Cambridge education slump

Despite the grand reputation, the basics are not being covered

I have no memories of taking this

Bus stop ain't got no road

A man playing a guitar from within a bin

Pretty much what it sounds like. Cambridge can be an odd place

O potato tree

Come children, gather round the potato tree for a mug of warm spiced bovril and then straight off to bed so father potatomass will come and leave you root vegetable-based goods if you have been good this year

Pret team assemble!

"Okay men, it's the fifth quarter. The lord gave up these fine sandwiches and real Italian cups of coffee and by jingo it is up to us to sell them. We can do it team. And anybody who can't... Well I'll bust your arse back down to burgers flipping at McDonalds by closing"

The day the science nearly worked

Today something quite remarkable happened. Some science, not original science I admit but something replicated from another paper, actually worked in almost the way that it was supposed to. A mere two hours of (not at all) gentle illumination under a UV laser while sitting in a crude electrochemical cell featuring potassium hydroxide and my little semiconductor wafer was etched away to reveal the precious sapphire lurking beneath.

So in this picture we see a strange parallel wall structure which somehow survived the etching. Most likely it was a scratch on the surface which caused the Gallium Nitride (the semiconductor in question) to stand up to the malevolent potassium and hydroxide ions. The point is that:
a) It looks pretty
b) The GaN itself seems to be made from two distinct layers (we're guessing it is to do with some "dopants" getting involved when the wafer was grown)
c) It's a minor success but it's the first success that I've had in eighteen months of PhD
d) That broken wasteland at the bottom of the double wall is sapphire. As in the gemstone.
e) The image was taken with a FIB (essentially you nail Gallium ions at the surface and look for the electrons which come flying off)

Neighbour's new pet

They may be useless but they are still great

A place in the sun

I have to admit that there are worse places to work

Nanoparticle Storage

I think this speaks for itself - Actually it's not that clear. The cardboard box in the centre has "Nanoparticles" scrawled on it.

My new favourite science machine

What you see there was once a boring glass slide. With the home magic of glue and some random little bits of metal though it was transformed! Well the transformation actually came from the blinging process of depositing a hundred nanometres of west coast purity silver on to it. Next up for the evaporator: gold and a shoe!

Tim, destroyer of skis

People said that you cannot break a ski. People said that if it came down to you or the skis you would be a broken heap and that they would live on. People were wrong!

The old crap part of bristol

The council even went as far as to allow the old, non-redeveloped, region of Bristol to have snow. But here it was less whimsical and more malevolent.

Snow tree

The crappy semi-settling snow is really highlighted here. Again, it's the city centre of Bristol which does in fact contain a strange old church type building (I think the sole purpose of it is to be hired out for wedding receptions) and a tree. A TREE! It might be dead.

You can more or less get the idea of snow from this

The floor may have been slick and wet but the thick white blobs made the threat of painful falling over worthwhile.