Showing posts with label 6 Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 6 Blog. Show all posts

MOOCs

Massive Online Open Courses (or MOOCs for short) are available for anyone to sign up to and complete online, for free!

This summer, I decided to spend some of my spare evenings (while stuck in rainy Scotland) studying for a couple of these courses - hoping to get a bit of a headstart on my studies next year as well as discover more about subjects I find interesting but am unable to fit into my degree.

First up, I had to pick a course. There are a wide range of websites offering MOOCs, some of which include:


This is by no means a complete list though! Each course provider offers different courses and different certificating strategies. As a brief summary:

Alison.com offers free stand-alone courses at a range of levels (although I would generally say AS/A Level or first year degree) in a huge variety of subjects - including several STEM subjects (athough generally broader courses rather than specialist ones). These courses can be taken any time at the learner's pace. Pdf certificates are free but not offered by many courses (including all the science-y ones) - and it is not clear on their website how much a paper certificate would cost. 

Allversity offers a variety of 'crash courses' as well as a few longer courses - these appear to be aimed at GCSE/AS/A Level students or those with no prior knowledge of a subject. There don't appear to be any certificates available. As with Alison.com, the courses are available all the time and can be taken at any pace. 

Coursera is one of the more well-established MOOC providers, with links to many top universities worldwide. They offer a wide variety of courses including many specialised STEM courses) in many languages. Courses are generally 6-10 weeks long and have set dates, and seem to be slightly more intensive than some alternatives (for example, around 5-10 hours per week). They appear to be at a slightly higher level - perhaps A level/ degree level standard (of course this varies significantly between courses). There is the option to take courses one their own, or some as part of a 'specialisation' - a group of courses on a particular topic along with a project. There is the option to either gain a free 'certificate of accomplishment' for completing a course, or pay for a 'verified certificate' ($49, certain courses only).

edX has many similarities to Coursera, including it's links to top universities; variety of fairly intense, specialised courses at a fairly high level; and choice of certificate options. The certificates offered include free 'honor code' certificates (all courses) and 'verified certificates' (~$25, certain courses only). Their equivalent of Coursera's specialisations is the 'XSeries' of courses. I particularly like the ability to change the video speed and download summary sheets. One major disadvantage is the requirement to take weekly tests which cannot be done after the deadline - making it harder to go at your own pace. Also, their discussion forum is not particularly easy to use and doesn't link into individual lectures.

FutureLearn offers a range of different STEM courses and has a particularly easy to use discussion function alongside each lecture, enabling easy communication with other learners or the educators themselves. The courses seem to require a sightly lower weekly time commitment than some other MOOCs, and tend to run from 2 to 10 weeks. As with Coursera and edX, they start and end on a particular date. However, there is a lot more flexibility in pacing the course, since each 'week' can be taken in advance or after the suggested time (this may vary between courses though). The main disadvantage is the need to pay for 'statements of participation' (currently 24 pounds + postage).

Saylor Academy offers stand-alone courses which can be taken as 'pathways' - equivalent to a whole degree course for some subjects, with free certificates of completion or the option to take an official exam to gain US college credit. However, they didn't offer many science modules at a high level.


I searched through and managed to find several courses which looked interesting. Just to get me started, I enrolled upon 'Medicines Adherence' from King's College London, a course offered by FutureLearn. I figured that this was a good one to start with since it was only two weeks long. I quickly got the hang of online learning - most of the teaching is done by short videos, accompanied by notes. They also prompt you to join in with discussions with other learners and read articles, as well as complete short quizzes. I decided not to purchase a certificate for this course, since it isn't particularly relevant to my future studies/ career.

Having had a nice introduction to MOOCs, I decided it was time to tackle one of the more interesting courses - but there were so many to choose from! I ended up picking three:
I am really enjoying these courses so far. They tend to explain things very well with plenty of detail and examples. The ability to work through the lectures at your own pace, re-wind, view transcripts, etc. makes it a much easier way of learning that university lectures - although of course there is less individual support (although on FutureLearn the educators have been making comments on people's discussion posts and giving weekly video feedback, which has been very helpful). 

In general, I would say that an online MOOC is a great way to learn more about a subject - and would also be good to demonstrate your commitment to further study on your UCAS application. They do require you to put in a bit of effort and motivate yourself, but can be very enjoyable. Particularly common STEM subjects available including computing, biology and physics courses - although other subjects can also be found. 

My internship so far

So, you may have been wondering what on earth I've been up to with my 3 month long summer holiday (or you probably have not...) - well, I've spend most of it doing an internship at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, which is affiliated with Cancer Research UK.

