett 😛 ) - og jeg ville jo naturlig nok gjøre en god jobb når jeg først fikk sjansen til å snakke til så mange nye (og kanskje noen gamle) studenter.
Jeg fant heldigvis tidlig ut (i sommer en gang) at jeg måtte jo bare være ærlig, og personlig - slik jeg gjerne er når jeg holder foredrag óg, og jeg valgte å fokusere på det som kan komme av motstand når man studerer. For det er jo liksom sånn at når alt går glatt og greit og fint, så er jo ting helt fint, og da går alt ganske av seg selv; men så er det jo sånn at for veldig veldig mange så går det ikke sånn rett frem hele tiden, og man kommer til å oppleve at det (livet eller studiene eller begge deler) går skikkelig dårlig; og da er det kanskje fint å ha hørt fra noen at dette er ganske vanlig, og at det til og med kan komme til å gå ganske så bra allikevel 😉 Så jeg fortalte om hvordan jeg strøk i fag, at jeg bukte fire år på bachelorgraden min, at man som regel er ganske blakk som student, hvor ofte jeg har følt meg (og FØLER meg) dum, at jeg har stått midt på universitetet (Fredrikkeplassen, for de som er lokalkjent på Blindern) og følt at alt (blant annet meg selv) er helt håpløst og bare grått og grått, om kjærlighetssorg, og at jeg bare med med et nødsskrik kom meg inn på master. Allikevel er jeg ansatt på Universitetet i Oslo i dag for å jobbe med doktorgrad...
hvis noen tror dette ikke gjorde meg nervøs, så tar de feil - sov bare fire timer natten før, for jeg var litt stresset....men det gikk jo fint, så nå vet jeg at jeg kan få til en sånn tale óg, og det var veldig gøy 🙂
De tre hovedpoengene jeg hadde var disse:
Den du er i dag definerer ikke nødvendigvis hvem du er i morgen.

Nyt det som åpenbart er å nyte, og ta lærdom av det som er kjipt (eller bare kjedelig).

Enten så går det bra, eller så går det over. (All ære til fine Lise, som er den kloke personen bak dette kloke Lisdomsordet <3)
Åpningsseremonien ble filmet, og HER kan du se hele talen min 🙂 (Du må spole frem til 37 minutter)

Etter at jeg var ferdig var jeg naturligvis både lettet, fornøyd og stolt (det har man vel lov til å være, eller hva?), så da jeg hadde litt tid å slå i hjel på Sola, før SAS fløy meg trygt hjem til Oslo, spanderte jeg på meg selv et par nye øredobber. Det syns jeg at jeg hadde fortjent! (Har nemlig startet en sånn greie med at "belønner" meg selv litt når jeg har gjort litt sånne større ting, som jeg er litt spent og nervøs for å gjøre 😉 ). 
De har allerede blitt et av mine favoritt-øredobb-par!

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Ellers, apropos det å være personlig, så var jeg gjest på Salongen på P2 i går (i det desidert kuleste studioet jeg har besøkt så langt), og der var også innom det å føle seg litt dum, og kjenne på motgang og sånn. Og det å bli gravid sånn plutselig mot slutten av studiet, og å være nyforelsket...blant annet <3
Det kan høres HER 🙂

mikrofonstativvarmer strikket av Arne og Carlos <3

utrolig kult studio - ekte NRK-retro, faktisk 😀

This morning I went to a lecture (computational physics) for the first time in 2.5 years, and after that (not in the course, but during a break) I learned a new fun fact: the black holes in the center of galaxies are not like "normal" black holes... 
I actually sort of thought that a black hole is a black hole - that they are just what you get when a really big star dies and collapses. But then I learned that the black holes in the center of all galxies - that we call "supermassive" black holes - are much bigger than the "normal" ones, and they can't be created by the collapsing of a star. Actually, we don't even know how they are created, we just know they're different...!
We do know they are huge, though; their masses are more than 1 million suns together; and the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy (which is called Sagittarius A) has a mass equal to about 4 million suns - that's a lot 😉
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2

