Stem Aesthetic - Blog Posts

School’s about to start in two days, does anyone have any tips for taking notes?

🧬Exam Diary - Biology Paper 3🧬

On Friday I had my last exam, biology. Honestly, I was so pleased with it. The questions were alright, but the essay was phenomenal, and I’m so glad I finished on a high!

Well that’s it, A-levels are over. It’s a very strange sensation, but a wonderful one nonetheless.

Well done for everyone getting through exams. They were so difficult and I’m so proud of you all! ☺️💛🌷

🪸07.06.2022🪸

Good morning!

I’ve woken up early today. I find that waking up any time before 7 always means I have a more productive day. Whilst my days haven’t been too unproductive, they haven’t been as good as they can be, hopefully today this will finally be rectified as I feel quite good. 🤭

To Do List

2018 Physics Paper 2

2019 Physics Paper 2

2018 Biology Paper 1

2019 Biology Paper 1

2020 Biology Paper 1

Later today I’m spending some time with my friends which should be really lovely. 💕

Also, I’m planning on writing some tips on how to do well in Biology, Chemistry and Physics as I feel now I’m doing quite good at them. I hope that incoming posts are useful! 💌

Have a wonderful day! 🫶🏻🤗

🌳06.06.2022🌳

Good morning! ☺️

I’m back in college today as the half term is over. These are the papers I’m hoping to get done:

2017 Physics Paper 2

2018 Physics Paper 2

2017 Biology Paper 1

2018 Biology Paper 1

2019 Biology Paper 1

I’ve finished 2017 Bio Paper 1 and got an A* so I’m very happy.

Being back inside school is definitely helping me stay focused, and I really like that I can go and talk to my teachers whenever I need (I’m going to make use of that later today!).

Have a good day! 🌞

Hey! Im still here

Hello people! Lately i been doing the usual of studying and so on. This semester we started a few new classes like pharmacology and im pretty excited as well as i am scared of it!

On the other hand, i continue to go through the lab work with a few DNA extractions from blood and buffy coat, pretty fun if you let me say!

Good luck everyone!

Morning studying

Today’s morning i had started the parasitology module in my course of microbiology. I can’t help but being extremely excited of this even if its not “face-to-face classes” but rather recorded ones. Currently im interested on doing a master in parasitology in the future, so this might be the first date in this relationship, haha.

ps: helminths are very curious to see, although I am grateful to not be responsible for taking the diagnostic tests, but rather analyzing them.

qPCR and extraction of DNA

This morning I had the opportunity to practice DNA extraction from a blood sample from a South hospital. It was a rather nice experience since I wasn't anxious at all, I had overcome my fear of micropipette.

in my academic weapon era ✍️

i went to the local library to pick up some books today :) i'm literally so dumb because i was in the wrong row for the nonfiction section (looking for spacefarers) and i did not even stop to question why all the books around me were on the culinary arts.

i heard the master of djinn is a really good book and would be good for people that liked arcane. IF I MAKE IT THROUGH THE BOOK, maybe i'll write a review. hopefully i can because it looks really interesting...

i have a lot of random stuff to do these next two days since i wasn't productive for the first three days of break :(

study for computer science midterm

calculus unit 4 problem sets

magnetostatics FRQ

read literature for research project

update astrophysics notes

work on cosmology simulation

f=ma exam…. either i cooked or completely flunked lol

International Space Station transit of the Moon taken by Quinn Groessl on January 31 2023.

The ISS orbits the Earth at a typical velocity of 28000 km/h (very fast) and at a typical altitude of 400 km. Gravitational forces keep the ISS in constant freefall, but with the forward velocity of the ISS, the overall distance to Earth and velocity stays pretty much the same.

These transits are pretty infrequent. The angle of the moon from the orbital plane can vary over time, and any small changes in the ISS orbit can have major effects on its path. In the sky, they are both fairly small objects, leading to smaller probabilities as well.

An important factor that allows these events to occur is that the ISS is traveling much faster relative to our perspective on Earth compared to the moon. The ISS orbits the Earth around 16 times a day, while the moon takes around a month (27.3 days).

You can see the video of it at this link. It's incredible how precise astronomers have to be with how short of a timespan there is to record this.

NGC 2403 taken by John C. Yu on January 30 2024

NGC 2403 is a intermediate spiral galaxy. There are typically two types of spiral galaxies: barred and regular spirals. This galaxy falls between the two, denoted as SAB.

The bar in spiral galaxies forms due to gravitational instability. However, this bar can help with star formation as it funnels material to the center of the galaxy.

Interactions with neighboring galaxies or having greater instability can lead to a greater bar shape in the galaxy. However, dark matter halos also play a big role in having the opposite effect, often preventing the bar from forming. These combined factors lead to the median shape of this galaxy.

