ScienceGrrl: Science is for Everyone

On the 8th October, I went along to the Arts Tower at the University of Sheffield to attend the first inaugural lecture titled 'Science is for Everyone' by ScienceGrrl's Sheffield branch. 

The lecture began with Jen Lewis (founder of ScienceGrrl Sheffield) asking people to picture a typical scientist and engineer, something I have written about before here. Jen then showed a picture of Ada Lovelace and asked the audience if anyone knew who she was. It's safe to say that not many people did (or they were being extremely shy!). The lecture itself was arranged to coincide with Ada Lovelace day on 14th October, which is a celebration of the achievements of women in science. Ada is often associated with being the worlds first computer programmer after sketching out programs and plans for something called the 'Analytical Engine', which was essentially an early version of the modern computer.

Ada Lovelace Day - 14th October

Next up was the main speaker of the evening, Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon, a Mechanical Engineer and Enterprise Educator at the University of Sheffield. She told us her story and how she became involved in the field of engineering. Elena is originally from Mexico, where she studied. There she met a new friend who had a disabled brother. Elena was astounded at the way his family had made a hand-brace for him. This was engineering. She was determined to help disabled people complete day to day activities and she discovered she could do this through engineering. 'Everything is enabled by science and engineering' and so these pathways make just as much difference to people's lives as medicine can. 

Professor Rodriguez-Falcon has spent her career dedicated to helping those with a disability through her knowledge of engineering. Someone with a 'disability' may not just be someone who was born with a physical/mental disability, as she explained that we all become disabled in one way or another as we age. She showed that the number of elderly people with a physical disability will be 50% of the population by 2020. As our strength and dexterity deteriorate as we get older, it becomes harder to do day to day chores and clever engineering solutions are the way to overcome this. Elena's talk was incredibly inspiring and it was extremely helpful of her to give an insight into what you can do with engineering and how helpful it can actually be to people. When you say the word 'engineering' people often think of cars or aeroplanes and vehicles, but actually it is so much more than that and the career possibilities you can get from engineering are endless. 

We then heard from some PhD students from the University, all ScienceGrrls and hence involved in STEM subjects. They were kind enough to talk us through their research and all four of them were involved in entirely different fields:

• Firstly we heard about the subject of Bone Regeneration and the engineering behind aiding the recovery of broken bones through inserting a material between the gaps in the broken bone to speed up recovery. 

• The second short talk was on Additive Manufacturing, or 3D printing as we all know it. The technology behind 3D printing is extremely cool, not only because you can make a 3D replica of your own face (really!), but really thin slices of material in any shape needed can be produced by the printer. This is very useful for the Medical, Automotive and Consumer Industries. 

• We then heard from Priya, a member of Sheffield's NeuroGirls, who was researching Vasomotion and the dilation and constriction of arteries in the body. She told us that vasomotion is extremely useful in medicine as it can help predict whether a patient is developing a disease, before the disease is actually apparent. 

• Lastly, we heard from another ScienceGrrl, Steph, who began as a chemist who was interested in environmental chemistry and is now an environmental engineer studying groundwater and the microbiology to clean up groundwater after petrol leaks. I found her talk most interesting as I think I could relate to it most, however all of the girls were absolutely amazing and so passionate about their fields and projects. 

At the end of the lecture, there was time for questions:

The first question asked Professor Rodriguez how she decided what kind of engineering she wanted to study. Elena replied that she didn't actually know what career she wanted, so she chose mechanical engineering as it is a very broad field and she decided it would be best for her as she could specialise later if she wanted to. Some of the other ScienceGrrls also said this and some said they 'fell' in to engineering; it wasn't their initital career plan but they discovered that they really enjoyed finding practical solutions to problems faced in the world. 

Following questions discussed the gender imbalance in engineering subjects at University and in Industry. Elena was quick to reassure people that she had never experienced discrimination even whilst working at a company where she was the only woman amongst 200 men. She said that the actual problem is not the vast number of boys in STEM, but the number of girls not taking STEM subjects. 

'That's not to say we're not awesome.

 We are brilliant!' 

- Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon on the lack of women in engineering

I had the most enjoyable evening at the lecture and I hope it inspired all of the younger people in there to study STEM at University. It was really good to see people of different ages and there were more boys there than I expected there to be, which was amazing to see. I really hope ScienceGrrl Sheffield hold more events like this at the Uni. I'd like to thank them all for giving up their time to share their knowledge and passion with us. You're an inspiration. 

Having the Passion to Succeed

I've discovered in the last year that to truly be successful at what you do, exam grades and tests are not the most important thing. Sure, they may have an effect on what courses you can apply for, but there is something way more powerful than exam scores.

At the end of my first year of University, I had to achieve a 60% average in my core modules. I scraped through with 62.5%, not my proudest moment, especially as I didn't actually achieve anything higher than a 2:2 in any of my summer exams. I was actually surprised by my own reaction to this. If it had been a couple of years ago at A-level, I probably would have had a meltdown and cried. Instead, I simply planned how to improve and how to win over companies that I would be applying to the following year. At this moment in time, I don't have the greatest exam record at Uni, my results are nothing special, but I intend to make them so. I have passion.