...or, the  University, as I also like to call it 😉 
Yes, it's actually true, the University really is like a home (or at least my second home) to me - and after one week in Berkeley, one week when Alexandra was sick with chickenpox and couldn't go to kindergarden, and one day in Stavanger, it feel fantastic to be back on track in Oslo! It's so awesome to see my (second) home full of new, and old, students again, and I feel so privileged to have a job that I can call home. Love it <3 <3 <3
So I'm just back in my (messy) office, and back with my beloved uranium (pep talk with supervisor tomorrow morning). I should really write more about what I'm working on right now - only problem is that it takes time...and I also want to share some of what I said in my speech at the University in Stavanger on Monday (very honored to be the mains speaker at the opening this year!) - maybe I have to do that tomorrow?
Anyway, it's soon bedtime here - I have to be much better at getting enough sleep, and to get up early in the mornings, which means going to bed early 😉
Here are some snap shots from the Stavanger trip 🙂
follow me on snapchat @ sunnivarose <3
Stavanger speech outfit 
 
leaving beautiful Stavanger

Good morning everyone <3 Day two of this California/Berkeley trip has just started, and so far I'm very happy 🙂
Yesterday I "finished" the first part of the uranium analysis (which is to find the nuclear level density of uranium-234) - that I wrote about in my last blog post - and started the second part of the analysis (which is to find the gamma ray strength function of uranium-234). The picture above show the very first result of my gamma ray strength data (the squares - both black and white) plotted together with different data from the big nuclear data bases. When I wrote "plot" and this appeared I actually screamed with excitement and joy, and hugged Cecilie, who was sitting next to me and helping me, because it looks soooo pretty - even before I've started to "tweak" my data to fit with the ones from the data bases (the ones on the right side of the plot - the little triangles). 
The goal of this trip is btw to put these two properties of the nucleus (the nuclear level denisty and the gamma ray strength function) into simulations of different reactors (that uses thorium based fuel) and see if they affect the results of the simulations - when we compare to standard simulations where we don't do anything about these nuclear properties 🙂 *excited*
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Below are a couple of pictures from yesterday and today. The first one, of Anders, is probably more like what you would imagine when I say "pure joy"...;) He has just rented a nice car and is on his way to Palo Alto as we speak - he is also excited. (Actually kind of wish i could go with him, but I'm on my way to the lab now, with Cecilie - and that will of course also be fun...but in a quite different way 😛 )

beautiful morning at Berkeley campus
cutest squirrel at Berkeley campus

Cecilie and Darren discussion something important (I'm guessing 😉 ) at Jupiter, where we had dinner yesterday - and the day before, when we'd just arrived

Jupiter <3

Jupiter <3

Listen to "Going to San Francisco" - check
Packing - check (but in a hurry, so not really sure if I'm bringing everything I want to...)
Passport - check
ESTA - check
Print of tickets (yes, I'm old school) - check
Print of hotel booking conformation (still old school) - check
Wearing comfortable clothes - check

I think we're ready for Berkeley/San Francisco, and a week of PhD life on the other side of the Atlantic, now <3
Below is what I did yesterday, as part of my preparation for this trip - on the first picture, the dotted line is not in agreement with the black squares, but on the second picture, it's like a perfect fit 😀 This means that the first part of my uranium analysis is coming to an end (if you ever can say that anything in science is "coming to an end" - I guess you actually really can't...:P), and I'm really excited about this trip!