Intermediate spiral galaxies can eventually evolve into either regular spiral galaxies or barred spiral galaxies, but we won't be there to see the final form of NGC 2403.

AAAAAAHHHH I HAVE A MATH TEST TMRW

Normally, I’m not so stressed, but I missed class this week (I was skipping shame on me 😭) and I have no clue what’s going on… Me and the math teacher are besties because he’s the coach of the golf team, so I’m scared of disappointing him with my bad test scores.

I also had a long lab in chem this week. It’s really sad because we got bad results even though we ran our trial for over and hour lol. I think it’s my lab partner’s fault because he keeps on putting his crusty fingers all over the cuvettes which is messing up the spectrophotometer. Hopefully he actually writes his part so it’s not another repeat of last year.

- Practice midterms for matrices

- Grade practice midterms

- Write lab report

- Debug binary system simulation

- Work on astro research paper

- Work on program applications

- Finish new deal research

- Finish college assessment

- Email people back 😬

Don’t ask me why we have a midterm in January… I have no clue.

Messier 66 taken by Hubble Space Telescope on January 28 2021

In this picture, it showcases the star forming regions of the galaxies, which can be seen in red. Star forming regions are vulnerable to disturbances, which can cause the gas in the interstellar medium to collapse into dense clumps of material. These are called protostars.

During the formation of these protostars, gravitational energy is converted into thermal energy. If there is enough thermal energy produced, it is enough to spark nuclear fusion. The star then joins the main sequence.

Due to nature of the star forming regions, it often yields the creation of star clusters, since many stars are being created in close proximity. Large stars especially can emit radiation and produce stellar winds, which pushes the star away from these regions.

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) taken by Auvo Korpi on January 27 2023.

During the formation of the sun, there was a protoplanetary disk (cloud of debris and gas) that orbited around it. The farthest parts of this disk were far from the heat emitted, and cooled down. The cold material clumped with frozen gasses and water, creating icy rocks.

These rocks orbit far away from the sun in huge elliptical orbits, in the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud. At one point, the icy rocks get closer to the sun. The ice is heated and releases dust, known as the comet’s trail.

Comet ZTF was first discovered in March 2022, but came closest to Earth in a long time in January of 2023. At first, the comet was believed to be an asteroid, but when it got closer to the sun, it was observed to have its signature green glow.

The green comes from the diatomic carbon, which is part of the comet’s atmosphere. As it got closer to the sun, the molecules became excited and radiate green light. This is also why the green color doesn’t extend to the tail, instead it is happening in the comet’s nucleus.

I remember going out with my telescope around this time to view the comet. At that point I think it was just above the Taurus constellation, and I had a lot of trouble angling the lens to point that high up.

I don’t remember being able to see the tail, but just with the naked eye, I could see the comet’s light. I can’t believe it’s already been two years since then. Time really flies.

chemistry has been kicking my butt lately. so i’m staying after school to study. yay 😀

on the bright side, i somehow managed to secure more than 100% in my comp sci class with a huge fail rate… not really going to question it in case it was a mistake tho. take the wins when they arise

I wanted to lock in before the new year, so I finally got through the final part of my circuits lecture!!! I think this one was the longest yet (it took me like the whole day).

I did stop for a walk outside though (that’s the picture I took on the left) so that helped me clear my mind a little bit. Definitely a goal of mine will be to focus more when it’s time to work and then relax guilt free in order to prevent days like this.

Overall, I’m not disappointed since it’s difficult material. I really like the problem solving aspect of it since it’s like working a puzzle— especially the multi-loop ones.

i actually got out of bed and did some work 😳 total 90 mins so far. next on my to-do list is emails and suddenly i want to crawl back into the darkness

sometimes i feel like school sucks everything out of me. i have all this motivation and excitement at the beginning of the week, but then school happens and i have all this useless homework. meanwhile there is stuff i actually want to do and am interested in... but i never have the chance to do them because i'm so tired and i still have homework to do. i feel like i'm sacrificing a bit too much of my self just to please my school and my teachers

on a brighter note, i think i discovered the identity of the unknown acid! i'm super nervous to go back to the lab now though and collaborate with my team. hopefully i'm right :)

i'm going to lock in for the month of october! so i'm making a list on here of everything i have to do this week and seeing if i can finish it

thermodynamics module

photography composition practice

titration procedure / lab / analysis / presentation

midterm review sheet

immigration research paper

particle motion lab

energy conversion lab

add magnetic field to ising model simulation

finish chapter 2 part 1 of cs textbook

mini-essay of music in great gatsby

practice test for analysis midterm

read chapter 6 of great gatsby

crossing my fingers that this holds me accountable. my procrastination is way out of control...