Soph talks science

Soph talks science

|| Inspiring your inner scientist ||

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Tag: blogiversary

Science & me

Soph talks science turns 3!

Jul 22, 2019Aug 1, 2019by Soph Arthur3 Comments on Soph talks science turns 3!
Soph talks science turns 3!

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to Soph talks science. Happy birthday to me. . Like seriously, how has it been three years already?! It appears I now have a toddler to go alongside my baby aka my PhD thesis.. hah! But today on this blogiversary, I wanted to write another [...]

Scicomm & Science writing, ScienceExplained.

Why do we age?

Jul 23, 2018Jul 23, 2018by Soph Arthur4 Comments on Why do we age?
Why do we age?

Okay... spoiler alert! WE ARE ALL GETTING OLDER! Alright, I guess we all knew that no matter how much we are trying to avoid it. In our ongoing quest to look more youthful with all our anti-wrinkle creams and hair dyes to cover up those grey hairs, have you ever wondered why we age in [...]

Science & me

Soph talks science turns 2!

Jul 22, 2018Jul 22, 2018by Soph Arthur3 Comments on Soph talks science turns 2!
Soph talks science turns 2!

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to Soph talks science. Happy birthday to me. . . Another trip around the Sun completed. A huge 940,000,000 km travelled in 365.25 days at a ridiculous speed of 30 km/second. That's as many seconds that are in 29.8 years! And in the time it's [...]

