Weekly update

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.

Outreach

Yesterday was the science outreach event, my colleague and I designed a stall based on teaching children anatomy. We showed them a full body model which was like a jigsaw where they put the organs back inside the body. We also had a larger model of the heart, which showed the children what the inside of your heart looks like, the final thing we did was to provide a quiz sheet which went down particularly well, usually with children having to help their parents. Very young children also very much enjoyed the mirror that we provided.

I have not previously had experience with children so this was a new experience for me. I really enjoyed taking part in the event, it enabled me to learn how to communicate to children and how to make activities fun and interesting. I would like to take part in the event again next year but I would like to explore another topic.

I am going to do some reading today and hopefully make a start on my literature at some point this week; I am finding it hard to get pen to paper and actually start at the moment. I am also re vamping my blog today adding photos which I have now found :) so please take a look at the My Life page as it now hos some photographs.

Brain frazzle....

So its my first week starting my PhD project.... I have read for around 12 hours a day at University and at home filling my head with virology knowledge.

I attended at interesting seminar yesterday evening on the chemistry of cocktails where I tried an interesting green cocktail which was rather strange. I am also attending another interesting seminar today on herpes in fish, I honestly never knew fish could have herpes.... you learn something new everyday.

This weekend I am intending to relax a bit as I now think my brain is starting to frazzle with the amount of information I have crammed in this week.