Friday 12 October 2012

The Shot-Gun Approach to Applying for a PhD or Masters


About to start the final year of my university degree, I am beginning to panic. It is not the massive increase in work load or the dreadful prospect of finals that is getting to me, but it is the huge and terrible decision that I now have to make.
What should I do after I graduate?
I have always – perhaps there has been an occasional lapse when the idea of being a journalist flittered by – wanted to go on to postgraduate education. Partially because of the fear of entering the world of work but mostly because I really do enjoy research and I find the lab work side of things suits me well.
So that brings me to the next step. Applying to the PhDs and Masters that I want to take.
The logical step for a biochemist on a 2:1 from a reasonably decent institution would be to do a Masters degree, taught or research based, before applying for a PhD. This plan, however, makes the assumption that I either have the money or am willing to take out a (real actual) bank loan to cover one year of education that’ll cost anywhere from £5000 to over £11000 in fees alone. All that for something that may not even be necessary for me to proceed in the direction I want.
Well then, how about applying straight to PhD?
In fact, that is the approach I am taking. But there are so many PhD placements and so many of them look so good. The entry requirements do seem to vary somewhat but most are pretty similar. Here, money is less of a problem, your studies will be funded by various research councils and funding bodies.
At around £50 a pop, with CVs, personal statements and all sorts of transcripts to send off, applying for a PhD isn’t a quick job. This isn’t the sort of thing that “they” recommend doing in an offhand way. Focus on one or two and do them well, don’t just fire out CVs all over the place.
And yet, I am going to apply for all the ones I like. And at least one Masters course, almost as a backup.
Better safe than sorry.

Saturday 6 October 2012

What Is The Point Of Acupuncture?


A recently released data meta-analysis, published online at www.archinternmed.com, has studied the effects of acupuncture on 17, 922 patients suffering from chronic pain conditions such as osteoarthritis and chronic headaches.

The randomised control trials (RCT) compared the effectiveness of acupuncture against no treatment and "sham" acupuncture. Only studies that were perceived to be unbiased and followed the patients for at least four weeks post-treatment were considered.

A acupuncture practitioner in action ©public domain; Image Credit: Kyle Hunter
Across all the pain conditions, patients who received acupuncture reported significantly reduced pain after four weeks compared to those who received no treatment. Patients who received a sham version of acupuncture (for example, using needles that retracted rather than pierce the skin) also reported reduction in pain, but to a lesser extent although a statistically significant difference was seen.

This difference in effectiveness could well be due to the difficulties in conducting a true double blind trail that involves sticking needles into people. In all likelihood, many patients will have observed that their skin was not actually being pierced; and obviously the therapists would be aware that the needles were false. Or at least, one would hope that they would have noticed.

Smaller differences in acupuncture benefits were seen in trials where the patient’s received ancillary treatments such as physiotherapy and gentle exercise programs lead by physical therapists.

These results show that, whilst acupuncture is effective as a treatment against chronic pain, there are many additional factors to be taken into consideration; for example, the relationship between the acupuncture therapist and the patient likely has an impact on the well-being of the patient. Most people feel improved after spending an hour or so getting one on one treatment of any sort.

This is good news for sufferers in the UK as acupuncture treatments on the NHS are being offered as a viable alternative to strong painkillers which are often addictive with many side effects from long-term use. Unfortunately the NHS offers acupuncture as a treatment for many things, and the placebo effect will only take you so far.

In comparison to this, is an investigation conducted by the National Patient Safety Agency, which reported adverse effects following 10% of acupuncture treatments. Whilst most of these cases are reports of nausea and fainting, some patients reported having needles left in them for hours (long after the therapist had left) with some needles having to be surgically removed.

A few reactions have been more severe. Edzard Ernst of the University of Exeter reports that studies of acupuncture in other countries and outside of the NHS in the UK have shown 86 deaths in the last 45 years due to lung collapse after acupuncture. Whilst these cases are extremely rare, it does suggest that the NHS should refrain from offering acupuncture as a treatment for everything from anxiety to nicotine addiction (as it currently does) until a very large scale RCT can be conducted that shows any benefit at all that will outweigh even the slightest of risk.


Published in The Yorker October 5th 2012

Thursday 4 October 2012

Mathematical Inquiry


In July, the House of Lords science and technology committee published an inquiry into higher education in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) looking at, among many other things, the falling rates of uptake in the subjects regarded traditionally as “hard” sciences in the UK in comparison to many other countries.

