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Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til The week that passed
 And then the week was over again, just like that, and a new week has already begun! And just like that, Alexandra started school. It feels surreal that I have a school girl at home, and I think it's so cool that we're both part of the Norwegian educational system, but at the very beginning and the very end. This post isn't about Alexandra starting school though, more about that some other time...:)
Right now
Even though I wasn’t the most productive ever last week, I actually managed four of the five steps I was supposed to get through, and I'm quite happy with that. The only thing I didn’t do was the one about making a drawing of my plotting program, so I just need to get this right this week! I also have to start three presentations, and already on Wednesday I'm giving my first talk this semester (so one of those three talks needs to be started AND finished this week). To get my results right for article number three and the talk for Bruges, I need to make that drawing – luckily, Anders can help me, since he’s back from Philadelphia again <3 I'm hopeful!
Feeling of the week
Want. I missed Anders a lot last week (yes, even though it was just one week without him), and it's not because I don't have fun when he's not here, I just prefer when he is 🙂 As Sunniva supervisor said: Well, good thing you miss him - what if you didn't? Wouldn't that have been just horrible? And she's of course right, and I am happy I miss him when he's gone <3
Boost of the week
The biggest boost of last week was without doubt when I sent away my article (paper)
 to all the co-authors. As I told you on Saturday I felt like I got high just after I pushed the "send" button - it would actually have been fun if I had measured the levels of different hormones in my blood before and after I sent it. My guess is that the levels of adrenaline and endorphins (?) were higher after, but I am no expert on hormones, so I may be wrong about...;)
Bummer of the week
The biggest bummer of last week was the message from the Norwegian tax authorities! First they told me I had to pay one amount in taxes (from last year), then they had forgotten some stuff, and they told me (when we called them, and we called twice, and talked to two different people about this) I had to pay twice what they first told me. Then, this week I got their final message, where it said I have to pay even 20 000,- more :/ Well, c'est la vie...
Person of the week
Anders was in Philadelphia all of last week (he came back home again yesterday <3), so I thought much more about him and us than I normally do, when he’s here, so he’s definitely my person of the week.
Craving of the week
Gum. I always crave gum, and I eat a lot of it. I normally buy five packs at a time, and that’s almost sufficient for one week 😀
Picture of the week
Last week was the first week for all the new students (you know, Fadderuken, where they get to know older students and each other and stuff), and finally Campus was filled with people again. This picture is from the very first day, meaning last Monday, and I got so happy that Store Fysiske Auditorium (StoreFy) was packed with students <3
I wasn't really part of anything that happened, but I couldn't stay 100% away from it, either 🙂 (Picture from my Snapchat: sunnivarose)
Reader of the week
Last week I got the sweetest messages from a reader who told me she studies physics in Bergen, and that she wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for me. She also thanked me for this speech. She is definitely reader of the week! 



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...
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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

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Publisert 2 kommentarer til Enten så går det bra – eller så går det over… (tre erfaringer til nye studenter)
Studietiden er fantastisk!
Det er frihet, læring, flytte hjemmefra og bli selvstendig, voksen, møte masse flinke folk... Det er moro, spenning, sosialt, interessant, utfordrende - på den gode måten, nye venner, forelskelse, og øl på en onsdag. 
Det er sånn man gjerne hører folk som kanskje ikke helt husker hvordan studietiden egentlig var beskrive studietiden. 
Kanskje det heller burde være: studietiden er fantastisk? Fordi, plutselig så er det deadlines, tom konto, kjærlighetssorg, og eksamen. Og når dere sitter alene på hybelen om to måneder, og dere har tom kontor og spiser nudler med ketchup, og dere samvner mamma, storebror, eller bestevennen som ble igjen to flyturer og en 70 minutters humpete busstur unna, da er det kanskje ikke like lett å se at dette er den beste tiden i livet...

Kjære alle nye studenter! Spesielt alle dere nye på MatNat, og enda mer spesielt til dere på fysikk <3

