Episode 9: A Chic-y Geek-y Day

Geek and Chic. These two words have become synonymous together as a regularly coined phrase.

The phrase was first used by the fashion industry in the mid 2000s to define the trend of incorporating stereotypically ‘geeky’ ensembles into their shows. It’s a sort of semi-sophisticated style; think retro work wear, high waists and sensible accessories.  It also made glasses an acceptable fashion piece.

Being a geek is not wearing fake glasses but being passionate about your subject.  Someone should conduct a study on the connection between wearing glasses and IQ. Is your brain bigger so it affects your eyes because there’s no room for them? Maybe wearing glasses means your eyes can be lazier so there’s more energy for brain function? I think not. I think the correlation between people wearing fake glasses and being idiots would be much stronger.

I diverge, apologies.

Recently though, it’s actually more of a description than a specific fashion movement. Like someone saying ‘yea they’re kind of geek chic’ really translates as ‘they seem really smart but are actually pretty cool and fun and don’t wear tweed jackets and bow ties either’. Unless it’s in fashion of course, but ‘geek’ has morphed from an insult to a compliment.

It is very cool indeed to be a geek. Since everyone has read the humorous breakdown of the comparison of wealth of Bill Gates vs. Michael Jordan (have a laugh at it here; http://imgur.com/gallery/y2Brq) there has been a mental shift to; “Oooh, probably shouldn’t make fun of the physics nerd. Captain of the rugby team as your formal date? Nah, Captain of the chess club please!”

So now that I’ve convinced you that I’m cool..... oh. Right. You aren’t buying it? Whatever. My Glasses are real!! And I quite enjoy my paradoxical life. Running from a Genetics lecture to the launch of the first heat of Miss Northern Ireland is all in a typical Thursday. Quick change from scrubs to stilettos, moving between environments where the scale of image importance ranges from nothing to everything.

Public lectures aren’t really the kind of place you get your photo taken at. If you even asked someone to take a photo of you beside a groundbreaking molecular model of the structure of DNA they would be like why? Did you win an award? So I have a photo for you of the presentation screen and my complimentary cup of tea.

A Miss NI heat is a different cup of tea all together, you get your photo taken beside everything and everyone! And I love both atmospheres; they are social and relaxing for completely opposite reasons which is why I think they complement each other so perfectly. That is the real thing connecting the words Geek and Chic. Yin and Yang, life is all about balance.

You want to hear about my day? Well alright then, seeing as it was a good one!

Work bit – 6am. YES, 6am. Did you think it was all social hilarity and no work?

“For every two minutes of glamour, there are eight hours of hard work.”

~Jessica Savitch

 

 Geek bit – So I worked a little earlier than usual so I could get to a public Genetics lecture at my University, Queens University Belfast (QUB), specifically the School of Biological Sciences.

 I love Genetics even more than I love crème eggs. We had a great introduction to the ethical questions raised by modern advancements in the field of Genetics, entitled Genethics, from Prof. Anne Hughes of QUB.

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003 we have been made privy to a vast amount of data about ourselves. Our knowledge about genetic disorders as well as genetic susceptibility to certain illnesses has given us the potential to unlock personalised medicines and gene therapy. However;

“Knowledge Is Power”

~Sir Francis Bacon

“With great Power comes great Responsibility”

~Stanley Martin Leiber

Described wonderfully as the “50 Shades of Grey” in Genetics it demonstrates the varying shades of grey that people have on opinions of ethical importance, as well as the future problems we will encounter as our knowledge of genetics grows, perceptions of society develop and doctor patient relationships alter.

1.       Do you have the right to know the contents of your genetic code?

2.       And do others have the right to this information?

A potent decision in the near future for many people will be the potential for genetic screening of foetuses. This can include disorders from the mildly interfering to extremely debilitating like Kleinefelter Syndrome, Down Syndrome and Duchene Muscular Dystrophy.

