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As a volcanologist working for the British Geological Survey (BGS) there isn’t much opportunity to visit and study volcanoes since, you may have noticed, we don’t have any in Britain anymore! So when it was suggested by a friend that we go on holiday this year to the Aeolian Islands, naturally I jumped at the chance. The Aeolian Islands are a group of volcanic islands off the north coast of Sicily in southern Italy, each accommodating their own volcano, some of which are still active today. Not only are they a beautiful group of islands to visit as a tourist, they are also a fascinating place to study volcanoes due to the huge variety in the styles of eruption exhibited by the various volcanoes.  Although the BGS isn’t currently working in Italy, it is still important for us to understand as much as possible about how volcanoes work and the … Continue reading →

Panos gave his money to Olivier Rannou (a second year PhD student) in order to pay for him to go to a conference in Sheffield. Olivier has written the following about what happened: As a second year PhD student in September I attended an international conference. This event gathered scientists from around the world to speak about their discoveries in the field of DNA replication, which is the most fundamental process in biology. During the four days, scientists gave talks and at the end of each talk we could ask questions in order to better understand the work of the speaker. It was very exciting as each of them was an expert in their subject and I could learn a lot about the newest discoveries in DNA replication in general. I was able to present a poster to show my results to this audience, and met a lot of people … Continue reading →

Katy Milne, winner of the March 2010 Hydrogen Zone I am just writing to thank everybody involved in ‘I’m a Scientist – Get me out of Here!’ in April 2010 on behalf of Bishop Kivengere Girls’ School Uganda. The school children in the UK voted for me to win the Hydrogen Zone in March. Due to large class sizes (50+) and lack of resources, the girls here get limited practical science teaching. Also, not many girls take science because they think that it is a subject for boys only. I hope I am helping to change their mind on that! Thanks from the school! I used part of the £500 that I won towards a digital projector for the school. The girls can now watch films on science (and Geography, History, English Literature and even High School Musical!), to help them understand. The remainder of the money was put towards … Continue reading →

As we see Wimbledon and World Cup fever draw to an end, so too must I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! This battle was also fierce, but through the sweat, blood and tears* one victor emerged, (well 41 technically) to be crowned champions of I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! June 2010. Thank you so much to all those that took part. This has truly been an amazing event with record participation, so we can’t thank you enough for making it so much fun! We only hope you had as much fun as we did in the office! So without further ado, it is with my pleasure to announce that the winners of I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! June 2010 are: Zone Scientist Winner Student Winner Brain Joanna Brooks Jacob Buckle – John Hampden Grammar School Cancer Joanna Watson Savannah Woolgar-Harris and Katie … Continue reading →

It’s the final countdown! With at least two evictions in each zone- and in some, three- the end is drawing close for this round of I’m A Scientist, Get Me Out of Here! But that just means things are getting really exciting! Our scientists still want your questions- and votes- so keep sending them to us, students, and we’ll announce our winners this Friday. Nonetheless, we’d like to thank all our scientists for taking part. Just because some have been evicted doesn’t mean that they’re completely gone. You can still check out their profiles, and read their answered questions. And remember you can still leave comments for each scientist in their zone. Check out our evicted scientists here- remember the answers, the science, the laughs- and maybe leave them a message! Zone First eviction Second eviction Beryllium Upul Wijayantha Philip Wadler Boron Vicki Stevenson Emma Carter Nitrogen Stuart Kyle Donna … Continue reading →

Hi everyone! What an exciting week we have had; hundreds of live chats and questions flying in from every direction! We have been super-busy reading and replying to all of your questions, remember that you can comment on them too. Just go to the zone that you asked your question in and comment on the scientists answers as much as you like! You can also post questions for the scientists there as well. We hope that you have enjoyed the first week as much as we have and are looking forward to Monday; remember though if you want your favourite scientist to stand a chance of winning you need to VOTE by Tuesday! Who will win? Only YOU decide!

Greetings! IAS June 2010 is now well underway with record participation! This year  we have 100 scientists engaging with 400 classes  and 8000 students! We hope you’re all having as much fun as we are! Below I have listed all the schools lucky enough to be able to share in the excitement. This is history in the making! If you missed the opportunity this year but are interested in future events please contact admin@imascientist.org.uk Aluminium All Saints RC High Walthamstow Academy Ashmole School Kelmscott School Richmond Upon Thames College The Grange School Oldbury Wells Addey & Stanhope Beryllium Boldon School St. Joseph’s College Woodlands School Heathcote School The Warwick School Beacon Hill High School Business & Enterprise College Cheadle and Marple sixth form college The Phoenix Centre Boron Chace Community School Walthamstow Academy Salesian College The Manor School Beacon Hill High School Business & Enterprise College Broadoak Maths and Computing … Continue reading →

Fanfare! We have now finally chosen all the scientists to take part in I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! June 2010. Here they are, for your delight and delectation… It’s been absolutely excruciating. We’ve had to turn down some fantastic sounding scientists doing fascinating work. Sadly we only have a finite amount of space! If any more funders would like to come forwards (err, hint!) then maybe we can manage more next year… I’m a Scientist was recently described* as ‘the world’s most stunningly innovative teen science education program’ and this will be the biggest event we’ve ever run. In June we will have 100 scientists, engaging with 400 classes and 8,000 students. These scientists will be involved in making history! How were these scientists chosen? We truly believe in listening to our users and that this makes the project much stronger. All scientists who applied wrote a … Continue reading →

We would like to congratulate the following winning students from the March 2010 event; as voted for by our chat room moderators… The students winners of I’m a Scientist Get me Out of Here! are: Name School Zone Christy Lemmon St Columba’s High School Brain Sebastian Ellis Tiffin School Genes Jessica Harvey King Henry VIII School Helium Ryan Pendlebury Mid Cheshire College Hydrogen Matt Warren Hardenhuish School Lithium Congratulations to above student winners, who were all chosen for their overall contributions to the event.  They have now received their student winners certificates and WHSmith vouchers. We would also like to thank all the other students who participated for their brilliant chats and thought provoking questions which made this year’s I’m a Scientist Get Me Out of Here! one of the most exciting and fun events yet.

We’ve had two weeks of hot debate, stimulating chat and mind-boggling facts. In each of our zones five scientists started out in the competition ready to tackle any question, but as the students voted the scientists were eliminated one by one. Today the final vote revealed the ultimate winner for each zone… The winners of I’m a Scientist Get me Out of Here are: JOE from the Brain Zone KERSTIN from the Genes Zone KATY from the Hydrogen Zone MARTIN from the Helium Zone KIRAN from the Lithium Zone Congratulations to all the lucky winners and may each of you enjoy communicating your wonderful science ideas further with your £500 prize. Hard luck and thank you to all you other clever scientists who took part, as each and every one of you contributed to the success of this year’s event. Thank you to all the wonderful teachers for your enthusiasm … Continue reading →