So far, it's been a fantastic experience - I have been in the lab every day, doing real experiments and experiencing life in a research laboratory. This is very different to my university weekly practical labs - with more advanced and varied equipment as well as having to work more independently on exciting new research.

Some of the techniques I have learnt to use include RT-qPCR (a method of quantifying gene expression), Western Blots (a method of analysing protein concentrations) immunohistochemistry (aka IHC, a method of using antibodies to specifically stain proteins of interest on slides containing tissue samples), and general cell culture techniques (basically, how to keep alive some interesting cells, how to prepare them for freezing, how to prepare them for DNA analysis, how to carry out drug tests on them). These are all techniques very new to me - and so it has been a great learning experience.

I have also had the chance to learn more about other work being carried out at the Beatson Institute by attending frequent seminars, and hear about recent research in the weekly journal club.

Another part of the whole experience I've really enjoyed is being given gradually more responsibility and independence. Recently, my supervisor was away for three weeks and I was able to carry out several experiments and look after her cell lines, as well as take on small tasks from other scientists working in the research group. I have also been able to analyse the results of each experiment - for example identifying changes in gene expression using qPCR and analysing if these results are significant between different cell lines, genetic mutations, or drug exposure levels.

Of course, the people are another key part of the experience - and I have been very privileged to work with such a fantastic, international and diverse research group. They have carried out world-leading research published in top academic journals, while still being some of the friendliest and helpful people. I've really enjoyed getting to know the team as well as hear about their experiences and routes into cancer research.

Although a few things haven't worked as well as I had hoped (I still haven't managed a perfect IHC staining!), it has been a really fantastic experience and really opened my eyes to the possibility of doing an PhD and working in academic research.

STIMULUS Volunteering

While at sixth form, I volunteered to help in AS Chemistry classes and at weekly Chemistry Workshop sessions. At the time, I was looking for something to add to my university personal statement - but I quickly discovered an enjoyment for teaching. Having had a year's experience, I then started private tutoring while at university - helping STEM students improve their grades and gain a better understanding of their subjects.

However, I still missed working in that dynamic classroom environment - and so at the start of Lent term (the one after Christmas, for some reason Cambridge gives terms weird names...) I signed up to volunteer in a local AS Use of Maths class as part of the STIMULUS programme. For me, this has been a fantastic experience - the students were a lot more challenging but I really learnt a lot. One of the main problems in the class was keeping all the students focused on their tasks, as well as catering to a wide range of abilities. Some students were retaking GCSE Maths alongside their AS Levels, so were significantly behind those students who achieved good grades at GCSE. My role was to help individual students who were struggling to understand the work, and also to encourage any students who were distracted to return to their class exercises. The experience really taught me how to explain complex ideas to less academically able students - for example by using mnemonics, analogies and diagrams depending on their individual learning styles. I found that many students did enjoy Maths once they started to understand a topic, but due to not quite grasping the basics at GCSE some had really found the step up to AS Level difficult. Once they began struggling, the were then easily distracted by their phones or friends - and so it was very important for me to keep moving around the class and prompting such students to refocus on their studies.

I also helped to run small group sessions revising calculus (a topic they had covered the previous term) in preparation for the upcoming exams. Many students had forgotten most of the topic or found such 'pure' maths boring - and so I learnt to teach them using real life examples in order to maintain their attention.

I have really learnt a lot about how to manage large groups of challenging students, communicate ideas effectively and make Maths an exciting subject for students. This has also been a great addition to my CV - and so I would really recommend any other students given the opportunity to volunteer in teaching to have a go!

Cambridge Climate Change and Sustainability Forum 2014

As a science student, I have always been aware of climate change and that it is changing our world. However, I have never previously had the opportunity to explore this interest and so decided to attend the Cambridge Climate Change and Sustainability Forum 2014.

