Hello biology sprouts out there!

My name is Eilen, I am 21 years old and I am now in my last semester of a Bachelor in Biology. I come from Bergen, love a long trip in the mountains or in the woods and I am always looking for speed and excitement.
My interest in biology remains after having Biology 1 and 2 at Olsvikåsen high school, where we were on a trip to Espegren, a field trip to Mjølfjell and got to study closer on both pig heart and pig lungs at the lab (how cool is that!). This definitely gave more flavor to follow the interest further into a Biology Bachelor. Pig lungs video – DO NOT SEE if you don’t like to see organs or similar! You have been warned 😛

In this field of work the one thing that interests me the most is what one can not see with the naked eye, especially biological processes in the body and the interaction between them. So by taking a deep dive into the biological mechanisms and see how for example diseases evolve and can be treated (or not) have stolen my interest.

Pit stop along Rallarvegen: Hallingskeid to Flåm Image credit: Thea Ravnanger

(A) Larva phase, (B) Adult phase, (C) Clusters of C. intestinalis on the underside of a kayak, (D) Image near hatching stage of the brain and spinal cord, here the cell membranes are in green and the nuclei in red. Image credits: (A, B, D), M Kourakis; (C), S Abdul-Wajid DOI: 10.7554/eLife.06024.002

I have chosen to embark on professional practice in biology – BIO298 to get a better insight into how working life actually is and be able to see how my accumulated knowledge through the studies can be used in practice. This semester I have been deployed at The Sars International Center for Marine Molecular Biology where we will work with tunicates, more specifically Ciona intestinalis. Here, much of the time is spent both in the lab and in the field to harvest tunicates. More details and amazing pictures will come during my blogposts, so stay tuned 😀

Really looking forward to a content-rich and inspiring internship that can give me a better idea of how working life can be and maybe that may give me a closer indication of what I want to study further and work with in the future.
Hope the blog can be of help to you out there who are unsure of what job opportunities are out there and help to illuminate a small field within the many possibilities within biology. I’m really looking forward to both professional and practical input, and I hope you will be part of this little journey 😀

See you in my next blogpost <3

–  Eilen