Achievements Of 2021 (both Academic And Non-academic)

Romanticize your education

the midday stillness of a library

coursework sprawled on top of a desk

notes on the margins of a textbook

tracing names carved into an armchair

the inherent eroticism of the library after dark

a note falling out of a battered book

reminders scrawled across your hands

cursive handwriting

whispers cutting through the silence of the dormitory

the cold glow of a laptop screen in a dark room

ink stains

notebooks with half the pages crossed out

passing notes during lecture

getting up at 3 am to google something

leatherbound books with gold lining

crisp white paper

the smell of new books

very specific types of physicists

emeritus: a well-meaning retired professor who still frequents the department. occasionally seen jogging up and down the halls of the lab. it’s how he gets his daily exercise. his field of research is obsolete and he spends most of his days making art based on physics equations. asks all of the female undergrads if they plan to teach high school physics.

star child: no one will measure up to this alumnus. they started research in high school, graduated from undergrad a year early with a few papers already under their belt, and finished their phd (at a very prestigious university) in two years. they visit occasionally to present their research and talk to the undergrad physics students. very down to earth and kind. undergrads, grad students, and professors alike are in awe.

father figure: this prof’s lectures are full of dad jokes, metaphors comparing the behaviors of particles with sugared-up three-year-olds, and digressions about something that’s more fun to talk about than the subject matter. says “i’m not angry, just disappointed” when the class does poorly on an exam. when you go to his office hours there is almost always a child or two underneath his desk or drawing on his whiteboard (the bottom third of which is always covered in stick figures and scribbles). intensely watched the construction from his office window as a new laboratory was being built.

academic rival: you were friends over the summer when you were both doing research but they became distant. small talk always turns into bickering about the importance of your respective research when you run into each other getting coffee in the common room. begrudgingly you admit to yourself, they’re really good at what they do. thank god you don’t belong to the same research group.

harsh but kind: brilliant researcher with high expectations of their students. will offer and make you tea as they grade your problem sets (with commentary) in front of you. after your semester in their class, you buy a bag of loose-leaf jasmine green tea because they got you hooked on it.

the politician: buddies with some higher-ups in university admin and the heads of other colleges. your peers derail class by bringing up current events. has a fixation on swords and genealogy. a bit of an anglophile. you took apart a transistor radio with them once. will make formal complaints to the math department on your behalf.

melancholy teaching professor: very cynical from a career in academia but here to have fun. one of the friendliest faces in the department. organizes the students and faculty to do outreach and lugs physics demos all around the tri-county area. talks to the undergrads like they are people. always kind of sad, it makes you wish you could fix all of the ills of academia for them.

Spectacular 🤩

I don’t think there are words or pictures adequate enough to describe how absolutely spectacular Møre og Romsdal is. This is Trollstigen, my favourite viewpoint of the entire trip :)

how to learn new content and never forget it

save this for your next academic year and finals, and it’ll save your grades and time.

1. whenever you read a paragraph with new content, close the book/look away and ask yourself: “what have i just learned?” explaining the concept to yourself right away and asking follow-up questions will change the way you retain new material forever.

2. at first, it’ll be daunting, and it’ll be pretty hard to actually bring yourself to do this. trust me, it’ll be worth it - as this is scientifically proven one of the most effective study techniques.

3. to try this out, set yourself a timer for how long you estimate learning a concept might take. now take away 20% from that estimate. you won’t be able to reach this goal with basic highlighting and re-reading techniques - but with active recall, you will.

4. once you’ve understood the concept, use spaced repetition systems like anki flashcards to force yourself to retrieve this information in a set period of time. this way, your brain will always be reminded of this concept before it could possibly forget it.

5. teach it to others as much as you can. as with the old wisdom “see one, do one, teach one”, one of the only guarantees you’ve really gotten something is when you can effectively teach it.

hope these are helpful for you!!

more content like this on my instagram, @softmedstudent

last minute orgo studying before my exam; i did a study guide of every single topic covering the most important reactions and their mechanisms; ಥ_ಥ  it was worth it! 