The day began with an informative welcoming address from Theodora Panayides and Opening Keynote by Gemma Adams. The first main session was a quickfire session on ‘rethinking the way we live’ which raised some important issues such as how individuals can have an impact on climate change and what some of the challenges are that we face in changing people’s day to day lives in order to be able to have an impact on climate change. This also led into a discussion of what a sustainable lifestyle is and how we can live more sustainable lives. I found the quickfire session very interesting and informative.
After a short coffee break, we were given a series of short talks by several organisations in the ‘Pecha Kucha’ session, each of whom nominated a product they felt demonstrated some of the key topics surrounding climate change and sustainability. I was particularly interested in some of the projects each of the organisations were working on – including the ‘liberated feast’ made from surplus food, a project aimed at analysing the use of freezers at the Gurdon Institute by the Living Laboratory, and the One World Challenge from WeAct. Products nominated included a sustainably produced hat, bottle lights, and green benches made from old tyres and compost. I felt that these showed some simple, cheap and enjoyable ways of reducing our harmful effects on the environment.
Lunch was followed by workshop sessions, for which I participated in a workshop entitled ‘Kick-Start your Project Ideas’ – run by the Living Laboratory for Sustainability. This was a fantastic opportunity to discuss some of my own ideas for tackling climate change and learning how to communicate environmentally friendly suggestions to others. We worked on an example tackling waste in a science laboratory – discussing the key steps of collecting information, communicating the information to the scientists, encouraging them to change their habits and setting measurable targets, and regularly monitoring their progress in order to evaluate the success of the project. For each of these steps we discussed possible ways of carrying them out – for example bring in waste collected from the laboratory rubbish in order to communicate the initial problem. I also learnt about ways students with limited time could get involved, for example by volunteering to carry out surveys or doing an internship with the Living Laboratory.
The final talk of the day was a panel debate entitled ‘Sustainability Innovation online? Is the Internet a space for idle thoughts or an engine driving real change?’. A variety of speakers gave their opinions on this topic, mentioning issues such as the difficulties persuading people to take action in their everyday lives, reaching poorer communities, and measuring the impact of online campaigns. The possibility of people becoming distracted from the outside environment by the more exciting online world or taking more passive actions online were also mentioned. However, some positive possibilities were considered, including the ability to tailor information to individuals, reach a wider audience, use interactive tools such as games to communicate key ideas, and raise money and awareness for campaigns. This talk made me consider some of the ways in which online and ‘real life’ campaigns could be combined in order to have a greater impact.

The forum closed with a presentation on images from the photo competition and an announcement of the winners, followed by a closing keynote from Fred Pearce, who mentioned some of the wider issues surrounding climate change and sustainability – including a lack of political pressure, agricultural wastage of water, and the need to change our lifestyles. However, he was optimistic about the future – leaving everyone with a positive note to end the day.

Overall, I learnt a lot about climate change and sustainability, and in particular how I as an individual can make small changes to my lifestyle in order as well as encourage others to join me in order to tackle climate change. I have been inspired by the day, and have decided to become a Student Switch Off Ambassador in order to be able to help communicate ‘green’ lifestyle changes to other students and organise awareness-raising events.

SPACE CAMP!!!

I was one of 24 students from across the world selected to attend the week-long European Space Camp 2013 at the Andoya Rocket Range in Norway, and one of just 2 who were
awarded full scholarships from the European Space Agency.
It was an absolutely fantastic week, during which we took part in a wide range of workshops (such as building model rockets and finding out about hybrid rocket engines), talks (including some on the aurora, rocket design, history of space exploration, mars missions, space weather and aerodynamics), social activities (including fun competitions, engineering challenges, quizzes, a whale safari, and the dreaded morning gym), tours of local science centres (such as the LIDAR observatory), and our very own rocket launch! After a week of working hard in groups on different parts of the rocket launch preparation, we launched the ESCapist on Friday afternoon - it reached an incredibly height at apogee of 8.2km! I was nominated the Principal Investigator, responsible for pressing the big
red button!
As a member of the Space Physics group, most of my week was spent doing fun calculations both by hand and using MATLAB to predict the trajectory of the rocket and what conditions it would experience
during flight. We also had a competition with the Rocket System Design group to build the best model rockets and launched a weather balloon to investigate the environmental conditions above the rocket range - an important precursor to launching a rocket since the weather can have a huge impact on the motion of the rocket and only under certain conditions is it safe to launch. We also analysed the data from the sensors in the rocket and presented this in the post-flight meeting.
Another highlight of my week was watching a real research group's rocket launch, WADIS-1, despite having to wait until 2am!
Overall, I had an absolutely amazing experience and made some really great new friends!
Applications for Space Camp 2014 (for STEM students aged 17-20 from any country) will open on the 1st January 2014 and close on the 1st April 2014 - I would recommend starting your application early as the application process is fairly complicated. You are required to submit a CV, transcript of grades and recommendation letter from your school - so start working on them soon! For more information and to apply, visit their website.

CREST Award

Last year, I completed an Extended Project Qualification on the optimisation of the polymerase chain reaction and it's applications in medical and forensic research. Apart from being a fascinating and complex topic, it also gave me the opportunity to carry out my own experiments - something which particularly interested an aspiring researcher like me.
I also received a Gold CREST Award for my project, which recognises the independent research and creative approach required for my project - great for mentioning on my CV! I applied for my CREST Award after completing my project, however most people apply at the beginning, which enables them to receive additional support and mentoring for their project. This is a fantastic opportunity for all STEM students - and if you are doing a class, work experience, science club or individual project you should definitely have a look at their website to find out whether you would be eligible for an award! There are gold, silver, bronze and discovery levels available, and your project can be anything from carrying out scientific experiments to working on a science communication project.
For more information, visit their website.

