Snow Animals, Thesis Committees and Sci-Masochism

This is my first blog post for about two months because I'm a terrible blogger, sorry about that. It's been a busy couple of months (I'm starting to think every post will start this way) and I've got a whole bunch of exciting stories to share about PRRSV, related viruses, places where politics/virology intersect as well as general updates on my PhD project. In order to do that, I'm going to post more frequently, with shorter posts.
But before I do any of that, let's talk about the most exciting thing of all - the weather! Scotland is a cold, wet and windy place; in Edinburgh the tall buildings give some protection but out at the Roslin Institute we face the full force of nature and - since the building is made from a prolific amount of glass - we get a hell of a show. To celebrate the Winter Wonderland that our campus became, me and a lab-mate synthesised (which is science-speak for "made") a snow pig. Our beautiful swine was quickly joined by what I think was some kind of chicken....

About 10 weeks into a PhD project, each student is required to hand in a report (several pages summarising the work they've done so far and what they plan to do over the next few months) and give a short presentation to a few experts for them to scrutinise.
My Thesis Committee meeting was a couple of weeks ago now and whilst it was quite nerve-wracking planning it all out, everything seemed to go quite well. Despite reminding myself that it's the job of the committee to find problems with the project at this stage, it was still frustrating to have these identified. Needless to say, I've spent the past couple of weeks looking for solutions and coming to understand how a simple-sounding idea can turn into years of work.
I can't remember who it was, but someone once said that scientists have to learn to be masochists - enjoying their ideas being picked apart and actively seeking out this criticism in order to improve their plans; I can certainly relate to that.