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a science blog: intersectional science, disability discussion, playing with plants

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the radical botanical is a science communication blog: giving a voice to intersectional scientists, sharing plant science, and discussing disability. created and curated by phd student emily may armstrong.

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I've been on holiday to #australia! I had an amazing two weeks enjoying sand sea and sun in #melbourne with one of my best friends @elise_jansson (who is a powerhouse of a graphic designer). I learnt to surf, explored a new city, saw wild dolphins, roadtripped down great ocean road, sat on a load of rooftops, saw so many cool plants, and ate my weight in vegan food. I'm raring to get back into the lab and tackle my sequencing data analysis, screen plants for GFP localisation, and arrange my next trip down to @universityofwarwick for FACS at the school of biosciences. Taking a proper holiday as often as you can afford (or even just a week off the lab) is one of the most important things you can do for your mental health and workload management as you reach the final years of your PhD, trust me! As I get stuck back into lab work, please keep your eyes out for more posts! I've also just finished an article for @glasgowgist so I'll finally be updating my website again as I find more creative energy. What have you done recently to keep yourself motivated with lab work? #genetics #biology #resesrch #holiday #researchbreak #plantscience #plants #instaplant #biologicalscience #travel #holiday #stkilda #beach #surf

hi guys! I know it's been forever since I last put out any useful content- truth be told I've been struggling with a lot of health stuff and managing my PhD workload, so I took a bit of extra stress off by neglecting this page a bit. I'm at an exciting crossroads in my PhD right now, I could go down so many different paths and it's pretty overwhelming. Mostly just concentrating on copy editing work for a magazine instead of writing my own stuff, but hopefully I'll be back into the swing of it soon (I've got loads of ideas, just no time!) Hope you're all keeping well - and enjoy the view from my living room window on Monday 💕🌱 #biology #genetics #research #outreach #disabled #stem #plant #botany

A colleagues "positive" #cyanobacteria culture #biology #genetics #transgenic #glasgow #science #communication #outreach #scicomm

having an amazing time in Berlin & no, I don't want to come home. taking three weeks 1/2 holiday was the best move for my mental health. I took two weeks where I just went in for two hours a day to do maintenance protocols, like floral dipping or cloning or harvesting plant material - nothing that took over 3h a day. I'm now spending the last week in Berlin with some of my closest friends being silly, exploring, relaxing + nothing thinking about my phd at all. here are a few photos I've taken, I've fallen out of photography the past few months but I'm excited to be motivated enough to have a go again! 🇩🇪🌿💕💫🤘

same genotype, same media bottle, same pack of plates, same seed sterilisation solution, but the plants on the left hand side didn't produce any lateral (or side) roots at all. I have no idea either - even the media weights are the same. I grow plants in #sterile conditions when I need to use them for molecular work, like #RNA, #DNA and cloning. Back in the lab after two weeks off, but going to #Berlin next week - if you have any suggestions on what to do - let me know! 🌱🌿🇩🇪 • • #plantscience #plant #plantbiology #biology #sterile #genetics #instaplant #instabiology #phd #postgrad #scicomm #outreach #communication #STEM

the past two months in the lab have been non-stop! I've been performing #chromatin immunoprecipitation on three different #arabidopsis lines for qPCRs to see how much #DNA is bound to a specific #histone modification. I've also been training a technician to help with a very complicated protocol called INTACT (or isolation of nuclei tagged in specific cell types). This protocol allows recovery of nuclei (so I can get at the chromatin inside) with a magnet system. my nuclei (shown here in blue using a nuclear stain in a confocal microscope) are covered in biotin, which has a very strong affinity for strepdavidin. the black beads are coated in strepdavidin and are magnetic. when we pass the bead-bound nuclei through a magnet, we collect them and can check that our purification has been successful. you can check our magnetic rack set up in the second photo. it's a tough protocol - we have to do everything at 4°C! I've also successfully supervised my 7th & 8th MSc students through their final lab project - it's been a busy summer! #biology #genetics #plants #chip #epigenetics #plantscience #instascience #plantbiology #stressbiology #outreach #scicomm #PCR #science #PhD #womeninSTEM #disabledandSTEM #confocal #DAPI #microscopy

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