University!

You've probably been wondering why the website has gone slightly quiet all of a sudden! This is because I have finally made it to UNIVERSITY!!! Yay!
The last few days have been spent settling in and making a few new friends, then today I had my first lectures! Cycled down to maths for 9am, followed by chemistry.They were just introductory lectures with a bit of revision of A level material but it was great to feel like we were actually starting some work.
So far, not much has gone drastically wrong and I have even managed to cook some pasta for myself! I am currently munching on some FREE Dominos pizza after picking up tonnes of vouchers at the freshers fair (where I also managed to sign up for far too many activities)! I have a few supervision worksheets to do and a Biology essay, but the work seems to be reasonably manageable so far and hopefully it will stay that way!

British Science Festival - Day 6

The last day of the British Science Festival 2013 was absolutely fantastic!

My day began with an interesting talk by several local companies about 'Chemical Innovation in the North East'. This included separate presentations by several leading researchers and companies about their work.
First up was Dr. Victoria Frank from International Paint Ltd, who discussed the latest slime release technology for sea vessel antifouling - which could lead to a 9% reduction in fuel consumption. She explained how they carried out their research and design, including rigorous testing, in order to create the Intersleek 1100SR product. The next talk was from Dr. Neil Lant, from Procter and Gamble, on the topic of new enzymes and polymers for for advanced laundry detergents.
This fascinating talk was followed by another, on harnessing marine diversity to fight infection - particularly focusing on the discovery of an enzyme which breaks up biofilms (slime coverings which often affect infections, teeth, food processing plants and wastewater treatment plants). Dr. Burgess also discussed several medicines we have developed from drugs found in marine organisms - such as Prialt, a pain reliever often used to late stage cancer sufferers. Finally, we listened to an interesting talk about the development of a novel method to synthesise a chemical known as MMA. This new method, which is currently being scaled up commercially, uses much more readily available reactants, requires less energy and lower maintenance, and has a higher atom economy.

After a quick lunch, I attended another talk - this time on mineral solutions to global problems. Professor David Manning discussed many issues, such as climate change and the demand for potash, an important component of fertilisers, in the Southern Hemisphere. He described the exciting potential for climate change to be tackled by nothing more than adding compost to demolition waste - using the formation of calcium carbonate on the rubble to capture and store carbon. For more information on this talk, please see my guest blog post on the official British Science Festival blog.

After this exciting talk, I helped at the British Science Association stand by handing out posters, stickers and membership forms to the many young visitors of the 'Hands on Exhibition'. I also explored the rest of the exhibition and had another free rocket facepaint!

Next up was an exciting lecture entitled 'Protons to Patients', which discussed the current and historical research into cancer at Newcastle, how new cancer drugs are developed, and the methods used to identify cancerous tumours - particularly PET scans and the use of imaging agents.

My final talk of the day was called 'Why do we die', presented by Dr. Simon Watt. He discussed a range of different suggestions as to why we die - from the damage done by our metabolism over time - particularly on the shortening of telomeres - which protect the ends of DNA strands, to 'quantum immortality theory - which states simply that we are immortal forever in some parallel universe! His final conclusion was that the need to evolve quickly caused organisms with shorter lifespans, who invest more in having more offspring more quickly rather than living forever, to outcompete immortal organisms, who invested more of their energy in themselves rather than in reproduction. This was a really fascinating and amusing talk about evolutionary theories.

I then took part in the 'Chemistry Section Mixer', where I discussed with current research chemists about their work as well as meeting other students and talking about their experiences of studying chemistry at university. This was a great networking event, as well as providing some excellent snacks!

After a bit of pizza for dinner, I attended an excellent workshop run by Teach First about their program and the fantastic opportunities available to highly achieving STEM graduates. This also included a job application session and the opportunity to discuss the options available to me after my degree with graduates from the Teach First Program.

Finally, it was a short walk to the International Centre for Life for 'Lates at Life' - the opportunity to explore the centre at night, take part in a variety of amusing activities such as anatomical hand painting, teddy bear surgery and giant Operation, and play with their range of hands-on (kids...) activities.

I can't believe my time at the Science Festival has come to an end - the week has gone so fast! It was an absolutely amazing experience, and hopefully I'll be able to go to it in Birmingham next year!

