My kind of poetry...

(what I really was looking for was "what is Hauser-Feshbach")

Forskningen er internasjonal! (rant)

Hver morgen, når klokken er seks, våkner vi at at radioen skrur seg på, og det er selvsagt P2 som gjelder hjemme hos oss - jeg digger P2 (#voksenpoeng)! 

Jeg er nesten alltid superfornøyd og imponert over kvaliteten på det som denne radiokanalen serverer mellom klokken 6 og 9, men i dag ble jeg småskuffet og litt irritert; det var nemlig en merkelig sak som handlet om at forskere publiserer "for lite" på norsk*. 

For å utdype denne Twitter-meldingen litt, og forklare hvorfor det ikke er et valg å publisere  for eksempel fysikk på norsk:

I akademia så er det publisering som gjelder: Publish or perish. Forskningen vår skal (selvsagt) være på et topp internasjonalt nivå! Vi må publisere, og vi må få artiklene våre fagfellevurdert. Forskningen vi driver med på instituttet vårt er også svært spisset, og vi er noen få i Norge som driver med det vi gjør**. Så en norsk journal der jeg feks kan publisere kjernefysikk fins ikke, og den hverken bør eller kan lages (den ville automatisk ha blitt på et MYE lavere nivå enn enhver internasjonalt anerkjent tidsskrift, og størsteparten av det eventuelle publikummet for denne journalen ville måtte jobbe med å lage/drifte denne).

Videre kunne ikke fagfellevurdering fungere fordi det ikke er nok fagfeller i Norge som kunne vurdert en artikkel skrevet på norsk. Hvis det er noen som faktisk har kompetanse til å forstå det som står i artikkelen så er de antageligvis medforfattere på den aktuelle artikkelen, hvis ikke vil det være noen som ikke kan fagfeltet, eller de kan fagfeltet, men ikke norsk... 

Til sist så ville vi ikke kunne samarbeide med de vi samarbeider med - internasjonaliseringen forsvinner (de kan ikke være med oss, og vi kan ikke være med dem); vi gjør mange eksperimenter på andre kjernefysiklabber rundt omkring i verden - feks i USA, Sør-Afrika, Frankrike, og Japan. Disse eksperimentene resulteter i artikler, som vi samarbeider om å skrive. Det blir fryktelig vanskelig å skrive disse sammen med forskere som ikke snakker norsk - hvis vi er tre norske og 15 fra diverse land rundt omkring i verden (de andre forskerne må jo tross alt kunne forstå teksten de er medforfattere på, ellers ville det vi drev med vært mildt sagt grovt uetisk), og av samme grunn så kunne ikke vi være med på artikler skrevet på fransk, tysk, eller japansk (vi kunne vært med på den engelske/amerikanske, da, men det er kanskje ikke helt rettferdig hvis vi skal få masse ut av samarbeid med dem, men de skal ikke få noe ut av samarbied med oss - eller kanskje vi bare skal forvente at de lærer seg norsk?)

Publish or perish gjelder overalt i akademia, så det må kunne være ganske sannsynlig at samarbeid resulterer i artikler, ellers forsvinner mye av insentivene for å bruke tid på dette.

Vi bør vel kanskje ikke skrote internasjonalt samarbeid, fagfellevurdering og nivå, bare for å få artikler på norsk...

At dette i det hele tatt er en diskusjon (slik den ble lagt frem på radioen i dag tidlig) er bare rart og feil. Vi publiserer SELVSAGT ikke på norsk, for det er hverken mulig eller ønskelig. Forskningen er internasjonal, og da må den også deles med internasjonale forskere på et språk som er internasjonalt forståelig. (Vi kan godt være litt triste over at norsk ikke er et internasjonalt språk, men sånn er det nå en gang, da...)

For meg så viste denne diskusjonen noe som kunne minne om en manglende innsikt i mye av forskningen som foregår på univeristetene - hvis man tror at veldig mange av oss bare kunne ha publisert på norsk istedetfor på engelsk, så er du i mine øyne omtrent ikke meningsberettiget.

Grunnen til at forskningen vi gjør er utilgjengelig for folk generelt er ærlig talt ikke at den er publisert på engelsk. Vitenskapelige artikler er ikke formidling.  Jeg tør faktisk påstå at forstår du faget, så forstår du engelsken. 

