A geeky meal and awards ceremony.......

Lastnight, tuesday was an amazing night. It was the christmas event for us STEM Ambassadors which is MOSI's way of thanking us for all our hard work at the science festival ;) We all met up at a fantastic indian restaurant which is just near MOSI. It was wonderful to see everyone again, I had hoped for a big turnout. Nice to see happy faces and everybody having fun. The food was fabulous and we had the biggest naan breads I've ever seen! They were served up on a metal rack and placed in the centre of the table where you could just tear a piece off. After the meal were thank you speeches and 3 prizes were given out so it was abit of an awards ceremony really. I was most surprised and thoroughly delighted when the first award winner was me! I hadn't expected it because at the end of the festival itself I was presented with a bottle of red wine for my sterling efforts ;)  Below you can see a photo of the award. Isn't it beautiful? This is for my outstanding dedication during the Manchester Science Festival. I was there for the whole time expect one afternoon. Loved it! This award is now a treasured possession and I am really touched. Thank you MOSI. xxx

The number that is Lady Gaga

Day 4, i.e. Tuesday 26^th October.  Catchy title for a public lecture eh? 

http://www.eee.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/LadyGaga.html

Of the evening events I attended this year, this was far and away my favourite. It was mind blowing! It started at 7pm and was mean’t to be a 90 minute talk but overran. As if that wasn’t a long time to be speaking. It included visuals and audio and covered a whole range of topics including, quantum mechanics, relativity, string theory which left you wondering what this has to do with Lady Gaga. However as Professor Gaydecki. said a few times, all would become clear in the end and have relevance, and it did! It was essentially about digital systems and a breakdown of their  various components and how they work and integrate together (reductionism). It makes you question reality! I guess he could have chosen any artist but of course Lady Gaga is known by the youth of today, and so it would appeal to them.  The show ended with a montage and I think it would be nice to see this on YouTube. It was accompanied by a really touching tune which I’ve heard before but don’t recall the name of the artist. ‘Light up’ I think the song is called. The Prof said that scientists may be good at communicating their subject but not so good at expressing how it makes us feel. That is what the video was mean’t to convey. I am glad I was sat at the back because I felt quite emotional. It featured images such as the Apollo 11 astronaut team, newborn babies. Awesome. Thank you Prof, I shan’t forget this lecture and I do hope that I get to see it again some time. That is, if it doesn’t pop up on YouTube first.  I hope these pictures, give a flavour. 

Days 3 and 4 of the Manchester Science Festival 2010

Day 3, Monday. From 9am until 4.30 pm as usual. I was on the information desk downstairs for the whole morning. This was chilly but fun and I stood up in the end to help customers coming in. We were all given Festival hoodies to wear but alas we weren’t allowed to keep them. After lunch I was sent along to the Super K again. I was thrilled about this of course! I noticed straight away some improvements from the first day. We were better briefed and thus better able to give the public a better experience. It was also explained to them that we were only role playing ;) We all had a go in the boat today. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though still never witnessed the live link to the real thing in Japan. I did take this opportunity to take another awesome photo though. 



Day 4 Saw me spending the morning science busking at MOSI. Again it was cold and we wore the hoodies. We periodically spent the morning doing this just outside the museum too. Shivering fun. Here are the lovely Zena and Becky.

Zena

In the afternoon I was drafted on my ownsome to The Manchester Mueseum where I had a fantastic session seeing some live animals during  what was colloquially named ‘The frog talk’!  The talk was 1 hour long and the kids loved it. I sat at the back, evaluating the talk. It was most enjoyable and as you can see I got some rather nice pictures ;) The guy giving the talk was really, really nice. I hope I’m in just as good shape when I’m his age. I hope you enjoy these photos and manage to get a good look at the animals in them. All sorts of amphibia.

snake!

tiny little leaf frog

I had taken more pix of these beautiful creatures but unfortunately it doesn't seem as though you can get a good look at em. You can always google and visit The Frog Blog!  This talk was given twice this afternoon so I had double the pleasure ;) Thank you to Dr Andrew Gray of the University of Manchester for a wonderful talk. 

