The Stress of Decisions

So very soon I have to decide what to study for my dissertation, which is exciting! The problem? I love biology, but it’s quite a broad subject area. And I don’t know what my favorite part is, which makes specialising in difficult. There are two fields which I am completely torn between, which is very frustrating. If someone could just pick for me, that would be great…

Now, I know from experience that decisions seem harder at the time than they actually are, which is why I thought this was important to address. you see, three years ago I spent ages carefully choosing which university to attend. I ordered about 20 prospectuses online and spent hours using them to choose where to apply. In the end it didn’t really matter. I didn’t end up where I thought I would. I missed getting into my first choice university, which I completely had my heart set on, and ended up a long way from home. But I love it! I have become even more enthusiastic about my subject, and the university I am at is brilliant.  

You have to make the most of the path you choose

So whether you are deciding which A levels to take, which university to apply to or what to study for your dissertation, just remember that whatever happens, it is not the end of the world. At the time it feels like the biggest, most important dilemma that could ruin your life forever if you get it wrong. But its not (trust me). Whatever you do, wherever you end up, as long as you throw yourself into it with enthusiasm and determination, it will be alright in the end. And actually, you will probably enjoy it more than if everything had gone exactly to plan!

So now I just have to make a decision.

Never Work With Animals... Ever!

Studying zoology comes with one major issue: the animals. Much as I love them, they never do what you want them to when you want them to. It makes everything about twice as hard, as demonstrated by my experiences over the last couple of weeks.

It all started when me and some friends decided to make a video explaining salmon jumping behaviour for a uni project. Salmon migrate from the Atlantic ocean up freshwater rivers to spawn. Their young are born at these spawning sites and then increase in size, before migrating down the river and back into the sea. This requires a lot of physiological adaptations to cope with the change from fresh to salt water, as well as impressive abilities to trace their steps back to the exact part of the river in which they were born when it is time for them to spawn.

Definitely no salmon here!

However, we were focusing on only a tiny part of this huge journey; overcoming obstacles which block the path to the spawning grounds. There is a waterfall in a nearby town which salmon have to leap up on their way upstream. Eager to impress, we set off at 6.15am one morning (which is dedication considering 10am is generally seen as an early lecture), full of excitement at the prospect of capturing this on video.

We did not see a single fish that day. In fact, we could barely see the waterfall they were meant to jump up, because the bridge was closed.  After feeling utterly dejected at our failure, and consoling ourselves with frozen yoghurt, we regrouped and set off the next day in search of crabs.

Past Aberdeen harbour the shoreline is rugged and the sea rough

After gazing into rock pools for half an hour and occasionally moving rocks with our feet, we admitted maybe searching for crabs in Aberdeen in February was a bad idea. We came home with a film of a sea anemone being prodded and some oyster catchers sitting on a rock not doing much.

Getting desperate, we wandered through the local park one sunny lunchtime. And right in front of us was a crow flicking over leaves with its beak, searching for food. This was perfect, an interesting animal showing a behaviour that was easy to explain,  which we managed to film!

If you don’t know already, crows are awesome. They are extremely intelligent and can use tools to solve problems and exploit new food sources. In fact it has even been suggested that crows and apes are an example of convergent evolution. This means that they have both been put under similar environmental pressures (for example similar food sources) and have separately evolved the same solution; intelligence.

So that was the final subject of our film! If you want to see the end result of all this hard work, then click the link below, and try not to cringe….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ls3_Mah8T0