I couldn’t decided what to do for a blog post today (seriously, I made like 4 drafts before this one) so I thought I’d do a nice little ‘best of ErrantScience.com’ post. I appreciate that few of my readers see every post I put up, so here are my top 5 posts.
5. My funding ran out and I started Errant Science!
This blog only exists because my Fellowship position at Cranfield University ended. I’ve spent most of 2013 looking for a new post-Doc job and starting my own research company. I plan to post lots more on both subjects later this year but this post is where it all started.
4. I had my PhD viva

Pictured: My actual thesis and my examiners tags
I weirdly really enjoyed my PhD viva day, which I think puts me in a very slim minority of people. It’s rare that a room full of people willingly sit and talk about your work with such intensity. My advice? Enjoy it!
3. Using science, I managed to multiply

Small thing
Around the middle of the year, my daughter was born. Crucially she was born without a faulty BRCA1 mutation, something which was only made possible through pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. (aka Science!)
2. Scientist vs Engineer: The final showdown

The rarely seen transformation of a scientist to an engineer
Okay fine, it wasn’t really a showdown so much as a very reasonable discussion between Siobhán McGrath and myself about science/engineering differences. We also managed to coin the term ‘Engitists’.
1. Open-Accessed my thesis
Releasing my thesis and the associated data to the world wide web was by far the most rewarding thing I posted last year. I was amazed at the response and really pleased that people contacted me about my work due to its release. I was genuinely nervous about doing it but now that it’s on the web for everyone to read/scrutinise, I’ve only seen positives from it.
Next week: there are going to be some changes to ErrantScience in 2014 – stay tuned!
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