Days 1 and 2 of the Manchester Science Festival 2010

Finally, it is here! Day one saturday 23rd october. I have so much to say already. Day one was very exciting and great fun for me. I did both the morning shift (9am start) and the afternoon session so basically I was there from 9 until 4.30pm ;) I arrived early and was keen to check out the new look MOSI which has spent many recent months undergoing refurbishment. It looks wonderful and happily still recognisable. This year we are meeting up every morning in the new Lovell suite to be allocated our event. When I got there, plenty of volunteer’s were there already and I got my first glimpse of this years t-shirt. Bright green! One of the event managers whom I haven’t seen since last year remembered me. The ‘Hi Sarah’ was a nice surprise. I saw a few familiar faces, folks I’d met last year. I wondered if I would. Nice to see them again and so many new STEM Ambassadors. So I received my festival bag and t-shirt along with festival info and proceeded to collect some snacks and bottles of water to see me throughout the day. Time for a coffee and a chat before our general briefing. A high profile event which is in fact headlining this years festival is the Super Kamiokande Sonic Boom! (‘Super K’). I hoped I would at least get to see this sometime. I needn’t have worried. I was told I would be going to the Super K event today and be there for the whole day, so I was happy already! This event was only there for the first half of the festival and the venue was at the Manchester Metropolitan University which I had never been to before so I was curious about this too. The real Super K in Japan is designed to detect Neutrino’s. It looks like this

http://atlasobscura.com/place/super-kamiokande

The replica of this at the festival was made using 1000 gold helium balloons to represent the photomultiplier tubes (PMT). Passengers (representing neutrinos!) were rowed along a pool of water in a small rowing boat with a scientist who explained the physics of and the nature of the Super K project. 

The team. Why is my suit undone?

When we first arrived we were of course shown around and briefed by the lady, Nelly, who had designed this replica and then allocated our roles. We were to be the security team which mean’t wearing tyvek suits, wellies and hard hats. Our passengers would be kitted out with this stuff too.
 

I look more mad scientist than a mean one.

As well as the Super K itself there was a mezzanine floor which was a balcony really so that people could view the installation from above. Also there were a series of short films and a live link to Japan. Alas I never got to see that. There were talks also given by some of the scientists there. We had to do some role playing and were told we had to be unfriendly to the people. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with that and I feel my fellow STEM Ambassadors thought the same thing. I was the oarperson which mean’t sitting at the back of the boat and simulating the rowing motion with my plastic oar. This was great fun and mean’t I heard a lot of science. I couldn’t really row because the water was too shallow and was ultra pure which is apparently dangerous if we touch it anyway. I’m sceptical about that lol. Every 10 minutes the sonic boom went off. This was actually a light simulation of the sonic boom. As the oarperson I was to be the meanest of all. I wasn’t allowed to smile at all or speak to any members of the public. Fortunately only 2 families asked me questions, just after lunch. I felt abit mean but better than being told off by Nelly! 

There was a film crew there the whole time and I was excited about either being on the news this evening or ending up on Youtube. However, it turns out it was for french television so there’s a good chance I’ll never see it. That’s probably for the best lol. I was asked to film a specific scene too. It was of me turning the water pump handle just before getting passengers into the boat. It needed 2 takes as I was too fast the first time. All in all a good start to the festival for me, I enjoyed meeting and working with new people. I felt quite tired surprisingly early but then it was completely dark with no windows. There were some teething problems which you would expect on the first day. I felt our briefing was rushed and it was taking too long to get people through it. Things did sort themselves out though I believe.   I hope I have enough energy for the rest of the week.

Day 2 Sunday 24^th October. This was the only time during the whole festival when I wasn’t there for the whole day. I was sent to the MMU again with 2 lovely young scientists Zena and Jordan whom I worked with quite a bit and we had a lot of fun. I enjoyed it at least. I enjoy busking and soon got into it again. I was disappointed that we wouldn’t be doing the lava lamp demo this year. As a chemist it is my favourite. We still had a blast though. It was rather quiet too so they decided not to do any busking there in the afternoon anyway. We did meet a couple of lovely and very funny men who work at the university. One was a Jamaican ex NASA mathematician and the other guy had done a lot of things including acting. Happy memories. There was a robot dog there too who was very cute as you can see from the photo’s. 

