The Pineneedle Collective

Friday 11 April 2014

Red Hair, Docs & Polka Dots | Gender & Genetics

Even though it was raining non-stop yesterday, Katie and I had very important plans to take outfit photos, and neither the rain nor the fact that it made our hair mega-frizzster could stop us!

I dressed both myself and Katie up in my new dresses from Bonne Chance collections - and I had way too much fun doing this because Katie is basically like a porcelain doll (with the ridiculously pretty long hair to match). These Bonne Chance dresses are an absolute dream - though I have to say that if you're any bustier than I am (which isn't very difficult), size up! They're also very short - which for me, means that I get to wear my super cute lace bloomers underneath, hooray! Both of our shoes are thrifted authentic Dr Martens - and both pairs were less than $10, I am proud to say. I got these Mary Jane airwaves for $4 just last week - it was one of those op-shops finds that you make where you start hyperventilating in the middle of the store because you can't believe your good luck (um, other people do that, right? Or is it just me?)

Hop along to Katie's blog to see more photos!

As has been the mission on my blog for a good year, I want to dismantle the stereotype that you can't be interested in fashion and be smart at the same time! In the same vein, while you can get together with your friends and spend the day dressing up, taking photos and talking about dresses, you shouldn't have to hide the fact that you're also passionately interested in physics/geology/politics/feminism/food photography/statistics or whatever else floats your boat! So not only are Katie and I collaborating on our outfits today, we're also collaborating on our general nerdiness ;)

While I'm a biology/genetics major, Katie is a gender studies major, so I think that this is fitting to talk about today: there was a discussion going down on real scientists this morning which encapsulated both (and read through all the tweets if you have time/are procrastinating, it was a fascinating discussion!)

Science, especially where genetics is concerned, often makes the mistake of using the words "sex" and "gender" interchangeably, when they're both actually two very different things. Science is also littered with gendered language. For instance, in scientific textbooks, the Y chromosome is often referred to as the "male" chromosome.

While sex is, traditionally and from a genetic point of view, determined by the chromosomes you are born with (and in no way restricts you to being either female or male), gender is something that exists on a continuum, that is fluid and informed by individual identity and culture.

The word sex is not interchangeable with the word gender.
— realscientists (@realscientists) April 10, 2014

This discussion led me to this article, which is what I want to share with you all:

"Researchers determine Y-chromosome mutations reveal precariousness of male development".

This research done last year shows that even the chromosomes you are born with does not determine your sex - a father with XY chromosomes can have a daughter with XY chromosomes - and additionally that the "switch" that turns on male characteristics in a developing foetus is actually not a very strong switch at all, and very small environmental factors or mutations can stop that switch from flipping. Whereas the development of vitally important organs like the heart, brain or lungs have many genetic safeguards to prevent something like a small environmental change affecting their growth, sex determination is not under the same pressure. It has been theorized that this "weak switch" is helpful for spreading genetic diversity - it's beneficial to the population to have individuals who defy traditional sex binaries. Or, it might just be a random accident.

But whatever its cause, through our genetic makeup, sex is evolutionarily designed to be fluid, and "biological sex" might reflect the spectrum of genders more than was ever thought.

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Taking a Risk

Blouse is thrifted | skirt is thrifted | shoes are thrifted

You know when you find a piece of clothing that you *really* want, and even though it's a good size too small you suddenly lose all common sense and buy it anyway? Well, yeah. This skirt. That story. After wearing it around for a whole day, I decided that it was *far* too tight and put it up for sale in my shop - and it's now on its way to a lovely person, who I hope hasn't made the same silly mistake as me!

And just so you all know, I've decided to close my shop down until July when I have more free time.

This. Video. Is. Amazing. As humans, we're absolutely terrible at statistics and judging risk! Just have a watch, I promise that it will make you think. Now I'm going to get off my butt and stop accumulating negative microlives! I hope that you're all having a great day :D

Saturday 5 April 2014

Butterflies & Polka Dots

Dress is thrifted | tights c/o Chicwish (ages old) | shoes are Naot | belt is thrifted

This polka dot dress and the bow-belt are some more awesome thrifted finds that altogether cost me $3. I've been having the best run in thrift stores and markets stalls lately! The other day, I even got myself an incredible Black Milk swimsuit for $15!! (I almost hyperventilated when the girl told me the price, and basically ripped it out of her hands). Black Milk swimsuits are usually $100, so you can imagine that I was pretty pleased with myself. But now that I know my size... it's really difficult not to go to the actual Black Milk site and blow all my savings (especially the Adventure Time ones)! Perhaps I will ask for one for my birthday, which is coming up very soon... :)

I love you guys!

