Monsoon season

Well. Maybe not quite, but it really hasn't stopped raining ALL day, and during my cycle home (5 minutes!) I got thoroughly drenched. Here is a photo from last weekend in Ticino, depicting MUCH better weather.

I am currently scanning (in the laser set-up) the eye of a fly. It felt a bit wrong cutting off the head of this little thing and mounting it on double sided tape, like some sort of micro-hunting trophy. A bit gross indeed, but the diffraction patterns are really interesting and I am hoping that the reconstruction tomorrow will produce somthing nice. The back of this particular fly was a nice shiney green, so I thought to try removing that too, but my specimen was a bit fresh so some guts came out, yuk. The eye will be awesome if it works. The diffraction patterns from my test scan really looked nice...maybe I can show you one soon.

The experiments are light sensitive so have to take place in the dark. Until now we've been darkening the room, but it doesn't actually darken it completely. The CCD (the camera) is incredibly sensitive, so this affects the images somewhat. Today, however, we've revolutionised the setup! We got a hold of some thick black material to cover the optical table. It's now light tight and we're getting the best counts we've ever had - and an added bonus, people can actually enter the lab while an experiment is taking place. Good news for my colleagues who need to rinse out their coffee cups in the sink that is situated in the lab. When I've had experiments on they've gone to use the sink in another lab which uses nasty chemicals. At least the worst they can encounter from my samples is a bit of computer chip or dead fly. Yummy.

My revision is essentially underway. For those of you that don't know, I will be making a flying visit to Aberdeen next week for an exam in Quantum physics. Quantum = quite interesting, but exam = gross. I've been spending time revising the basic things that make life (physics) a lot easier if they are known well... things that are taught in basic maths courses, but that I haven't really done for a long time. Seeing as I've been learning lots of new things all summer, I think my mind is in a good state to take it on and maybe even understand it. And, this week I am really able to focus on revising, learning and on making scans of interesting samples...! If the weather stays rubbish I will probably feel good about it too.

Am pretty sure I don't want to leave Switzerland... but at the same time am pretty sure I want to get uni over and done with... less than a year to go! And, woah, I'm going to be 22 in less than 4 weeks.

Spreekt u Engels?

On Sunday evening I returned from a four-day camping weekend which I can only describe as wonderful! The 1st August was a national holiday in Switzerland so using one of my holiday days gave me a nice holiday weekend! I've already uploaded a new album, "Camping #3". I also put a couple of pictures into the Day Trips album, as I visited Basel last weekend and went to the Swiss national circus! The sharp-eyed amongst you may notice another new album.. just a sweet little thing.

I continue to worry about the rate at which time is passing - for the same reasons as before: exam looming; make a discovery and write about it. Hmmm. Blasted website remains offline... Apart from these things, life is very good! I really can't complain. I shouldn't be put off by a bit of looming hard work, either. But... I enjoy holidaying.

The camping began on Wednesday after work. We had a long and quite tiring drive down to Acquarossa, a small town in the Italian area of Switzerland. Setting up the tent in the dark as it began to rain was not the highlight of the trip, I can assure you. But we really did have a wonderful time and I'm not quite sure where to start... but I can tell you about the cars I noticed! Amongst the majority of Swiss cars (expected) were a surprising number of Dutch drivers (and by the by, there are many Dutch families camping in Switzerland too), and occasionally German, French and Italian. I was pleased on the return journey when we spotted a GB number plate! The only British car I have seen all summer! It was almost a Union Jack moment... but I refrained from pulling the non-existant flag from my bag and waving it manically ;)

Actually, the thing about making a discovery and writing about it might not be so difficult, because yesterday work looked up immensely. I am developing what would appear to be a very good method to study the surface of tin foil. You never know when you might want to do that! Of course, I am kidding... this is the early stages of research and I am just trying out various materials to see which produce good results. Tin foil is exceptional. I am actually really pleased with the results I've been getting - after several failed reconstructions, I finally got a really nice result. This is the first time this stuff has ever been done, in the world, ever... cool, no? These reconstructions take time, by the way. A scan takes on average three hours and the reconstruction (in Matlab) takes another three. and if several reconstructions in a row produce nonsense, it gets a bit depressing.. so to get a really nice result makes it all worthwhile. Oh, the area I am scanning that takes all this time? A whole square one and a half millimeters...

I wonder what the world will think if I come back to Switzerland in a year? (TCW...and TWT...?) :)