 

They still don’t know everything about it. Does it know its name? (Oh no I’ve forgotten it. There is something to be said for writing a blog entry as soon as possible! lol) Does it even respond to sound? It had some cute moves though. I went home at lunchtime after another happy day ready for the hectic but fun week ahead. I love science festivals. Back soon with news of day 3 xxx

Manchester Science Festival 2010

It will soon be here! Put these dates in your diaries 23-31 October. I am excited and looking forward to actively participating in my second science festival as a STEM Ambassador. As usual this takes place over the half term holidays giving parents and their kids alike an opportunity to find out how science is really done. So come along and see for yourselves how fun science really is and we also hope to dispel any misconceptions you may have about scientists too ;) Anyone can have a career in it if they want to! We want to inspire you. See here for the full list of events taking place in the Manchester area

http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/

and look out for our science buskers all over the area too. They will give you demo’s which show how much fun science is and a taster of what you can expect at the festival. They are identifiable by their matching brightly coloured shirts. I don’t yet know what colour they are this year, though some people might. Last year was my first one and I found it awesome which is why I’m doing it again. Its wonderful to meet like minded enthusiastic people too. You will be able to pick up a programme from the festival and most events do take place at The Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in the centre of Manchester. Speaking of programmes, I’ve just received by schedule for it and I will be there for most of it. Hope as well as doing my job I get a glimpse of some of the events. If you see me, Sarah, there, please do come up and say hi ;) Most importantly of all, enjoy and learn :D You will find out about the latest research going on and perhaps see some well known faces. I will be back with more festival news/updates in the near future. Over and out x

British Science Festival 2010!

This years festival took place at Aston University in Birmingham from 14-19 september and this time last saturday I was enjoying my final day there. You can read all about it by visiting their webpage 

http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/web/BritishScienceFestival/index.htm

I love these festivals, they are so much fun, you get to meet new people and hopefully learn something. Its great to see people being enthusiastic about science and engaging with the public. I was excited as usual but even more so because this is only the second festival I have attended and on this occasion I am also a speaker. So, nervous and excited then and looking forward to my event. There are so many of them going on its impossible to see them all which is a great pity but I’ve no doubt they are all equally interesting, informative and fun. I guess I can only tell you how it was for me then.  Overall most of the events I attended here were lectures, so not many photo opportunites unfortunately.  I took a photo of the campus though and also a view from my room.