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Slushee Cup Drawstring Bag / Chemistry is Amazing

Top is thrifted | shoes are thrifted | bag is from Twinkie Chan | skirt is c/o Choies (way old)

Okay, Sydney weather. Let's make a deal. How about we start going into autumn now? In return, I'll... wear the cutest jumpers and tights and coats you've ever seen! Okay... DEAL!

So I'm not sure if non-sentient weather systems respond to deals/threats (or if they're into fashion, hmm), but I would really like for it to be winter now. It's been summer for far too long here. Dammit, Australia, stop being such a stereotype!

At least I have this crochet slushee cup bag to trick people into thinking I'm way "cool" in the constant 28°C heat (something I most certainly am NOT right now). Isn't this bag the greatest?! This bag and my house purse make me so happy - who needs "normal" bags when you have bags like these? Twinkie Chan is an absolute genius and I'm so excited to now own one of her amazing crochet pieces!

Okay you guys, what would you say if I told you that it was possible to freeze and boil water at the same time?

No I'm not just asking a random hypothetical question.

Because it's possible. Check it out:

When you remove atmospheric pressure, there's a point where ice and gas are a simple step away from each other (no going through a liquid phase!) You just need to get it to the exact right temperature... and... this happens!

Sunday 30 March 2014

Emulation

Sometimes I find an outfit that I really like, and become obsessed with recreating it with as much accuracy as possible. Sure, this can be a fairly easy task with the availability of wholesale sites that spew out fast-fashion as quickly as the trends change, but if you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know that I am very much opposed to this form of cheap-and-nasty consumerism. So, in order to recreate this outfit, I had to get out there and do some work!

The sweater was a super lucky op-shop find, spotted after an hour of searching through bins of second-hand clothing (in fact, Katie actually spotted this one - she knows my style so well). Then I found these boots second-hand for $4 - the two shoes were at entirely different ends of the store so I felt pretty damn accomplished by actually finding both of them. The soles of both shoes were also falling off (hence the $4 price tag) but I fixed this with some super-glue - now they're good as new!
However, my outfit was still incomplete without a full gingham skirt, and I wasn't able to find one anywhere, so I made one with leftover fabric from my smock dress!

Anyway, it was a mash-up of these two sporty-schoolgirl-from-the-50s outfits, from the March 2014 issue of Zipper magazine, that I was determined to emulate:

How do you think I did?

Sweater and boots are thrifted | skirt is handmade by me | headband is from Japan

Seeing as we're talking about emulation (which means to "duplicate or copy"), I thought that I would talk about this incredible work being done in synthetic biology (which is essentially the science of emulating nature)! Synthetic biology is really exciting because it means that creatures that have gone extinct might not be extinct forever! Now if you're not really sure about what DNA or chromosomes are, go here to read my post explaining them, then come back.

Yeast cells under a microscope (image source)

A team of international researchers have successfully created the first synthetic eukaryotic chromosome! This means that they built a long piece of DNA, with a very similar code to an organism (yeast) entirely from scratch. This is a world-first for eukaryotic chromosomes (yeast, plants and animals are all eukaryotes). The entire piece of DNA is 272,871 "letters" long and had to be "stitched together" from much smaller fragments to create the finished product. The researchers were then able to put the chromosome back into the yeast cell - and the yeast cells worked perfectly normally!

But one of the really awesome things is that this work was largely done by science students who are around my age! Anyone who says that "generation Y is dumb, lazy and apathetic" really doesn't know young people at all.

You can read the entire news story at Nature here (and a summary here).

Friday 28 March 2014

Hell Bunny & Vintage Reproduction

Dress is Hell Bunny ("Melanie") | shoes are from Italy (brand unknown) | bag is vintage | socks are from Tutuanna

Hello everyone! Have you all had a good week so far? I had to get this Hell Bunny dress after seeing Katie (aka Amelia) from Junebugs and Georgia Peaches looking so amazing in it! These are some photos taken quickly before uni the other day - the package enclosing this dress arrived at 8am in the morning while all my housemates were still asleep, and its arrival woke them all up (they were oh so happy), but I was far too excited to feel guilty. I just love the cutout, white piping and the buttons!