My passion for my subject is what drives me to do well and succeed. I'm not the kind of student who gets by by doing the bare minimum and although my results aren't the greatest, my love for my subject extends beyond the boundaries of the syllabus. I go out and meet people, network and share my excitement with other people and in a way, I think that makes me more of a scientists than amazing grades do. I love attending events where I get to meet fellow scientists, learn something new and be part of it all. Learning is my favourite thing. I spend hours in the library, not because I have to but because I want to and one day I will be where I want to be.

I may not be the most intelligent person on my course, but I am the most passionate and I will never give up. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

New Adventures

I have exciting news. From now on I will still try to blog regularly, however I have new ventures that I am about to embark upon.

I recently met the Creative Director of an organisation called Social Sheffield. After being spotted on twitter, I was asked to meet up with them to discuss how they could support my aims and passions. Social Sheffield have their own site, where they advertise events and activities going on in the Sheffield area. They also support restaurants, bars etc and have Food, Culture and Music twitter accounts covering all kinds of entertainment and events. Recently, they have been wanting to set up an Education section, where educational activities can be posted in the hope that the people of Sheffield will be more drawn in to going to these kind of events. Anyway, I met up with Social Sheffield and I will now be tweeting from their Education account as well as my own personal account. They have offered to let me be their Education Editor and hopefully in due course I will be able to write articles for their online magazine which is currently under maintenance. 

It's all very exciting and has happened so quickly. I can only hope that I'm good at it and who knows where this could lead? :-)

My Social Sheffield Twitter

The Social Sheffield Twitter

'An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth'

Disclaimer: I admit that I'm extremely late jumping on the bandwagon by reading this book, but space exploration is something I've only recently become interested in, thanks to all the amazing astrophysicists I follow on Twitter. So thanks, spacey people. I applaud you. 

Probably one of the best books I have ever read, 'An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth' is a self-help guide as much as it is a fabulous tale about Chris Hadfields experiences both on Earth and in space. I had to stop myself from reading it all in one day just so I could savour how good it is and I can't recommend it enough, especially to those people like me who at times don't have a lot of faith in themselves when it comes to achieving their dreams. It's truly inspiring and I just can't praise it enough.

Chris has faced so many knock-backs and unfortunate circumstances, some of which he couldn't control, like being Canadian! He knew there was a slim chance of NASA ever wanting to send a Canadian into space when there were so many Americans wanting to fulfil the role. Yet, he never let this stop him. Instead, he persevered and worked hard, becoming a fighter pilot, working weekends and completing extra training exercises in the hope of taking a step closer to becoming an astronaut. He says at the beginning of the book that he has wanted to be an astronaut since he was nine years old and first saw the moon-landing. Since that day he has taken every measure possible in order to achieving that and it's amazing that someone can be so dedicated to a particular goal.

Chris Hadfield

Whilst not everyone wants to be an astronaut, Hadfield provides valuable advice for people pursuing any career. He talks about the power of negative thinking and truly being ready for anything that may stand in your way of achieving your goals. Possibly the best thing I took away from the book is the quote coined by NASA- 'Working the Problem'. It's a methos NASA use of approaching a problem by 'descending a tree' and working through the problem in a logical and methodical way, covering all possibilities. The problem could be anything from a fire on-board the ISS or a complex maths problem, yet the process is still the same. I've tried to incorporate this quote into my way of thinking when I encounter a tough question that must be solved. It gives you a lot of faith that you actually can succeed if you in overcoming an obstacle that requires 'out of the box thinking'. There is always a solution.

The book is full of amazing career advice and tips, particularly to never measure your success by whether you achieve your goals the way you wanted to. Working hard and enjoying the journey is just as important as the final destination, because we might not always end up where we originally planned and if we measure our success on our journey's-end then we will always feel disappointed. This has filled me with optimism about returning to University to work hard, prepare and enjoy myself.

It's not all deep life-lessons though.  Before reading this book, I knew nothing about life in space, simply because I've never been and as I said earlier, it's only just become an interest of mine. I was really happy to discover it's exactly as I imagined it. Reading about the physical effects on the astronauts bodies both in space and when they return to Earth is amazing. By the sounds of it though, it all seems very worthwhile. The stories of races under zero gravity through the ISS to gather bubble wrap, preparing breakfast and carrying out scientific experiments by having to stick test tubes to the walls via Velcro. It's all fascinating. I can only imagine what it's like to look out of the window and see the Earth. It must be incredibly beautiful. If you haven't read 'An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth', please do. I can't stress how brilliant it is.

A summer of Learning

I haven't been blogging as regularly as I would like to lately, but I've been busy travelling all over the country this summer. I'll be back up and blogging properly on Saturday as that's when I return from my holiday and will have an actual laptop to type posts up on (using my phone is quite fiddly). This summer, I've definitely explored more of my interests and also things that i didn't previously take any interest in or didn't know anything about.