British Science Festival - Day 5

It's nearing the end of my time at the British Science festival, but I'm still having an amazing time!

I began with a particularly good talk on monitoring the economic and scientific ripples of landslides - presented by experts Helen Reeves and Mark Winter. They discussed how research has linked the incidence of landslides with increased rainfall - along with some fascinating examples - as well as the wider impacts of such events. These are not just the immediate damage to roads or houses, but a huge variety of impacts over a surprisingly wide area - for example they could cut off deliveries to and from remote locations or discourage tourists long into the future, thus reducing the income of local businesses, or prevent people from travelling to work or school - the effects within the so called 'vulnerability shadow' of landslide events over a wider area. One current project mentioned was on landslide susceptibility modelling, which they hope will allow us to predict landslides and high risk areas in the future. This was supported by an interesting video about their work.

After lunch, I attended an interesting talk on 'How to be a Maths Millionaire', which discussed how maths is used in Google's algorithms and led to them becoming the world's most successful search engine. This was followed by a discussion of current problems in mathematics listed by the Clay Institute - proving one of these conjectures would get you £1 million! Finally was a discussion of the history of discovery of algebraic methods to solve cubic and quartic equations. Although some of the talk deviated from the original topic and I had hoped that some of the maths linked to 'get rich quick' scams in gambling would be discussed, it was still a very interesting and well-presented talk.

I then visited the 'hands-on exhibition', where there was a huge range of stalls with everything from super-hydrophobic surfaces to finding New Forest Cicadas with a mobile app or building a vehicle to climb up a pipe.
I finished with a free space rocket face paint, before heading off to another lecture!

This talk was on solar power - 'A brilliant future: how sunlight will wave goodbye to our fossilised past'. The focus of the topic was to discuss how solar power has the potential to meet world energy requirements, although there are still a wide range of limitations, technological developments and a change in society's attitudes towards energy before this could become reality. Currently, UK energy generation by solar power meets 0.5% of the UK demand for energy - however some quick maths indicated that solar panels covering the area of Florida would provide enough power for the whole world's population. The issue is with regulating the supply to cope with spikes in demand - possible solutions to this include a 'Smart Grid' which turns non-essential appliances off during times of peak energy consumption, storing the energy by using it to make Hydrogen fuel, or creating a 'super-grid' around the world which constantly captures energy from the sun. All of these will require changes in infrastructure and thus high costs. The next part of the talk explained how solar cells work, giving a much clearer explanation than that in my GCSE textbook! This led on to a discussion of the best materials for solar panels and recent developments in 'thin film solar cells' which use materials such as Cadmium Telluride in much thinner layers than required with silicon - these solar cells are significantly more efficient but the materials required are much less abundant and so more expensive. However, alternatives such as CZTS are being considered - which uses much more common elements. Overall, this was an incredibly interesting and informative talk.

After dinner, it was off to the 'Star Speaker: Sugata Mitra' talk - which was excellent! He began his talk by showing evidence that the further away a school in India from Delhi, the worse the students perform on average in standard tests. He created a project to encourage children in Indian slums to teach themselves to use a computer and learn about other subjects - simply by leaving a computer with no instructions in a hole in a wall. Research showed that the children taught themselves in small groups to use the computer, read English and do basic maths! Modifications to the system to include a voice control option allowed the children to improve their pronunciation simply by trial and error - a method of learning Sugata strongly supports. The addition of a 'granny teacher' - someone who has no knowledge of the topic but just motivates and congratulates the students over Skype - improved the students' progress even more. Having discovered a method of allowing students to teach themselves in groups using their own natural curiosity, Sugata now aims to create new 'schools' including clusters of chairs around computers in an environment where children can teach themselves almost anything - with encouragement from a 'granny teacher' on a large communal Skype screen. He plans to create 7 such 'schools' - 5 in India and 2 in the UK - giving them the name "Schools in the Cloud".

I ended my day with another 'Star Speaker' talk from Michael Mosley, a well-known science documentary TV presenter. After a discussion about his career from being a banker to a doctor and finally a TV presenter, Dr. Mosley discussed a few areas of science of particular interest to him - exercise and dieting. He amazed us with the revelation that exercise has no effect on weight loss, although it does have several other health benefits such as removing fat from your blood and reducing your chance of developing diabetes. He then followed this with the starting claim that all the benefits of exercise can be obtained by just 3 minutes of high-intensity exercise a week! I personally would have liked to see some further scientific evidence for this claim, but instead we watched an interesting clip from one of his documentaries on the subject. He finally discussed dieting - and particularly the idea of a 5:2 fasting diet, where you eat normally for five days a week but then have only 600 calories for the other two - leading to a dramatic reduction in your chance of developing Alzheimer's or Dementia. Overall, the talk was very interesting but unfortunately didn't really discuss science journalism or how to spot the best stories as advertised in the program.