Hell Bunny does run large so although this dress is a size small, it's a tiny bit too big for my bust and I will have to adjust this with some sewing, but that's no big deal. It's also not this fluro-green in real life, I'm not sure why my camera has made it look so bright! Also note: I'm wearing a petticoat underneath, but the skirt is still pretty voluminous without one. However, I can't vouch for the ethics of the production as the tag says "made in China" and it's hard to find any more information on it other than that. Does anybody know of good vintage-reproduction companies that aren't prohibitively expensive but can probably guarantee that their manufacturers are being paid a decent wage? I'm really into this style of dress right now and would like to add a few to my wardrobe!

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Interview on Paulie Antiques

Hey cuties, I'm just popping in today to let you all know about an interview that I did with the wonderful Polly of Paulie Antiques! I ended up pretty much telling my whole life story haha, in part because I really enjoyed reading this in-depth interview with Kate Gabrielle, who was also interviewed by Polly a few weeks back. Anyway, if you want to read about my childhood, what a typical day is like for me and other junk about my life, you can read the interview here.

Sunday 23 March 2014

Gingham pants, good friends and deadly microbes

Blouse, pants, cardigan and bag are all thrifted | Shoes are Naot | Cherries are c/o Sarsparilly

Look at me, wearing pants! What an unusual sight to see. I found these gingham pants at that "buy per kilo" op shop I visited the other day (whose name I am very selfishly withholding lest all the trendy Sydney kids descend upon the place and take all the good stuff), as well as this cardigan! I paired this with some dress-brogues and cherries, and my house-purse for good measure. Oh, and an old man decided to stand across the other side of the road and gawp at me the entire time that I was taking photos. Next time that happens, I'm going to stare right back at the person until they walk away. People can be so rude when you're doing something so "unusual" as standing on the street taking photos of yourself, goodness.

So something very exciting happened last week - I convinced my good friend Katie to start blogging (and I even designed her blog for her)! This means I finally have someone (who doesn't currently live in Japan) who'll take photos with me in awkward public places - which means less awkward-looking-selfies-because-I'm-being-stared-at-on-the-street, woo hoo! - AND she's also super cute and wears the coolest stuff so I'm too excited to take photos, make things and chat about blogging together! While we do have (somewhat) different styles, our outfits usually complement each other - we usually match on the whole red hair/red lips thing, and are both partial to a dressing like a 1950s pin up model now and again!
Anyway, you may have seen me plugging her new blog all over social media (I'm too excited to have a blog friend who lives just around the corner!) BUT if you haven't had a read yet, you should go and check out her blog, Buddle & Squeak, and say hi!

Oh and can you believe these photos were taken on an iPhone (and unedited??) I might as well go and throw my super-fancy SLR in the bin now. Yikes.

Also, thank you all so much for your feedback on this post when I was thinking of changing my blog's name to "The Pin & Needle Collective". Well, I've decided to keep the Pineneeedle Collective as is! Sure, I might not have liked the name when I first started blogging, but it's come to be representative of this whole space right here, which is a fact I definitely can't ignore! So, I've decided to stop being embarrassed when people ask me what my blog is called, and embrace The Pineneedle Collective as a name! *woo*

So because I'm in a creative mood right now (and also wanting to learn how to embroider), check out these sciencey microbrial cross-stitches!

Alicia Watkins from Etsy makes these amazingly nerdy & cute cross-stitches of various microbes and diseases (and that's probably the first time plasmodium, the parasite that causes malaria, has ever been called "cute"). I'm smitten. Particularly with the two cross-stitches below!

Although these two guys here can cause some pretty deadly illnesses, they are also two of the most important microbes to science, and I work with them in the lab all the time.

E. coli loves to grow everywhere and is super versatile, and so they are the microbe of choice for molecular biologists. By using E. coli, you can clone lengths of DNA, make biofuels, and make important proteins for medical purposes (to name a few applications)! For example many brands of insulin (used by people with diabetes) are made inside an E. coli cell!

Bacteriophage, on the other hand, are viruses - and they're able to latch onto bacterial cells such as E. coli using those long green "legs" you can see in the cross-stitch above, inject their own DNA, and take over the cell, often hijacking it to make thousands more copies of itself... then ungraciously bursting the cell into pieces. What a badass! However just like E. coli they've revolutionized biotechnology, and are extensively used in research laboratories for things like cloning DNA. And because they're such great bacteria-killers, they're also used to help "sanitise" foods such as cheeses, meat and poultry.

I hope that you've all had a lovely weekend so far!

Saturday 22 March 2014

DIY Circle Skirt (no-zip method)

I really wanted to do a video version of my DIY circle skirt tutorial, so here it is!

When I can't be bothered to add a zip to a circle skirt - it can add up to an hour to a project - I use this no-zip method with some stretchy fabric instead!