Terrific Tokyo!

I'm just back from a conference in Kyoto, which was excellent. Japan is a beautiful country, we were lucky enough to visit both Kyoto & Tokyo, with Kyoto being brilliant for culture & sight seeing, and Tokyo amazing for shopping & just buzzing with activity. Every single woman in Japan was so stylish, whether we saw them on the subway, in Starbucks or just walking down the street, they had the most beautiful, trendy outfits, and gave me a lot of inspiration!

On our first day in Tokyo, we ventured down to Harajuku in the Shinjuku district (the entrance to one of the streets is shown above - so cool!). It was a shopaholics dream! So many shops with gorgeous things, my favourite was a tiny place called Culture Medium which stocked mostly dresses & tops that can be worn both for work & nights out. Some items were really cheap, others worked out at a little less than what you'd pay for them on the Irish High Street, but they were worth it; brilliant quality & super flattering shapes. Now if only I could find a stockist for them in Dublin!

Where's the most exotic place that you've bought clothes?

Rachel xxx

Summer Conferences, an excuse for a Whole New Wardrobe?!

I recently attended a conference in the South of Italy, which is such a beautiful place & obviously has a warmer climate than dreary old Dublin! And I'm going to Japan soon, which is going to be significantly warmer than Ireland too. So this posed a bit of a wardrobe problem for me...all of my conference type clothes are wintery & dark, as I can get away with them all year round in Ireland. But for a warm climate, these heavy, lined trousers & long sleeve black/grey caridgans I have just won't cut it. So I decided to invest in some key pieces that will translate from conference to night out, and also to recycle some of the clothes I already have in my wardrobe, that I once would never have considered to be suitable to wear to work or work based events!

Zara have the most amazing work wear tops & skirts that can also be worn out at the weekend. Similarly, Topshop, ASOS and FCUK all have minimal pieces that aren't too revealing or eye catching, and so can double up as dressy/casual Sunday best, or office/meeting attire. Just change smart, skinny leg trousers for skinny jeans, or a blouse/shirt for a sheer loose vest, and you have a recycled work outfit that is suitable for many occasions! Rachel Bilson looks gorgeous in a white shirt & navy trousers that can be worn both at meetings, and also while shopping (right).

Now if only my feet didn't hurt so much, I'd so wear my 5 inch Aldo heels in the lab... ;)

Rachel xxx

Presentation Station

Part of the job as a scientist, be it an undergrad, postgrad or employee, is presenting your work, either to members of your lab group, or others in your field of research at conferences. This can be quite a daunting and nerve-wracking experience, especially when it comes to question time afterwards. Like everything in life, presentations get easier with experience and practice, but pangs of nerves will always get you; the most important thing is to be familiar with what you're saying and to try to relax-you will know your work better than anyone, and if there is a tricky question, there's always an answer to it. Here are my tips for making presentations as smooth and enjoyable as possible.

1. Less text-more figures. When first putting slides together, the first inclination is to write up all the text, so you know what you're going to say, and the audience can read along with you. This makes sense, but it is quite counter productive, as the best presentations are the naturally flowing ones that talk around figures and results and don't just involve reading sentences from a slide. Write notes about what you want to say & put key words and phrases on the slides to emphasise what you're discussing.

2. Use animation. If you have several panels or sentences on one slide, it can be distracting for the viewer to see everything at once, and it makes it harder for you to talk through it while trying to remain clear and understandable. Use fade in animations, let one item appear at a time, talk about it, then the next item should appear. This makes your job much easier and also helps to remind you in which order you should be discussing things.

3. Reminder tricks. This is a handy one if there's a lot of data on a particular slide, or if you have one 'hit home phrase or sentence' that's difficult to remember. Arrows that appear before you go onto the next slide are a great way of pointing out the key finding on a slide and can be a fail-safe way of remembering that key point that's really going to sell your results.

4. Practice! The more you go through your presentation out loud, the more comfortable you become with it. Practice with your fellow PhD students or members of the lab group, especially if you have a meeting with your supervisor coming up. If the first time you go through it is in front of your boss then you're bound to get tongue tied (speaking from experience here) so go into an empty office or presentation room with the lab gang and get familiar with it.

5. Have certain answers prepared. Ask others in the lab or your supervisor for potential questions. It's hard to predict what will be asked, it can be something specific and technical, or something much more broad, dealing with translational or physiological significance. You will know the answers to these questions, just keep your mind clear and answer as succinctly as possible; keep everything short and on point. If something comes up that you're not sure of then the old faithful 'that's a very interesting point, and something we hope to look at in the future, however, we have no data on this particular aspect at the moment' is always a handy last minute save!

6. Relax & enjoy it. If you've been selected to speak at a conference, it is a fantastic achievement and speaks highly of your work. Speaking in public is very scary, but often the thought of it is a lot worse than the oral itself; most people say that after the first slide you get into a rhythm and it goes by smoothly. Nerves can also be a good thing, the adrenaline rush makes sure you're awake and on the ball. We all look forward to the day when there are no nerves before a presentation, in my case I can't see that happening until I'm at least 40 though!

These tips don't just apply for science, no matter what the topic, good presenting is easy to achieve and is a fantastic skill to have in all career paths.

If anyone has other tips or advice please feel free to share.

Rachel xxx

Power Dressing/Dresses

Being a scientist means working in a lab for most of the day and therefore wearing a labcoat. So not only is it a bit pointless wearing nice outfits, it's also important to make sure what you're wearing is comfortable, as you need to be free to stretch from the incubator to the fridge etc.

However, there are times when us science girls can embrace our stylish sides, such as presentations, meetings and conferences (and those reading & writing only days). Recently, I found some lovely dresses in Dunnes (www.dunnesstores.ie) that were really reasonably priced (between €18-€25) and perfect for work. They're to the knee or below the knee shift dresses available in a range of colours and all with fabulous shoulder details-see the pics below. The shape of each is super flattering and the high neckline makes them sophisticated yet still slightly sexy. I can't wait to wear them at a conference this weekend, and I'm hoping they can double up for a few nights out coming up to Christmas!

Other high street shops that stock nice work wear lines include New Look, Penney's, Zara & Oasis. Opaque tights, suede wedges or embellished pumps, and light cardigans/long sheer waistcoats finish the look nicely.

Rachel xxx

Conference Abstracts

It's that time of year again when abstract deadlines are approaching. Writing abstracts is quite tricky, it can be hard to get your point across, especially when there's a crazy limit of something like 250 words. The most important advice I was given is to know your audience. Depending on who will be reading or assessing the abstract will define the structure and tone of it. For example, if it's a medical conference, then you should discuss the translational significance of your findings in the conclusions section. If it's a more basic science audience, then detailed methods, statistical analyses and definitive scientific conclusions are vital.

Most abstract submission guidelines advise breaking the main body of text into several sections; usually introduction, methods, results and conclusions. Each of these parts is just as important as the next, concise sentences describing exactly what you did, why you did it, and what the results mean are the basic requirements for a good abstract. Get another PhD student to read through it to make sure it flows before sending to your boss for correction. And don't be disheartened if they change or re-organise most of it, abstract writing is an art that comes with time and practice.

Conferences are fantastic for networking, appreciating the field you're woring in, and also to remind you that there's life in a science career outside of the lab/bench (which is extremely important when those experiments aren't working)! I've been so fortunate to travel to some amazing places over the past few years thanks to accepted abstracts and posters/presentations, it makes slaving away at all hours over a tube, dish or apparatus seem worthwhile.

Rachel xxx