It's been a great day, and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow - the last day of the British Science Festival!

British Science Festival - Day 4

I've had yet another amazing day at the British Science Festival!

First up was an interesting talk on Science and Cosmetics, which mainly focussed on skin creams, how they are advertised, the scientific evidence claims are based on, and the potential damaging effects they could have on the skin. I was particularly interested in the fact that a few skin care product ingredients had in fact undergone full scientific investigation and peer review, although others had no clear scientific benefit for the skin - for example one product contained gold nanoparticles! The lecture also discussed the structure of the skin - with many hair and sweat gland pores as well as a range of good and bad bacteria - and how this links to methods active ingredients could cross the skin, but also potential causes of problems such as the accumulation of nanoparticles in pores which has not been thoroughly investigated yet. Some of the various factors skin care designers have to consider were also discussed - for example how the active ingredient will cross the skin barrier and potential problems caused by skin disorders such as eczema or acne. One particularly interesting product mentioned was a recent anti-wrinkle pill launched by Unilever, and thus the emerging market of 'cosmoceuticals' which lie between skin care products and drugs - leading to a range of concerns over regulation and testing. Overall, the talk was very interesting and I learnt a surprising amount!

This talk was followed by a quick visit to the x-change, a show held each day over lunch. Topics discussed ranged from climate change to bronze age weapons, with experts from around the festival dropping in for a short discussion on their specialisms. The x-change was fairly interesting, with plenty of props and audience engagement, but unfortunately today none of the topics particularly excited me.
Next I rushed off to 'Origins: Planets, Galaxies, the Universe (and everything)' - which included surprise special guest Dr. Brian Cox!!! The event began with a lecture from Dr. Suzanne Aigrain discussing the origins of planets. She discussed several exciting discoveries, including the particularly exciting possibility that stars may be unable to form without also forming planets, since the planets conserve the angular momentum of the system and thus allow the star to settle into it's stable state, and the positions of planets in a single plane suggests that they probably all formed from the same 'accretion disk' around the star. She finished with a discussion on how to find exoplanets and the different types, before Dr. Brian Cox began his part of the talk on the Big Bang. He first introduced us to particle physics with a mention of the LHC and the standard model - explaining that in the first moments after the big bang physics just consisted of these particles in a sort of 'soup'. This was followed by a short exploration of the famous equations and quantum field theory, before finishing with an explanation of how the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation links the big bang and quantum mechanics. This topic was then continued by Carlos Frenk, who explained how small quantum fluctuations in the very early universe led to the formation of structure in the universe. He described some evidence for the big bang, particularly Edwin Hubble's observations of the recessional velocities of galaxies and the CMB. His talk also included a short video tour of our local universe and a brief mention of how the positions and angular velocities of galaxies provides evidence for dark matter. Overall, the event was incredibly exciting and informative - probably the highlight of the day!

Unfortunately it also over-ran, so I had to run down to the International Centre of Life for a fun workshop entitled 'How old is the universe?'. This began with a short talk about the origins of the universe, how we measure distance and velocity in space, and some of the maths behind the workshop. Then, we moved on to the computers where we measured the lengths of galaxies in the famous Hubble Deep Field image and their redshift - using this information and the help of a computer spreadsheet to calculate the age of the universe. Interestingly everyone over-estimated this value - I calculated an age of 17.6 billion years - and this systematic error was attributed to dark matter. The workshop was finished with an exciting tour of the constellations in the night sky at the Planetarium.

My busy day ended with 'The Huxley debate', a discussion between two leading scientists with opposing views on the importance of epigenetics to our lives. Interesting points raised were links between grandparents smoking and cancers in their grandchildren, the formation of gametes removing almost all traces of methylation in DNA and thus preventing such information from being passed on, and evidence from mice experiments indicating the opposite. Although the debate did not come to any particular conclusion it was still fascinating and provided some interesting insights particularly against the importance of epigenetics - a topic which is often hyped up by the media as the future of medicine or the victor over Darwinian evolution.

After another awesome day, I am really looking forward to the last two days of the British Science Festival!

