Science-enthusiasts at Collingham recently attended New Scientist Live, a science festival exploring how science, technology and engineering drive our economy, shape our culture and improve our lives. We had students doing a range of sciences attend, and the event covered all aspects of human life, with four immersive zones covering Brain & Body, Technology, Earth and Cosmos.
Our students were particularly impressed with electron gene splicing and were inspired by the degree of expertise shown by the lecturer, to the extent that they were motivated to want to go on and gain such expertise themselves.
Other thought-provoking sessions were talks that introduced innovative, cutting-edge, new ideas. One example was a talk on aircraft design. The researchers revealed that we may soon be able to use evolving chemical molecules as a means to have aircraft structures which not only self-design, but do so at such a rapid speed that new aircrafts may be able to be produced in a period of weeks.
There were many groups of practising scientists manning stalls. The British Antarctic survey was one stall we visited. They were full of enthusiasm and information about the practical aspects of running scientific experiments in an inhospitable environment, and they encouraged applications to work with them!