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Hi everyone! I’m Soph. I'm a scientist turned science communicator & am passionate about promoting science education and women in STEM. Take a look around to find out more.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! 🎂🎂 . Another revolution around the Sun for me and it's been a pretty good year for the most part I would say. . I got my first publication, I graduated with a PhD, I published in Cell (kinda!), I got married and we have had an offer accepted on our very first house. . And I got Michael Buble tickets for my birthday 😍😍 . All in all not too bad. Here's to an even better year next year. Now to plan some celebrations. . How did you celebrate your birthday this year? 🎈🎈🎈 . . . 🎂
SCICOMM SUNDAY #12 🗣 Your weekly tips & tricks for improving your science communication! . This week I want to talk to you about... . GETTING TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 . In Edition #11, I shared with you a scicomm 101 starter toolkit 🛠for those looking to get into scicomm or ways they could look into improving. For the next few editions I thought I would go a little more in depth. . Scicomm comes in a range of different forms whether its writing 📝 an article for a magazine, sharing your story with a school, making sure your findings reach the ears 👂of policy makers or even just having a chat with friends or strangers at a pub or perhaps a wedding💍. . But making sure you relay your message effectively and efficiently, you need to know more about who you are talking to. . Whilst more formal market research may be beyond the reach of many of us, there are other ways you can get to know your audience a little better before you get started. . Big public outreach events can usually tell you their target demographic. And if they are effective at doing their evaluation, they might be able to give you some information about previous years guests to help your planning. . For smaller talks, it may be more effective to visit one beforehand. Or maybe hold some informational interviews with your contacts to pitch it right. . With online communications, it's good to know whether your audience are your peers or more representative of society. You can get metrics from your IG account for example which can give you a starting guide. But ask your followers questions. Get to know them and what they want to see from you. . For school or community events, it is essential that you know beforehand if there are any additional needs of students or group members. Is there something you can add to make it accessible for visually or hearing impaired, or maybe someone with learning disabilities. . When it comes to knowing your audience, you need to be proactive so you can be prepared and plan accordingly to make sure noone is left out. But remember practice makes perfect too! . . What ways do you get to know your audiences? What are your tips? . . Edition 12, over and out! . 💕
HOW DO YOU MAKE BEER? 🍺 . Now I couldnt go all the way to Belgium 🇧🇪 and not sample a beer or two.. 🍻 even though it's not my favourite tipple at all! But the taste of these Belgian beers wasnt as off putting to me as the ones I've sampled before, so it got me thinking about what goes into making all the different beers and tastes? 🤔 . First - do you know how we discovered alcohol in the first place? There are many different types of alcohol but only one that is safe for us to drink. It's called ethanol. Humans have been able to metabolise and break it down to eliminate all its toxic components for around 10 million years - so way before we were mixing cocktails🍹 But it was an adaptation that helped our ancestors eat fermented fruit without getting ill 🤢 . So beers 🍻 are made through a process called fermentation and are made of 4 major components; grains, hops, yeast and water💧. Different varieties of all these components mixed in different ratios give each beer its distinct flavour. . The beer making progress starts by cooking the grains in water to create a mash. The heat 🔥 activates enzymes in the grain to break the starches down to sugars. In the next step, the grains are removed to leave the liquid called the wort. Then the hops are added which are the main flavour component of beer 🍺. The hops give an acidic nature to the sweet liquid from the grains. They also protect the mixture from bacterial infections 🧫 to support the growth of the yeast. The liquid is then rapidly cooled so the yeast can be added to start the fermentation process. Yeast eat up all the sugars that are in the wort and turn it into carbon dioxide and ethanol. And a few weeks later you have that cool refreshing tipple 🍻 that many of us enjoy. . So I guess the beers I liked on my trip have less hops or a less bitter variety as I did go back for another sip or two. But I'll stick to a good old G&T 🍸 for now. . What are your favourites beers or ales? . . 🍻
