Reading and Stuff

Guess what i'm reading?
Harry Potter!
I'm finally reading the books, I feel really crazy for not starting before, but I have tried. When I got Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, when I was eight, I tried so many times to read it but never got past the first chapter. Now I can kind of proudly say i've finished it and I've started the second book :). The films are very close to the first couple books but there are little extra magic bits in the book that don't happen in the film, like an extra room to reach Voldemort and the Philosopher's Stone and Garden Gnomes in the Weasley's Garden. It's really fun.
I have seen all the films though, I watched the final part of the Deathly Hallows yesterday and it was really good, much better than I thought it would be. For the past four Harry Potter films I've never really understood what has been going on, but I actually enjoyed the last one! That's another reason why I want to read the books, the films are exciting and I'm pretty sure the books will be better and make the films easier to understand...

This is the only book in the series I own,  my Physics buddy
has kindly lent me the next two ;).

So, it's the summer holidays now. I think i'm too tired and worn out to appreciate it but hopefully after a little break I'll be so happy and desperate to never go to school again!
As well as reading the Harry Potter books over the holiday I've got to read some Biology books. I've just finished Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, it was interesting because it went against a lot of stuff that has been in the media, and has revealed shocking stuff about how scientists have manipulated data to get a positive result to support their ideas, when there obviously wasn't. I'm glad to have finally finished it though, it took a lot of concentration, like Bill Brysons book, but I can actually say i've finished this one :). I've got to read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond now, which looks the same size as Bad Science but it's so much heavier, i'm scared to start it!

Kent

Yes, another open day!

I thought after going to four university open days they would start getting a little boring and basically be the same, but Kent was absolutely amazing! The accommodation was the best so far, it was so clean, so modern and there wasn't a bad thing about it. Even the shared bathroom was lovely! I think it was because they built into a little house/cottage so it was more homely and cosy, rather than there just being a large hall with a few rooms. However, the flats were lovely too! And the kitchen was three times bigger than the one at the houses. It may have been because those rooms were more expensive, as they were en suite.

The labs were nice too, they were open and large. But most of them have been to be honest. I didn't really like UEA though, they were more claustrophobic, still big though.

The grounds were amazing too. nothing like a university, more like a village. There was a giant hill (which meant it was always windy :/) that lead to Canterbury and you could see the Cathedral from there. It was lovely. I think its a 10 minute walk down the hill into Canterbury, so that means a 30 minute walk back up. Might have to get the bus, they wouldn't stop saying how it comes every 8-10 mins, I was a little suspicious.

Pretty sure it looked better in real life...

The Biology course here also has a year in industry.  That's the main reason why I wanted to go to Bath but I can go to Kent now! With Kent you have to arrange the work experience yourself, setting up interviews etc., but at Bath they sort it for you. I suppose the experience of applying to get a job is good, but I'd be so worried about not getting a placement :/.

Kent is a campus university so there's shops on site, but there's also a cinema, theatre, nightclub and a job shop. Loads of comedians went there and are going to go there to perform, like Omid Djalili and Dom Joly, who I love! The cinema is apparently cheap for the students too, which is great, but the films come out there about a month after their release so that could be annoying... The Job Shop sounds awesome. They help the students get jobs and have a list of employers who are good and bad to make sure we get a good job. That could come in handy :).

I have to say Kent is now my first choice. It was the first university I seriously considered and definitely the best I've seen so far.

Heartbeat

Yesterday I completely forgot to mention something amazing that I saw at UEA. There was a little demonstration about birds, I think it was about how the heart is so important and how it develops in the embryo, and there were open eggs under the microscopes. There weren't any properly developed birds, just a web of blood vessels and you could see the heart beating! It was absolutely amazing! It was so small but you could see it with out the microscope too. It was like a little miracle for me, I just thought it was to most amazing thing i'd ever seen :).

UEA

Definitely the coolest named university i've been to so far. I wasn't sure about UEA though, it was at the bottom of my list but going today I realised how much better it actually is!

We went to a Biology talk first, and they kept calling the subject Bio, which I thought was cool because I do that, and then after talking about the course they started to talk about the research they've been doing in the university. It was really interesting. First, they talked about a new drug that could be used to cure a type of skin cancer. They did this by incubating loads of Tadpoles, and in separate samples, place each tadpole into a different chemical solution. They found that one type of chemical, leflunomide, which is in a drug for Rheumatoid Arthritis, could help cure melanoma skin cancer. Trials are being carried out now. There was also more research into a chemical called dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP). It's produced by sea creatures, like phytoplankton and other single celled organisms. I think it was a by-product of some reaction. Anyway, someone wanted to know what happened to it and how the sulphur in the DMSP was released back into the environment. They discovered that a certain gene in a bacterium broke down the DMSP into dimethyl sulfide (DMS). This means the sulphur is released which causes the 'seaside smell'. I thought this was pretty cool, I didn't ever think about what made the seaside smell like the seaside, I suppose I just assumed that was what a lot of salty water smelt like. DMS also helps animals find food, as it attracts them towards the creatures that produce it, it also makes clouds which means more sunlight is reflected thus cooling the Earth. DMS is also found in small quantities in Sweetcorn and in larger quantities in Cabbage, which is why cabbage doesn't smell too nice... And another research project was into getting electricity from bacteria! There are some bacteria that undergo anaerobic reactions and they need to get rid of the negative charge from this reaction so they have little 'wires' coming out from their body made from metal complexes. They then release the charge into the rock. Scientists are trying to find a way to harness this energy.

I wish I had some more diagrams or pictures to explain this, because reading is just boring and with pictures you could see what I meant :P. They had some good ones on the presentation but I can't find any on the website...

After the talk we went to the labs. There were nice and really big. They had just been refurbished so they had big screens above each work station. I had a go with a pipette. It was so cool, and the measurements were tiny. I had to put some dye in this little gap on a machine to separate DNA. Even though not all the dye went in the right place, i'd say I did pretty well for my first go ;).

It's so big for such tiny measurements!

Then I ate lunch. We sat in 'The Square' and we watched a band setting up. It was pretty cool, one member had a green mohican and played the trumpet, and someone else played the Saxophone - he was really good! They still hadn't finished by the time we'd finished but we walked past later and they sounded good.

The Square. It looks so nice when it's so sunny.

We wanted to see accommodation next and so we walked over to the buildings but everyone who was entering was in a tour group so we just joined onto a group as they entered. The guy looked at us weirdly though, I don't think he remembered us being there at the start but he didn't say anything... The accommodation was okay, it seemed a little cramped with not a lot of space to put your stuff, but that could have been because the wardrobes were built into the walls, rather than being free standing and looking very big. I liked the shared rooms, I didn't think i'd want to share but they were very spacious and had sort of separated sleeping places for each person so it wouldn't have been too bad. Plus it was much cheaper! The outside of the buildings weren't very attractive, they were just concrete and old looking but some were so close to the Biology labs I would only need ten minutes to wake up and get ready and make it to the labs!

We also went the library. We got lost. Who names floors 2, 1, 0, 01 and 02. We kept going back to the map and the shelves and couldn't find the Biology books! I think I preferred Bath library though, it was so big and friendly.

I still have two more Universities to visit: Kent and Queen Mary's. It's going to be so hard to choose which will be my first choice!

P.s. Last night I had a horrible dream. It was results day and I did so badly! I got an E in ICT which, to be honest, I wasn't that worried about, but I swear I revised for it. Then I got a D in Biology and I was so scared and worried and upset. I need an A :/. And I got a C in Psychology and Maths, which I need B's in. I was so upset, and everyone around me had done so well. I think I spent the rest of my dream crying, until I had to stop the alien invasion... I forgot the dream when I woke up but a few minutes later I suddenly remembered, and I had a wave of all the emotions I had in my dream, as well as relief that my dream hadn't actually happened in real life! Oh, I really don't want results day to come, but I kind of do because I don't want to keep worrying about what I got. I don't recommend dreaming about results!

P.p.s. My last post showed the London Eye with a missing capsule. I think that's capsule No. 13. That explains why it's missing...