British Summertime... in April?!

It would appear that the fabled English summer has come about 3 months early this year as I have largely spent the last 2 weeks or so in a reclining position catching as much sun on my pale British shoulders as is healthy. I’ve spent the last few months hunched over my bench in the lab hard at work but I’m off work this coming week along with the rest of the department celebrating the imminent Royal Wedding (or not as the case may be, the monarchy never really was my thing). Saying that, any excuse for a pint of ale in the sun is currently perfectly fine with me. 

The most interesting breakthrough in my chemistry recently was that I finally managed to crystallize one of my catalysts, something I’ve been trying to do since Christmas. I sent off the structure and the sample to the crystallographer and had an e-mail back about 2 weeks later (via my supervisor) saying that she had some odd results. It turns out I crystallised the wrong catalyst, which was frankly silly of me. Oh well, it was still pretty interesting nonetheless, and I now have a pretty picture for my thesis. I only got a slight telling off from my supervisor as well, so I can’t complain.

I will mostly be spending the next week contemplating how I am going to start my PhD 1^st year report, probably without actually writing anything chemistry related. Having also been introduced to the wonders of Prezi recently, I might also write the presentation I have to give on my work a week on Thursday. For those of you who have not come across this gem of a website, it’s essentially a slightly more interesting and intuitive version of Powerpoint. Give it a go, you’ll be zooming around your presentations in no time (you’ll see what I mean once you sign up).

Finally, the piece I wrote for lablit.com is up. Have a read, I’m moderately pleased with it. Any comments would as always be appreciated!