Thursday, February 17, 2011

Publishing Woes

Remember the manuscript I was discussing about 9 months ago?  Well, it still hasn't been published.  On the plus side, I've learned a lot about scientific writing in the process and am now the first listed author on the paper!!

It's now been to: Nature Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Circulation Research, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (Blue Journal), and American Journal of Respiratory Cellular and Molecular Biology (Red Journal).  The folks at the Blue Journal also publish the Red Journal and were helpful enough to suggest that we should send it there instead.  We got reviewed by the Red Journal.  They asked us to reorganize and resubmit the manuscript, which I did today.  Hopefully v5.2 is the one that gets published.

I also realized that if I had been pregnant at the start of this submission process (April 2010), I would have a 2-month old right now.

Monday, February 14, 2011

New Publication

A review article I helped write is now available in Comprehensive Physiology.

So far, that's two publications available and one more in review.  Not a bad count for a PhD!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Soap Making, 101

Today, I tried making my own soap.  I started with bases, fragrance oils, and colors from Peak Candle Supplies.  The molds are both Wilton molds - one is a snowflake candy mold and the other is a mini brownie mold.  The silicone molds make it really easy to get the finished soap out.

Here are the finished soaps!  I think I could have used more coloring, but the scent is fantastic!!


Square: mango peach salsa cocoa butter soap.  Snowflake: grapefruit goat's milk soap.

Recipes after the break.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Trying to Write a Dissertation

I'm at the stage in my PhD where I am wrapping up my research and starting to write my dissertation.  More accurately, I should have already had a lot more written than I currently do.  Well, there's nothing to do now but press forward and try to get it done quickly.

Writing a dissertation is NOT fun.  It sucks.  A lot.  In fact, I've considered not trying to finish this degree and just quitting now.  Yes, it's stupid, but that's where I'm at mentally with this.

Just a note if you are also crazy enough to try this PhD thing.  Be prepared for how much you will hate it by the end.