With studies showing that the numbers of women terminating foetuses with genetic deficiencies is directly proportional to the doctor who gives them the news, needs for non-directive counselling is more crucial than ever. If the doctor suggests a termination is a viable option the responsibility is removed from the parents and can swing their decision either way.

Opposite problems also arise in that some parents can ask for attributes in their ‘designer babies’ for example to ensure the child has dwarfism if both parents are afflicted.

Screening of offspring can also implicate their parents. If a person decides to have themselves tested for say Huntington’s Disease as a grandparent has recently died of it, this directly affects their parent because if the test is positive their father or mother must also suffer from the disease.

There is also the potential for the information to be abused, for example by insurance companies.

Currently the UK operates a Freedom for Testing, Freedom from Testing policy.

Some great reads as recommended by Prof. Anne Hughes;

The Genius Factory - David Plotz

Bad Science - Ben Goldacre

 You can imagine that after this mental moral struggle than I needed a cosmo or two;

 

Chic bit – Forget the I’ve-been-up-since-6am hair and makeup, note my Monochrome on Thursday homies. Working the s/s13 trends. Of course that dress is 2 years old but its allllll about style, which is timeless, fashion is not.

“Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”

~ Coco Chanel

I had the absolute privilege of being a finalist in the Miss Northern Ireland contest in 2012 after I won Miss East Belfast. I had never been to anything like that before and just decided to go for it as I was getting a bit long in the tooth, it was always an experience I wanted to have. It was absolutely fantastic, from the heats to the photoshoots, interviews and of course the big finale over 3 days in Belfast and the gala final.

I’ve always loved attending shows like Belfast Fashionweek with all the glitz and fashion, and you don’t get more glamorous than Miss NI. The experience as well as the fun and friends made it one of the greatest weekends!

 Although it took me a few weeks to even look at tan, eyelashes, hair extensions or high heels again...

So I was invited to attend the first heat for the launch of Miss NI 2013 at Cafe Vaudeville in Belfast. Unbelievably I felt more nervous at that than I did even at my own heat or catwalk-ing in a bikini at the final. I think it was mostly uncontained excitement for the opportunity the girls competing will potentially have. It was great to be back though mingling with the girls;

Even if I did jog there from a genetics lecture with hair and make up from 12 hours before, I had half an hour to change into my dress and put on my eyelashes. It’s not easy keeping up appearances! I have to morph from a nerd to a former beauty pageant contestant.

I thought I would include my favourite Geek and Chic moments, do you see something in common in those pictures above? This me rocking at my graduation from QUB and winning Miss East Belfast. Thank you timeless, beautiful dress for two of the best days ever :).  It’s definitely my dress for success!

Episode 8: The Fat Gene

So it’s March and I’m still carrying the winter layers, if you know what I mean? You know what I got for Christmas? Half a stone fatter. I need to return those gifts; it hasn’t rained in approximately 5 whole days in this wonderful land and the temperature has risen by 2^oC so that means it’s spring by our standards.

The birds are singing and the flowers are sprouting, I have been taken by Sunspiration (the desire to be healthier because it’s sunny) and like a spring clean for the body its Detox time!

I attempted a diet only once before in my whole life, by midday on the first day my housemates found me in the kitchen binging on Angel Slices (they are exceedingly good) and a Snickers bar. So I have dealt with my diet phobia by going down another route; detoxification.

1.       Let’s look at some scientific facts that led my decisions;
 

Energy cannot be destroyed; if you ingest more chemical energy than you expend physically it will be stored as potential energy until such a date as it can be converted. You may know this as the layer of insulation around your belly. Fat.

Energy also cannot be created. Fat cannot mysteriously appear unless you ATE IT in the first place.

I love fat food. I love sugar and sweets and the evil refined carbohydrates. Love love love. When I eat those, I get fat and that is my fault. It really isn’t such a big deal to ask myself to put the crème egg down if it’s the 3^rd one that day. Obesity is a disease and I will inflict it upon myself if I don’t keep control, it’s a slippery slope! My mummy has Type I Diabetes and Coeliac disease. She can’t eat anything nice at all, her immune system pretty much rebelled against her. So I can’t bear to hear myself or other people complain about dieting. Boo hoo if I have friends that can eat twice as much as me and be half the weight. Tough. I’m hardly going to die. Although it feels like it as I set the crème egg down...