Studiene kommer til å by på oppturer og nedturer. De fleste av dere kommer til å føle der dumme; ikke hele tiden, men stadig vekk. Mange av dere kommer til å gjøre det betydelig dårligere enn dere gjorde på vgs, og enn det dere kansje trodde dere skulle komme til å gjøre.
Så lenge 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 at dette er ganske vanlig, og at det til og med kan komme til å gå ganske så bra allikevel 😉 
Sitatet øverst her er fra en tale jeg holdt for ett år siden, under åpningsseremonien på Universitetet i Stavanger, og der snakket jeg mye og ærlig om egen studietid, og at det både er skikkelige oppturer og SKIKKELIGE nedturer... Den talen ble filmet, så hvis du vil høre resten av den så kan du trykke deg inn HER 🙂 (Jeg begynner på 37 minutter).
"Kortversjonen" av min vei fra fersk bachelorstudent til snart ferdig (...?) doktor i kjernefysikk går via å stryke 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 (i alle fall i noen måneder til) for å jobbe med doktorgrad...
min aller første dag på UiO...jeg sitter nesten helt fremme, med lys rosa genser 😉 (Ja, her er det overhead som gjelder :D)
Hvis jeg skulle oppsummere talen min til å bare være tre tips, eller kanskje mer erfaringer, så må det bli dette:
  1. Den du er i dag definerer ikke nødvendigvis hvem du er i morgen.
  2. Nyt det som åpenbart er å nyte, og ta lærdom av det som er kjipt (eller bare kjedelig).
  3. Enten så går det bra, eller så går det over. (All ære til gode Lise, som er den kloke personen bak dette fine Lisdomsordet <3)
Dere som har lest bloggen min en stund har kanskje hørt meg si dette, at enten så går det bra - eller så går det over, før. Det har nærmest blitt som et motto for meg; noe jeg tar frem og sier til meg selv når jeg er på vei inn i en "nå går alt til helvete, og jeg kommer aldri til å klare å fullføre, og så får jeg ingen jobb, og så (...)", for det er jo så sant at antageligvis så går det bra, men hvis det ikke går bra, så kommer det til gå over. Det er godt å vite! Og det som er så fantastsisk er at dette gjelder jo like mye for kjærlighetssorg som eksamen 🙂
I morgen skal jeg gjøre mitt for at det skal gå bra med meg; da skal jeg møte fine kollega Cecilie, sånn ganske passe tidlig på biblioteket, og så skal vi utnytte bibliotekets (tips til alle på UiO, forresten; både det store Universitetsbiblioteket og fantastsiske Realfagsbiblioteket er helt fantastiske plasser å sitte og jobbe/lese/skrive <3) ro og lys til å skrive på hver vår artikkel. Det er som sagt artikkel nummer tre det jobbes med her nå, og i morgen skal jeg skrive om det eksperimentelle oppsettet, og litt om hvordan vi klarer å skille mellom nøytroner og gamma-stråling i detektorene våre, siden de "oppfører" seg på mange måter likt i akkurat de detektorene vi har.
Alle nye (og gamle) studenter: nyt fadderuken og solen - alvoret og høstværet kommer fort nok. Snakkes!

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Selfie

I almost can't believe it, but just one week from now; Alexandra's starting school!

Therefore, today we went shopping for a new backpack and some new outfits (plus a pair of sneakers, rain gear - after all, fall's coming soon, and some nail polish that she really wanted <3). The sun was shining, none of us were tired or stressed, and we simply had a great time! Then suddenly, from nowhere she squealed: 
- Let's take a selfie! 
(Often, she doesn't like me to take any pictures, so I love the times when she decides that pictures are good 🙂 )
And then:
- What is a selfie?
Haha - she obviously knew, she just wasn't sure if she knew <3

#perfectday

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Goal(s) of the week: MERGE
I have one, main goal this week, and that is to merge two different drafts of the next article (meaning: number three, meaning: with this third article, I will actually have what I need to have, to wrap everything up and finish my PhD...) - into one, and send this merged draft to two of the co-authors (Gry and Fabio). It sounds easy enough, but I know it takes much more time than it sounds like, so I've divided this one, big goal into several sub-goals (then I know that even if I don't really manage to tick off the "merge, finished", I can tick off several sub-goals, and not feel like a failure):

I have a good feeling about work this week - it may of course be because the sun is shining, and Alexandra was happy girl this morning, and campus is suddenly packed with students again - but I have already started to look carefully at the introductions that I need to compare, and  I've copied the text about the experiment. I've also just started to re-write the experimental text, and now I'll continue.
If I'm very good, my extra-goal will be to start the talk I'm going to give in Bruges (Belgium) in the middle of September... *fingers crossed*

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PS: VELKOMMEN til alle nye studenter til UiO, og spesielt velkommen til alle dere her på fysikk!

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Norwegian Continental Shelf (interview about nuclear physics, science communication, and hard work)
A while ago I was interviewed for the magazine Norwegian Continental Shelf. We talked about why I started to study nuclear physics, and about science communication, and that you usually have to work hard if you want to achieve something. Bente Bergøy interviewed me, and Sverre Christian Jarild photographed me - I think they both did a good job 🙂
I love this picture! It's taken from outside the University library (where I love to work <3)

Popular science blogger Sunniva Rose originally want­ed to be a ballet dancer, but became hooked on nuclear physics instead.