Lord Willis of Knaresborough (who chaired the inquiry) suggested that the biggest problem lies not with a lack of interest but with a lack of mathematical skill. The UK now lies 28th in the world in school leavers maths skills, and we are falling further every year. Students who do not take maths at A level cannot apply for many STEM courses and find study of most sciences a much larger leap to degree level.

I did do maths at A level, though it was not my strongest subject, because I wanted to go on to study Biological sciences. Armed with this A level I was able to apply to all the universities of my choice although now many STEM courses at good universities do not require an A level grade in mathematics, not because it is unnecessary, but because there are not enough students applying with this qualification to fill the universities' courses.

And where A level maths is necessary to apply for the course some universities are forced to offer remedial maths to all STEM students. Friends studying medicine at top universities report being alarmed by the complete lack of maths skills in their fellow undergrads. This simply tells us that, for everything that A* at A level is worth, the current school maths curriculum is not doing what it is meant to do and forcing more, disinterested pupils onto it will not solve anything. I for one can vouch that no one should ever be made to slog through Statistics 3 against their will.

Instead of a compulsory boosting of numbers, the teaching itself must be changed. Last year Government statistics published on 140,000 secondary school teachers showed nearly a quarter of maths teachers lacked degree level maths. I spoke once to a woman who taught maths at a local secondary school, her qualifications in the subject began and ended with a B at O level. She confided in me that she hated maths but that no one else at the small school was willing to teach it either. No student is going to learn from a teacher who is uncomfortable teaching the subject.

The curriculum at GCSE needs an overhaul first. I can't remember much from my year eleven maths lessons except for playing games, eating sour skittles and being incredibly bored by the entire thing. Barely anything we learnt had real world applications and most had been taught by rote year on year since the start of secondary school. Maths post-GSCE was seen as intimidating, a massive leap up from what we had done so far.

And, in a way, it was. Yet still the lessons were based around memorizing equations and mechanical rules; very little real-world problem solving was done. Days when we tried old Oxbridge entrance papers, or the 6th form maths challenge were rare because these are not a test of how many geometry equations you could memorize, but instead a challenge of logic, understanding and comfort with numbers, something that wasn't necessary to have to pass the course.

This is were the problem lies, not in the numbers of pupils, but in the core of the curriculum - students are leaving school with no skills to apply their maths. Base the A level around maths you require, give the pupils something to think about, to apply to situations that they come across and more people will begin to feel comfortable with the subject and will take that with them into higher education.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Musings of a lab rat


I am trying to be grateful for what I've got...
Over 24 weeks of lab work experience outside of University is a great thing to have on your CV, but frankly. I'd like to have my last three Augusts back. See, life as an undergraduate (and even pre-university) lab rat is very rewarding, good experience and all that rot, yet I can't help but feel somewhat fed up with the whole business.
Perhaps a career in science is not for me, or, more likely, weeks of sitting about, staying out of the way and reading the BBC news website is not an accurate experience of the world of a research lab. My summers of 2010 and 2011 are a hazy blur of protein preps, DNA gels and crystal try after crystal tray. At no point could I honestly say I fully understood what I was doing and why. I did enjoy it though, the procedures and visible results.]
An eppendorf centrifuge is one of the many machines that will try and kill you. Just make sure that you close the lid ©Wikimedia Commons; Image Credit: Rockpocket

Admittedly this summer has been an improvement. Currently I am in week six (of eight) and, whilst all my projects are crashing down around my ears, I have been able to stretch my scientific wings a tad more, as it were.I have my own projects, am left to my own devices and can make my own decisions as how best to proceed. The subsequent lack of success so far is possibly a result of this.

In all honesty, this new-found laboratory freedom is more likely a consequence of the assumption that I, having now completed the second year of a Biochemistry degree, must know what I am doing, rather than any display of competence on my part, however it is best not to think too hard about such things, rather stick to doing what I do best (muddle on regardless of all else around me).

Yes, I still follow the post-grads around with my notebook out begging the answers to questions such as “Why is my cloning not working?” “What have I grown on this plate?” and most importantly “Why is that machine beeping at me in such an angry way?”*, but now some problems I can finally tackle for myself. Key among these being what to next to keep my slowly sinking projects above the water line slightly longer, and when it is acceptable to suggest a tea break to your colleagues (any time but lunchtime, it seems). So for the next couple of weeks, I shall proceed as best I can, googling my way through experimental protocols and depending alarmingly on Wikipedia.

*answers, in no particular order, are : “Because you've screwed up”, “Because you've screwed up” and “I don't know, but kill it now”.


Published in The Yorker September 19th 2012