2.       The Plan;

Above are pictured the main “Trials of Hercules” encountered on my journey, the fiancé always brings me treats, the delights of a crème egg hot chocolate and, of course, ice cream. All ice cream.

Below are a few of the weapons I waged battle with;

The whole idea of a detox ‘diet’ is not necessarily for weight loss but rather this is a happy side effect of following the programme. You cleanse yourself by cutting out sugars, caffeine, alcohol and anything processed. This is supposed to purify your digestive system and thereby improves your general health. Quite like a relaxing spa weekend for your small intestine. As it is quite extreme, you only do it a few times a year.

It generally takes 72 hours to curb cravings once cutting things out of your diet so this is the perfect length of time to trial it out. Once you have gotten over any cravings, it can jump start you into generally following a healthier diet.

Hypothesis – 3 days of eating only natural produce will remove any bloating, digestive issues or sluggishness as well as improving my skin, weight and energy levels.

3.       The Results;

Successful. Or to be scientifically correct, hypothesis accepted.
I don’t weigh myself as that is very counterproductive to body image but after just 3 days of lots of snoozing and grazing on as much fresh fruit, yoghurts, nuts and wholegrain rice as I wanted, I fitted into a dress I couldn’t zip up 3 days before. Winner winner chicken dinner! Which is exactly what I had the day after.

 

Finally, what about that Fat gene?

There is no gene that single-handedly makes you obese. Sorry. You can have genes which give you a slightly slower metabolism or maybe don’t tell your brain as quickly to stop eating. You still have a choice, these genes can be countered 100% by the food you chose to eat and the lifestyle you pursue. In other words, your DNA can contain some potential for over-eating but the environment dictates the outcome. I know, it’s unfair, but it could be worse really.

 “Genes load the gun, the environment pulls the trigger.”

~ Scott Kahan, MD

Although genetic deficiencies are rare, here is a particular protein that can be attributed to a tendency toward weight gain;

BDNF – Mice in which the BDNF gene was deleted in two of the primary appetite-regulating regions of the brain ate more and became significantly heavier than their control counterparts with fully functional BDNF genes. BDNF acts as a satiety signal to the brain, ie, it sends a message to the brain saying ‘we’re full now, stop eating’. However, when their food access was limited to only be able to eat the same amount as the ‘normal’ mice, their weight became equivalent to them. This demonstrates that although the BDNF signalling pathway affects how much you may choose to eat it has no direct effect on how the calories were processed.  

(See Research here or for something a bit more recent have a look here.)

Generally though, our human ‘hunter-gatherer’ style of diet has led us to have a genetic make-up disposed toward storage of fat which would mean better survival during famine or times of hardship, the problem is that now those saturated fats which are so rare in nature are now readily available to us in massive quantities.

Obviously there are multitudes of other issues surrounding obesity (hypothyroidism etc), I’m just telling you, it’s not the responsibility of your DNA.

 Well, the best thing about completing this detox wasn’t just losing some weight but that I did my bit for a bit of disease prevention on behalf of my own body!

Next hypothesis – A crème egg a day keeps the doctor away.

Maybe I won’t test that one. Probably would be counterproductive to the 3 days I just put myself through. But if it’s in the name of science...*sigh*... All I can say is thank the Lord they are only available 6 months a year or I’d have to be cut out of my own sofa.

 

Episode 7: A Sausage Dog's Love

My own significant other of the Canis lupus familiaris variety is here for her cameo appearance;

This is sausage face. Her face is not the sausage feature after which she is named but is merely the face of the attached body which is distinctly sausage like. Her official title is Belle-Feline but has other aliases such as sneaky, sausage face, sausage roll, belle the smell, creepy sneak and weasel features.

Generally everything she does is sneaky due to her weasel like nature. She enjoys scrounging for the tiniest of scraps with all of her efforts. And absolutely loves whatever it is you have.