Her er noen eksempler på artikler jeg er medforfatter på: 

Experimentally constrained (p, γ)89Y and (n, γ)89Y reaction rates relevant to the p-process nucleosynthesis (12 forfattere som ikke forstår norsk - som ikke kunne ha vært med, og som i prinsippet gjør at artikkelen ikke kunne ha eksistert)

Study of the 238U(d,p) surrogate reaction via the simultaneous measurement ofgamma-decay and fission probabilities (5 norske forfattere - vi kunne ikke ha vært med på denne hvis den ble skrevet på hovedforfatteren sitt morsmål, men heldigvis publiserer de på engelsk også i Frankrike)
Experimental level densities of atomic nuclei (16 forfattere som ikke forstår norsk - som ikke kunne ha bidratt til det endelige resultatet). Denne er jo til og med nesten populær i sin fremstilling. Abstractet lyder:

It is almost 80 years since Hans Bethe described the level density as a non-interacting gas of protons and neutrons. In all these years, experimental data were interpreted within this picture of a fermionic gas. However, the renewed interest of measuring level density using various techniques calls for a revision of this description. In particular, the wealth of nuclear level densities measured with the Oslo method favors the constant-temperature level density over the Fermi-gas picture. From the basis of experimental data, we demonstrate that nuclei exhibit a constant-temperature level density behavior for all mass regions and at least up to the neutron threshold.

La meg være litt grei, og gjøre en rask oversettelse av dette abstractet:

Det er nesten 80 år siden Hans Bethe beskrev nivåtettheten som en ikke-vekselvirkende gass av protoner og nøytroner. Siden da har alle eksperimentelle data blitt tolket i dette bildet av en fermion-gass. Dog har den fornyede interessen for å måle nivåtettheten ved å bruke forskjellige teknikker gjort at denne beskrivelsen må revurderes. Spesielt så favoriserer det vellet av nivåtettheter målt med Oslometoden konstant temperatur-nivåtettheten fremfor fermigass-bildet. Med bakgrunn i eksperimentelle data demonstrerer vi her at kjerner viser en konstant temperatur-nivåtetthetsoppførsel i alle masseregioner, og i alle fall opp til nøytron-bindingsenergien.

Jeg brenner for formidling, og jeg skulle gjerne hørt en diskusjon som handlet om hvordan forskningen skal gjøres tilgjengelig for andre enn forskerne, men det problemet med formidling er ikke at vi publiserer på engelsk.

Hadde det vært en diskusjon om formidling; at det formidles for lite på norsk, og nå må vi gjøre noe for å belønne formidling på norsk, så er jeg også helt for diskusjonen. Men det var altså snakk om publisering, og da blir det hele mer eller mindre tragikomisk.

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*Det er klart, dersom spørsmålet er om forskning som handler om spesifikke norske forhold, og hovedsakelig er av interesse for nordmenn, så er det jo ganske merkelig å publisere på engelsk (vi er alle, eller i alle fall de aller fleste av oss, selvsagt bedre i vårt eget morsmål, enn i engelsk, og dermed vil antageligvis også det vi skriver få en litt høyere språklig kvalitet på eget morsmål), men slik det ble lagt frem så handlet det generelt om at forskere publiserer på engelsk.

**For å illustrere: Anders driver også med PhD i fysikk, og selv om vi da har ekstremt mye av den samme bakgrunnen, og snakker veldig mye sammen og forklarer for hverandre, så er det jeg kan si om hans forsknng ca dette: han programmerer masse også holder han på med noe molekyler, blant annet silikat. Å lese en artikkel i hans fagfelt vil være ekstremt krevende for meg - om ikke umulig...

Working your ass off - hairdos

I've been working my ass off analysing data since Monday morning - wanting to be as prepared as I can for Jon's visit later this week. It's tedious work: studying a plot, finding time limits, change your code, run the program, check the results, write everything down and put it into different folders - and start all over again. Repeat until dead tired.

