I think it has been blown out of proportion by the media, as was the case with avian flu. The avian flu risk to humans did not come out of the intensive farming of poultry. The source of the H5N1 variant originated in 'backyard' poultry flocks in Asia where humans live in close proximity to their birds and constantly exposed to the birds which resulted in a bug able to infect humans and birds. Both the high and low pathogenic flu viruses for all species of animals are highly prevalent in nature and the just make a big impact when they get into an intensive unit as the animals live in such close proximity to each other. My research is in poultry and involves working with intensively reared birds. From my experience the farmers hate having to have so many animals in such crowded conditions; the reason they have to do this is because of the likes of Tesco. When tesco give you a buy on get one free chicken the farmer has to foot the bill; Mr Tesco comes along and says we are doing a BOGOF next week so we are going to take 100,000 birds but only pay you for 50,000. So the farmer is forced to increase his stocking density to make ends meet. Additionally there is consumer demand for cheap meat which again means the farmer has to have an increased stocking density to make enough money to cover the heating and feed costs which are ever increasing.

Saying that I do agree that the conditions of some farms I have been on have been terrible but the industry is working hard to improve animal health and welfare. Farming needs to change that goes without saying; however this change needs to be taken on board by the consumer and the supermarkets as well as the farmers. Diseases like BSE, Swine Fever, Foot and Mouth have been around long before intensive farming. We just have more animals around now and there is a lot more movement of animals therefore diseases spread a lot easier and are more apparent when they hit. Take the 2001 FMDV outbreak, if it wasn’t for the fact the government shut down lots of local abattoirs following the BSE crisis, the virus would not have been spread around the country so rapidly and widely before it was picked up.

I go in pretty much every day... I work in a research institute and we have set core hours where we have to be in. Although if I need to work without distractions when I am writing or reading my supervisor lets me take days off and work from home. It's probably worht mentioning it to your boss and seeing what s/he says, as long as they know what you are doing then it should be fine :o)

Hey DanB.. you back on here now??

Oh no :o( Poor you that sucks

Hope you are feeling better now...

Hey guys and girls..

Not been on in a while cos of various things going on..

Hope everyone is doing OK and not too stressed/frustrated!!

Oh yeah and hope you had a good easter weekend 8-)

Like the other posts.. I've never heard of someone being culled from their PhD at the first year review stage.. Where people have left it has been their choice because they decided the PhD wasn't for them.

The feelings of inadequacy in the first year are perfectly normal and so don't feel downhearted by them. I'm in my final year and I still feel like a phoney sometimes :)

Yup go for a suit.. You can't go wrong with that

I think turning up for an interview in jeans would be frowned upon by the majority of interviewers.

Good Luck :-)

We get a variety of MSc and BSc students doing summer placements in our lab.. It would be worthwhile trying to get a place at your current uni, so ask around and see if there is anything available.

Summer placements aren't usually advertised in papers and magazines as they are short term arrangements. If you know of any labs that do work along the lines of what you do then there is no harm dropping them a line to see if they have anything available.

Good luck :)

If you are research council funded then the roberts fund could be an option; this is a pot of money given to each reseach council university for funding students for conferences etc.

Other than that are you a member of any relevant societies? I got a travel grant to go to Australia for a conference from one society I am student member of. It might be worth looking to see if there are any societies worth joining up to.

Congrats 8-)

Hey,

The TB project sounds interesting :o) Don't worry about not having the experience with the techniques. My PhD involves molecular microbiology and I had very little experience in the lab before starting it but it wasn't a problem; most of the techniques are easy enough to pick up as long at you can follow instructions :o) When we get undergrad or masters students in our lab we don't expect them to know exactly what they are doing as they are here to learn so it's not a problem. Like the other posts have said just be straight with the project leader and see what they say.

Job prospects can be a tricky one. After uni I wanted to go into research in the field of infectious diseases/immunology yet all the jobs I was suited to were just low level lab tech jobs and it soon became apparent that to do any of the jobs that I liked the sound of I would need a PhD. Have you considered doing a PhD as firstly doing that would address your need for experience as you get 3-4 years lab experience and you also get a PhD which leaves you in good stead for futher employment :o)

There have been questions like this before so you might be able to search to get more answers.

But basically, you will probably be asked some questions regarding your understanding of what the project involves but i wouldn't imagine it to be too intense. so just make sure that you more or less understand everything that is in the project proposal. They will then ask you things about your past experience and background. But in my experience they will be more interested in your character and motivation for doing a PhD. They will also want to ensure that you know what you are getting yourself into 8-)

Good luck with your interview (up)

I'm guessing that you realised the mistake then contacted them about it rather than just going ahead and using your husband's card to get the ticket from the machine?

I'm not a lawyer but you'd think that if the name you used doesn't match the card details then they shouldn't be able to process the card irrespective of the small print regarding using payment with the passenger's name on it. The fact is they have processed incorrect card details which I am sure the credit card company would want to know about as ultimately the ticket provider has shown that they don't check card details properly! I would contact the credit card company and tell them what has happened and they should be able to stop the payment going through (if it is recent) or perhaps take the payment back as they can do that when you see something that isn't right on your bank/credit card statement.

Basically what they have done is shown that someone could go and use someone else's credit card then use a false name etc. to purchase a train ticket. No wonder it is so easy for these fraudsters to get away with it!

There is also the passenger focus organisation who might be able to help http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk

It could be bunnies?

I feel your pain.. I am in the final stages of my PhD with the thesis mountain to tackle! I feel the main thing to remember is that you are only human, and so you are bound to have days when you can't stick to your schedule. Don't beat yourself up if you miss a day, or don't get as much accomplished as you wanted to do on a particular day.. you will have super productive days where you can make up the deficit :)

I also can't stick to a schedule either. I used to put together a revision timetable for exams but on some days I wouldn't want to revise that particular topic so just revise something different then totally ignore the timetable from then on! When I am writing stuff I find it easier to break it all up into little chunks so that I could have a thousand or so words to write on a particular section. It is so much easier to think 'I have 1,000 words to write on this bit' than thinking 'ARGH I have a 10,000 word chapter to write'. Plus if you break it up into sections you can easily move onto another part if you feel like you are getting nowhere on that day..

Good luck with it! 8-)(up)