Miniature Daschunds have been bred to have these distinctive features as it better enables them to hunt badgers down badger holes. Belle has recently developed a newer adaptation into converting these inbred skills into ‘bin hunting’. Distinctly more rewarding and less dangerous for ones sneaky face;

I am sure many people have come home to such things if not worse. So why do we even keep pets?

“Dogs have important jobs, like barking when the doorbell rings, but cats have no function in a house whatsoever.”
~ W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose

There must be advantageous reasons why humans keep members of another species for an extended period of time purely for entertainment. Apart from a few inter-species friendships developed by animals in zoos, there is no conclusive evidence of this happening among any other animals in nature.

Here are a few contenders in the debate;

Religious – Keeping pets isn’t a modern phenomenon, as early as 3500BC animals were kept domestically by the ancient Egyptians. Dogs were revered as a symbol of the Jackal god Anubis. Cats were also worshipped religiously; they were esteemed as demi-gods and were property of the divine pharaoh.

Practicality – Moving through the ages it can be considered almost instinct to use animals for doing things we cannot do ourselves. For example, horses have a use in work for being used to pull carts for transportation of people and goods. Cats are also useful for controlling rodent populations.

There is also the obvious need of keeping animals like cattle, sheep, chickens and pigs for foodstuffs such as meat, eggs and milk.

Even in modern times animals have a practical arm in the everyday lives of many people like sheep dogs, guide dogs and sniffer dogs.

Status Symbol – Pets can be considered almost as a supreme ornament. Not very long ago only the wealthy could afford to have an extra mouth to feed. In developing countries now this is still obvious, people who can’t afford it do not introduce a furry member of the family for fun.

Exotic pets are also a status symbol of the good condition of your bank balance. Queen Elizabeth I had a Guinea pig, you didn’t just go and buy one in Pet World then, she was probably the owner of the only guinea pig in Britain at the time.

Although it isn’t entirely common now, in history, hunting for sport was a favourite past time of the upper classes. For this purpose they kept dogs, horses and of course game specifically for their entertainment.

Birds also have the X Factor for entertainment, having a delightful rowdy canary would be enjoyable before the invention of the radio!

Of course none of this really answers why 48% of homes in Britain, 20% of Japanese and 63% of American and Australian homes have at least one pet. People aren’t picking up all that poop for nothing!

“Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them's making a poop, the other one's carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge.”
~ Jerry Seinfeld

Psychological – Although anyone who has ever even seen one knows animals have feelings, humans are the only animals to have such a massive range of emotions linked to our consciousness.

Our desire to own and care for these creatures must be rooted in our emotions. It’s an absolutely simplistic answer but is just a simple fact, we have a pet because we love them and they love us back. Animals have shifted from food to friend.

No human on this earth is as unfailingly excited to see me when I come home as my Belly Belle.

Interestingly, animals respond better to sounds ending in ‘eeee’, probably explains why when I shout “BELLE-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” down the hall she comes bounding down like a prize horse in the Grand National.

Finally,

Having a pet around gives us a living presence that makes us feel comforted and wanted, they give all their time and affection without any ulterior motive, all for only the very basics of life in return. Also, dogs like to wag their tails and not their mouths which is an advantage over many human companions.  

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.”

~ Anatole France

 I will try to remind myself of this as I clear up the remainder of the bin contents from the floor...

You are nobody until somebody a sausage dog loves you.

Episode 6: Rainbow Roses and Genetic Proposals

You can’t get blue roses.

You can however get these;

Rainbow Roses – These pictures aren’t modified, I know because I took them. These are in fact my very own valentine’s flowers from my one and only (see there’s me with them in the bottom left with my uber shoulder padded jacked, I was having a power day in work *power shoulders*).

Rainbow Roses I have decided are the most beautiful flowering fantastic-ness I’ve ever had in my possession, if every colour symbolises its own range of emotions surely they are the flowery embodiment of a relationship?

