So, science blogging. Let’s do this thing.
My name is James Oliver. My initials are J.W.O., hence the title “jwology”, and I’m a first year biology student at Edge Hill University. I’m 20 years old, I live in the Lake District when I’m not at uni, I’m trans, and I have about ten plant babies that live on my windowsill.
Bit of backstory: I wanted to study Biology at university because it seemed fun and I’d always had an interest in the topic. However, as I hadn’t actually studied it at A-level and was generally quite depressed and unable to commit to anything, I chose to study a Creative Writing degree instead – something I thought required a lot less commitment.
Long story short: it destroyed my soul. No exaggeration.
I impulsively decided to change to Biology in December 2016 with the help of the department head, the inimitable Paul Ashton, stuck out the next 5 months of Creative Writing until the semester ended, then spent the summer essentially doing my Biology A-level in those short few months. September 2017 came around, I snapped on a pair of gloves, shrugged on a (personally embroidered) lab coat, picked up a pen, and got stuck in.
It was the best decision of my life to date.
I’ve had an immense amount of help from tutors in EHU’s Biology department, including André Antunes, Marta Simoes, and Priyanka More, to name a few. I’m indebted to them all for helping me discover the secret little world I never knew was hiding in the BioSciences building.
I’m not sure what this blog will be, exactly. Hopefully it will develop and change as I do over the next few years and beyond, and hopefully my experiences will inspire a few other budding biologists along the way.
J.W.O.-logy 