WHAT DOES AN ATOM REALLY LOOK LIKE? 🔎 . This time two weeks ago I was aboard the Eurostar on my way to the beautiful Belgian capital, Brussels 🇧🇪. Whilst we were there, we visited the iconic Atomium which depicts 9 iron atoms and was designed in the 1950s to showcase faith in scientific progress 🔬 . But it got me thinking about what an atom actually looks like? 🤔 You may remember from school the model of an atom with a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons which are then circulated by orbiting electrons. It's called the Bohr model after Niels Bohr. He won the Nobel Prize in 1922 🏅 and is actually one of the only winners who's discovery has been 'disproved' later down the line. . But anyway back to the atomic structure... This common model of the atomic structure says that electrons can orbit the nucleus at certain energy levels 📊 only. They can switch between those levels, but they had to be there. . But it's actually a little more complicated than that. Due to quantum mechanics, electrons actually form more of an 'electron cloud' around the atoms nucleus. This is because electrons arent really in a specific place at any given time 🔎🙈, but when physicists measure an electron they can find them in one place. It's a very weird concept that I dont understand fully but is part of the field of quantum mechanics. . So images of the smallest atoms look like they have a tiny dot in the middle surrounded by a sphere of electrons. But as the atoms get bigger with more electrons, their charges start to interfere with each other and create loads of weird and wonderful shapes. The iron atom for example looks like one sphere is conjoined to another 🥜 . So the electron cloud ☁️ model is the most up to date model but it doesnt mean that the picture of an atom that you know is completely wrong! Maybe it's time for the architects of the Atomium to start on a redesign 🏗
SCICOMM SUNDAY #11 🗣 Your weekly tips & tricks for improving your science communication! . This week I want to talk to you about... . SCICOMM 101 🗣 . Just a quickfire one from me this week with some quickfire tips about where to start with any scicomm project you want to get started on... . 👥 Know your audience . 🤝🏻 Build trust and credibility . 🥅 Establish a goal or two . 🔑 Find your key message . 💻 Pick your medium or platform . 📚 Flex those storytelling skills . 🗨 Use accessible language & be inclusive . 🔄 Practice. Practice. Practice. Repeat. Learn from your mistakes and improve the next time. . 👂🏼 Listen to the thoughts and opinions of others and encourage conversation . More on each of those in the next few scicomm sunday posts but here is your introduction. Would you add any tips to a scicomm 101 toolkit? . What other scicomm tips would you like to learn about for Scicomm Sunday? . . Edition 11, over and out! . 💕
HAVE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE? ☑ . Did you know that here in the UK nearly 1 in 3 peole aged 20-34 are NOT registered to vote? 🗳 . Now I realise we are not voting in European elections, but my trip to European Parliament this weekend on my trip reminded me that the deadline to register to vote is TOMORROW! It takes you less than a minute⏱. You just need to go to gov.uk! Grab your family and friends and anyone you can tell so you can have your vote and your say this December! . Now when it comes to choosing who to vote for this is where it can get a little more tricky. I believe most of you of follow me are interested in science🔬, so I thought I would share a few quick highlights from the three biggest parties' manifestos about science that might help you make a decision if you are unsure. . CONSERVATIVES 💙 ▪️New laws on animal sentience but no mention of animal research ▪️Continue to collaborate internationally and the EU . LABOUR ❤ ▪️Review animal testing laws with the long term commitment of completely phasing it out ▪️Funding new technology like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage . LIB DEMS 💛 ▪️Minimise the use of animals in experimentation and fund research into alternatives ▪️Introduce a start up allowance to support new businesses in science and research . . Are these highlights something that would be useful for you guys? Have you any thoughts about these manifesto highlights? . But most of all PLEASE 🤞🏻 remember to vote by tomorrow 26 November! 🗳🗳 . . 💕
TIME TO REFLECT 💭 . It's been a bit of a whirlwind few weeks with work. I dont really know what day of the week it is or whether I'm coming or going as I've been doing a huge variety of things. From my video 🎥 making course, a website 💻 redesign brief, a career development event for science support staff and photography 📸 at our sciart pop up exhibition to name a few. . One thing I learnt from my day at the career development event were my "must haves" for my career. I mean things you wont negotiate on when it comes to your job, or even PhD project. My two were VARIETY and LEARNING 🤓. So you can see that just in the last few weeks I've got ticks ✔✔ on both of those aspects. . But another thing they shared was that we only seem to reflect on our careers when we arent happy 😕 in them. Instead we need to reflect on them when we are happy 😄 with them too so we can make the most of any opportunities where we can develop. . This is what I was thinking about today. I love my job, especially how varied it can be. I have loads of opportunities to learn new things too. So what can I do to develop myself further? Today I thought I need to be challenged a bit more and I need to stick up for my opinion a bit more and push my ideas 💭💭 a little more. I havent quite worked out how but that's what Im working on now. . But I want to ask you all to do the same. What are your non negotiables for your career or research? And take some time to reflect on your current situation whether you are happy or not - how are you going to develop further? Please share if you feel comfortable too. . That's my food for thought as I share my attempt at an artistic selfie 📸 using the mirrored panel in one of the sciart pieces this week . 💕
