Biochemical Society, Events, Science communication & public engagement

Scientific Scissors – The first cut

By James Brown, Education and Public Engagement Officer, Biochemical Society

The dominating spectacle of dinosaurs and dodos seemed to spark the imagination of guests at the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy’s annual Public Engagement Day, this year held at the Museum of Natural History in Oxford.

Biochemical Society members Evita Hartmane, Heba Ismail and James Tomkins joined me for the first outing of our new public engagement activity: Scientific Scissors. The activity is all about Genome Editing – What is it? How does it work? What can we do with it? What should we do with it? Why is it important? The aim is to start conversations about new technologies and give people the opportunity to ask questions whilst engaging with the ethical issues involved.

Continue reading “Scientific Scissors – The first cut”

Biochemical SocietyApril 5, 2017July 17, 2018Leave a comment

Biochemical Society, Events, Policy

Voice of the Future 2017: young scientists question MPs and Ministers

By Dr Andrew Quigley, Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford

Blog Andrew_VOF2017 — *Dr Andrew Quigley representing the Biochemical Society at Voice of the Future event . Photo: Royal Society of Biology*

“Voice of the Future is a very unusual event” says Dr Stephen Benn, Director of Parliamentary Affairs at the Royal Society of Biology. There is no event quite like it anywhere else in Parliament, possibly the world. How often do young representatives of professional bodies get the opportunity to sit in for a Parliamentary Committee and question MPs about science policy issues that matter to them? But that is exactly the chance that I and 50 other young scientists and engineers were given. Continue reading “Voice of the Future 2017: young scientists question MPs and Ministers”

Biochemical SocietyMarch 23, 2017May 3, 2017Leave a comment

Biochemical Society, Education & careers, Science communication & public engagement

Empowering the adults of the future

By Patricia Bernal, Imperial College London

On a cold winter day in London on January 2017, Native Scientist celebrated a warm science outreach event for children in partnership with the Embassy of Ecuador in London. The meeting took place in the Ecuadorian Consulate located near King’s Cross St. Pancras in the very heart of the city of London. The event brought together 25 Ecuadorian pupils and 5 Spanish-speaking scientists from different disciplines.

Scientists used their mother tongue to explain to the children in an engaging and fun way the work they are currently performing in the United Kingdom. The workshop allowed the scientists to improve their communication skills and increase the impact of their research in a welcome environment. Continue reading “Empowering the adults of the future”

Biochemical SocietyFebruary 24, 2017April 24, 2017Leave a comment

Biochemical Society, Diversity, Partner organizations

Career returning – getting to the root of it

By Helen Thompson, Daphne Jackson Fellow, Durham University

A friend and ex-lab mate has just started volunteering in a lab to update her CV and commented to me “it’s like coming home isn’t it?”, I couldn’t agree more. With my borrowed lab coat on, agar media bottle rattling on the plate in the microwave while it melts and the hum of the flow hood in the background, after 12 years away from the lab it really does feel like a homecoming. I’m very grateful for my former career, as a secondary school teacher which provided me with a stable income and let me raise my son but it just wasn’t the bee’s knees for me. So now that my son towers above me the Biochemical Society and Daphne Jackson Trust have sponsored me to return to plant biology research at Durham University Department of Biosciences working in Professor Keith Lindsey’s group. Continue reading “Career returning – getting to the root of it”