Hopefully everyone managed to enjoy the sunshine and eat some tasty treats this Easter weekend! Even though it wasn’t quite the same as the bank holidays we are used to, it was nice to take a moment to reflect and appreciate the things we are thankful for. Anyway, we have found ourselves at another Friday morning so here is the next instalment in the PhD Playlist series.
Each week we shine the spotlight on a student at the Norwich Research Park and ask them to share three songs in a desert island disc-style game; one song that captures their project (expect some very tenuous links), one song that captures their life as a PhD student and a final motivational song, because – let’s face it – we all need it.
This time, Alicia Russell, Mol Micro’s senior female PhD student and the queen of RiPPs, is sharing her tunes with us. (RiPPs are Ribosomally Synthesised and Post-Translationally Modified Peptides, really cool natural products which Alicia is an expert in finding!)
I’m in the final year of my PhD in molecular microbiology, researching natural products produced by Streptomyces– I essentially play around with bacteria, DNA and mass spec machines to discover interesting new compounds.
I never thought I’d end up writing my PhD thesis during a pandemic and national lockdown, but music is one thing that’s keeping me sane right now! I’ve even had time to pick up my guitar for the first time in ages 🙂
Twitter: @alisia_russell
The Project Song – Enter sandman, Metallica
I struggled to think of a song that represents RiPP discovery, so this is a very tenuous link! Lots of microbiology research involves growing overnight cultures, so this song is a tribute to all the times I tuck my precious bacteria into the incubator, and hope they grow properly and aren’t contaminated the next morning!
‘Tuck you in, warm within, Keep you free from sin’
More generally this song can also represent all the nightmares you have about your research going horribly wrong, and whether or not you remembered to switch something off properly before you left the lab…
The PhD Life Song – Questions and answers, Biffy Clyro
I think this song can represent most people’s PhD experience- soo many questions and not quite so many answers. Even when you get to final year you still won’t have all the answers. And probably even more questions…
Biffy is also one of my faves.
The Motivational Song – Motivation, Sum 41
Chosen partly because it’s literally called motivation, but it’s also a great song. I think anything from this ‘90s/00s punk/rock era makes a great motivational anthem, especially for us ‘90s kids!
‘Motivation such an aggravation’
‘Accusations don’t know how to take them’
‘Inspiration getting hard to fake it’
‘Concentration never hard to break it’
‘Situation never what you want it to be’
Head over to Spotify to step into the archives of the PhD playlist and discover some proper bops to get you motivated for a day at the desk (….or elsewhere). Thanks Alicia for your additions!
The PhD playlist is the brainchild of Millie Stanton (follow her on twitter @milliestanton for some sweet science and music masterpieces) and has been continued by Melissa Davie (follow me @melissajd_ for very irregular retweets of cute dogs and natural products science).
Hit me up if you want to be featured! melissa.davie@jic.ac.uk