SCICOMM SUNDAY #10 🗣 Your weekly tips & tricks for improving your science communication! . This week I want to talk to you about... . STYLES OF PODCASTS 🗣 . First of all, I'm very excited that Scicomm Sunday is into double figures! Woop! 🎉 . Secondly, in Edition #8 I shared about whether you should podcast or not. I guess some of you will have read that and still want to make one so I thought I would share more of my training session and share with you the different styles of interviewing. . I've been lucky enough to be asked to appear on four different podcasts now, and interviews are key parts of this medium. But did you realise there are many different ways you could experiment with to work out what is right for your podcast?? Here are just some I learnt about: 🗣 Just a straight interview. Probably the standard and what everyone thinks of as an interview. Question. Answer. Bang. Bang. Bang. 👥 Illustrated two way. Now sometimes the interview you record just isn't quite right. One thing you can do is record yourself talking about the interview and then add in clips of of key bits you want to highlight. 🎥 Feature. This one is a bit more than just an interview. You might incorporate other things such as event coverage or narration to build it into something a bit larger. 🎙 Event reporting. Again, not necessarily an interview but another style to explore. The key with this one is painting a picture. It is difficult to get people to listen to something they cant see or do, so make sure to really describe what you can see, hear or do. 🏞 From the field. Sending people out to record clips and interviews from where they are working or exploring. Just think of news reports. 🤔 Gonzo! This is all about inserting yourself into the story and sharing your experience and journey of doing something. Maybe you're doing an expedition, or heading out to an event again, but think more video diary. . These are just some examples and your podcast doesnt have to just stick to one style every episode . What are your fave podcasts? What style of interview do they do? . What other scicomm tips would you like to learn about for Scicomm Sunday? . . Edition 10, over and out! . 💕
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH STRESS? . We all have to deal with different stresses in our lives, and studying for a PhD is no different. We all just have different ways of dealing with that. During my PhD, for example, I managed my stress by exploring a new city, or scheduling meetings with my supervisor to make a clear ‘To Do’ list. . But in this post, I don’t want to talk about our stress, I want to talk about cell stress and how they deal with different conditions in collaboration with Merck, but mainly focusing on low oxygen or hypoxia as that is what my PhD was on and also what this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for. Stress tolerance is one of Merck's Curiosity Elements which you can explore more via #linkinbio . Lack of oxygen is one way our cells get stressed. When oxygen levels drop, our cells respond by switching on their response pathway which involves proteins called HIFs. Now I gave you a very brief intro to HIFs a few posts back, so I wanted to expand that a little more here about how HIFs are crucial for development and stem cells. . When we are just an embryo, our mitochondria haven’t fully developed yet and so the way in which our cells can produce most of our ATP is not possible. Instead, they have to rely on a metabolic process called glycolysis - which can produce ATP, but not to the same levels as the mitochondria. But this is the only way that stem cells can produce their energy to develop into a human, so have come up with ways to make that process more efficient using, you’ve guessed it, HIFs. . In low oxygen, HIFs can stick around and become functional helping to switch on key genes. Key genes that include glucose transporters and enzymes that are involved in glycolysis. The stem cells have adapted to be able to get more glucose into their cells, and convert more into a molecule called pyruvate to try and produce more ATP than they would have done otherwise. . But the other curious thing is that embryonic stem cells use HIF1 when they are initially exposed to hypoxia, but after 48 hours use HIF2 instead. More on that next time. . How do you deal with stress?