“The course didn’t meet my expectations, and I failed to settle in at the university. The subjects were more difficult than I’d thought, and I wasn’t used to feeling so stupid.”

Matters were not helped by failing courses and having terms where she only just managed to get through an exam. “I wondered for a long time what I thought I was doing,” she admits.

Her progress in maths was not particularly good, and she disliked experimenting. “I really doubted whether there was room for somebody like me, who had a handbag full of pink lip gloss, wore high heels and taught dance part-time.”

Then things started to look up. She took a couple of courses which broke the logjam. One dealt with energy challenges and realistic solutions, and Rose discovered that nuclear power is currently an important part of the answer.

She started work on an MSc, and thrived on long days in the lab and on the in-depth study of a topic she found exciting. Enjoyment, involvement and commitment paid off in top marks.

this is not a "pretty-picture", but I still really like it - it's really me; gesticulating with my hands, and of course there's CACTUS (all the stuff sticking out from it are detectors for gamma radiation, and it's called CACTUS because it looks like a cactus 😉 )

The question is why young Norwegians should opt for science studies when the oil industry seems to be in decline and many engineers are having trouble finding a job.

Rose’s answer is that these subjects provide the opportunity to work with everything from people to medicine, oil, space travel or the environment – and to help develop society.

“But I genuinely believe that knowledge of science should form part of a general education,” she affirms. “It helps you to think critically. Nothing is black-and-white, and not everything you read in the papers is true.”

If you like, you can read the entire thing HERE 🙂
PS: For some reason, they've written I went to the UiS (University of Stavanger), which is of course not true. For me, it's been University of Oslo all the way <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?

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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 Positivt syn på formidling?
God kveld fra høyt her oppe i Rose-slottet, alle <3
Før sommeren fikk jeg et veldig spennende oppdrag fra magasinet Sykepleien Forskning, om å skrive en tekst om formidling. Formidling er et tema jeg virkelig brenner for, og jeg har gjort en del valg ila doktorgraden som mange mener er dumme for en karriere i Akademia, og sannsynligvis har de dessverre rett i det... Jeg har valgt å bruke mye (til tider SVÆRT mye) av tiden min som jeg egentlig skulle ha brukt til å forske, og å skrive vitenskapelige artikler, til å formidle til et bredt publikum istedetfor.
Heldigvis har jeg merket en gradvis endring når det gjelder forholdet til formidling*, og jeg håper og tror at også det å drive formidling til "folk flest" vil bli skikkelig verdsatt i Akademia snart. Og da mener jeg ikke "verdsatt" i som at man får et klapp på skulderen og noen gode ord på veien, mens den andre forskeren som ikke gadd å dele forskningen sin med flere enn de 50-100 andre i verden som virkelig forstår hva hun driver med får jobben...;)
Les hele teksten HER, om hvordan jeg begynte å formidle etter Fukushima-ulykken, og hvorfor jeg ikke har sluttet 🙂

 

"Formidling tar tid. Per i dag blir man «straffet» for å formidle, i og med at en som bruker halvparten av tiden sin på å formidle, kun vil ha halvparten så mye tid til å forske. Når alt kommer til alt, skal det mye til for at en med halvparten så mange publikasjoner får jobb fremfor en som har brukt all sin tid på forskning, og null på formidling.Så hvorfor gjør da jeg det? Det er et godt spørsmål som jeg til stadighet må stille meg selv. Jeg har kommet frem til at da jeg hørte om Fukushima-ulykken, kjente jeg mye på at formidling var en del av mitt samfunnsoppdrag som forsker. Folk var redde for stråling, jeg hadde kunnskap og var – og er – lønnet av deres skattepenger. Videre har jeg kommet frem til at jeg synes det er givende å forklare mitt eget, sære fagfelt på en slik måte at «vanlige» folk forstår hva det handler om. Dessuten tror jeg at det å formidle, faktisk gjør meg til en bedre forsker."

 

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* Ja, det er en forskjell på forskning og formidling; selv om jeg selvsagt formidler noe når jeg skriver en vitenskapelig artikkel, så er ikke det det vi vanligvis mener med formidling, siden den vitenskapelige artikkelen er skrevet for at kansje 50 andre i verden vil syns den er interessant, og forstå noe særlig av hva det handler om. Formidling er forskning for alle interesserte, uten alle de detaljene som faktisk er mer eller mindre uinteressante for alle andre enn de der 50 stykkene 😉

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.)
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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