RDP Thing 7 and 8: Referencing, Creative Commons and Copyright

As part of 23 Things I was tasked with talking about the reference management softwre whih I chose to use, and also to make use of copyright features such as the creative commons service.

Since my dissertation last summer and throughout my EngD so far I have been using the reference management tool Mendeley. I must say that I wouldn't be able to progress throughout my doctorate without some form of reference management software and Mendeley works perfectly.
The service works by creating a Mendeley account which all your source material will be saved to, there is then the option to download a plug-in/app for your desktop web browser, which places a small red button the the right of the web address which you can click on when viewing a journal article to have it directly saved as a source on your Mendeley account. Either online or using the desktop Mendeley library program one can then view the library of all sources that they have saved which performing a literature search. There are many features within the library such as the ability to assort your sources into separate folders, depending on which project they are relevant to. One can also [if the pdf is available] view the article within the program, with the ability to highlight sections of the text an dd notes to the article which will be saved within your library. Finally there is also a Microsoft Word plug-in available which allows you to insert references from your library with few clicks, as opposed to the hassle of carefully hand typing a reference.

I would say to setup an account and download and understand how to use everything will take around half an hour, and having this or any reference management tool at your disposal will save you hours of time that you may have spent meticulously typing references and checking them against the Oxford Referencing style guide. There are many other benefits too, such as the fact that you no longer risk losing a reference and searching for it last minute as you rush to complete your bibliography hours before a deadline. To all naive undergraduates, trust me when I say that it is so much better to reference as you write than to try remember and fit them in at the end of a document.

RDP Thing 6: LinkedIN, ResearchGate and Professional Networks

Do you think these tools [LinkedIN and ResearchGate] offer a good way to present your professional profile, or do you prefer something else (a website, blog, etc.)?
If you use Facebook, do you feel that LinkedIn and ResearchGate are a suitable alternative space for professional activities, or do you find Facebook works just as well?

I have profiles on both linkedIN and ResearchGate (As of this time I don't have a profile on Academia.edu so I have skipped this other major network). I am a big fan of all social networks and these are no exception. View my linkedIN profile and you will come away with the impression I am a professional, focused and work driven individual, which is fantastic for my potential future employers to see. If sites like Facebook have caused us to create fake personas and lives to showcase to our friends, then linkedIN is exactly that, but for our future colleagues and employers. I don't believe it's some ruse or obfuscation of truth though, the site is just serving its intended purpose of presenting an online CV for the world to see. I do find it funny though to imagine the additional 'skills' and 'achievements' I could add to my university friends profiles; Skill: Can consume bottle of VK in under 5 seconds, Achievement: 80% of marks in Nuclear Astrophysics despite only 20% of lectures attended. 
Facebook works surprisingly well for certain professional activities, almost every time I was assigned a group project throughout my physics degree there would immediately be a Facebook 'Group' or chat created; to organise project meetings, to share questions or project information. I feel that group projects would have required far more hassle and work if the 'information sharing space' that Facebook provides had not been there. 
I think that both LinkedIN and ResearchGate achieve their purpose remarkably better than a professional blog would, as a a blog requires a constant updating of posts otherwise it seems dead or out of date, whereas LinkedIN can remain a testament of achievements throughout time and requires much less input. Research Gate requires very little input my profile appears to pretty much update itself; colleagues have added me on 3 publications in my bibliography that i have co-authored (some of which I actually forgot I worked on). 
I have yet to 'Collaborate' through ResearchGate even though such a feature is available through creation of a 'Project', where one can share their work, ask questions and communicate goals all on one page related to one grand project. The feature acts in the same way as the 'Group' feature in Facebook, that you may recall me saying I used throughout my degree, a Project is a message board where all 'collaborators' can post to. It seems that it will be very useful in the future and I am sure I will utilise it once I know what my project title actually is and I have some worthwhile work to share. The whole of ResearchGate maintains a professional scientific formality which I believe does prevent it being used by students, with many including myself opting to stick to Facebook for degree work. I have come to the conclusion though that this formality is absolutely needed to keep communities like research gate free of "trolls" and "internet experts" that populate the rest of the non-professional web-space, so I am happy with ResearchGate remaining the gated off community it is. 

RDP Thing 4 and 5: Considering your personal brand

"How easy were you to find online? Were you happy with what you found? What sort of ‘person’ emerged, and what might other people think about him or her? What did you, or might you, do to address this? How important do you think it is to maintain a professional presence online?"

