Winner report

I work on malaria, and specifically how the parasites that cause malaria recognise and get inside our red blood cells. Malaria parasites have incredibly complicated life cycles, passing back and forth between humans and mosquitoes, but it is when they infect our red blood cells that they cause all the symptoms of malaria, including death – nearly a million children die from malaria every year. Our idea is that if we understand how they invade our red blood cells, we can come up with vaccines or drugs to try to block invasion, and so prevent malaria infection. The actual process of invasion is fascinating – it is literally one cell forcing it’s way inside another, with the parasite almost dragging the surface of the red blood cell around itself until it winds up inside, where it is protected from the human immune system and surrounded by lovely haemoglobin. We use … Continue reading →

Originally, I planned to send live videos from our research ship to schools, so that students could take part in our expeditions, see what we are discovering on the ocean floor, chat to our team, and even sometimes direct our operations to explore the deep sea for themselves. To fulfill our dream of a live video link with schools, we now need our own satellite communications system, which would cost around £25000 per expedition. I haven’t given up on that plan and although I can’t yet bring students to the ocean floor via the internet, I can bring the ocean floor to the students. So using the IAS prize money and sponsorship from a company, my PhD students and I have created an exhibit called “Where no-one has stood before”. Our exhibit recreates what you would see, at life-size scale, if you were able to walk around on the seafloor … Continue reading →

As a winner of the June 2010 event I had promised to honour a £50 prize offered by a fellow competitor called Daniel Mietchen for his competition which can be found here. As yet the prize is unclaimed and as I still have the money, it’s still up for grabs. I also said I was investigating ways I could help a local school or youth group. Since then I have started helping at a local school with their after school science club. (see page 3!) I have already donated prizes for their science fair project and have started planning for a new term with some hopefully exciting afternoons in store. The rest of the prize money will be going towards equipment and supplies for some of the things I’m planning. Hopefully if I can win some more funds at a future event I can arrange something with another school or … Continue reading →

Have your students ever wondered what scientists are really like? During I’m a Scientist questions around this theme are very common: Can I be a scientist like you? Is being a scientist like the stereotypical one who wears a white lab coat and huge glasses with crazy hair? What makes a good scientist? After winning the Imaging Zone in June 2010, Stephen Curry (aka the GingerNinja) decided to make a film about science, addressing this question: what are scientists really like? Made with teenage school students in mind, the film is a wonderfully insightful and funny teaching resource to show your students about being a scientist and the world of science. After his win Stephen said “I am convinced that most scientists are, like myself, pretty ordinary people who just happen to be exceedingly curious. I hope in these conversations to break apart the stereotypical image that all scientists are super-intelligent … Continue reading →

I decided to donate my prize money to a science organisation in the developing world. I spoke to Alejandra Palermo, International Projects Manager at the Royal Society of Chemistry, who suggested donating the money to the Ghana Chemical Society (GCS).  The Ghana Chemical Society is a professional association with membership of chemists, biochemists, pharmacists, chemical engineers and technicians.  It organises annual workshops, seminars and conferences on issues of national and international significance. It also collaborates and advises government, industry and society. They will use the money to support a conference in Ghana, the theme of which will be “Actions and Innovations to meet the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation”.  This will follow on from a similar event held in 2010, on the theme “Safe Water and Good Sanitation for all: The role of chemistry, industry and society”.  The Millennium Development Goals are targets set out by the United Nations to combat poverty, hunger, … Continue reading →

The prize money for winning the Brain Zone (March 2010) went towards attending the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego.  This is a massive meeting where 30,000 neuroscientists from all over the world get together to share their research and discuss new developments and ideas.  My PhD student, Keith Duncan, gave a talk entitled “Chronometric TMS shows hemispheric asymmetries in the time course of ventral occipito-temporal processing consistent for both visual words and objects.”  Needless to say, the title alone brought the audience in droves and the feedback was great.  In fact, the whole process helped to land Keith a new position when he finished his PhD in September and he is now doing a postdoctoral research fellowship at the prestigious Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging (London).  So in addition to help publicizing some of our most recent work, the award directly contributed to furthering Keith’s academic career and … Continue reading →