ARE YOU DONE WITH EDUCATION YET? . This is a question I got asked so, so, SO many times as I was coming to the end of my PhD journey. I even got told a few times after passing my viva “Oh, so now you can stop being a student and actually do a proper job”. While I may have finished my time as a ‘student’ for now (I would never rule out wanting to learn something new later down the line!), I am so NOT done with education. . I love learning!💕💕 It is what drove me during my PhD as I wanted to find the solution to that problem, or find that next little discovery that no-one had done before. It is what I love in my current role learning so many new skills and about so many varying areas of research. It’s also one thing I love about doing scicomm is it allows me to experiment and learn new things also. I love to learn languages and about cities I travel to, and basically anything that is going to help in that next pub quiz! . I have always love learning, and I always will! So, I loved being able to further explore Merck’s Curiosity Elements in cooperation with Merck and the four exercises they sent me - which you can try out for yourself via the #linkinbio. But it was the ‘Joyous Exploration’ one that I wanted to do over and over again. It allowed me to learn more and more information and make new connections between things I did and didn’t know. I learnt things about nanorobots, the Loebner Prize and the Human Brain Project, and my curiosity meant I just had to go and google some more about them all. . But talking about brains, what goes on in our brains when we learn something new? One particular study reported that when we are learning a new skill over time, there is increasing activity in a region called the default network, which is normally ‘switched off’ when doing something highly demanding. As you become more competent with this new info, these signals that are associated with “task ease” get more and more prominent. There is clearly a lot more we can learn here, but we will have to save that for another time. . Are you a “life-long learner” like me? What new skills or info are you learning about right now? . 💕
SCICOMM SUNDAY #9 🗣 Your weekly tips & tricks for improving your science communication! . This week I want to talk to you again about... . TIPS FOR NAILING YOUR NEXT PRESENTATION 🗣 . What many people fail to realise is that being able to communicate your science effectively is crucial to your success in a research career, as well as doing public engagement & scicomm events too. . So this week I wanted to share some top tips for preparing your next presentation whether it's for a conference or at a scicomm event: . 📚 Tell a story! Whether it is a scientific talk or a public talk plan out the main thread that you want to share. 👍🏻 Keep it simple! Dont get bogged down with trying to share all your results, all the info or all the possible stories. Stick to one clear concise piece. 📸 Use visuals! People switch off when there is piles of text in front of them. 🗣 Prepare prompts! A short list of the key bits you want to share on each slide will help, and it means you're not reading from a sheet. I also created "faux" slides for a soapbox science talk I did using an A3 flipchart which helped me stay on track 🗣 Practice out loud and get your friends to listen and give feedback before the big event. 🤔 Think up a catchy title! This will give your conference talk a fresh and accessible vibe and will also hook the attention for any public talk 😂 Dont be afraid to use humour! Show your personality in your talk. Prove to everyone that presenting science isn't just graphs and numbers and so on 👥 Emphasise connection over content. Build your talk from an emotive place to best engage listen. Make them use their senses and imagination to picture a scene. 🔄 Mix it up! Dont just use slides. Bring in props, use videos, audio clips, dance, comedy! Anything that will wake your audience up and pay attention to the info you are sharing. 🙂 But most of all, enjoy it! Have fun with it and just be yourself!! . . What are your top tips for nailing presentations? Do you have any routines or go-to's? How do you change between a research talk and a public one? . What other scicomm tips would you like to learn about for Scicomm Sunday? . . Edition 9, over and out! . . 💕
LOOKING FOR PUNS? IM A PUN-KING! 🎃 . I know, I know... it's terrible! But it is Halloween and I thought it would be good to share a little bit more about some science behind this holiday staple - the pumpkin 🎃 . Did you know pumpkins 🎃 are not vegetables? In fact, they are actually a berry. A berry is defined as a fleshy fruit without a stone produced from a single flower 🌼 containing one ovary. This ovary is usually what houses all its seeds. . Talking about pumpkin seeds, I'm sure you all have plenty lying around now that your pumpkins are all carved up. But rather than throw them away, you might want to keep them as they have a few different health benefits and have historically been used as medicine. . Here are just some examples: 🎃 pumpkin seeds are a good source of magnesium & high magnesium intake has been shown to increase bone density ☠ and reduce osteoporosis risk in post-menopausal women 🎃 they are also rich in the amino acid tryptophan which is converted into the hormone serotonin and melatonin: the feel good and sleep hormones, so could help treat insomnia and help us sleep 😴 and even symptoms of depression 🙂 🎃 the seeds contain lots of squalene; an antioxidant which plays a role in protecting our skin from UV 🎃 there have also been trials using pumpkin seeds that have shown reduced risk of kidney stones & also fighting a parasite that comes from snails 🐌(thanks to ologies for sharing that fact and many others on pumpkins in the curbitology episode - go listen now!) . So make sure to get the most of of your pumpkins this Halloween and future ones!🎃 . Do you have any favourite pumpkin facts? Or carved your pumpkins into any crazy designs this Halloween? Any good pumpkin puns to share? . . . 🎃
