Just a few weeks after the Sydney dramatic lockdown in 2021, I returned to the lab gleefully and was surprised by a new face in the office. I met Farhat for the first time when we were doing our chemistry lab duty together. She was a hard-working woman, passionate in her research and in creating an impact on the environment. I was drawn to her stories about how she made it to Australia from Pakistan in the midst of the pandemic. A year later I finally got the time to interview her and to learn more about her research and what it was like to be a woman in science in Pakistan.

"Life is beautiful not because of the things we see or do. Life is beautiful because of the people we meet." - Simon Sinek

Okay, I know this is late, but recently I have been overwhelmed with the world moving so fast and people catching up with traveling. The past few months were all about holidays here and there, conference this and that. Everyone seems to be planning their travels somewhere. It is exciting to be meeting our family again, new people, and network in person. So, I must reflect on the very event that started earlier this year that marked the first in-person conference and networking after a long time.

Writing, writing, writing. Writing papers, writing thesis, writing grants, writing scholarship application; who knew that being a scientist would also make you a writer by opportunity?

Writing is a big deal in research because it is a way of communicating our work to the world.  It is also a key task in the good practice of science where we need document every detail of experiments, procedures and findings, to ensure the integrity of the work. I also learn that progressing through the stages of a research career means that we will be exposed to different kinds of writing. As a PhD student, I am dealing with a range of writing tasks including reports, manuscript for publications and of course, the final document that will get me my doctorate degree, the PhD thesis.

Hello all! Welcome back to my blog!

Here is a short piece about the invaluableness of animals in medical research. Sometimes, public may find it hard to understand that animal use is very much needed in research involving translational medicine (like cancer or drug development) and cannot be entirely eliminated. In addition to carefully thought ethics and proper care for the animals, there cannot be enough ways to honour their contribution to science and medicine.