Pastel Unicorns and Crying in Space

I am one happy and very lucky, spoilt lady - I'm turning 21 in just a couple of days time, and my parents bought me a Canon EOS 60D! (I may have gotten it a little early, hehe). Needless to say I've been spending all my time playing around with the new camera and not studying. One thing that I'm really happy about is that the 60D is incredibly useful if you take your own photos (i.e. if you're a blogger who needs to take multiple outfit shots in a day and you don't have a super patient photographer friend who will take photos whenever you need them). The best feature of the 60D is that has a flip-out, twisty screen which you can use to look at and position yourself right in front of the camera. Buy a self-timer remote, and it's super easy to take outfit photos. A package from Oasap containing this new dress and sweater also arrived in the mail the morning while I was playing with my new camera, so I decided to take some pictures of them! I'm super in love with this sweater - it's basically the softest, most cuddly thing in the world and the print on the front and back just make it that little bit sweeter. I'm fairly sure I am going to live in it throughout the winter here. sweater - c/o Oasap dress - c/o Oasap hat - c/o Wholesale bow - DIY For the last few days I've been obsessed with watching the Canadian Space Agency's youtube channel (after this video went viral - the first music video recorded in space! And it's a David Bowie song!). Astronaut Chris Hadfield is not only my new hero for doing that, but he's also done a bunch of videos while onboard the International Space Station explaining how everyday things work when the physics is completely different: including brushing your teeth, making a sandwich, getting a haircut and crying. Of my life-goals, living up in the ISS for a few months is probably one of the most unrealistic, but gosh I want to be an astronaut, so badly. Does anyone else ever get that feeling?? Anway, this video from Chris Hadfield shows what happens if you cry in space. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

I Love My Thrift Shop / People Who Don't Perceive Pain

I know I keep going on about it, but I managed to find the best stuff at my local thrift shop the other day, this baby blue sweater and orange blazer included. I really like pairing light blue and orange together, it's one of my favourite colour combinations (after lilac + orange). sweater - Thrifted blazer - Thrifted skirt - c/o Sheinside shoes - Chicory tights - c/o Oasap necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy In psychology the other day, I learnt about a really interesting (and somewhat terrifying) super rare condition called "congenital analgesia". People with the condition, like Ashlyn Blocker, don't ever feel physical pain. Congenital insensitivity to pain is usually caused by a mutation in DNA on what is known as the "SCN9A" gene. The normal function of the gene is to assist in sending signals from nerve cells to the brain. An essential part of one type of nerve cells is to detect and transmit pain signals (so you know to draw your hand back when you touch something hot, for example). The mutation in this gene inhibits the sensation of pain, and so people with this particular mutation don't ever feel physical pain. This is chromosome number 2 (out of 23), and this is the location of the gene on that chromosome. We all have this gene, but in people with congenital analgesia, it has become mutated (image source) At first, not feeling pain might sound like a gift or some kind of superpower, until you consider how important pain really is for our survival. For example, Ashlyn could happily plunge her hands into boiling water, and the first hint she might get that something is wrong  (apart from now having learnt from experience that putting body parts in boiling water is not a good thing to do) is when her hands are totally cooked and melted away. Or, you might know that you're sick and have to go to the doctor when you get really bad stomach pains - but if you have congenital analgesia, you wouldn't get this warning signal that something is wrong. This article tells of a woman with the condition who gave birth, and didn't realise her pelvis had been totally shattered in labour and was bleeding internally until she was physically unable to walk a few weeks later. Although life without pain is actually a lot tougher than you would think, Ashlyn Blocker and other people with congenital analgesia have helped science greatly by providing clues as to what can cause pain signals to go the other way - being over-sensitive and causing chronic pain for no reason, for example - and may be able to help with treatments of these conditions in the future. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Winter Owl

Goodness! It is almost winter and finally cold enough to wear this wicked new blazer I thrifted (when I'm in the shade, at least). This blazer required a cute little dress to pair with it, and this owl-print one sent to me by Cichic worked perfectly. I've also been living in white tights lately. They are perfect for this kind of weather and  I really like how they look with little black Mary Jane or ballet strap style shoes (cute, is how). dress - c/o Cichic tights - c/o Oasap shoes - Chicory blazer - Thrifted bag - Thrifted belt - Thrifted hat - c/o Wholesale Who had cheese on toast this morning? I did! And one of my favourite science bloggers Katie from the Molecular Circus just wrote a really cool post on how cheese works (which may also have been why I chose to eat cheese this morning). She explains why cheese goes all gooey when you melt it, and why different types of cheese turn either stringey or become liquefied when you heat them up (hint: it's got to do with cheese proteins and chemical reactions). Have a little read with your morning tea! ;) p.s. check out this super amazing drawing Cass from Undercover Dress-Up Lover did of me! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Have some food, Charlie Brown!

