Thanks 2021!

What a year! It was definitely a busy one- as you could probably guess seeing as I’ve only published 3 articles since July! I didn’t get to spend as much time writing for here as I’d hoped, so I didn’t quite reach my goals for visitors and views- but I’m so grateful for every single person who read my blog this last year.

I’m still proud of what I’ve done with the blog last year- my instagram community has grown to 1,450 people, and I’ve had lots of fun experimenting with reels and different styles of posts, as well as incorporating more hand-drawn diagrams, such as this one of the standard model (my most liked ‘non-reel’ post of the year!).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jade (@nevertrustanatomblog)

I’m yet to dive into the world of Tiktok, but I really enjoy making reels- my favourite one (both in terms of making it and the content) was probably the one about analogue sites.

I love learning about astrobiology, so it was a great honour to be invited to talk at a webinar hosted by Girls in Aerospace all about it!

But the best experience of the year was getting to attend, and ask questions at, the ESA astronaut press conference back in February! There ended up being 23,000 applicants, and the 1,500 candidates successful in the first round have now been contacted- I’ll be following the announcements closely, so keep an eye out for an update post in the new year!

In case you missed any of my articles from the last year, here are a few of my favourites!

Kepler’s Laws: This was my first attempt a youtube video of this style, and it was fun learning how to derive the equation for Kepler’s Third Law!
Science at the South Pole- Fire & Ice: My first ever geology post (there are more to come don’t worry!) and it was cool drawing out the map of Antarctica- I learnt so much and it’s now firmly on my bucket list to go do research there at some point!
Space on Earth: like the reel, this was all about analogue sites!
How JWST can see exoplanets and ‘a bee on the moon’: this was the first post I’d written in ages, and it was really rewarding (even though working out the maths was SO difficult!)

Your favourite posts of the year, by views, were:

So what did I get up to in 2021?

Schoolwork, Uni applications and Work experience took up most of my time!

My first work experience of the year was in lockdown with In Space Missions, and I returned there in person, in the summer! I learnt so much about the space industry, and I got to touch something going to space, so thank you very much to InSpace!

I also did some work experience with the Reading University remote sensing department, which was absolutely fascinating! I got some really valuable science writing advice (you can read the finished piece here), learnt some coding, and got to look at real data which is used to analyse climate change, all while seeing what it’s like to work in academia, albeit remotely.

My final work experience was with STFC, in the business and innovation department, where I produced a marketing campaign and content to promote the space offering (mainly their recently opened National Satellite Test Facility) and for World Space Week, as well as writing a case study of one of the companies who had taken part in ESA BIC UK. I then presented all of this at the end of the week!

It wasn’t all work and no play though- trips to the beach, Oxford, Cambridge, and London were so much fun, including getting to spend my birthday in London thanks to having an interview on the same day, which was so cool!

What’s on in 2022?

Well it’s a big year for me, as I will be sitting my A Levels in summer (as well as multiple exams beforehand thanks to COVID), followed by a summer holidays full of everything I couldn’t do in the past two years due to the pandemic (travelling, climbing and DofE namely), before I start uni in September/October! So I can’t promise I will be all too active on the blog, but I love writing, so I will try to post when I can!

Some upcoming posts include (titles still in development):