But speaking of working my ass off, even though I work hard, I still want to feel fresh - without spending too much time or effort on it...entering the three working your ass off hairdos:

1. messy bun
2. messy braid no 1
3. messy braid no 2

The point with these three hair styles is to save time; all of them can stay for a week or so, and at the same time look fresh. You can wake up, and you're hair's already done, meaning there's one less thing to fix in the morning! They are all of the "messy" kind - meaning they are supposed to look a little like you just came out of bed, and not too "perfect" ;)

The hair should not be washed when you make these - I typically wait one or two days after the last time I washed my hair. In the picture below I hadn't washed my hair for 3 days; and also you don't need to comb your hair (I only do that like once a week, or something - before I wash it) - the best result of all these three hair dos comes without combing :)

This thing from Define is a real life saver! It's actually a mixture of dry shampoo and hairspray at the same time, so it's just perfect for making your hair look fresh and voluminous. Also it makes the hair so much easier to work with (newly washed hair is the worst; so little volume, and so straight, and so slippery).

Ok, let's start :)

The messy bun and the messy braid number 1 and 2 start with the same messy pony tail (steps 1-3):

first you need a thin rubber-band (1), then gather the hair for a pony tail at the crown of the head (I use both hands for it - 2), and wrap the rubber-band around the whole of the hair until it feels secure, not too tight (3). The combination of a pony tail that is quite loose, and placed high up on the head, makes it possible (not even uncomfortable) to sleep with :)

the messy bun is made like this: take the pony tail and twist it loosely (4), continue twisting it until it's wrapped around the rubber-band, and then stick the end back under the rubber-band (5) - it looks like this at first (6). To finish it I mostly just pull the bun, but a couple of bobby pins helps get it "down", and at the right place (7)

I often wear my hair like this when I'm giving a talk. Unless I'm super nervous and afraid I won't be taken seriously, or something, the messy bun is a good choice (of course, in combination with the right outfit ). Below you can see what it looks like when I just made it, and what it looks like after a week - I normally prefer it after a couple of days.

messy bun <3

The messy braid no 1 has the same starting point as the messy bun - the messy pony tail.

You need two rubber-bands for this one. Divide the pony tails into three parts, pull them forwards, and start braiding quite loosely (1). Secure the braid with a rubber-band (2). It first looks a little simple and dull, but then there's magic: hold the braid with one hand on each side of the braid (my other hand is busy holding the camera at this picture :/) and pull gently (3). Continue pulling at different places along the braid until you're happy with the size/volume (4), and then, finally place the braid at the right side of your head  - the back side (5)

The last hairdo is the messy braid no 2. Some extra hair spray is often a good idea on this one.

First, gather all the hair loosely on one side (1). Sometimes I use a comb to tease the hair a little bit by the roots, so it won't be as flat as it was here... Then divide the hair into three equally sized parts, and start braiding (2) - remember: not tight! Then simply braid as far down as you want - I prefer to keep a decent portion of hair not braided - secure the braid with a rubber-band, and pull the braid the same way as the messy braid number 1 (3)

Messy braid number 2 is very soft and feminine <3

(I don't have thick hair at all, but the messier it is the thicker it looks :D)

All of these three hair dos should be so loose that you can sleep comfortably with them. When you wake up you just apply some dry shampoo to the roots, and you're ready for working your ass off!

even though it's messy doesn't mean it can't be serious ;)

Also read: working your ass off dinner

10 facts about getting a PhD

I write about this work I'm doing all the time, but I have never written anything about what really constitutes a PhD, so I thought this week you'll get 10 FACTS about how to get a PhD:

