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…
Cadence Webley, Year 11, St Georges College Weybridge, Surrey In 1825, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce looked at his silver chloride coated paper and realised he had just taken the first ever photograph. Louis Daguerre continued this process with a plate coated in silver iodide and developed the first ever portable camera which was made available to…
Catrin Herrenden-Harker, Year 10, Kings Monkton, Wales Alzheimer and dementia are devastating diseases which affect 60 million people in the world, with the number set to grow, so is a major problem for healthcare systems and puts extreme pressure on old people’s homes. So, what are these diseases? Dementia is an overall term for diseases…
Christen Rayner, Year 12, St Anthony’s & St Aidan’s Sixth Form, Tyne and Wear Runner-up for the Schools Science Writing Competition, Trinity Term 2020 ‘Prior to penicillin and medical research, death was an everyday occurrence. It was intimate.’ Katherine Dunn The discovery of penicillin was undoubtedly one of the most important scientific discoveries in recent…
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…
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…
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…
Runner-up of the Hilary Term Schools’ Writing Competition 2020 Rosalie Ko, Year 11, Buckinghamshire “We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself.” – Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist and TIME Person of the…
Runner-up of the Hilary Term 2020 Schools’ Writing Competition Emily Allen, Year 12, Oxfordshire Something as tiny as 40μm surely doesn’t have the power to fix the planet? What if I told you it does. It’s hard to believe but cyanobacteria are mighty, despite being minute. They have photosynthetic abilities unlike other organisms. Residing freely…
Runner-up of the Hilary Term 2020 Schools’ Writing Competition Sri Kousthubha Allampalli, Year 13, Surrey 16th July 1969. The date of the launch of the Apollo 11 mission, during which mankind finally made its mark on the moon. A memorable moment for all, and a source of inspiration for many of the aspiring astronauts out…
