Hi! My name is Lena, and I’m a second-year Biomed student from Poland. I love reading books and playing team sports, like volleyball and sailing. I have liked biology for as long as I can remember but always thought I would become a doctor since, in Poland, there are not many other paths viable after…
Hi there! I’m currently a Biology student, but I’m also a prolific plant grower, keeper of strange invertebrates (there are some triops on my windowsill as I type this) and an excessive walk-taker (if that is a thing). Why did you decide to study your subject at Oxford? Biodiversity conservation was a prominent part of…
I’m Jossy, a mathematician at St Hugh’s1 (on the left in the picture above). Apart from being a mathematician, I love Jazz and doing silly (sometimes intoxicated) dancing with my friends. I am a massive Dua Lipa fan, and topology is my favourite area of maths so far! Why did you decide to study your…
Hiu Yu Wong, Year 12, The King’s School, Kent Throughout the course of science, many discoveries have been made that have greatly impacted our world today, may it be a fascinating invention or a complicated theory. Yet for one woman in 1951, she was about to change the frontiers of science without knowing. Henrietta Lacks…
Samuel Hughes, Year 12, Cardiff High School, Cardiff One of the most important scientific discoveries that still affects the world today was predicted by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, realised by German physicist Heinrich Hertz and pioneered by Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi. Since its discovery, it has made communication possible over vast distances, enabled billions…
Polly Painter, Year 12, Millfield School, Somerset The pill has ignited a revolution towards female empowerment. Invented by Gregory Goodwin Pincus and Carl Djerassi and approved in 1960, the invention of the pill was a monumental challenge but also an astounding breakthrough. In conjunction with introducing birth control into a country where thirty states had…
Isabella Kwiecinski, Year 13, Lady Margaret School, London Nobody looks forwards to getting them. They leave our arms painful and aching, they make babies wail and adults faint. The vaccine. For many of us that dreaded word will not conjure up feelings of joy or excitement, instead, the image of a sharp needle and feelings…
Luke Hayward, Year 12, King Edward VI School Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire Invention, discovery and scientific advancement are arguably the things that set humans apart from all other beings on our planet. Our capacity for abstract thought, coupled with a deep desire to apply our findings to real world problems has expanded the capabilities of Homo sapiens…
Mukhtar Quraishi, Year 12, Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, Lancashire The Haber Process seems like a simple discovery. The process takes nitrogen and hydrogen to form ammonia and is seemingly unimportant. It feels like a backyard experiment gone wrong. After all, ammonia is a toxin to sea life and is even a common by-product of reactions…
India Thomas, Year 12, Monk’s Walk School, Hertfordshire Many frequently used obstetrical inventions, like the epidural, were developed during the 20th century. But some of the most widespread and effective technologies evolved during the dark ages of medicine and somehow have survived all way into the 21st century. One such invention is the forceps. In…
