yppahpeek

... And we're back.  I'm counting down the best (and worst) bits from 2013. So without further ado, here's July to December. July I spent most of July working at the BBC Science Radio Unit (work placement for Science Communication course). I would like to say I enjoyed every minute - but I was bloody terrified for the first week. However, after discovering how friendly and helpful everybody who works there are, I settled in and started to really enjoy my time there. I researched a story about an invading fish for Science in Action , a story about the use of Facebook in spotting disease for Click and I researched and helped plan a documentary about de-extinction . (I also recorded and produced some vox pops  for a Click  special about internet trolls)… Oh! And I pretended to be from Kenya to read out a listener's email... The highlight of my work experience was getting a feature article about de-extinction published on the BBC News website . August M...

With everybody doing end of year lists, I wanted to write a summary of 2013 myself. It's been quite a year, difficult and enjoyable. So here's my (mostly not narcissistic) summary of January to June. January A couple of months into a Science Communication degree, I made a little podcast for I, Science  magazine. I got to meet the amazing Suze Kundu (or @FunSizeSuze ), who chatted about communicating science to kids, splitting water molecules and the science of cocktails. You can listen to the podcast here .  The rest of the month was pretty uneventful, although I did see a steam train go through Earl's Court Tube Station !  February February was a pretty busy month! I started by pondering death at the Wellcome Collection - recording and producing a podcast about their Death: A Self Portrait  exhibition . I learnt two things recording this podcast: 1. Death is a fascinating and sometimes beautiful inevitability 2. Never ask exhibition goers for v...

Letting go and growing old. Into a box, your memory, I pack and I fold. We forgot what it feels to be "young and in love", And instead sat, headphones on, in our own single worlds. In a bed we lay, not touching most nights,  Sober and quiet and far from the lights, Minds drifting to our jobs, our work and our studies,  Ignoring the feeling of the pressing of our bodies. Our project became still and stagnated, And like background radiation, we droned and no longer communicated. I think back to your thoughts after that holiday we had. We'd enjoyed ourselves: we were young, we'd had fun.  We drank wine by night, and in the day we sipped sun. But when we got back home, to the clouds and the cold, There was something on your mind that I had to be told. You felt pressured and unsure of our path. We were a star on its way to collapse. "And beyond that it's black," you said. "And I'm afraid of the dark!" But I ...

When I was younger, trains were dragons. They'd spit heat and noise and excitement. And explode into view before they were gone. Black beasts screaming their arrival, Snaking through stations and scaring kids Who stand on the platform: palms sweaty, eye's full. Now I know there's no serpent pinned between tracks. Just an engine. Some wheels. And some seats. And where's the fun in that? Where's the adventure? Point A to point B, and "a selection of hot and cold beverages in between". I wish saw a monster instead of a machine.

If you haven't seen the Paxman–Brand interview yet, go see it . I thought I would add my two pennies (whatever that's worth!). Russell Brand makes a lot of very interesting points. He draws on the large disparity between the super-rich, '1%' and the rest of us. He is also disgusted at the way we are abusing our environment (and seemingly doing nothing about it). His point about the decoration of the House of Commons is excellent. " The Houses of Parliament, [are] decorated exactly the same as Eton, [they're] decorated exactly the same as Oxford. So a certain type of people go in there and they think, 'Eurgh! This makes me nervous!'. And another type of people go in there and they go, 'This is how it should be!' And that's got to change" While, in theory , anybody can be voted in to 'govern' our country, the reality is that a certain 'class' (can we still use that word?) of people are more comfortable in the ...

A galaxy was discovered today. It sent its message and drifted further away. Shifting from blue to red, Lonely photons travelled across the cosmos to be read. Electronic eyes scoured the blackness and we deciphered the story, Of an object so distant in time, we had a birthing memory. A hazy image of things for which there were no words, But which we now know as suns, moons and worlds. * http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v502/n7472/full/nature12657.html

The Ideal Candidate must be, Trained in Chemistry And have received a degree. No, wait! Make that a PhD! Furthermore, they must, Edit, change, adjust, Pieces of writing, audio clips, or just, Occasionally, the odd blog post. Does this sound like you? "Yes", I think. "That's me, it's true!" But there's something that makes me feel blue. And that's that The Ideal Candidate thought so too!