The Oxford Scientist

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 Lucy Fan, Year 10, Surrey ‘Our house is on fire. I am here to say, our house is on fire.’ This is the most famous line uttered by Greta Thunberg- the 16 year old climate change activist who’s acted as the catalyst for so many school…

Runner-up of the Hilary Term 2020 Schools’ Writing Competition Elizabeth Dewes, Year 11, West Midlands Since the rise of Greta Thunberg, everyone has had at least some insight into the sinister threat of climate change. We are beginning to see the catastrophic effects of our average global temperature rising, with 10 million hectares of land…

Runner-up of the Hilary Term 2020 Schools’ Writing Competition Ayeza Akhtar, Year 12, Greater Manchester “Climate change will be irreversible by 2030” – UN. That gives us a mere 10 years to fix the mess we have been gradually creating over the 200,000 years us humans have been around. As bleak as that may sound,…

Runner-up of the Hilary Term 2020 Schools’ Writing Competition Rulan Zhang, Year 12, Berkshire Stephen Hawking, arguably the greatest physicist of our time once said: ‘I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet….

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…