These of course do not occur naturally, obviously or by now there would be so many planted in my garden you would see it from space. This is a human manipulation of plant biology with a dash of chemistry.

I finished my exclamations of astonishment, gratitude and thanks with multiple kisses and swiftly started my technical examination of these beauties, they clearly weren’t sprayed and they certainly didn’t grow that way so, what? Did a magician trap a My Little Pony with its rainbow tail in these flowers of mine?

This is how it’s done, Simplicity at its finest, turns out no My Little Ponies were harmed;

·         Obviously you cannot use a coloured rose, they have their own pigments and enzymes and would just stay that colour or turn brown. (You know all colours together make brown. Think about it.)You have to start with a white specimen. The Venezuela Rose is a ‘Hybrid Tea, cream rose’ which shows up all the colours perfectly.

·         The rose is cut at full bloom diagonally in order to expose the greatest area possible for water uptake by exposing a higher number of xylem vessels.

·          The cut flower is then ‘Stem-dyed’. 4 beakers of Red, Blue, Green and Yellow water soluble dyes are prepared separately. The flower stem is slit vertically into 4 pieces and 1 end placed in each beaker.

·         Wait a few hours...

·         And by the beauty of transpiration, ta dah!

 

Blue Roses – I’m afraid I reeled you in with a porky pie just now. Blue roses are no longer condemned to the realms of legend with unicorns and leprechauns, but have been created in much the same way as my rainbow numbers for decades now.

However, this century, a feat of genetic engineering has created something much better.

We can’t make unicorns they said. We can’t make leprechauns they said. But instead they proposed to create the eternal symbol of mystery – the Blue Rose.

Culturally they have been associated with hope against unattainable love.

Molecular geneticists proposed to create the Royal of Roses by altering its genetic makeup – DNA.

Roses simply do not grow in blue colours as they lack a gene to create true blue pigment - Delphinidin. So the gene for the colour had to be stolen from the Pansy and the gene for the enzyme DFR was taken from the Iris. The enzyme is required to complete the delphinidin synthesis reaction.

Additionally to this the gene for the flower’s own pigment synthesis needed to be switched off. Cue RNAi, one of the most powerful biological tools discovered in the past 25 years. RNAi is as specific as the DNA sequence and can directly target specific genes to act as a switch in production of the protein created from that gene. In this case, an RNAi sequence was created to effectively silence the DFR gene that occurred naturally in the rose, creating the red colour and letting the new DFR gene which varied slightly to work instead.

Below you can see my rainbow rose, bottom left depicts a blue rose created using the same principle with dye, but above that is a photograph of a genetically engineered blue rose.

Truth is it’s not ACTUALLY blue. It’s a sort of mauve/lavender colour, this is because the RNAi didn’t completely block the rose’s natural colour synthesis and instead added a little red tinge to the blue.

But still its bluer than any other roses, and seeing as it grows this way it can answer ‘why yes, I’m a natural blue’ ;) to all those admirers.

Inspiration - My encounter with my own flowery creatures inspired my tentative steps into the floral and colourful realm of workwear;

I don't think any ponies were harmed in the making of this skirt either. Although I can say nothing for my workmates retinas.

Episode 5: Beauty and the Geek

Welcome to the Day of Love 2013!

Also known as singles awareness day.

Now by all means I should be spending the time alone playing World of Warcraft with some cyber friends a la Sheldon Cooper.  However, I have found a young gentleman who clearly just can’t get enough of the geek. So much so in fact that he sealed the deal a few months ago with an extremely old transparent crystal of tetrahedrally bonded carbon atoms aka a diamond.

