Blog 3: The Taxonomist’s Tales Not every second of the work day is spent at work; indeed there are often stretches of time where there is nothing to do except talk. Whether during lunchtime, or as you leave work, or even while preparing specimens, there is actually a lot of downtime while working in scientific…
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is needed and, more importantly, STEM is wanted. The former is obvious, because many countries like the United Kingdom or the United States have been taking action in promoting these subjects and improving the teaching quality in need of more people studying STEM since 2015. The latter has been…
Blog 2: The Taxonomist’s Work When people imagine science, they imagine how it is in the movies. Men in white lab coats, peering into the fabric of reality, one breakthrough coming after another as if they were results on election night. The truth of science is much more pedestrian—whether it is physicists who pore over…
Blog 1: The Taxonomist’s Office To an outsider, the most shocking thing about a scientist’s office is its poverty. In nearly every other field that is highly respected in modern bourgeois society, whether it is law, finance, medicine, or even accounting, the upper echelons of the profession promise a comfortable office, with modern designed furniture,…
Blog 2: Engaging with Parliament During my 3-month internship at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), I was responsible for researching and producing a Parliamentary briefing document, called a “POSTnote” about a Biology and Health topic (see Blog Post 1). POST select science topics to research that currently are, or soon will be,…
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but their concrete can withstand the ages: around 2 millennia to be precise. There are many intriguing stories of ancient materials with fascinating properties but long-forgotten methods of production, like Damascus steel, the supposed chromium plated blades of the terracotta army, and Roman concrete. However, more light has been shed…
Blog 1: Science and Parliament As scientists, many of us aim to make significant changes, both nationally and globally, through our research and discoveries. But many young scientists, like myself, may not have spent much time thinking about how scientific discoveries are actually implemented in society. I recently spent 3 months working as an intern…