WILL YOU BE WATCHING ANY HORROR FILMS FOR HALLOWEEN? 🎃🎥 . There are lots of terms used to describe these movies like hair-raising 😰 or chilling because they refer to the physiological effects that fearful situations cause in your bodies. So what about "bloodcurdling"? Is there any biological truth behind this one? According to one study, yes there is! 😯 . I hate horror films 🎥🎃 so you wont find me tuning in and listening to any bloodcurdling screams tonight or any other night of the year. But while bloodcurdling has been used for centuries tracing back to medieval times, researchers have now found that watching these films can actually cause your blood curdle. Well sort of.. let me explain. . Factor VIII also known as anti-hemophilic factor A is a blood coagulation factor. It works with platelets and a host of other factors to form blood clots and close wounds. 💉 . In this study, healthy volunteers watched the horror movie 'Insidious' followed one week later by a non-scary documentary called 'A Year in Champagne', or vice versa. Blood samples 💉were drawn 15 minutes before and after the screenings and measured for so called "fear factors" such as these coagulation factors. . What they found was a significant increase in the amount of clotting protein factor VIII after watching the horror scenes! . But what does this mean? Well it goes back to our fight or flight response. If we are scared and at risk of injury, then our body is prepared to react and heal a wound faster, clot more rapidly and reduce blood loss. But subjecting yourselves to horror films, at least in this example, could raise your clotting factor readings to levels linked to a 17% increased risk of venous thrombosis, or blood clot. These increases demonstrated in the study at least could be clinically relevant! . So I dont know about you but I think I will give the horror movies 🎃🎥 a miss! And if something is described as bloodcurdling, then there is some biological reason behind it! . Do you watch horror movies? What are your favourites? How are you spending Halloween? What more do you want to know about blood clotting or scary film reactions? . Also wishing I was good at make up rn 🙈
Okayy.. it may be a day late 🙈 but... . SCICOMM SUNDAY #8 🗣 Your weekly tips & tricks for improving your science communication! . This week I want to talk to you again about... . TO PODCAST OR NOT TO PODCAST? 🎙 . Podcasts are really having a hayday right now, so it's understandable why so many people are thinking about creating one and trying to get a piece of the pie (the pumpkin variety of course as it's nearly Halloween 🥧🎃) . I've been doing a lot of research 💻 into setting up podcasts both for myself and for work talking to various different people, so I wanted to share some of the things I've been learning, starting with... . DO YOU REALLY NEED TO CREATE ONE? 🤔 . I think people dont quite see how much work goes into creating a good podcast. It's not as simple as recording a chat with someone and publishing. To have a good quality podcast, you need to invest money 💰 with some kit 🎙, and time 🕐 not only in creating but probably learning new skills to edit your podcast. Then theres the prep, the research, the editing, the format, and crucially the promo! 📢 . A training session I went to last week shared that a podcast should take up 10% of your time, but in reality takes up much more. And you should spend just as much time promoting it. Sure enough that adds up quickly! 😯 . And then there is the small thing of keeping the momentum going and creating frequent new episodes... . So my food for thought this week is, before you get stuck into a full blown podcast, why not experiment with new ways to try incorporating audio 🔊 into your scicomm. Find out if it something you enjoy, something your audience responds to and learn some skills without the pressure of having to create a fresh release. . Many more podcast tips on the way in future editions. But what would you like to know about podcasting? What's your experience or top tip for a good podcast? 🎙 . What ways would you use audio in your scicomm? What other scicomm tips would you like to learn about for Scicomm Sunday? . . Edition 8, over and out! . . 💕
How was this a whole month ago already?! . So so excited to be putting our wedding album together this week. How I'm only going to pick 150 out of 500 I'll never know. But we have also booked our mini moon/birthday trip to Brussels before the big honeymoon next year. . On another note, I will stop posting wedding photos now and get back into science posts and my schedule. I've been feeling just constantly exhausted over the past few weeks so just havent had the time or energy or brain space to actually sit and write or take photos. Lots of updates for you which I want to share in a story very soon too. And I have lots of questions to ask YOU too. . So stay tuned to help a gal out :) . Have a fab Monday! Check in with you later! . . 💕