The title of this outfit post may seem a little bit confusing until you take a closer look at some of the details. First off, I'm wearing some food-themed clothes - matching this awesome hot dogs t-shirt I got in Japan with this apple core necklace (which looks like I've gotten the munchies and taken a bite out of). And this skirt I thrifted today reminds me heaps of Charlie Brown's t-shirt, so that explains the latter half of the title. I thrifted both this cardigan and skirt today for $10, and I'm feeling pretty happy about finding them. skirt - Thrifted cardigan - Thrifted t-shirt - Thank You Mart necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy tights - c/o Oasap shoes - c/o YesWalker Just a short post today. All I can think about right now (thanks to two assignments I'm currently working my butt off doing) are the hippocampus of rats and yeast two-hybrid tests. Which are both interesting in their own fun ways... but not really right for a fashion/pop science blog. So, I'll leave you with a comparison of my skirt and my outfit doppleganger. "Who wore it better?" I hope you're all well. Goodnight from me! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Simple, Classic / Cichic Giveaway Winners Announced!

Hello! Just popping in really quickly today, because I'm meant to be working on an assignment *shhhh*. I am so happy I found this shirt the other day, because I've been wearing it almost constantly since. It worked really well with this plain black skater-style skirt sent to me by Cichic, too! I really like this skirt - it's simple but a little bit different from your average plain-black skirt, because it has these panels which make it flare out from your waist in a really flattering way. skirt - c/o Cichic blouse -  Forever 21 tights - c/o Oasap shoes - c/o YesWalker bloomers - Wholesale bag - Thrifted belt - Thrifted And as promised, I am announcing the winners of the Cichic giveaway, who will get to pick one item of their choice from cichic.com! Winners are Emmy Anne, Alina and Man Yee. Please check your email, and email me back to get your prize! Also, don't forget to go and enter my 1 Million Pageviews giveaway, if you haven't already! And because I am supposed to be doing an assignment right now, here are some amazing facts to blow your mind (requiring no effort on my part ;) I can't write up a DIY on how to extract DNA every day). Which fact was your favourite? Mine is the card shuffling one. I just couldn't believe that one is real! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Thrift Store Dress / DIY Science Experiments #2 (Extracting DNA at Home)

Do you all remember how I mentioned that there was a charity thrift shop just 50 metres down the road from my new house? Well, I finally caved and bought something. It's been one month since we moved and this is the first item of clothing I've bought in that whole time, so I think I'm doing pretty well. Even though it was quite ridiculously priced for a charity store ($10! Sydney op-shops, what are you doing??) I had to buy it because it's so dang cute. I can never walk past a good heart-print, after all, and the collar detail reminded me of Christine's Lady Ties, which I always love the look of. By the way, I just wanted to mention that reading all your comments the other morning on my last post made me so happy. Obsessively checking your emails every morning before you're even out of bed isn't always the best idea, but the other morning it put me in the best mood. Thank you to everyone who leaves me thoughtful comments - and thank you for reading, even if you don't! dress - Thrifted bag - Thrifted belt - Thrifted shoes - c/o Yes Walker socks - Cotton On hat - c/o Wholesale Yesterday in my lab session at university, we extracted our own DNA (for sequencing, to see how things like forensic analysis and paternity/maternity tests work). But while extracting DNA sounds super sciencey and complicated (and impressive - when I was telling my friends about how I was extracting and sequencing DNA this week their reaction was always to go "wow! Awesome!"), it is actually something that you can do yourself with a blender, salt, pineapple juice and alcohol. 1. Figure out what you want to use as a source of DNA. You can get your DNA from anything living - but you might want to use fruit,  vegetables or parts of a plant for this experiment, because you'll need to blend up the cells and so using animals would be just a little bit  unethical (okay, so I said above that I extracted my own DNA, and I did do this without chopping myself up, but this is a little bit harder - we took cheek swabs and then had to centrifuge everything for about a million hours, so if you don't have your own bench-top centrifuge, then use strawberries or something instead). 2. Blend it up so it becomes a paste (blend on high for 15 seconds). This breaks open (lyses) many of the cells. Also add a pinch of salt. 3. Add detergent. This will lyse the cells further and also break open the cell's nucleus, which is where the DNA lives. 4. This step is not necessary if you just want to extract and look at DNA, and not do any further measurements with it (like spectrophotometry). But if you have it available, add some pineapple juice to your mixture. Pineapple juice contains an enzyme called bromelain that eats proteins. You need to add this to remove proteins from your solution - because cells are also full of proteins, and when you break open your cell, a whole bunch of proteins will come flowing out. And if you remove the proteins, the stuff you extract will be more "pure" DNA. 5. Add vodka/rubbing alcohol/anything with a high ethanol content. Carefully add the alcohol to the top of your mix. DNA does not dissolve in alcohol, so if you add enough it will "precipitate" out of the solution. Stringy white shapes should appear in your solution. This is strands of DNA! (Yes, you can see it!) You can then put a straw or skewer into the solution, twirl it and pull it out. The DNA you have extracted will look a lot like mucous or snot ;) (Image source) And that's how you extract DNA at home! You don't even need any fancy lab equipment. Pretty easy, huh? Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr