sophster

It sounds like you like everything! Maybe you should go along to a few general university open days and chat to admissions tutors in all the areas you are interested in. Don't listen too much to what people say to you (they're usually pushing their own agendas and quite biased). Have you looked at the entry requirements for degree programmes like physics to see if it's possible to do without having maths A level? Or is it possible for you to take AS maths this coming academic year (you can always do it as an evening class if it clashes in your school timetable).

Sounds like generally irritated and inflamed nose lining then - do you take any nasal sprays for your hayfever? You could try moving house. I've just realised I don't think I've had any nosebleeds since I've lived in Yorkshire. I used to get them all the time living down South.

I used to get seriously bad and frequent nosebleeds in my undergrad days. They were mostly brought on by stress and hot weather. Also this year the pollen seems to be extra irritiating. It's possible that a combination of the hot weather and pollen inflaming the lining of your nose will bring on a nosebleed.

Heh heh. Go with the marmite! Just imagine of the taste of the warm black saltiness with the gooey cheese between a couple of slices of fat white bread. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

See that is why peanut butter is the wrongest thing ever. It doesn't even look like healthy poo.

Ick ick ick Peanut butter is possibly the most horrid food in the world. There is just something about it (possibly it's similar look to poo!) that makes me squick.

Cornflakes and peanut butter together? That sounds mightily sick and wrong.

TOAST! Toast with butter, toast with jam, toast with marmite, toast dripping with butter and marmite, toast with nutella, cheese on toast, cheese toastie sandwiches, cheese and ham toasties, cheese and marmite toasties, cheese and chillie sauce toasties. Mmmmm. I think I have a bit of carb craving. Other comfort foods include anything chocolate (obviously) and cake. I love cake. Mmmmmm.

I wish I'd had someone like you to point out stuff like that before I signed up to do a PhD scicop. I think there is a definite tendency, in the UK at least, to railroad good undergrads into doing a PhD after they graduate - afterall consider how biased your lecturers are. Doing a PhD is really, really hard work. Not just thinking hard, but it's emotionally hard, or can be if you aren't in a really good and supportive research lab. I would really strongly recommend anyone who wants to do a PhD to take at least a couple of years out and get used to working in a lab/research environment and be 110% sure that they are doing a PhD in an area they are really interested and passionate about. Doing a PhD just because it's something to do/might improve your career prospects (essentially my reasoning) will not get you through it. Also if it's just techniques which you are interested in have a look at something like an MSc/MRes where you get to experience lots of different experimental techniques (I managed to learn more experimental skills in a 1 year MRes than in 4 years as a PhD student).

I got to make asprin at a college open day when I was 16 which was quite easy and fun. It's good as it's quite simple and also a product that everyone is familiar with and can relate to.

I don't want to put you off doing a PhD but I'd recommend you have a look at this, the most honest description of what doing a PhD is like I've ever seen. http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/staffpages/richardb/PhDtalk.html Still forewarned is forearmed or something. Ooh one last thing (for now) is make sure you do a PhD in a department that got a 5 in the last RAE grading.

Gosh, lots to say about your post and first of all Good Luck finding something. I think the first thing is that don't pay too much attention to the specific title of the PhD projects you see advertised. Virtually everyone I know doing a bioscience PhD has had to change the title of their projects from the one they started out with! My PhD was meant to be totally molecular biology led and using phage display techiques but I've ended up with a very, very different thesis to write up which doesn't mention phage display at all (although I'm quite an extreme case of how much projects can change!) Make sure that you get a project in a lab where there is at least one other person who will be using the same techniques as you. Doing a PhD is an extremely hard, lonely and difficult time. Also check stuff like your potential supervisor has a good publication record and well equipped lab (things like size of the lab/equipment can be checked out when you go for interview). If you are interested in the techniques side of things then you might want to look into one of the 4 year PhDs (there are a few Wellcome trust funded 4 year PhDs that are quite competitive but very well regarded as they provide you with lots of extra training). Alternatively have you looked into doing something like an MRes which would be a chance to really consolidate your practical skills and get more of an idea about which techniques and areas you are really interested in.

Doh. That advert is for guiness. The carlsberg ads are all the pub football match with loads of old England footballers like Jack Charlton. With the tagline "carlsberg don't do pub football teams. But if they did they would probably be the best in the world"

I love the ice skating robot advert. I heard that the people who did those citroen adverts are doing a new Transformers film. No idea if this is actually true or not.

A hobby I personally am not ashamed about (although most of my friends and family are when I start going on about it) is morris dancing. Although I've not been able to do it much since I moved to an area of the country that only lets women clog dance

So it would be more of a question/answer type of arrangement, Atheist? Personally I kind of like the idea of chat/discussion about things. Especially as I think career issues cover far more than "how I do to become an engineer/lab scientist etc". like at the moment I'd quite like to start a thread to get an idea of how many women are working in a scientific environment which I don't think fits particularly well with any of the areas on here at the moment.

What's WiSci and how could I make use of it Atheist? I think turning the education into an Education and Careers section would work though. After all many careers rely on a certain educational background.

This is a pretty wide ranging site but I can't help but notice there isn't really a general section for careers discussion. I know careers can be discussed in certain specific topic sections but I thought it would be handy if there was a general area for careers type chat and queries. What does anyone else think?

Oooops. Just got back into the writing up (really running out of time now) although I'm totally ready to give up as Endnote is totally doing my head in - it is continually crashing word and refusing to import citations into my text. I can't think of a worse programme (apart from possibly GPES but that's another matter). Arrgggggghhhhhhhhh!

A PhD seems to be the norm for 'pure science' type jobs. A bachelors or masters will get you non-science graduate jobs and certain masters courses can be done to get into certain careers (sounds like chem eng fits this, also MSc in water analysis and that type of thing). I'd still say go for an MSc in physics if it interests you and there is funding. IMO interest in the area should always be the main motivation for doing a course. Good luck finding something you want to do.

As far as finding out about jobs for physicists your best bet is to probably head down to your university careers centre and see what sort of resources they have. My experience of careers centres are that the actual advisors tend to be a bit rubbish but they can usually point you in the direction of useful pamphlets, resources and websites that deal with careers for people with various degrees. Like I said check out New Scientist magazine, also the National Physical Labs down in West London are a pretty big employer for people with physics degrees http://www.npl.co.uk or look at http://www.iop.org which should also have some guidance for careers in physics. I'm afraid my career seems to be heading off into a distinctly academic direction so I can't really help with advice about non-science jobs for physicists.

I think you misunderstood me Insane. I meant if you want a career as a physicist there aren't so many opportunities (physics departments seem to be filled with a lot of non-physicists from what I can tell. I just got a job in an academic physics department and all my degrees are from biology faculties ) I don't really know anything about the chem eng field I'm afraid.

I'd say don't do the Chem Eng course unless it interests you. Are there not any Chem Eng jobs you can do with a BEng/BSc to sort of try it out and go back and do a masters (if necessary) if it still interests you. Physics is cool but I'm not sure there are that many jobs for straight physicsts. I suppose the best thing is to look and see what areas in chem/physics that interest you have the most funding and career prospects. New Scientist is a pretty good place to start looking I reckon.

No way. Cricket is the best sport on earth. One game can last 5 full days and still end in a draw!

I am fed up with the world cup already and England have only played one game. Mind you if they play like they did today (especially in the second half) I can't see them staying in the competition very long.