 I was staying at the Lakeside Residences which wasn’t too far from the main campus and I was overjoyed to have an internet connection in my room so I could Skype home ;) I arrived at Aston on Monday 13^th September (mum’s birthday), checked in, and picked up my weekly pass for the festival. Time to explore and I bumped into @robajackson waiting outside the business school. Rob is a chemistry lecturer and reader at Keele University and a co-organiser of our chemistry event which talks place on Thursday.No sooner had I said hello when the person he was meeting showed up. A friendly seeming man who gave me his business card and invited me out to supper with himself and Rob. He was the associate dean of the university. We enjoyed a lovely french meal accompanied by a band making it almost impossible to hear each other talk. Lorelly came a long too. It seems strange to me that such a restaurant should sell real ale but far be it from me to complain. I was having a really good time already.
Tuesday, the first day of the festival, so many choices to make already! There were 2 highlights which stood out for me. The first event being ’Inspiring women in science, engineering and technology’. Three successful scientists talked about their science careers and their lives. They were Prof. Sunetra Gupta, Dr Liz Watson and Dr Sarah Baillie. We then had a buffet lunch which gave an opportunity for us all to mingle and talk to each other. This event was particularly interesting to me as I am both a woman scientist and a STEM Ambassador. Later that day, 6pm, I went to Lorelly Wilson’s ‘Chemistry with cabbage’ event. This is a one hour demonstration of science experiments you can do safely at home with everyday household items. My personal favourite is the lava lamp. This was supported by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Then it was swiftly on to the Chemistry Section Mixer, held in the common room. This was a chance to meet and chat with other speakers. It was a fun evening with lots of fun talk. I enjoyed meeting everyone there. I hope everyone else did too. Much wine was consumed. Wednesday 15^th September, at 10pm I attended an event entitled ‘extending the life of the transplant’. This was supported by the Medical Research Council and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity. This was largely about kidney failure and organ donation. Special guest was Sue Townsend, author of ‘The Diary of Adrian Mole 13 ¾’ who suffers from kidney failure, diabetes and is registered blind L It was a long and interesting ethical debate. One or 2 other events I was tempted by but this was my last chance to spend time going over my own talk for tomorrow as I was very nervous and had never done a power point presentation before. This evening was our Chemistry Section dinner which I had been looking forward to. The venue had been changed but I got there. It was a chance to meet and chat with the people I was doing my event with tomorrow. It was so nice to meet people who also care about chemistry and I enjoyed having dinner and conversation with @katherinejhaxton a chemistry lecturer at Keele University and co-organiser of our event, @lorellywilson, and @stuartcantrill, chief editor of Nature magazine. There was plenty of time to mix and talk to others there before the meal. I had another lovely evening. I didn’t sleep to well tonight though, a combination of nerves and excitement. There were several interesting events on Thursday morning and I had a good breakfast and ventured forth. Two I wanted to go to were cancelled so I went back to my room to put the final touches on my talk. Our event was called’The Armchair chemist online’ and was supported by the Royal Society of Chemistry. This took place in the main building from 1pm until 3pm. Our aim was to explore forms of online scientific communication enabling anyone to get involved from the comfort of their armchair. The lecture theatre was relatively small and around 20 people showed up. I didn’t meet @darrenwalsh from the periodic table of video’s until we were in there setting up for our event. Katherine chaired the event and gave a great opening talk followed by an excellent talk by Stuart, then Darren and finally me. I was very nervous having not done public speaking for a while and was also worried about my laptop battery which seemed to be failing! That was alright in the end. The whole event went well and of course we at least were interested in it and were asked some good questions. I was talking about how social media had enabled me to become a STEM Ambassador. I talked about what this is and how anyone interested can get involved too. It was a priviledge to meet and work with you all. I had an exciting and memorable time. Thank you to Rob for inviting me along to do this. You are all brilliant. After our event we went for a coffee and I got a chance to talk to Darren. We all exchanged business cards. At 6.15pm I went to my first x-change which takes place every evening in the student union. Fun talks by the days best speakers. Tonight I saw neuroscientist Prof. Gina Rippon, physicist Jim Al-khalili and some guy juggling. Sorry I forgot his name. Then I got a takeaway baguette which I enjoyed in my room.
Most events on Friday seemed to be occurring at Birmingham university, shuttle buses between the 2 uni’s provided. I didn’t fancy wasting too much time on buses and I was all on my ownsome at this point so decided to see what was happening here. I sent Friday morning after breakfast wondering to the train station. It was nice to get a glimpse of the city. I changed by return journey back to Manchester for sunday morning rather than Monday which would’ve mean’t me rushing around to get to work. Silly. Mean’s I miss last day of the festival though L So at noon I got to see a talk by Dr Sarah Bell, of UCL, an expert in water hygiene. She talked about the needs of the people in developing countries and the projects she was involved with. This is a subject close to my heart.  After a quiet afternoon I ventured into town again looking for the next venue. This was the only off campus event I attended at 6.30pm and was rather excited to be seeing Dr Ben Goldacre talking about bad science. The theatre was full and as anticipated was very entertaining and interesting, his talk intermingled with sarcasm and wit. Thoroughly enjoyed it and went back to my room happy. Curry in tow.