I've almost finished reading 'An astronauts guide to life on Earth' by Chris Hadfield and so an in-depth review of that is coming up as its one of the best books I've ever read. As I said, I've been exploring new fields this summer and so an influx of very mis-matched posts are to be expected. It's all part of the fun though. :-)

Useful Books for Undergraduate Chemistry Students

I love books, like really love books. If you're starting University and studying the physical sciences, I've devised a list of books that may be useful in your first year of University. Every Uni has their own list of recommended reading but obviously not all lists will contain the same books, so I've taken some books that my department recommended and some I discovered myself, that have been really helpful/interesting, so I hope this is of some use if you want to get some books together before starting your course. :-)

• This book is awesome. It may say that it's for A level Chemistry, but it's full of exercises and calculations that cover all aspects of Chemistry. It's really good for revising your maths skills and working through problems. It also has example problems at the beginning of each chapter so you know how to calculate the answers yourself and it's just really useful if you want to revise answering calculation questions. You can buy it here: Calculations for A-level Chemistry

• Another Maths book specifically for those undergraduate students studying the chemical sciences without having done A level maths. Again, example problems are given and it covers everything you will cover in your first year maths catch-up lectures. Covers lots of different topics such as differentiation, integration and matrices. You can buy it here: Maths for Chemistry

• Oxford Chemistry Primers are really helpful. They are small books each focussing on a specific topic in Chemistry and will contain some information that may not be given to you in lectures. They're really good for outside reading, are concise and informative and on the whole, easy to understand. I didn't buy before starting my first year and I really wish I had because generally, the University library will only have a few copies of each and they are really good! I've recently invested in a few to begin my second year and plan on taking them on holiday with me to begin some pre-Uni reading. Just search for Oxford Chemistry Primers on Amazon and there are tonnes of them. Some are more expensive than others and I'm unsure why, but I think I got mine for about a penny each. You can't go wrong. 
  

• Who says all educational books have to be text books? If you're studying a subject like chemistry, one topic you will cover in your first year will be the structure of atoms and quantum mechanics. It's difficult to get your head around at first because it's like nothing you've ever encountered before and it always reminds me of the famous quote: "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." This is where Brian Greene comes in. 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' is a brilliant book. It really helped me understand quantum mechanics, probability and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. It's also really good if you're interested in concepts such as time and space etc. Amazon have it here: Fabric of the Cosmos 

There are so many useful books out there to aid you in your university course and don't be afraid to try those that aren't textbooks; sometimes they're more helpful as they have a more personal approach and examples you can relate to. :-)

Preconceptions of a Scientist

Whenever people ask me what I study at University and I tell them I'm a chemistry student, I usually get responses along the lines of:

 'Wow, you must be really intelligent!' or 'Ooh, aren't you a clever girl?', (which is possibly the most patronising comment ever).

My own personal favourite is 'Oh, but you're so pretty!', simply because it's unrelated to my field and I still can't figure out whether it's a compliment or an insult.

I've recently discussed what people perceive scientists to 'look like', however my experience has told me that these preconceptions of scientists are much more complex than simply appearance. I've even had medicine students ask me what I study and when I tell them they respond with something like 'Eww really? Chemistry's so hard. You must be so clever.' I wanted to remind them that they study medicine, the most competitive University course there is. People have this idea that all scientists are genius' (what is the plural of genius?!) and we sit at desks all day scribbling down complex equations. This may be true of some scientists, who are extremely intelligent and probably make the rest of us look a little dim, however we're not all Einstein and I think this is where the preconceived idea comes from. Einstein is the most well known scientist on Earth and probably the first person people think of when they imagine a scientist. Therefore I think people's thought process is something along the lines of:

Einstein = Scientist, therefore if you are a scientist you must be on the same level as Einstein! Which I know on a personal level isn't true. I am most definitely not a genius. Sure, I have a brain like everyone else, but I am a scientist because I love science and I enjoy it and that is the reason I am good at it. Not because I have an IQ of 1 billion. (Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure you can't have an IQ of 1 billion.)

I think a lot of careers have stereotypes but those of people in STEM subjects are actually quite damaging and I think is one of the reasons there is a lack of women in these fields. Take the 'Big Bang Theory'. It's a funny show and I love it, but when I look at characters like Amy Farrah Fowler, I wonder if I would have chosen a career in science if I had grown up with her character. Probably not. Fortunately I'm lucky enough to know that most female scientists aren't like her at all. Mayim Bialik who plays Amy, is a real representation of a women in science! She's amazing and funny and beautiful with a passion for the subject; she's a true inspiration. However Amy is frumpy, socially awkward and perceived as 'boring'. Maybe I'm taking this too seriously but she really doesn't represent the majority and personally, I don't know anyone like her which makes me wonder where this stereotype comes from.

Yes as scientists,we are a little geeky but we like to have fun as much as anyone else. We love the Universe and the origin of it, we love the Earth, we love the organisms that inhabit the Earth, we love invisible forces the act on you and the atoms and molecules that make up everything. We love the chemicals whizzing around your brain as you're reading this. In general, we love life and the origins of life. How can you possibly say that's boring?