About Jenny
By day: cell biologist at UCL. By night: novelist, broadcaster, science writer, sci-lit-art pundit, blogger and Editor of LabLit.com. I blog about my life in science, not the facts and figures.
Category Archives: Silliness
In which I powder my nose
It’s rather disconcerting to enter a stall in a public lavatory, sit down – and see your own name staring back at you on the inner door advertising. Does this mean I’ve really hit the big-time? /Ducks in preparation for … Continue reading
Posted in LabLit, Silliness, Writing
5 Comments
In which they don’t make ’em like they used to
One of the annoying things about getting old is resenting change. So when you’re a scientist, it doesn’t help that the lab environment is one of the most mutable places on earth. New technology emerges all the time, and our … Continue reading
Posted in Silliness, The profession of science
11 Comments
In which necessity’s a MoFo
Reality check and status update: I’m still a lab head, and I’m still poor. But after knocking around in this new position for nearly three months, I have to admit that it’s rather good fun being poor. When you lack … Continue reading
Posted in Scientific method, Silliness
16 Comments
In which the light bulb’s on the other foot
Following on from a discussion about light bulb changing jokes, I was bustling around my lab this morning, getting ready to cryogenically preserve some backups of my new bladder epithelial cell line. I was all set: I’d ordered the Mr … Continue reading
In which we are the last man standing
You know it’s the last day before Christmas break when: 1. All of the communal microscopes are free, so you can run lots of parallel experiments. 2. Whenever you enter a room or corridor, the automatic lights flicker on. 3. … Continue reading
Posted in Silliness, The profession of science
4 Comments
In which we down a few
It seems like only yesterday that Nature Network, in what struck me as a bizarre fit of misplaced paranoia and pettiness, locked some of its most popular bloggers out of their own sites, preventing them from posting their own farewell … Continue reading
Posted in Silliness
14 Comments
In which signaling takes the cake
Champagne in plastic cups after a successful PhD viva is still a classic, but you don’t often see labmates getting together to recreate one of your prettiest thesis figures in cake format. Congratulations, James!
Posted in Silliness, The profession of science
9 Comments
In which my vibration woes deepen
The plot thickens. For those of you who have been dangling in urgent uncertainty, I can report that the vibration problem in our incubator has not gone away. I thought I’d get around it by using smaller, non-round vessels, such … Continue reading
Posted in Silliness, The profession of science
17 Comments
In which the truth is out there
Crop circles are so last century. In our lab, HeLa cell circles are all the rage: The tissue culture incubator is currently plagued – not with aliens, but a random vibration or resonance that causes our cells to sporadically seed … Continue reading
Posted in Scientific method, Silliness
45 Comments
In which I confront a domestic mystery
Some late nights in the lab, that vending machine chocolate bar just can’t fill the snack hole that only a truly grueling experiment can induce. You need something hot, salty and preferably dripping with fat. It’s no surprise, then, that … Continue reading
Posted in Domestic bliss, Nostalgia, Scientific method, Silliness
52 Comments