1. After you get a master's degree, you can continue with a PhD
2. The actual PhD work is 3 years, but many of us also have 25% teaching so that we have the job for 4 years in total (the teaching is normally done during the time you also work on the degree)
3. To be admitted to the PhD program at the University of Oslo, you have to have quite good grades; B as an average on the courses in your master's degree, and at least B on your master thesis
4. Most of the PhD degree is research, but you also have to take one semester (in total) with courses (one of the courses is a mandatory ethics course - which sounds like a good idea, but when I took the course, I thought it wasn't a particularly good course...:/ )
5. My courses were the ethics course, one called "Communicating Scientific Research", a statistics course (STK9900), and a nuclear structure course ("advanced nuclear structure and reactions")
6. The main part of the PhD is research; you have to do stuff that is new, and the results must be of such a quality that it's published in serious, peer reviewed joournals (if your work isn't worthy publishing, well, then that's too bad for you - no PhD!)
7. The actual "thesis" is a collection of the articles you write (often it's something like three), and an "introduction" where you sort of sow everything together (which can be challenging when you feel like your articles have almost nothing in common), and write in detail about the methods you've used, and experimental setup, and theory and stuff (for example, I write about nuclear power in general, nuclear reactions that are interesting and important for nuclear reactors, simulations of nuclear fuel, and the Oslo Cyclotron Laboratory, and of course there is some kind of conclusion after the articles :) )
8. When everything is finished (your research, your article writing, your thesis writing, and your funding), the entire thing will be sent to a committee (experts in the field, of course ;) ) that will read everything carefully and decide whether the thesis is worthy of defending, or not. (If they decide it's not at all worthy, you don't get a chance to make it better, and all your work is worthless for the degree - if still you want to get a PhD then, you have to start ALL.OVER.AGAIN.)
9. After the committee says the thesis is ok, you'll get the date for the thesis defence, and two weeks before this, you get the title of you trial lecture that you have to prepare for the thesis defence. This could be almost anything (is my impression), but it's normally related to your research
10. The last part is the day of the thesis defence: it starts with the trial lecture, and if this is approved, then you get to actually defend your thesis. The defence happens later the same day; first you give a short presentation of the work, and the two opponents will ask all kinds of questions about it and discuss with you. After they've finished, people in the audience can ask questions. All of this is public. At the end of the day, after the committee (hopefully) approves of your work, you have to have a dinner with the opponents and your supervisor, and maybe your friends and family <3

I guess you can say I've finished points 1-5, and more or less number 6, and now I'm mostly working on the rest of point number 6, and 7.

not sure which one is most correct for me, but I'm leaning towards the first...:P

 

This week my supervisor from Paris, Jon, is coming, and my goals for the work with him is to make a draft of an article about prompt fission gamma rays, discuss my thesis draft, finish my article about uranium-234 and send it off to all the co-authors. Really (!) hope we/I manage all this...!

Plot of the day

Hi everybody <3

I know it's Friday, I know I didn't write anything yesterday, and I know it's time for Friday Facts... Unfortunately, I'm pretty busy today with data analysis, in addition to the fact that Anders' office mate had his PhD thesis defense today - and after that I've been busy getting Alexandra from kindergarten to my parents in Skedsom (who are taking care of her until tomorrow). Now I'm on my way to the thesis defense dinner, and suddenly this day is over :/

So, I'm sorry there won't be any facts today, but I'll fix it by the end of the weekend! For now, here's a picture of what gamma radiation from fission looks like, and a selfie from last week when it was all sunny and nice  :)

by TiMo

Last week, when I was out with girls, Anita told me you have to wear something Norwegian for your thesis defence...what about byTiMo, it's just perfect for you! I hadn't really heard about it before, but she showed me their Instagram account, and I could see why she thought I needed something (or more) from them ;)

On Saturday, when Anders and I were out, being a couple, drinking wine, and shopping for the 17th of May, we stumbled across by TiMO on Byporten (I had no idea they had a shop there), and of course I had to go in. Anita was so right, and I ended up with two dresses (Anders got me one of them, since I had trouble deciding, and he thought I looked good in both <3). The one on the pictures here was perfect for 17th of May, and luckily we had the most fantastic weather yesterday, and the other one is a dress that may actually be suitable for my thesis defence (the day will come...). I won't show you the other one yet, since if I'll use for my thesis defence, then I sort of want it to be a little bit of a surprise.

Here are some snapshots from yesterday - needless to say, I think; I love my new, beautiful, pink, flowery dress <3 

me an my dad

Today I've had a good chat with Sunniva (supervisor), about the layout I've made so far for my PhD thesis, and about some plans I have about writing another article - which will be more of a "popular" type of article. She was all for it, and she was also very enthusiastic about the work I've done with my thesis (which is not at all much, but at least I've started)!

GRATULERER MED DAGEN!