British Science Festival - Day 3

Today began with a fascinating lecture entitled 'Making Waves: Energy and Society' which discussed a huge range of issues related to our use of energy. The focus was very much on the 'Energy Trilemma' - reducing greenhouse gas emissions, using resources efficiently and making energy accessible to all.
Interesting examples mentioned included the Kazakhstan blackouts and the recent movement in Greece to convert agricultural land into solar farms. Also discussed was the use of renewable energy sources in developing countries, where issues with the supply chain causing people to convert their solar powered lights for battery power due to damage to the panels - thus negating the original aim of the lights.
Other topics discussed include the potential of a 'Smart Grid' which switches off non-essential electrical appliances during peak times of energy use to smooth out the daily energy consumption curve and thus reduce pressures on power sources and allow renewables to be more easily incorporated into our energy infrastructure.
The wide range of examples and issues discussed was very interesting and insightful - although the focus was more on renewable sources of energy and potential technologies rather than discussing current controversial topics such as fracking as I had hoped.

I then ran to the next talk - Engineering the Climate. Presented by researchers investigating the technology, science and engineering of particle injection into the atmosphere to combat climate change, this talk was an exciting view into potential geoengineering solutions to the problem of global warming. Although they promoted the use of geoengineering as a 'Plan B' after reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the statistics given suggested that it is a serious possibility for the near future. The focus of the talk was on their current research into a balloon delivery system, although other potential solutions were touched briefly upon. They also explained the possible effects of injecting particles into our atmosphere - not only global cooling but also issues such as a reduction in the sunlight reaching plants and crops on the Earth's surface and regional changes in both temperature and rainfall.
Overall, this talk was very informative - not only describing potential solutions to climate change but raising many issues and questions about their viability, long term effects and political problems.

I continued my exploration of climate change in the next lecture on coral reefs - presented by Dr. Michael Sweet who has the incredible job of visiting coral reefs across the world to investigate
diseases such as the imaginatively named 'White Band Disease'. Who wouldn't want their lab to be a beautiful remote island in the Maldives?! Dr. Sweet introduced us to a huge range of problems being faced by coral reefs - not only rising sea temperatures but also the apparent spread of land based diseases to marine ecosystems. He has discovered in his research how ciliates (small single celled organisms) influence the spread of diseases on coral reefs as well as feeding off dying tissue and thus killing the coral. However, although he also discovered that antibiotics are very effective against such diseases, the difficulties in controlling dosage and preventing contamination and the development of bacterial resistance mean that a different solution must be found - he particularly favours encouraging 'good' bacteria in coral reefs to defend against pathogens, a solution he describes as a 'marine Yakult'! This really was a fascinating and insightful talk!

No rest for the wicked! I next rushed off to the nearby International Centre for Life for a workshop on mammoth DNA. This involved using electrophoresis for 'DNA fingerprinting' to identify the species of an unknown sample of DNA as well as discover the closest modern relation to the woolly mammoth - essential if we want to use cloning to bring one back to life! I really enjoyed being back in a lab and doing some experiments - even though the workshop was aimed at complete beginners to the subject I still had a lot of fun!

After a quick dinner, it was off to the Festival of the Spoken Nerd! This amazing comedy show included everything from singing, jokes and fun science experiments to binary scarves, breaking a wine glass with the power of the voice and just general nerdy-ness! An awesome end to an awesome day!

British Science Festival - day 2

I've had a pretty incredible day today at the British Science Festival 2013 in Newcastle! I've finally managed to get the internet working and so will attempt to keep you up to date with all the awesome stuff going on here!

The first talk I attended was called 'The Randomness Show' which was all about the incredible way maths can show us order and logic in what appears to be random, unpredictable events. However, it was not the standard dry lecture, with Dr Maths bringing the science to life with fun card games, 'magic' tricks and fun games. He explained how most of the demonstrations worked, while leaving a few mysteries for the audience to ponder (and I still haven't worked out how he did them!).

Next up was an exploration of 'The Culture Lab' where a huge range of fun workshops were being run - mainly aimed at younger science enthusiasts but still great for everyone else! I looked at the bacteria on my cheek cells (note to self: clean teeth better!), saw the effect of gravitational lensing around my body (see right)
and found out about earthworms' rather rocky poop! There was a lot of fun crammed into an unfortunately small room, and I wish I had had a bit more time to find out more before I had to rush off for a quick bite to eat and another talk!

'Everest: going to extremes for medical research' was a surprisingly exciting and educational talk - I had booked on it initially more to fill up some empty space in my schedule! The speakers had been to the Everest base camp and carried out the research themselves which really added a spark to the talk, beginning with a fun re-enactment of a climber heading out into the low-oxygen environment from a tent! I was particularly interested to find that there are in fact a lot of similarities between the vital signs of our healthy bodies at high altitudes and those of intensive care patients - which explained why the research carried out by the Xtreme Everest team is so useful for medicine!

