The Half Decent Pharmaceutical Chemistry Blog

All of a sudden I feel a bit empty. Today, for example, I left the lab at 2 pm and headed home. Once there (perhaps because it’s very hot), I couldn’t do anything and missed my bench. Almost 9 months of constant work in the lab has changed me dramatically and now I’m seriously asking myself what I’m going to do in between my graduation day and my first day at the CSC.

It’s not that I am some sort of crazy workaholic, it’s just that I know I need something (anything) to temporarily substitute for my daily lab routine and it scares me a bit the fact that I can’t find it. Sure, that’s probably the sort of commitment every group leader or project supervisor wants to be in their PhD students but, to tell you the truth, it’s a bit frightening to realise you wish to live in the lab: I mean, I've never been like this!  I’ve often thought that, if I had had a laptop during these months, I’d have spent even more time in the lab, although this is a feeling I had only after my grandma had passed away. On your own PC you have your stuff: music, programmes, photos, etc. So, for instance, I would have certainly been a more active blogger.

Today, my supervisor and I have reached the conclusion all is left is to get a Western Blot done, so that I could prove to my audience that in the HeLa cells I stably transfected with a vector which encodes for a mutated, catalytically inactive, HA-tagged version of a human Topoisomerase I, this modified protein is actually expressed. Speaking of which, aren't they adorable? From single, resistant colony, to a growing population.
Therefore, in the next three days, I’ll work at what is likely to be my last experiment in this lab. In order to get the last picture, the last frame to complete the image. Then I’ll have a whole week to prepare my official presentation: a uselessly long time, to be frank with you.

I know in these last posts I’ve begun to sound gloomy but that’s exactly how I planned to conclude this project  before radically changing the tune in the next one. However, for what concerns this moment, an excellent thing to do would be to make a list of the other things to do: first, I haven’t thought of any way of celebrating my graduation, apart from presents. Usually in Italy, you’re supposed to act like a complete idiot just after the official ceremony and to host a party of some sort for your friends shortly after. I haven’t thought about anything, as I was so obsessed with finishing with the writing-up, that I couldn’t care less. And that’s wrong because it’s on such occasions that friends usually gave you rich graduation presents! Well, I was joking: I’d really like to set up something amusing but can’t find the willingness to take any decision. In my defence, I can only say I had laryngitis last week, so I was unable to communicate with the rest of mankind through my voice.
Another fundamental thing to do is to print out the official, hardcover copies of my graduation thesis: something pretty costly, to be honest.
Anything else? Well, I must really see my friends to talk seriously about our holiday plans because as this very post unquestionably proves, I definitely need to have a break.
Last but not least, next week I’ll announce the day I’ll close down this blog and the day in September when the E.B. will open.

Stay tuned: my next post will deal with my opinions on the kind of accommodation to look for in London (probably the most demanding activity to keep myself busy during summer).

At last, my money! It feels strange to directly receive money from your faculty as an undergrad: usually, in Italy you university helps those with a low income by reducing fees and taxes, which is an indirect form of support. Funny as it may sound, the sum (which, after all the taxes have been paid, amounts to € 921.66) was sent to my bank account on Friday, just after I had kindly asked whether there were problems, given that I had sent all the required documents in the middle of April. Perhaps, they had forgotten or hoped me to do so…

Theoretically, my wish-list includes a laptop (obviously from Apple, not a Vista-bundled rubbish) and a new digital camera, in descending order. However, I’m going to receive both as graduation presents: the former from my parents, the latter by the rest of my relatives. This means I have no clue on how to waste them: my iPod is rather new and fulfil all my criteria, so there’s no need for a bigger and more expensive one. Perhaps the most intelligent way of spending it would be on a holiday: I’ll certainly need a good holiday, especially after these last days’ race against the clock for completing and submitting my graduation thesis. Last night, for example, during a nice “ice cream party” on a friend's veranda, I seriously discussed with friends about holiday plan, which, to tell you the truth, if always an excellent subject of conversation.

Anyway, once again, I’m open to your suggestion: if you have better ideas than a week in eastern Sicily, feel free to share them.

On Wednesday 25, I finally handed in a copy of my graduation thesis. Finally, because my boss was beginning to be a bit of a nuisance, with his torrential flow of new ideas for graphs to appear in my work.

Unfortunately, having spent a lot of time in one of our offices writing, I experienced incredibly low temperatures (due to colleague’s misuse of air con) for long periods, quickly followed by trips to, say, the loo, where no air con is in place and, as a result, it was a way hotter. Predictably, my body didn’t like this treatment and I lost my voice almost completely yesterday. Luckily, having studied pharma chem for nearly five years, I was perfectly aware of what to do: there’s nothing a bit of nebulized cortisone and a couple of antihistamines can’t solve and, in fact, today I’m back in business (although my voice has still a lower tone that usual, but it now sounds a way sexier). You see, I’ve never been particularly fond of air con, especially when people idiotically want to use to recreate a pseudo-autumnal temperature. As long as you remove humidity, your body is perfectly able to normally adjust itself so that you can cope with temperature above 30°C.