10 facts about nuclear physcis

A normal misconception about nuclear physics is that it's all about nuclear power and/or atomic bombs, and that that's it. This is far from the truth, and therefore I think 10 facts about nuclear physics is a good idea today :)

1. nuclear physics is  all about the atomic nucleus - discovered by accident by Ernest Rutherford a century ago, when he was bombarding a thin gold foil with alpha particles
2. there's so much we don't know about the heart of the atom - the nucleus; and that's why we are a lot of people around the world still spending all of our lives to study it, and try to understand the nucleus and the nuclear force that holds it all together (how does it really work, and why, and how big can a nucleus actually get?)
3. all atoms have a nucleus - nuclear physics is as much about the non-radioactive nuclei (stable gold, stable oxygen, stable iron), as the radioactive ones (thorium, uranium, plutonium) 
4. the "applied part" of my phd thesis is about nuclear power, which is of course also one part of nuclear physics - how to produce energy from big nuclei that splits in two (you get heat and you can boil water and you get steam and then you can generate electricity)
5. I don't want to lie; atomic bombs is also something that some people (not in Norway) study - knowledge about nuclear physics can be used in such a destructive way. As can most knowledge if I think of it...
6. knowledge about nuclear physics tells us about the creation of the elements - what happens in the sun and similar stars; how do they get their energy, and what happens there? In stars like our sun, elements all the way up to iron are produced
7. no elements that are heavier than iron can be produced in stars/the sun, but we know they exist  so they must have been created somehow (we know gold exist, we know thorium exist, we know there is lead - to give some examples), but not where they came from. Creation of these heavy elements is actually one of the great mysteries, and we think they are made in explosions or collisions in space. We use nuclear physics to try to figure out how and where all these elements are created.
8. one of the really nice applications of nuclear physics is radiation therapy. Atomic radiation may cause cancer, but it may also cure cancer <3
9. if you've ever had a CT scan, you've experienced applied nuclear physics. Think about it: it's kind of awesome that we can actually look inside the body, and get really great images of the inside, without even cutting it open...!
10. PET, which is short for positron electron tomography is another imaging technique in the nuclear medicine, where you actually detect gamma radiation from an electron that meets its anti particle, the positron (awesome, seriously!). And from this you can create beautiful three dimensional images of for example a tumour inside the body

Nuclear physics is seriously awesome <3<3<3

Sunniva recommends: Pandora's Promise

I'll make this short and sweet: I finally watched the documentary Pandora's Promise, where filmmaker Robert Stone profile energy experts and environmentalists who once were strongly against nuclear energy, but now embrace it. 

You should watch it too, that's all I can say.

Watch it.
And Robert Stone, you get three hearts: <3<3<3

The entire thing is on Netflix.

Thursday blues

- bad conscience (I spend too little time on my degree, and too much time procrastinating)
- procrastinating
- writing for an hour as I feel bad (my conscience bugging me since I procrastinated when I got to the University, instead of writing)
- searching the University's web pages for a template for my thesis - turns out it doesn't seem to exist (help?!), but I found myself as poster-girl on the frontpage of the phd education. Lol.

- going to the MNKOM lunch talk, to listen to all the science communication students (as I was also making some notes from an article  #multitasking)
- finding a template for master's thesises - works for now
- starting cleaning up and putting stuff I've written before into the template - looking kind of good
- writing a short introduction to my articles (that the thesis will be based on)
- thinking I know which order to put things in my thesis (which is supposed to sew the different articles together)...I've changed my mind several times, tough, so who knows what I'll end up with

And now I'm finally at home, drinking a glass of white wine and snacking on some kale chips I made (soooo good <3 ), waiting for Anders to get home again. He's currently in the air, and doesn't land at Gardermoen before midnight - so I might go to sleep before he gets here, since I'm quite sure I'll wake up the moment he opens the door here anyway :)

Hope you have great Thursday evening everyone! See you tomorrow.

Too fun!

Today hasn't been the best day, and it's totally my fault:

Or, the headache (which is finally gone) was just my own fault, but Anders left for a conference at half past four this morning, and therefore I didn't get any coffee to wake me up (he makes me coffee in bed every day <3), and it was really hard to get out of bed, and also I miss him (no, it's not the end of the world - he's coming back tomorrow night again), so those reasons are not something I'm in charge of.