Apart from the chemical classification of a diamond, what does science have to do with valentines and love? I’ll give you a multitude of reasons;

St. Valentine’s Day – So what’s it all about? The feast of St. Valentines can be attributed to a number of early Christian saints called Valentinus. Stories range from him being jailed for marrying soldiers to their sweethearts, who were forbidden to do so, to him writing to his own sweetheart during imprisonment. It has also been linked to the Roman feast of fertility Lupercalia. The most important theme throughout all the possibilities is the Romance.  It is the traditional day on which you put all else aside to express your love to those you hold dear. Most of these expressions of love will follow the traditional pattern;

Symbols of Valentine’s day;

Red Roses – The most common rhyme to find on Valentine’s Day starts ‘Roses are red...’ The rose was strongly linked to the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite and the Egyptian goddess of fertility, Isis. Because of this we have developed a very ancient link with red roses as a symbol of eternal love. It appears constantly in romantic literature;

“O MY Luve’s like a red, red rose,

That’s newly sprung in June:

O my Luve’s like the melodie,

That’s sweetly play’d in tune.”

~ Robert Burns

The colour red is longest and warmest ray in the visible light spectrum. It is likened to fire, power, life force and survival. It is the most energising colour and as such as linked to enormous passion. So psychologically both the flower and the colour are the most symbolic representations of the expression of love. However not all expressions of love are desirable, Kissing Disease for example. Your love might be contagious but it’s also infringing upon my immune system.

 Chocolate – For a more physical embodiment of science’s role in love; Aphrodisiacs. Although many aphrodisiacs are probably effective due to the placebo effect, a few actually can be chemically attributed with affecting passion. The King of aphrodisiacs has to be chocolate. It includes anandamine and Phenylethylamine (PEA) which are a psychoactive feel-good chemical and ‘love chemical’ respectively. PEA releases dopamine in the brain and can peak feelings of excitement, attraction and euphoria. It also contains tryptophan which is required for Serotonin production, another feel-good chemical of the brain.

Other foods with apparent aphrodisiac side effects include, asparagus, almonds, avocado, bananas, basil, figs, garlic, oysters and honey. Although links to these foods are probably more due to their actual vitamin and mineral content which are necessary for healthy reproductive systems than any psychological effect. Some of them are also obviously comically shaped...

So if you really want to express your love include these in your menu, a few appropriately placed oysters and champagne wouldn’t go amiss!

I of course included none of these. I’m making my Valentine Chicken wings, Seafood Paella, Pavlova and some Kopparberg because he told me they’re his favourite. No analysis required.

 

Clothing – And not necessarily lingerie you sneaks. A common way now to express love is dressing up and going out to dinner together. Don’t underestimate the power of a LRD (Little Red Dress), as we mentioned before the colour red ignites strong feelings. And he’s not going to take you to the Ritz dressed like a hobo on holiday.

Finally, if your Valentine’s day involved all these lovely expressions of eternal love you may be feeling;

In Love – I’m not even gonna go there. Although experiments show you can base how attracted you are to males on how different their MHC complex (immune system) is to yours [see the facts here - http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/5/668.full] we all know it’s just not like that. Unless you’re a crazy person, Science is going to leave that frontier well alone.

To fall in love you need to have the perfect mix of chemical and physical conditions... with a little bit of pixie dust... take the second star to the right and... head on into infinity and beyond...

Yeah. Disney is better at describing it than Science. Go watch Beauty and the Beast.

Episode 4: Charles Darwin and The Pancake

What do Charles Darwin and a Pancake have in common?? Not the start of a bad joke but today in fact is what they share. Today is both the celebration of the father of modern Biology and of the humble pancake;

-          Tuesday 12^th February 13

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) – ‘Shrove’ means being forgiven for wrongdoings and traditionally people would go to Church to confess their sins before Lent which starts the next day (Ash Wednesday). As Lent is a religious fasting period all luxury foods such as Eggs, Milk and sugar are to be abstained from and pancakes are the perfect way to use them up!

In France and USA they call it Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) which you would think has nothing to do with anything except eating which they’re both great at. Actually though it is the pre-reformation term used for the day in which all the yummy fatty foods are eaten up before lent.

For a personal touch, this is my pancake, which is in fact a pancake-imposter known as a Crêpe, if we’re using the correct nomenclature. As you can see, I like the ‘roll it up, slice it up, eat it up’ procedure.