I was to make the most of Saturday as my last day here and looking at the program over breakfast planned out what I was doing. Of course it didn’t turn out as I had planned lol. First up the food factory which was an interactive event was fully booked and they couldn’t squeeze me in. So I went to the student union to see a talk about foetal alcohol syndrome in the UK by Dr Pam Lowe of Aston University. I enjoyed this talk, it was eye opening, I learned a lot and there was a long debate with audience afterwards. A shame more people didn’t turn up, I recommend this. Pam is a nice lady. I was determined to take part in an interactive event so I toddled along to one about evolutionary art. This involved merging images together on computer to create or evolve art whch you like. I could have sat there forever doing this. I got to save images on a free memory stick so I can keep them and bring them home. It was disappointing ti discover at home that I can’t open my files as they are .nod files. Never heard of them. Happy to find my stick has tutorial and demo’s on it too. Wasn’t expecting that. Next to the room we were in was an exhibit by professional evolutionary artists. Far superior to our novice stuff as I thought it would be. Very impressive it is too. Next I had planned to go to the Skeptics Roadshow which I looked forward to expecting it to be like the much heard of but never attended by me Skeptics in a pub. Sadly it was cancelled! This meant I could go to the event ‘Life, the Universe and Everything…’ First talk was by Dr Guy Consolmagno, the Pope’s Astronomer! What an interesting and smart guy he is. The next talk was by Prof Ian Morison of Jodrell Bank ;) Then it was time for a break and I noted that this event seemed to go on along time until 10pm. An announcement was made. Apparently this evening we were to have gone out with a couple of telescopes and gazed at the moon. That would’ve been awesome but its too dull and cloudy and abit drizzly. For the most part the weather in Birmingham has been bright and sunny. At 4pm I went along to a full lecture theatre to see a 90 minute talk by geologist Prof. Iain Stewart about climate change and the human impact on it. Learnt a few things and didn’t know at the time that he is a well known science presenter. The final event for me was mean’t to be ‘The Beagle has landed!’ but this was also cancelled leaving the way free for me to attend the highly enjoyable ‘Tomorrow’s world’. This included amusing black and white video clips which are kept in the archives of Manchester’s very own MOSI! We were asked to submit our own idea’s about the future. Then there was a Q & A   session with a lively panel. This concludes the festival for me. It is impossible to attend all evets as there are so many. So whatever your own festival experience was I’m sure you had an excellent and most educational time. I bought a baguette and some drinks, had them in my room, had an early night as I have an early train home tomorrow. Goodbye Birmingham, thank you for having me, its been fun xxx   Had I been here tomorrow there are several interesting events I would’ve wished to see. Next year the British Science Festival will be held in Bradford. If you can’t wait that long and want to keep your kids entertained over the coming half term holiday why not pop along to the Manchester Science Festival. Please say hi if you see me. I’ll be there for most of the week in my role as a STEM Ambassador ;)  You can find out for information about this exciting event at their website:
http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/
Most events take place at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester and over the next month leading up to this you may see science buskers out and about promoting it. One of them may be me but come over and say hi and see what we are doing anyway. All questions happily welcomed. See you there!

I can taste it!

First of all apologies for the lapse in my blogging. I have no excuse really other than, a hopefully passing phase, of lack of inspiration. In truth I mean't to write this particular post some time ago but actually didn't have the time. I do now ;)
A while back at work, I learned something about myself, genetically speaking. Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) is an organic compound that either tastes very bitter or is virtually tasteless depending on the genetic makeup of the taster.

 A colleague fresh from his biology class came into our lab armed with PTC papers. We were all eager to try it and see who could taste it. I reacted severely as I was quite startled. I guess it can vary from taster to taster but to me it was very bitter and sharp tasting so I definitely have the gene. What this means exactly I don't know. The ability to taste PTC is a dominant trait with around 70% of people having the ability to taste it. This phenomenon was discovered by a chemist of course in 1931 by a man named Arthur Fox who accidently released a cloud of a fine crystalline PTC.Whilst he could taste nothing, a colleague nearby complained about the bitter taste. He then continued to test the taste buds of assorted family and friends, setting the groundwork for future genetic studies. Chemists eh? I guess it really is the 'central science'. I'm quite happy about that.

ps my apologies for not posting a pic of this molecule. I tried and failed.