But yesterday was a fun day; so fun, that I woke up with a headache this morning...:P

First part of the day was of course at the office, and I had a nice chat with Jon about the gamma radiation from fission of uranium-233, and we are quite certain that our results will turn into a nice article. He's coming here in the end of May, so I'm super motivated to do as much as I can on that analysis before he gets here! When he's here, we can also hopefully finally finish the article I've been working on for too long now - and after that I will award myself with a new bag :)

I left the office one hour earlier than normal, to go and get Alexandra in kindergarden; 'cause I had promised her to go and get her nails done: meaning we went to a salon (Star Nails at Grønland Bazar :)), and she got to choose nail polish. She LOVED it, and was so proud - I think she felt like she was a really big girl <3

Alex getting her nails done (pink nail polish and a gold diamond - her choice) at Star Nails, Grønland Basar. Just 50,- for kids, which I think is a nice prize :)

After the nail session, we met Anders who went home with Alexandra, and I went to meet some friends (Toril, Beathe, Anita, and Camilla, who I hadn't met before).

We went to place I sort of shouldn't tell you about, since it was so awesome in the sun, but I'll do it anyway; It was the Q Lounge Rooftop Bar at Grims Grenka, in Kongens gate. Fantastic location!

I had a Caesar salad that I enjoyed, and both the Prosecco and the Champagne tasted great ;) It was such a fun night, and so tasty bubbles, that I woke up with the stupid headache this morning - like I said, totally my own fault, and also totally worth it.

Btw: I just found out it's Richard Feynman's birthday today, so happy birthday to him! He would have become 98 years if he'd been alive today. A suitable way to celebrate is to read the fantastic book Surely you're joking mister Feynman - which I got as a going away from Paris present from Jon, when I left Paris and the Insititut Physique Nucléaire eight years ago.

When can we say that a nuclear power plant is safe?

Today is a beautiful Tuesday here in Oslo, and I just have to say a little bit about the safety of a nuclear power plant! I want to share an excerpt of a text written by someone that knows more about this particular theme than I do - Gianni Petrangeli, who has written the textbook Nuclear Safety (I have highlighted some of the points):

"Is it possible to conclude that a nuclear power plant is safe and, if it is, what are the conditions which make this conclusion possible?
The answer to the first question is: 'Yes, it is possible'. 

The conditions for such a conclusion to be valid are:

1. the plant has been built within a legal framework that provides for the regulation of nuclear activities and for the clear assignment of safety responsibilities
2. the plant site has been chosen by a competent organization, following the stringent safety and radiation protection criteria internationally available
3. the plant has been conceived, designed and built following the best internationally available criteria and standards important for safety and for radiation protection (with all financial means necessary to obtain an excellent result)
4. the  whole process has been submitted to the surveillance of an independent control body, capable (as far as possible) of foreseeing the possible technical licensing problems before it's too late to solve them
5. everyone involved in the construction, the control and the operation of the plant are permeated by a genuine safety culture
6. everyone involved have been trained to the best professional standards with continuing professional development schemes
7. operation is performed in connection with national and international organizations which have the aim of collecting and disseminating operating experience thoroughly and quickly
8. the plant is operated within an industrial system with a sufficient reserve of electric power 
9. working conditions for plant operators are conducive to solving problems, and the psychological atmosphere in the plant is marked by alacrity and by serenity at the same time"

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When all of these nine criteria are met (I shortened some of them, so in the original text they are more comprehensive), then you can claim that a nuclear power plant is safe.

Was Chernobyl "safe"? NO, NOT AT ALL! I know for sure that Chernobyl broke the conditions, and definitely could not be concluded to be a "safe" plant.

