Brighton Beach | Why is your brain inside your head?

Here's some photos from the vault! These shots were taken back when I visited Melbourne in July, while me & my mum were being touristy-tourists at the Brighton Beach bathing boxes. Dress, cardigan, bag are thrifted | ring is from Retrostar Vintage | earrings are from Quick Brown Fox | necklace is c/o Eclectic Eccentricity | tights are from my shop (not currently open) | shoes are Naot It was a typically-overcast, freezing Melbourne winters day, and I think that the amount of clashing patterns that I ended up wearing was more out of necessity (I didn't bring enough un-patterned clothes with me), than me making a fashion statement! Regardless of this, I'm always going to love wearing a ridiculous amount of clashing-patterns, so I didn't mind this forced fashion statement at all. My mum decided that she wanted to get in on taking outfit photos too, so I present to you all: my mum's very first outfit post! Can you see where I get my love of pattern-mixing from?? My mum would definitely have to be one of the biggest style influences in my life. She's never been afraid to rock up to work or any event wearing cute mary-janes, a gorgeous thrifted dress and the craziest/coolest patterned tights she can find! (p.s. you should all leave some super nice comments about how stylin' my mum is; she is my blog's number one fan and you will make her day, I guarantee you!) So: embedded below is my favourite science video of the week! Some things are just so ingrained that you don't even think about questioning them. Have you ever thought about why your brain is inside your head before? No? Me either. But the more you do think about it, the stranger it seems. Why isn't your brain tucked away inside your torso with your other vital organs like your stomach, heart and liver? What's it doing all the way up there, wobbling around on your neck, so far away from all the organs it has to communicate with? Let this video blow your brain! I hope that you've all had a great week, p.s. the winners of the Dressed App giveaway have been announced! Winners will be notified by email asap. If you haven't got an email within a week, please email me! Bloglovin' | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

DIY Shirts and Dresses with Katie & Boris // Stem Cells

Shirt is thrifted & DIY | skirt is thrifted | socks are from Clear It | shoes c/o Chicwish (years ago) See Katie's blog for her outfit details! Me and Katie were taking photos of ourselves in a random alleyway (as you do) when a guy came out of his garage and asked us why we were taking photos (which always happens. Other people who take outfit photos will know this well - for some reason, as soon as you break out an SLR and start taking pictures of yourself, people become incredibly curious & nosey. In the age where everyone has a camera, I don't know why it's still so exciting to see people taking photos, but there you go). I think that we told him that we were taking photos for our fashion line (kinda true..?) but then he very kindly let us pose in front of his beautiful 50-year-old Holden car, so all was forgiven.  Apparently the car's name is Boris and the guy bought it back when he was a teenager. With both me and Katie being a big fan of vintage and antiques, it was pretty cool learning that the car had a lot of history. In fact, the car was named after an engineering friend of this guy - called Boris - who migrated to Australia in the 1960s. Anyway, we were taking photos because earlier that afternoon I had helped Katie make her first ever dress. The fabric that we used is from a vintage bedsheet. You may also notice that I also took a bit of fabric for myself and stuck it onto my shirt! So, we are subtly matching: You can see more photos of Katie's outfit here. My science news today is really exciting for the people working in my field! A woman in Japan has become the first ever person to receive stem cell therapy using induced pluriopotent stem (iPS) cells. The aim? To stop her from losing her vision from macular degeneration. For scientists working in genetics & molecular biology, stem cells have been a controversial topic for the past couple of decades. This is mainly because the first sources of stem cells were embryonic, and risky to use medically - they had the potential to form tumors. But the recent discovery that we can turn adult cells back into stem cells has led to focus and funding being directed back into stem cell research. First, some definitions: What are stem cells? Stem cells are cells that have the potential to turn into any other type of body cell (hair, skin, brain, bones - you name it). Once a stem cell has committed down a certain path, it can't usually go backwards and become a stem cell again. This feature of being able to turn into any type of cell is called "pluriopotency". What are embryonic stem cells? When a sperm and egg fuse, migrate to the womb and start replicating, these cells are also called stem cells - because they continue dividing with the goal of creating an entire creature, containing all the different types of cells (bones and brains and limbs alike!) So an embryo is made up of stem cells. What are induced pluriopotent stem cells? These are cells that have already committed down a certain path, that have been manipulated by scientists so it can become a stem cell again! Their use in medicine is promising - the cells are taken from the patient, rather than embryonic tissue. This gets around both the ethical issue of using embryonic stem cells, and it also means that people won't reject grafts or organs made of their own stem cells, because they are already recognised by their body! This Japanese woman, who is the first person in the world to have this procedure done, has had her own skin cells turned back into stem cells, and then prompted to turn into retinal cells in a dish. These iPS cells were then surgically put back into her eye. The biology community is now watching with their fingers crossed - if it's successful, it could mean a renewed interest in iPS cells for use in this and other diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes. I'll keep you all updated. If you found that interesting, I also talk about stem cells here and here! Much love! Bloglovin' | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Self Love, The Lion King and Your Insides are on the Outside

Shirt, belt and cardigan are thrifted | Lion King brooches gift from Katie (thrifted) | skirt is Paper Hearts | tights are from Clear It | shoes are Naot Someone once suggested that I write down a list of my achievements and carry it around with me. I thought that this was a pretty silly idea. Like what, I'm going to be standing in the middle of a busy shopping centre one day, reading through this list of how great I am? What if someone saw what I was reading/found the piece of paper? They'd think I was an absolute egomaniac. But after having a couple of pretty low weeks, I thought I'd give this list-making thing a shot. Couldn't hurt. Well, I just finished said list and I have to say that I feel a lot better. Being a perfectionist, I'm always far too hard on myself when I don't feel like I'm pushing myself to the absolute limit. I was used to writing lists of "things that I should do", not "things I have done". But that's actually not a good way to live. Now when I am feeling like I haven't done enough or that I'm not good enough, I think that looking at this list of achievements will help a lot. I highly recommend it if you're in need of a little bit of self-love. On a completely different topic, how ridiculously wonderful are these Lion King pins that Katie thrifted me from Estonia?! So I was listening to a podcast today when I was reminded of one of my favourite facts from first-year biology. Ready to have your mind blown? The contents of your stomach are technically on the outside of your body.  Wait what? Your digestive tract is really just a long tube with two openings that lead directly to the outside. The wall of the gut is continuous with the skin, and so whatever is inside your stomach is technically on the outside of your body. And you don’t have to dissect through any of the body's tissues to get to your stomach or intestines. Mmm... biology. If you imagine yourself to be a kind of huge, biological donut, your digestive tract is analogous to the donut’s hole - it is inside the donut in a way, but it’s not really “inside” the donut - it's not a part of the dough. So there you go. I hope you're all having a beautiful day, Bloglovin' | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Hello from Croatia! (plus glowworms)

The last couple of days involved me (and Luci's family) travelling to the western coast of Croatia from Venice. Currently, we are in what is known as the "Italian" part of Croatia (Istria), where people are ethnically Italian and mainly still speak Italian as well. It is extremely beautiful here in Croatia. I feel a little bit like I am coming home, as my heritage is Eastern European, and every night we have been eating gnocchi and desert cakes not unlike the kind my Hungarian grandmother used to make. Wardrobe-wise, I am getting pretty frustrated with my very limited amount of travel clothing (and there are only so many outfits that I can wear because this summer heat doesn't allow layering at all) and I can't wait to do some proper thrifting when I get back to Sydney! OUTFIT 1 shirt - c/o Sheinside (sold out - similar) skirt - c/o Sheinside (sold out) necklace - Claire's OUTFIT 2 bikini - Asos (sold out - similar) On the way back from dinner yesterday night, we discovered this little glowing guy peeking out of some bricks (this is a terrible photo of it - the worm had cute little glowing eyes and everything - but bear with me): What makes glowworms, fireflies and jellyfish glow? A property known as bioluminescence, the glowing is created by special proteins in the animals (usually called luciferins). Luciferins undergo a chemical reaction with an enzyme called luciferase. Luciferase causes the luciferin to meet with oxygen, causing a reaction which releases light (there is a good diagram of this on How Stuff Works). Just a couple of days ago, scientists from Brazil and Japan discovered the evolutionary link between non-glowing enzymes and bioluminnescent enzymes. This is really important because bioluminescence is used a lot in scientific and medical research (making things glow makes them a lot easier to see), and means that researchers will be able to make luciferases which glow in different colours and are up to 1000 times brighter (read more). Image via Science Alert, by Doug Perrine And here is a photo of bioluminescent plankton lighting up a beach in the Maldives, just to prove how cool it is. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Venice & Underwater Arachnids

Venice being the city of Carnevale, and wanting to avoid the obvious horizontal-stripes à la the gondaliers, I thought it was appropriate to don my carnival-esque dress from Sheinside, featuring carousel horses, for my brief trip to the Venetian island the other day. I even wore some little gelato earrings (thanks to Freckles and Ginger), to honour the most popular product being sold at every second store that I pass (the other half are pizza/pasta joints). I'm so lucky to be here, and am loving Italy so far! Today we are going out on the Adriatic sea on two boats owned by Luciano's relatives, right next to Venice. I am super dooper lucky! dress - c/o Sheinside shoes - Asos socks - Tutuanna earrings - Gift from Freckles and Ginger bag - Thrifted necklace - Claire's (Japan) When we were staying at the Italian vineyard a few weeks ago, we were in awe of (and a little freaked out by) these spiders that seemed perfectly content living underneath the water at a nearby swimming pool. They moved around really quickly underneath the water, and never had to come up for air. I finally found out what they are, and they're really really cool. A particular type of spider called the Diving Bell spider is able to spin a web which it fills with air. They don't need to keep coming up to the surface to get more air, either, because the web acts like the gills of fish - taking oxygen from the water, and sending out carbon dioxide, so that the spider always has fresh air to breath. And they don't exist in Australia, either - which is why I had never seen them before. Image via IFLS These spiders can live out their entire lives basically underwater - mating, laying eggs and catching prey. I feel pretty bad for the spider that was in our pool, now. It was a pretty boring environment for it to end up in. I hope it found a new home in a pretty river or stream instead! Heaps of love! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr