Hi everyone
I thought I would just give an update, I have been busy working hard in the laboratory for the past few weeks, I have some even busier times coming up.
I have been looking at deadly animals recently just for some light reading and I found some interesting links which I would like to share:
I have found an interesting image recently, see this article and image (see image below)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2615737/Forget-sharks-mosquitoes-SNAILS-worlds-deadliest-animals-Graphic-reveals-human-races-biggest-killers.html
I thought it was quite interesting, I am not surprised by the mosquito, they carry a fair few parasites and viruses etc... I was quite surprised at how many people are killed by snakes and rabies from dogs.
I also found this list and image on deadly animals:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/101315-10-deadliest-animals-in-the-world/
and
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/worlds-top-10-deadliest-animals.html
Again I was surprised by some of the figures, i think its amazing how there are so many different views of which animals are the most deadly, there are so many factors that could be considered.
I found that a documentary called Worlds worst venom which is also very interesting, I think it is a very good documentary on venomous animals.
I am very interested in diseases transmitted by the mosquito, especially parasitic diseases, I may begin to focus on this in my next post.
I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, I have finally started writing my literature review and now have 1000 words write, probably not very good words, but at least something is written down. I have had a couple of meetings including with a UK zoo, which was very interesting.
The plan for my project is going to be written so I have know which direction my research is going to go in, I know that I am studying various aspects of Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus in Asian elephants. I feel this is an interesting area and I feel that i will be ale to contribute to the research in this field.
I think elephants are amazing creatures, from researching information for my literature review, I have found they are much more complex than what I thought. Rather than just being big and grey, they have a very complex social structure which has taken up a lot of my time allocated to research this week.
Its felt like a very long week so far, trying to get my head around bio informatics. This is an area I am pretty unfamiliar with, I have spent hours researching sequence alignment which I think I now understand the basic principles of.
I feel like I have not achieved very much this week, on my week to do list I have only managed to tick off two things, I am feeling a little disheartened this week. Creating a to do list was possibly not as good of an idea as I thought, especially when you can barely tick anything off. I feel that I do know enough and I'm worried that I will look stupid.
I have a busy weekend as well, Science in the community outreach program on Saturday, where my colleague and I have created a stall on anatomy. Where we are going to enlighten children and give them some information on the human body. We are also providing chocolate and sweets.
Today is the first day starting the PhD project I chose, I have been recommended to read many books, which is going to take up much of my time in the foreseeable future.
I have now joined two societies and will hopefully be going to conferences very soon. So today I had an induction this morning, then I met with my supervisor to discuss the upcoming few days and what I need to be doing. Then we had a welcome lunch which was nice... and in this beautiful sunshine which we very rarely have made a nice change. I tried to be healthy and had a salmon and cream cheese sandwich yes it did come with chips but only a handful.