Was Fukushima "safe"? To be honest, I'm actually not 100% sure of how well Fukushima met these 9 criteria...
The thing about the Fukushima accident was that it was caused by a "freak event" - a natural disaster that magnitude is very hard to foresee, since you can't foresee everything. If you could, none would have died from the earth quake and tsunami that hit Japan on the 11th of March 2011, but yet they did - but if you argue that since this natural disaster did happen, and therefore nuclear power isn't safe, you're really also arguing that Japan is an unsafe country to live in...
It's not like they din't foresee tsunamis on the coast of Japan, but they didn't expect them to be as big. So what if they had foreseen a 14 meter tsunami, and they were protected against that, but then a 15 meter tsunami hit them instead? Nothing is ever (100%) safe, and at some point you have to say this is as safe as it gets. Remember: it's always a piece of cake to say after something's happened that they should have done it differently...! 
But was Fukushima as safe as it gets? Maybe not. Maybe the plant site (point 2) wasn't 100% ideal, maybe the plant didn't have sufficient reserve of electric power (point 8). Can we then conclude that nuclear power isn't safe at all? No.

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Have a fabulous, sunny day everyone! I'm going to get Alexandra in kindergarden very soon, and then we're going to get our nails done #motherdaughtertime <3

Monday

meetings, yes - plural

started reading about, and writing about the so called generation 4 reactors (the next generation of nuclear reactors, that will use their fuel more efficiently, reduce waste production, be more economically, and have even higher standards of safety and proliferation resistance)

then realised that everything that should be written about these reactors in my thesis could (and should!) probably be summarized in one or two sentences... So even though I haven't actually deleted any of it yet, that'll be the first thing I'll do tomorrow. Well, maybe I can view it as one or two HIGH QUALITY sentences :P

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something that looks very much like SUMMER has finally come to Oslo, and here are some snaps from a beautiful weekend, with friends and my little family <3

Today's office

When you're working on a PhD you never really have the day off - there's always something than needs to be done: an article you should read, an article you should comment, an abstract you should finish, an analysis you should work on, and of course, if you've done all the reading and the commenting and the analysis and everything, there's your scary thesis that you need to work on.

Today I've had a Skype meeting with Supervisor Jon, and then I went with Trine to Espresso House at Majorstuen to write.

The nice thing about a job like ours is that we can work in cozy places - like cafés.

The downside is that we don't have the day off, ever, since every day is just one day closer to the day you have to finish.

Here are two pictures of me thinking and drinking coffee and taking selfies instead of actually writing anything...:P (Love this maritime looking sweater from Pimkie, by the way <3)

Jon told me my article is starting to look quite ok now, so that's good! It means that I can continue working on these fission gamma rays. We're missing some of the gamma rays that we expect to see in our detectors, though, so we have to figure out if there's something wrong with the design of the experiment (very bad - can't be fixed), or the way we analyze the data from the experiment (more work, but can be fixed). I'm still positive that we have some very interesting results (which I of course can't tell you about yet) and that it will definitely be something we can publish in a nice journal... 

I ended up writing about one page on my thesis today. It may not sound like much, but it is much more than nothing :P 

After I came back from Espresso House I had promised Alexandra to go swimming, but the swimming pool turned out to be closed today. Luckily we found out just before we left home, so we went just outside to pick flowers instead. Alexandra picked out her own outfit; tiara, wings, silver shoes, and a pink ballerina skirt - love the style <3

Goal of the day

After yesterday's not feeling so great and mostly procrastinating-day, I think I'll try baby steps today: My goal is to find/produce the figures of these fission gamma rays (they will be far from "ready", but I'll make them as good as I can), and send them off to supervisor Jon.

Goal number two is to fix my abstract for PhD Day: I said I did it yesterday, but then there was some problem - probably that it was 100 words too long, so I need to shave it a bit, and retry. It will be done by the end of this day :)

Thanks so much to the best officemate ever, Gry, who's smiling and telling me that my thesis will actually be great, and that I've just buried my head down into some details that are not so fun, and very soon everything will feel better...<3

Crying in the cantina

Tuesday:

- procrastinate
- coffee with Anders
- crying in the cantina
- dugnad in the kindergarden
- going home
- crying in the shower
- feeling stupid
- thinking (hard) about the thesis
- submitting abstract for PhD Day

It's phdlife.

Preparing for PhD Day!