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! 🎂🎂 . Another revolution around the Sun for me and it's been a pretty good year for the most part I would say. . I got my first publication, I graduated with a PhD, I published in Cell (kinda!), I got married and we have had an offer accepted on our very first house. . And I got Michael Buble tickets for my birthday 😍😍 . All in all not too bad. Here's to an even better year next year. Now to plan some celebrations. . How did you celebrate your birthday this year? 🎈🎈🎈 . . . 🎂
SCICOMM SUNDAY #12 🗣 Your weekly tips & tricks for improving your science communication! . This week I want to talk to you about... . GETTING TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 . In Edition #11, I shared with you a scicomm 101 starter toolkit 🛠for those looking to get into scicomm or ways they could look into improving. For the next few editions I thought I would go a little more in depth. . Scicomm comes in a range of different forms whether its writing 📝 an article for a magazine, sharing your story with a school, making sure your findings reach the ears 👂of policy makers or even just having a chat with friends or strangers at a pub or perhaps a wedding💍. . But making sure you relay your message effectively and efficiently, you need to know more about who you are talking to. . Whilst more formal market research may be beyond the reach of many of us, there are other ways you can get to know your audience a little better before you get started. . Big public outreach events can usually tell you their target demographic. And if they are effective at doing their evaluation, they might be able to give you some information about previous years guests to help your planning. . For smaller talks, it may be more effective to visit one beforehand. Or maybe hold some informational interviews with your contacts to pitch it right. . With online communications, it's good to know whether your audience are your peers or more representative of society. You can get metrics from your IG account for example which can give you a starting guide. But ask your followers questions. Get to know them and what they want to see from you. . For school or community events, it is essential that you know beforehand if there are any additional needs of students or group members. Is there something you can add to make it accessible for visually or hearing impaired, or maybe someone with learning disabilities. . When it comes to knowing your audience, you need to be proactive so you can be prepared and plan accordingly to make sure noone is left out. But remember practice makes perfect too! . . What ways do you get to know your audiences? What are your tips? . . Edition 12, over and out! . 💕
HOW DO YOU MAKE BEER? 🍺 . Now I couldnt go all the way to Belgium 🇧🇪 and not sample a beer or two.. 🍻 even though it's not my favourite tipple at all! But the taste of these Belgian beers wasnt as off putting to me as the ones I've sampled before, so it got me thinking about what goes into making all the different beers and tastes? 🤔 . First - do you know how we discovered alcohol in the first place? There are many different types of alcohol but only one that is safe for us to drink. It's called ethanol. Humans have been able to metabolise and break it down to eliminate all its toxic components for around 10 million years - so way before we were mixing cocktails🍹 But it was an adaptation that helped our ancestors eat fermented fruit without getting ill 🤢 . So beers 🍻 are made through a process called fermentation and are made of 4 major components; grains, hops, yeast and water💧. Different varieties of all these components mixed in different ratios give each beer its distinct flavour. . The beer making progress starts by cooking the grains in water to create a mash. The heat 🔥 activates enzymes in the grain to break the starches down to sugars. In the next step, the grains are removed to leave the liquid called the wort. Then the hops are added which are the main flavour component of beer 🍺. The hops give an acidic nature to the sweet liquid from the grains. They also protect the mixture from bacterial infections 🧫 to support the growth of the yeast. The liquid is then rapidly cooled so the yeast can be added to start the fermentation process. Yeast eat up all the sugars that are in the wort and turn it into carbon dioxide and ethanol. And a few weeks later you have that cool refreshing tipple 🍻 that many of us enjoy. . So I guess the beers I liked on my trip have less hops or a less bitter variety as I did go back for another sip or two. But I'll stick to a good old G&T 🍸 for now. . What are your favourites beers or ales? . . 🍻
WHAT DOES AN ATOM REALLY LOOK LIKE? 🔎 . This time two weeks ago I was aboard the Eurostar on my way to the beautiful Belgian capital, Brussels 🇧🇪. Whilst we were there, we visited the iconic Atomium which depicts 9 iron atoms and was designed in the 1950s to showcase faith in scientific progress 🔬 . But it got me thinking about what an atom actually looks like? 🤔 You may remember from school the model of an atom with a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons which are then circulated by orbiting electrons. It's called the Bohr model after Niels Bohr. He won the Nobel Prize in 1922 🏅 and is actually one of the only winners who's discovery has been 'disproved' later down the line. . But anyway back to the atomic structure... This common model of the atomic structure says that electrons can orbit the nucleus at certain energy levels 📊 only. They can switch between those levels, but they had to be there. . But it's actually a little more complicated than that. Due to quantum mechanics, electrons actually form more of an 'electron cloud' around the atoms nucleus. This is because electrons arent really in a specific place at any given time 🔎🙈, but when physicists measure an electron they can find them in one place. It's a very weird concept that I dont understand fully but is part of the field of quantum mechanics. . So images of the smallest atoms look like they have a tiny dot in the middle surrounded by a sphere of electrons. But as the atoms get bigger with more electrons, their charges start to interfere with each other and create loads of weird and wonderful shapes. The iron atom for example looks like one sphere is conjoined to another 🥜 . So the electron cloud ☁️ model is the most up to date model but it doesnt mean that the picture of an atom that you know is completely wrong! Maybe it's time for the architects of the Atomium to start on a redesign 🏗
SCICOMM SUNDAY #11 🗣 Your weekly tips & tricks for improving your science communication! . This week I want to talk to you about... . SCICOMM 101 🗣 . Just a quickfire one from me this week with some quickfire tips about where to start with any scicomm project you want to get started on... . 👥 Know your audience . 🤝🏻 Build trust and credibility . 🥅 Establish a goal or two . 🔑 Find your key message . 💻 Pick your medium or platform . 📚 Flex those storytelling skills . 🗨 Use accessible language & be inclusive . 🔄 Practice. Practice. Practice. Repeat. Learn from your mistakes and improve the next time. . 👂🏼 Listen to the thoughts and opinions of others and encourage conversation . More on each of those in the next few scicomm sunday posts but here is your introduction. Would you add any tips to a scicomm 101 toolkit? . What other scicomm tips would you like to learn about for Scicomm Sunday? . . Edition 11, over and out! . 💕
HAVE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE? ☑ . Did you know that here in the UK nearly 1 in 3 peole aged 20-34 are NOT registered to vote? 🗳 . Now I realise we are not voting in European elections, but my trip to European Parliament this weekend on my trip reminded me that the deadline to register to vote is TOMORROW! It takes you less than a minute⏱. You just need to go to gov.uk! Grab your family and friends and anyone you can tell so you can have your vote and your say this December! . Now when it comes to choosing who to vote for this is where it can get a little more tricky. I believe most of you of follow me are interested in science🔬, so I thought I would share a few quick highlights from the three biggest parties' manifestos about science that might help you make a decision if you are unsure. . CONSERVATIVES 💙 ▪️New laws on animal sentience but no mention of animal research ▪️Continue to collaborate internationally and the EU . LABOUR ❤ ▪️Review animal testing laws with the long term commitment of completely phasing it out ▪️Funding new technology like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage . LIB DEMS 💛 ▪️Minimise the use of animals in experimentation and fund research into alternatives ▪️Introduce a start up allowance to support new businesses in science and research . . Are these highlights something that would be useful for you guys? Have you any thoughts about these manifesto highlights? . But most of all PLEASE 🤞🏻 remember to vote by tomorrow 26 November! 🗳🗳 . . 💕

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