I'm a master of procrastination, and not doing what I'm supposed to. Especially when it comes to stuff that I find hard - write the first 50% of an article, analyse new data, do new stuff that I know I wont understand all of by myself...so, more or less doing my job 😛
Yesterday I spent all the time before lunch not writing on my article, but browsing stuff on line instead. How silly is that? I didn't even realize how much time I spent on this, before I had to leave for my interview with P1 and Norgesglasset (which is HERE, in Norwegian...). One of my colleagues said that "sometimes you just have to sit down and do it, not all the other stuff", and she is just so right. So when I came back, I sat down, opened my article document, and attacked the introduction part. I made a real plan for what should be included in this article, and what should be in the next one, and from this I made a real outline for the article I'm working on now. Even though I know stuff can happen, and that maybe I have to do minor (or major) changes, that's ok, and I can't worry about that. At least if that worrying is gonna stop me from actually doing something.
So f*** everything else (like "oh, but I should just answer these e-mails, and maybe I should go get a soda, and also I need a coffee, I think, and I'm just gonna check facebook, and then think about all those blog posts I should write about different aspects of nuclear physics, and I have to explain why science sort of works to these people who think that Big Pharma are trying to kill them with vaccines") and just do it. It's as simple, and as difficult as that. JUST. DO. IT.
I think it will help me if I become better at making plans and lists that are actually possible to get through, too. Now I feel like a total failure everyday, since I always have, like, half or more of the stuff I was supposed to do, not checked off at my list by the end of the day. My "list" for today is as follows: finish this blog post, finish draft of the "intro" for my article, finish the "experimental setup" part (almost there, I think), and get my preliminary results into the "data analysis" part. Then I will send what I have to supervisor Sunniva, and ask her what she thinks.  If there should be some spare time before the library closes, I'm 100% sure that I will figure out more smart things to do with that extra time...;)
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After work today I'm meeting Charlotte! We haven't been out in a very long time, so I'm really looking forward to have some wine, and talk, and have fun <3
I bought this relaxed, white, thin shirt and this big yellow necklace (I think I'm in LOVE!) at H&M yesterday. Think it looks quite cool, with the hair and the tight jeans and the heels 🙂
PS: I still miss Anders - only 19 more days to go now... <3

Da er tirsdagen over, og det er "bare" 21 dager igjen til Anders kommer tilbake (ja, jeg savner ham fremdeles 😛 ).
Dagen i dag kan oppsummeres med skriving av forord, til et veldig spennende prosjekt jeg jobber med, så stengte biblioteket (klokken fire, allerede - pga ferie, tror jeg), og Therese og jeg ble ganske betuttet over at vi muligens måtte gi oss, men da kom jeg på at vi kunne dra hjem til meg og drikke vin og jobbe videre. Som sagt, så gjort! Jeg fikk sendt fra meg utkast til forord, og kunne omsider begynne på abstract til artikkel og foredrag - noe som gjorde meg mest forvirret, og litt oppgitt og trist ("åååh, jeg er bare utrolig dum, og jeg skjønner ingenting, og dessuten vet jeg ikke hva som skal være med i denne artikkelen, og så vet jeg ikke hva som kommer ut av turen til Berkeley heller, og dermed er alt umulig" - var ca det jeg følte, sånn kort oppsummert). Therese tittet på noe av det jeg jobber med, og ga meg innspill og tips, jeg fikk lagt en slagplan for morgendagen, og vi fikk snakket en del om hvordan det er å være i sluttfasen av PhD'en (Therese leverer kort tid etter sommeren). 
Jeg er har altså en plan for morgendagen, som bla inneholder:
- ringe til veileder og sutre
- se hva jeg får til av TALYS-beregninger (som egentlig betyr at jeg skal finne ut hva jeg kan/må spørre Cecilie om)
- skriv på introduksjonen til artikkel
Dette er de tre tingene som skal gjøres på Blindern i morgen. I tillegg skal jeg bevege meg ned til Marienlyst og NRK, for å være sommergjest på Norgesglasset på P1. Klokken 12:40 - sånn ca. Jeg skal bla ha med meg det jeg viser frem på bildet under, og snakke om det...;) I tillegg er det nok fare for at det blir litt fysikk og forskning <3 
"Høres" vi? 😉