This is a blogpost there are good reasons why I shouldn't write...but I do it anyway, and if you are a PhD candidate here at the University, you should definitely keep on reading (if you're not, you should at least read the end of this blogpost):

On June 10th, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and the Science Library are arranging PhD Day, and all PhD candidates at the Faculty are invited to participate in the Poster session (aka Poster competition). There's a 10 000 NOK prize for the best poster, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to win it... However, I also really want all PhD candidates here at the Faculty to know about this day, and this poster competition; it's more fun the more we are, and it's more fun in winning if there's a real competition ;) 

Deadline for submitting an abstract for the competition is one week from now (May 9th). I'm pretty sure that if you actually try making an abstract you will be accepted to the Poster session, and that it's not like for a conference where it's normally a bigger chance of rejection than being allowed to make a poster or give talk... If your abstract is accepted, remember that your poster will be on display for students, fellow PhD candidates, professors, faculty members, and possible future employers on PhD Day 2016.

This is the third year that the Faculty and the Science Library are arranging this day, but for some reason, this is the first time I'm actually planning on participating in all that happens (Poster competition): 

The poster is supposed to be more popular than if it was for a pure, nuclear physics conference; this day is, after all, for all of us at the Faculty, and not just nuclear physicists, but that's what I think is the most fun to prepare anyway - perfect for me, in other words <3 What I've also realized is that even thought this is a popularization of my research, the story that I'm telling is still the same as when I'm going to the ND16 conference in September, and preparing this for PhD Day is actually forcing myself to really try to find good answers to these important questions: 

what is my story?
why are my results interesting?
what are the important things that we did?

I think (hope!) making this popular poster will contribute to making my talk at the conference better...:)

I've spent most of today reading about "prompt fission gamma rays", which is the topic of my poster (planning on finishing, and submitting, my abstract tomorrow). It maaaaay be that I'm calling gamma radiation for nuclear sweat … :D Don’t know with you, but I mean, if a nucleus is excited, or “hot” (as my nucleus is), it cools by emitting gamma rays - sounds like sweat to me ;)

Read EVERYTHING about PhD day HERE

Even if you're not a PhD student, and not participating in the poster competition, you should come to the Science Library this day: You can see all the posters, and hopefully learn about all the different, cool things that people are studying at our University, and you can vote for which poster should win the audience best prize (2000,-). The poster session starts at 11.

Then, from 3 it's the most awesome BBQ (food from Strøm Larsen), the bar opens, and at 3:30 it's "Smashing Physics: news from the energy frontier", by Jon Butterworth. This should be good!

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PS: My poster will be pink; I see no reason why a scientific poster couldn't be pink <3

SoMe lately

Good morning, and happy Monday everyone <3

I'm just here to say a quick hello, before going to the University; unfortunately it will be a short week this week, because of Thursday, so I have to be very effective today and tomorrow (on Wednesday I'm getting Alexandra in kindergarden and everything, so then it's just time for a normal, short day). 

The clock is ticking too fast :/ 

Maybe it's a good idea to have one, main goal this week, instead of trying to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that? If so, my main goal this week is called "prompt fission gamma rays" - in there is gathering figures for supervisor Jon, trying to get a Skype meeting with Jon (we've been trying this for weeks now :P), reading stuff, working on poster for PhD day and more... Yeah, I think one goal is good :)

I also want to share some everyday snaps from Instagram and Snapchat - I've been a little bit "better" at this lately. Especially I've been inspired by Jill Walker Retteberg (professor in digital culture at the University of Bergen), and also by Anders, on how to use Snapchat to tell little science stories - my plan is to explore these possibilities in the future (when I remeber it, and have the time, obviously), starting last week, really. So follow me on @sunnivarose on Instagram and sunnivarose on Snapchat ;)

morning bliss in Rose Castle, featuring Andrea, Anders, and Alexandra

the most beautiful pink roses ever, from Anders 

after working out - for a body that's gonna be healthy for ever :D

playing Cars Against Humanity this Saturday - hilarious!

left: physicist outfit 1 - jeans, sneakers, white shirt, and a big scarf

middle: saturdate outfit - ready for Mathallen and Champagneria with the best guy <3 (btw: I love this skirt from HM!)

right: physicist outfit 2 - beige chinos, pink top, and pink cardigan

the dress - from Ellos of all things...I should've got several 

evening shift at the cyclotron, before I got the migraine...