After a quick break during which I explored the fun 'Dr Maths Giant Logic Puzzles' which are dotted around campus and surprisingly challenging, I attended a great talk called 'Are we still evolving?' which involved a small panel of experts discussing the evidence for recent human evolution. Although they were clearly very knowledgeable and gave a wide range of interesting evidence, I felt that the talk lacked a bit by being rather one-sided rather than a proper debate. However, despite this I still learnt a great deal about current human evolution - did you know that lactose tolerance is only really common in Europe and the USA, whereas in countries where dairying began later the vast majority of people are lactose intolerant! Another interesting topic discussed was current research into tribal hunter-gatherer populations which still exist in the more remote locations of the world and show further evidence for current human evolution - although there is less of a selection pressure in the developed world. Overall, a very interesting talk but not really a debate.

I finished the day with an amazing talk by Robert Winston about his current bill in the House of Lords. Not being an expert in politics I'm still not entirely sure what exactly that entails, but the basic idea is that he is suggesting that the government make it obligatory for pharmaceutical products which have used animal testing (i.e. pretty much all of them) to clearly state it on their packaging. The hope behind this is that the public will realise just how important animal testing is for our health and the protection of the human race. Interesting issues which were brought up included the possibility of people refusing to take their medication due to being opposed to animal testing and also how the British pharmaceutical industry could suffer from people buying less medicines or from opposition to animal testing abroad. Concerns over the ethical issues around animal testing produced reassurances that the subjects of such tests were usually kept in far better condition than on farms due to the enormous amount of legislation and restrictions on such research - much more so in the UK than in other countries. The general consensus was that improved public awareness of animal testing should reduce the large amount of opposition to important medical research. For a more in depth review of this talk, please see my post on the official British Science Festival blog.

After a fantastic day, I'm pretty exhausted but looking forward to more science fun for the rest of the week! Keep checking back to see what I've been up to.

British Science Festival - Day 1

Having spent 12 hours on a bus, I was pretty exhausted before the festival had even begun! My first day began with volunteering on the British Science Association stand - trying to engage younger science enthusiasts with fun science games and tricks, such as the levitating static electricity wand, air-bazooka-ing a pyramid of plastic cups, fossil rubbing and a quick psychological puzzle. Spending the whole morning talking enthusiastically to kids and their parents, as well as endlessly piling up plastic cups, made me even more tired! Luckily a chocolate muffin woke me up enough to make it through the next talk - 'Do I look good in these genes?'.

This really was a fascinating debate about the value of giving personalised nutritional advice based on our genes rather than 'Mr Average' guidelines - which currently only 10% of people follow. A range of points was made - for example people are more likely to pay attention to personalised advice, but there are still a lot of other factors which affect our nutritional requirements such as exercise, epigenetics and age. Also, we currently don't fully understand our genes and so nutritionists may end up confusing or demotivating people by changing their advice after new discoveries. One concern raised in the audience Q+A session was that the research required to develop a more reliable understanding of how our genes affect our nutritional requirements would be very expensive and time consuming - and in the end it may only lead to a small increase in the proportion of people following nutritional advice. They suggested that the money would have a much greater and more immediate impact if it was used to improve access to food and medicines in developing countries. However, although the presenters agreed that this could be more beneficial overall, they explained that political issues prevent them from doing this. The debate was aided by a fun role-play showing how a family with personalised nutritional advice might fare - although they would probably be healthier and more likely to follow their diet, they could also be more stressed and have arguments over the ethics of DNA testing their child before she could give consent. Overall, a very interesting and informative talk.

To lighten up the day, I followed this with a fun comedy show entitled 'Domestic Science', which included a huge range of fun science jokes, sketches and hilarity. The show began with a re-enactment of the couple's first date - including dying noodles blood red with turmeric, which turns out to be a pH indicator. Also in the show was a short sketch 'At home with the Darwins' which involved the adoption of an animal into the family due to it being distantly related! The bee dance was another highlight of the show - with Rob Wells dressing up as a bee, several audience members in flower and sun costumes, and some pretty awful dancing!

I ended my first day with a visit to the award-winning Kielder Observatory under the darkest skies in England - an absolutely amazing experience! Not only did we have the chance to see the Andromeda Galaxy at the time when the human genus first evolved on Earth through their fantastic telescopes, but also star-gaze under the huge arch of the milky way with Gary Fildes and his team of volunteers pointing out interesting constellations. For a more detailed account of this awesome trip, see my blog post on the official British Science Festival blog.
It was a very long, but absolutely brilliant, day - leaving me very excited for the rest of the festival!
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)

Total Pageviews