Shrove Tuesday can fall anywhere between 3^rd Feb-9^th March as it falls exactly 47 days before Easter Sunday and Easter is calculated upon the cycles of the moon. This year it has a happy coincidence of falling on Darwin Day! So we can all celebrate being geeks and getting fat!

Darwin Day – ‘is a global celebration of science and humanity’. It promotes a deeper sense of respect and appreciation of all life and to promote a common bond among all peoples on earth.

Specifically, it celebrates the life and achievements of Charles Darwin, possibly the only naturalist, in my eyes, to be as impressive as David Attenborough in describing scientific concepts to the world. He wrote ‘On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’ in 1859 with over 20 years of documented research.

Even though he gave rise to understanding the importance of genetics in natural selection he chose to marry his first cousin, nonetheless his lifetime contribution to science is unrivalled. One could write multiple theses on Charles Darwin so read more about him and his day here; http://darwinday.org/about/ and spend just a few moments today whilst enjoying your pancakes appreciating the beginning of understanding life.

Finally,

You’re wondering why my ‘episodes’ (sounds like I’m mentally unsound...) went 1, 2, 3a then 4... where’s 3b??  Coming up!

Episode 3a: The Battle Against Uggs and Contamination

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

A war on 2 fronts. Kaiser Wilhelm’s nightmare, and mine.

Longer than any war in history is the daily battle of how to be stylish and not interfere with your work.

Scientists have the same what to wear to work dilemma as every other female on the planet but we have extra contenders to consider. We have PPE (personal protective equipment) which can range from gloves and hairnets to safety shoes and protective suits. You can spend any amount of time in a day taking these on and off and so struggle to not look like you’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards when you’re not in PPE.

Sometimes I look in magazines and think, Yes that would be an absolutely delightful work outfit... if I only had to wear those shoes for 30mins while sitting down and if mini-skirts and bare legs were acceptable in the workplace. This is not sex and the city and any classy outfit I put together is immediately destroyed by black tights, cardigan (labs are controlled at temperatures which can only be described as constantly freezing) and this year and every years Winter staple – the coat.

Infact, the delights of our western European climate mean that actually the move from winter to summer wardrobe means you can wear courts instead of boots without getting frostbite in your toes and you drop the coat from furlined and chunky to a nice rainproof mac.

And so I rage battle every day to balance practicality for work and a little sophisticated style.

“You cannot climb the ladder of success in the outfit of failure”

~ Zig Ziglar

 

The biggest pitfall of workplace fashion has to be the Ugg boot. I have never invested in a pair because I see it as dangling over the precipice of a slippery slope into eventually not even brushing my hair and perpetually shuffling around the lab with my feet looking like a hoof on a cuddly toy horse. I KNOW they are comfy and very good for their designed purpose. So is my onesie and I don’t wear that to work. I won’t give in!

I’ll give you an example of the daily battle;

1 – Winning; I try to look professional and still look my age. Heels but ‘sensible’, stylish but not overdone, Classy but comfortable. If I accomplish any one of these things in an outfit I feel successful.

This is how I typically start the day,

See starting off alright, little bit of animal print, a few accessories, sensible long sleeved top for winter and I can remain as such doing office work until I actually have to do the practical part of my job, so morph into exhibit 2;

2 – It’s a draw;

Don’t get me wrong, getting your lab coat on feels all professional but is joyless for actually thinking you may look half decent. I do however rate this a draw because the shoes count for about 50% of an outfit in my eyes so we’re on the front line but we’re fighting back. However,

Sometimes even shoes can’t save you;

3 – Lost; Sometimes unfortunately, even small graces can’t be met and a venture into the cleanroom for R&D work is inevitable...

 

I don’t even have words for this. If you ever complain again ‘oh I can’t believe he/she/they saw me looking like that...’ just pause for a moment and remember this picture. Yea, don’t feel so bad now do you. Ugh.

Anyway,

I have to wear all my correct PPE to avoid contamination of myself and my work and also not give up on fashion and slide into dangerous Ugg boot territory. I lose a few battles but the war continues, I’ll keep you updated!