archaic-stranger

[archaic-stranger]

finals week aesthetic

raucous 2am conversations with classmates you've come to see as friends

giggling over your latest cup of coffee, dark circles under your eyes

the sense of pride that only comes from hard work

upbeat music playing through your headphones

papers splayed across your floor, covered in notes and highlighter marks

the instant of silence right before an exam begins

timed essay questions, racing to get your thoughts down on paper

cozy sweatpants and your comfiest sweater

the bluish glow of a vending machine at midnight

settling in at your favorite desk in the library

google searches that get more nonsensical as the night goes on

study guides and flashcards, the culmination of all you've learned

the rush of hitting submit on your final assignment

[archaic-stranger]

₊˚｡⋆❆⋆｡˚₊ winter term recap ₊˚｡⋆❆⋆｡˚₊

january - march 2025

with the end of this term, i can officially close the door on the first half of my bachelor's degree. it's taken closer to 3 years than 2 to get to this point, but the finish line is clearer now than it's ever been.

it's been an especially good term for my research aspirations – in january i started on a cell bio project with my adviser, got recruited by my ecology prof in february, and in march was accepted to a summer position in a biochemistry lab. i love my classes, don't get me wrong, but there's nothing quite like lab work for learning how to actually be a scientist.

[archaic-stranger]

tuesday | november 19

there's something almost soothing about finals week. my priorities narrow, the list of tasks becomes finite, and everything comes into clear focus.

[archaic-stranger]

study tips: staying motivated

i get asks about my approach to productivity, grades, and study routines every so often so i'm planning to start organizing some of my thoughts and tips into their own posts. please send in anything you're curious about <3

at the root of productivity is motivation. getting stuff done is hardest when you're sitting there wondering "wait, why am i even doing this?".

my big, macro-level motivation is my career. i know exactly what i want to do after i finish my PhD, and everything i do is a step in that direction. at the same time, i try to nurture more achievable goals to get me through the day-to-day, especially for weeks when everything feels overwhelming. some things i've used as motivation in the past:

this class is difficult, and i might get a bad grade, but i want to be able to say i did my best

i'm annoyed by this silly mistake i made on an assignment, i want to make sure i don't do the exact same thing a second time

i have plans with friends this evening, i want to get some homework out of the way so i won't be stressed later

i want to show this professor that i'm working really hard in this course because maybe they'll write me a letter of recommendation one day

this topic is related to something i'm interested in, i want to understand it better so i can see that connection

you'll notice that these are all fairly achievable goals. they take effort, but they don't require me to get straight A's or understand something perfectly. relying on unrealistic goals as motivation is a recipe for anxiety and will only make you less motivated in the long run.

[archaic-stranger]

friday | october 4

i'll spend the weekend catching up on readings and prepping for my first exam of the term, but friday evenings are the time to curl up with a good book and forget about homework.

[archaic-stranger]

two types of stem major in a humanities class the first is only there to fulfill a curricular requirement and the second is going feral because they've realized backing up their ideas doesn't require 50 hours of lab work

[archaic-stranger]

bizarre take from my biochem textbook:

"Some popular accounts of Franklin’s life and work have implied that the atmosphere at King’s College was inhospitable to women, but Franklin’s correspondence, as well as firsthand accounts, indicate that the atmosphere was in fact congenial."

the year was 1951. what are you on

[archaic-stranger]

can you do a psychology and criminology major pleaseee 💕

i have both of these! here is psychology and here is criminology <3

[archaic-stranger]

biochem aesthetic for the atp synthase lovergirls :3

just posted right here!

[archaic-stranger]

requesting biochemistry?

here it is!

[archaic-stranger]

the biochemistry students

marveling at the complexity of life on the molecular level

the reassuring weight of your favorite pipette in your hand

talking excitedly about a new enzyme you're studying

the background hum of incubators and centrifuges

reciting metabolic pathways until you know them by heart

an organized lab notebook, a record of all your hard work

a new respect for the intricacy of your own body

a chart of biochemical pathways hanging on your wall

chemical structures scribbled down in pen

working steadily and methodically on an important experiment

a row of beakers hung up to dry

sketching peptide side chains in the margins of your notes

understanding how molecular errors can lead to large-scale illness

the satisfaction of a perfectly clean gel

the sound of clinking glassware

mixing up batches of LB or buffer, the components as familiar as your favorite home recipe

a row of neatly labeled eppendorf tubes

memorizing all 20 amino acids

faith in your own abilities

irregular lab hours, writing a paper while you wait for your cells to grow

[archaic-stranger]

hi!! love your work...can you maybe do a biophysics aesthetic?

here it is!

[archaic-stranger]

the biophysics students

examining life on all possible scales

reading a dozen papers on just one molecule

marveling at the work of early x-ray crystallographers

untangling a complex NMR spectrum as if it's a logic puzzle

deducing a chemical structure one piece at a time

hours spent perfecting a computational model

grounding your work in quantitative theory

a disciplined approach to problem-solving

the satisfaction of clean mass spec data

becoming comfortable with complicated equations

chilly air in the temperature-controlled equipment room

understanding the physics that grounds all larger phenomena

pages of instrument printouts cluttering your desk

seeing the contributions of a single atom to a wider system

safety goggles sized perfectly to fit your face

diagraming electron spins and magnetic fields

loyalty to your favorite graphing software

savoring a cup of coffee while you wait to collect your data

dreaming of the contributions your work will make one day

late nights at the lab computer

doodling protein ribbon diagrams on your homework

[archaic-stranger]

Hi! I was wondering if you would like to do a post on cognitive science — it‘s a wildly interesting (though sadly still relatively unknown) interdisciplinary science, a relatively new one compared to other sciences. I couldn‘t find it in your masterpost anywhere, but of course, if you did a post on it already and I just overlooked it (or you don‘t want to do a post on it for any reason), feel free to ignore this.

just posted one here!

[archaic-stranger]

patiently waiting for cognitive science aesthetic post, take your time no pressure I just wanted to request it but then saw it on your list of requests already and got excited, thank you for all the hard work you've done so far for so many fields of studies :D

here it is! (finally)

[archaic-stranger]

the cognitive science students

a strong desire to understand your own mind

becoming comfortable with abstract concepts

an unending curiosity for things beyond the scope of current knowledge

comparing neural nets to webs of neurons

working eagerly towards the next groundbreaking discovery

debating the nature of consciousness

arguing over definitions of thought or awareness

searching for the roots of human knowledge

analyzing biases in your own way of thinking

learning how your brain perceives the world around you

realizing that perception is not the same as objective reality

neuroscience texts and philosophical treatises jumbled together in your bookbag

sketching simple diagrams of the brain in your notes

understanding the mind through computational attempts to imitate it

getting completely absorbed by a fascinating paper

effective study strategies backed by research

discussing the bounds of sentience, from blue whales to artificial intelligence

studying how the brain develops over a lifetime

combining research from different fields, seeking a more comprehensive understanding

a sense of awe at the mind's immense complexity

[archaic-stranger]

could you maybe do an africana studies one? i rlly love your blog n i think that would be super cool if you haven’t done one already :))

here it is!