Learning astronomy

Podcasts

astronomy cast  : hundreds of podcasts! Great for beginners and general facts, but keep in mind that those are from 2006, so some technical things may no longer be relevant

Videos 

crash course : amazing synthetic videos about astronomy, those are my personal favorites 

Websites

astronomy basics : all you need to know if you’re a great beginner!

Free online courses

probably the most complete one I’ve ever seen

khan academy astronomy courses are quality af

Books

list of books about what to see and how with a telescope

another list of books about astronomy in general 

telescope books

astrophotography

Stargazing

Sky maps

sky maps per month 

very good starwheels aka planispheres 

How to observe

basic skills

10 steps to begin

the perfect all-in-one stargazing guide: I can’t recommend this highly enough!!

Telescopes and things

telescopes

telescope reviews : aka what to chose for what you want to see

everything about telescopes : super useful when you start using one!!

Astrophotography

Starting

everything you need to know depending on what equipment you have!!

all you need version 2!

General

catching the light

hundreds of tips 

Apps and websites

For computers

stellarium

googlesky

astroplanner: plan your observation!

winstars: 3D planet/stargazing!

planetarium 

+ full list of softwares and websites

For mobiles

starwalk2 (android version): alright guys, this one is my absolute favorite at all times. Like, really. Have you ever wished you could point a device at the sky and know exactly what’s above you? And have a description of those things? Even in the middle of the day?? Well, now you can yaaay! :D 

Astronomy News

astronomy.com

universetoday

skyandtelescope

space.com aka my personal favorite

astronomynow

sci-news

++bonus !

All the random facts

here +other links:  x x x x

Backgrounds

hubble site gallery

ESA/Hubble gallery

HD wallpapers

NASA gallery

Even more resources

friendsoftheobservatory

NASA

European Space Agency

ISS Live

I really hoped it helped! Thank you very much for reading! Zoya

My technique for Quick Literature Review

Literature Reviews were one of the most confusing things for me when I began my PhD. I would get lost in searching for papers, wallowing in tangential directions, sometimes looking at entirely unrelated stuff. Other times, I’d be trying so hard to read an article and stuck without moving forward.

From my fair share of struggle with literature reviews, I deviced a technique that helped me do quick literature surveys, especially when I needed to write a proposal or improve half-written manuscript or to understand a new method/theory. So, here you go…

1. Collecting literature: Research Rabbit App🐇

This is my go-to tool for literature discovery. In addition to quickly build a literature collection, it helps to see how all the papers in my collection are connected! This is very essential when you write your LitRev, as you will need to draw connections between different works.

Go to www.researchrabbit.ai and search the topic you need articles for, and add them to a collection.

The app will automatically suggest more papers based on your selections and will make connections between the articles in terms of authors, citations or references!

You can also look for other papers by a certain author or similar papers to the one you choose.

(Make sure to stop when you find yourself going down the Rabbit Hole ;) )

2. Extracting information: Skim & Annotate 📑

Once you finish collecting the literature,

quicky read the abstract and decide which ones are important, relevant or new.

Now and skim the chosen papers, and annotate the most important things you find. I usually go for paper and highlighters, sometimes use the annotator in Mendeley

Optional: categorize the articles and assign a colour for each.

(Don’t spend more than 10 minutes per paper. You can always go back and read the article thoroughly after completing this task)

3. Organizing thoughts: The Sticky Note Method 🗂

Here comes my favourite part. I developed this technique inspired by a lot of tools I found on the internet. The Sticky Note Method is to capture, rearrange and construct thoughts.

From the now annotated, categorized collection, write down the essence of each article in a separate sticky note.

(here is where the colour-coding might come in handy: you can use different coloured sticky notes for different categories.)

After doing this for all the papers, stick them in a board/notebook

Rearrange them till you get a coherent flow!

That’s it. Now start writing your review! ;)

Every single odd number has an “e” in it.