This isn’t really Imperial related, but today is Ada Lovelace Day – according to http://findingada.com/ it is “an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science”. So, I thought, why not join in too?

Of course, we shouldn’t celebrate women scientists for their gender – we should celebrate their work. Though this doesn’t make choosing someone to talk about any easier. I thought about it for a while – reading about Lisa Randall’s work got me into physics; I recently re-read “The Dark Lady of DNA” having discovered a blue plaque round the corner from here proclaiming Rosalind Franklin once lived there; heck, there are plenty of inspirational women in science here at Imperial (as the recent We Are Science exhibition demonstrated) – and eventually decided to talk about Lise Meitner.

I consider Lise Meitner inspirational not just because of her work – and that alone was worthy of great acclaim. In addition to discovering several isotopes and the Auger effect (independently of Auger), she was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission. She is often singled out as being unfairly overlooked by the Nobel Committee. Of course, her work had huge implications for nuclear warfare, but she refused to work on the Manhattan Project. As an Austrian Jew she also had to flee Nazi Germany, eventually settling in Sweden. Her epitaph reads: “a physicist who never lost her humanity”.

One day I decided to write a poem for every element of the periodic table – meitnerium was the only one I actually did. No, you can’t read it.

On a completely unrelated note, I will be Chair/President of Amnesty next year! Hopefully I help can continue the great work that everyone’s done this year and do some new exciting things too. I’m planning on writing some “feature” type posts on here soon, so watch out for them!

Well, I’ve had a fairly eventful few days!

ICSF AGM OMGWTFBBQ
Thursday was the Sci Fi Society’s Annual General Meeting, where new committee members are elected, the year is reviewed and the constitution discussed. I stood for the position of Fanzine Editor and was surprisingly elected! It was just a relief really not to be beaten by Miranda the Dalek, who stood for every election (as RON – Re-Open Nominations).

Felix
I wrote an article about the Amnesty society’s involvement in Fair Trade Fortnight and it got into Felix! You can see it in last week’s edition, in the Clubs and Societies section.

Astronauts
On Friday I was lucky enough to attend an event where the speakers were Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan.

Yeah. That Neil Armstrong. That Jim Lovell. That Gene Cernan.

When I say lucky I mean lucky – first I gave my ticket to a friend so she could go instead, then when I was taking her there I headed towards the wrong place on the tube, then got off at the right stop by sheer fluke, then got directed to Burlington House (where the Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal Astronomical Society and a few others are) instead of the Royal Society by two people, then got the right directions off a nice man with an iPhone, then thought I had got us lost and got upset, then happened upon the right place, then managed to get a seat outside, watching the live feed!

I took notes, and I will probably write something lengthier if people want to read it. I think the experience summed up best in my friend’s insistence that it couldn’t have been real. I wish I could have stayed longer to mingle, but it was so crowded you could barely move, so we bid a hasty escape to freedom and Nandos.

Saturday
My friend stayed the night and on Saturday we went round the Science Museum – I think my favourite section (besides the gift shop) is Exploring Space, and all the history of medicine bits (despite them making me feel a bit woozy). Cosmos and Culture was disappointing though. In the evening I managed to cook for her (and she is still alive!)

Ready Steady Cook
My hall, Fisher, ran a Ready Steady Cook competition – we were given twelve ingredients, plus a mystery ingredient, and could make whatever we liked! My team made the following:

• Starter: Butternut squash soup with honey roasted pumpkin seeds
• Main: Spaghetti Carbonara
• Dessert: Chocolate surprise! (dubious chocolate cake that ended up turning rock solid, plus melted white chocolate and a random raspberry on the top)

We won Most Original! Last night we used part of our prize to make cocktails, which eventually degenerated into smoothies (which is what usually happens if you put me, fruit and a hand blender together).

Catching up
If I had one word of advice for prospective freshers it would be this: don’t miss a lecture unless absolutely necessary. (That and don’t buy fabric softener instead of detergent like I did. But more the lecture thing.) However, in the past couple of days I’ve managed to get through half of my E&M course, so hopefully by the end of this term I’ll have caught up on all my work!

The second Big Bang Fair was last week too – I was hoping to go as a judge, but couldn’t, and anyway had a good reason not to go just for fun (besides the cost of train tickets: see above). It made me feel all nostalgic about my science fair attending days!

And now to bed.

First of all, thank you to everyone for their lovely messages after my last blog! It’s really great to know that people care about how I’m doing.

So, the deadline for the Science Challenge has passed… what better time to blog about the Science Challenge?

If you didn’t already know, the Science Challenge is a competition run by the Royal College of Science Union and is open to Imperial students and secondary school students. You write an essay answering a given question in 800 words with the chance to win some very cool prizes – including £4000 in cash for the first prize winning Imperial student. When I first heard about the contest, and the fact that there was a question about life on other planets, I considered entering.

Okay, so probably the main reason I didn’t was lack of time and not wanting to make a fool of myself, but I was also swayed by the fact that Shell are one of the major sponsors, which created somewhat of a moral dilemma. As a member of the college Amnesty International society I’ve campaigned against Shell and their practices in the Niger Delta – we even presented a petition to a representative of Shell at the Careers Fair and interviewed them for Felix. It got me thinking about how far it would be okay for me to benefit from the support of a company whose practices were considered to be unethical and if it was, where should I draw the line?

Should I refuse to use Shell oil, full stop? It’s easy to not buy Nestle chocolate bars because of their dubious ethics, but am I meant to ask the driver of every vehicle I use if they use Shell Oil and get out if they don’t throw me out first?

Should I enter a competition sponsored by Shell, where I might profit to the tune of £4000? My answer might be that I had no chance of winning, but the principle still stands. Am I showing support for an unethical company or am I allowed to forget about that side of things?

A few years from now, should I accept or refuse sponsorship or a job from any company I consider to be unethical? Will there ever be a time where I’m forced to sacrifice my ideals for my own sake?

Alternatively, am I just overthinking all of this and getting worked up over nothing?

I don’t want to boycott Shell – I’d rather put my energies into helping raise awareness of their practices so they eventually do ‘clean up their act’ (as much as one person can, anyway). As a scientist, of course, you are supposed to be objective and not swayed by your own opinions when you do your work. Does a refusal to work for a company you don’t agree with count as bias? If I were to do research and discover something that conflicted with my own beliefs, of course I’d still publish it – and in this case I have read accounts from both sides of the story – but… argh!

Anyone have any thoughts? It would be great to start a bit of a debate here!