A quick Google search of 'Nathan Cassidy' leads only to a British comedian of the same name, who apparently won 'Best Show' at the Buxton fringe (I don't even know where Buxton is). This apparently mildly successful comedian's online presence absolutely dominates mine, to the point where I appear nowhere in the first 5 pages of Google's web results. This is certainly not good enough for myself, I may have to visit the Buxton fringe and try to top my namesake.
It's not so bad though, as if I add 'Surrey' to the list of words for my google search the engine provides me with the complete list of my social media profiles on top of my comedian namesake - now nemesis.
My online presence is rather contrasting: my facebook profile is thankfully private so potential employers and collaborators are unable to see into the collection of photos documenting drunken nights out, my twitter account though remains open so people can see my heated debate with other users of the site and from that they can probably guess some strong political leanings which they may or may not agree with, these tweets are of course dispersed amongst a hundred other rewteets of memes which make even my closest of friends question my sense of humour. Thankfully coming before my twitter in the Google results hierarchy is my LinkedIN and researchgate accounts which show off my carefully crafted professional profile and scientific achievements. It is these final two profiles that I would prefer people only saw until they got to know me better, and until then they can even read a scientific paper that I co-authored which somehow pops up quite high within the online results.

EngD Project Update 1: An Introduction

Throughout this blog I aim to provide updates on the work that I will be undertaking throughout my EngD. I thought I would begin with a brief introduction to my project, beginning with the title: Single Ion Multispecies Positioning at Low Energy (SIMPLE) Quantum Materials Metrology and Development: SIMPLE QMMaD. See, simple.

I am currently working with Ionoptika Ltd. to develop a new tool and imaging capability that will enable the deterministic implantation of single atoms in materials with sub-20nm spatial resolution.
In simpler terms: I will be part of the development of an ion gun that will implant single phosphorus atoms into a silicon substrate, (other combinations of elements will also be used) and we aim to be able to place them within 20nm of our desired target. For those unaware 20nm (nanometers) is around 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The spacing between silicon atoms in
a lattice is 0.543nm! So we are working at the physical limits, in terms of the precision of our targets. 

A C60 gas cluster ion gun. Whilst the pictured gun greatly differs to the one described, from the outside they look much the same. 

I’ll now delve into how an ion gun creates a beam of ions to ‘fire’ at a substrate. Taking the bottom of the gun to be where the ions end up last before being fired, at the top of the gun you have a reservoir of the element you wish to implant, in this example gallium (which at room temperature is a solid metal). The gallium reservoir will first be heated; this will melt the reservoir which will travel down a fine needle tip where single atoms that have become charged will be extracted from the reservoir by an applied electric field. All this happens in the emitter, which I will explain in more detail in a later post. These extracted ions will then be accelerated along the column of the ion beam by strong electromagnets, which will also act to direct the beam of ions toward the intended target.

I think it all sounds quite simple when you describe the workings of an ion gun as just a heater and some electromagnets, however the reality is much, much more complicated. You might think the development of ion beams and Implantation tools would be modern cutting edge science, but in fact most of the technology of Ion beam systems hasn’t changed much since its development in the 1970s! What makes this project special is that we are pushing the technology to the physical limits. 

I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction. In my next project update I will explain in much more detail the ion emitters.

RDP Thing 1: Experiences with social media

"...we’d like you to write a short piece about your experiences with social media and what you hope to get out of the 23 Things for Research programme."

I am part of the generation whose social media life began with Myspace, first creating my profile around age 12. Myspace was all about crafting your profile to accurately convey your personality; choosing a suitably 'edgy' but aesthetically pleasing theme, and choosing the perfect profile song which would intrusively begin playing every time somebody viewed your profile. 
Maybe though I am applying too much meaning to the phenomenon of Myspace. If you had asked me at age 12 why I used social media the answers wold have likely been the following: "all the other kids are on it" and "I want to chat to girls". If i'm honest those reasons haven't changed much even now...Hopefully the 23 Things Programme can allow me to use my blog and other social media outlets for more productive purposes. I look forward to writing of my EngD work for a public audience. I believe that the act of updating my blog, will allow myself to reflect on the work I have achieved. I also hope that the blog will widen my scientific interest, by encouraging me to read up on other subjects within my field so I can introduce them to the general public.I hope you will all become regular readers. At this age many kids have already begun to separate their interests and identity from that of their parents, crafting out their own personality as they grow to become more self aware. Myspace was one of the many tools and outlets where I could try and build and showcase my personality and style.