Scientifically speaking, my loss of voice may have resulted from a mild laryngitis, a condition often caused by inhalation of irritants or allergens and/or by those very things that lead to any ordinary cold. Vocal cords are located in the larynx and, predictably, whatever the cause, an inflammation there will impair their normal…function.
My second voice is this. Yeap, me blog, which lets me communicate with you through the internet. Without internet connection, I can’t obviously post anything and, thus, I’ve no voice. Apparently, a couple of weeks ago my father received another, boring and annoying phone call from a phone company, Tele2 (also present in Italy). You must know that these idiots (meaning companies) call you at least once a week: my usual reply is a burp, but my father is too polite and naïve and listened to the offer and just said he was kind of interested in it. These bastards record phone calls and edit them so that they pretend to have a proof you have stipulated a contract with them. We are in the middle of a battle against this company (together with many other Italians), but, meanwhile, I have lost my internet connection. Luckily, these days you have a wide range of internet, wireless, pen-drive kind of things you choose from: apart from this PC at work, I now have internet back at home and, so, I’ve now both of voices back!

Wow, what a week! Predictably, finishing the writing up of my thesis required a considerable amount of time and energy. Finally, this is all over and next week, perhaps even before the deadline, I will submit the essay.

Yesterday, however, I had what theoretically really was my last exam: a check of my internship at the chemist’s.

Obviously, this didn’t even pretend to look like a real exam: you don’t get any mark, a couple of silly questions are asked to you by an old owner of a pharmacy, no one has ever been said to come back next time. The only things the judging board really care of is to (re)-count the number of working hours, to see if they are more than 540, and take a look at a brief report you hand in on this very occasion: this has to cover main topics of legislation of pharmacies. The woman in charge of posing you questions scans your essay in 5 seconds and, stopping on the paragraph you highlighted the most, inevitably asks you about that very paragraph, which covers the theme you believed she would have been keen to know about. Speaking of which, I am considering going to a nearby copy centre and sell it: many people stupidly buy these essays, an obviously illegal action, but somehow tolerated.

It was merely a reason to take a day off from your usual bench duties in the lab and, moreover, an occasion to see, most likely, a lot of my course mates for the last time (this, of course, doesn’t apply to the few I’ll invite to my graduation). I never thought I would have said that but I really enjoyed the happening and felt a bit sad when I left. I spent most of my life as an undergrad literally running towards my goals: graduating as soon as possible and then leaving the place to head to some destination (hopefully England) abroad. Maybe, I should have taken a bit more time, taking exams less quickly and spending more time hanging around with people for my course.

To radically change the theme (and tone) of the post, I invite you to check the new “coming soon” page of the Euchromatic Blog: it already outlines some of the aspects of the final look the blog will have (yes, having finished the writing up I felt I could begin to look at the E.B. as I look forward to the day it will open).

Summer as arrived here, at last! This afternoon I’ve finally spent my first day in the sun, playing a tense 7-vs-7 football match with friends: now I fell lactic acid in every bit of my body. But, at least, I look less whitish.

I’m not completely sure but I bet the rest of my post, from now on will be more or less like this very one: totally unrelated to scientific topics and massively personal. P.S: felle free to post a comment. Next one will be the 500th!

Yesterday (although technically it was today), I submitted the first release (much more than just a draft) of my thesis to my supervisor. She will revise it and then tell me what to do to improve it. It’ll be only after this first step that the group leader himself will begin to correct it, apparently assuming a first release is a bit like every new OS that Microsoft launch on the market: awfully full of nasty bugs and mistakes.

Hopefully mine will be not so bad: I put a lot of efforts (ok, who doesn’t?) and found the writing up surprisingly funny, although this might have been a result of my current daily routine. As I said before, theoretically, my supervisor has received my email today, as well as today I have completed it. In fact, 5 a.m. means it was so late one would be tempted to say I didn’t finish late at night, but early in the morning. Although I had already written most of the Materials and Methods and Results, not only the new things written, but also my overall revision did eventually take some time. And, of course, it’s far from being over. In case you wonder, at 10:30 I was already in the lab, setting up a new experiment that might serve as the perfect conclusion for the Results, although certainly not of the all project.

Going back to almost five months old experiments, interpreting the data, outlining hypotheses and lines of further investigation: I had a great time doing it. I also came across juicy articles I had never read before (thus, it wasn’t just writing) and immediately placed them in the Bibliography. Even though I know one should never say that because of the following number of corrections a reviser will always make, I am kind of proud of what I have written so far, as I reckon I have been efficient and good at solving problems throughout these months and absolutely ready and willing to start my PhD in October. Speaking of which, I have completed all the forms and answered all the questionnaires Imperial required me to submit before making the formal offer: all I need now is to graduate and send them the official documents. Meanwhile, the Accommodation service of Imperial College has allowed me to submit my application for a flat: at the moment, I think this is best choice rather than looking for a shared flat with other students, as I don’t know almost any one and, moreover, I can’t travel to London to see the flat/room/meet the guys.

Stay tuned: soon to come a post about my quest for accommodation on my first year in London!