*dusts off blog*

Hello! Yes, I am still alive. I have now finished my exams and just have to write the rest of the lab report for my summer project – more on that after I demonstrate my feelings towards the exams via the medium of emoticons (because if I write any more I may get the urge to curl up in a box for a while).

Maths

Mechanics and Relativity

Problem Solving

Vibrations and Waves, Structure of Matter and Quantum Physics

Electricity and Magnetism

Maths Analysis

Next year, interpretive dance.

Now, moving on to the summer project! All first year physicists (except the Physics with Musical Performance lot) do a project in the summer term and present it at the Physics Open Days. My partner Isabella (with whom I also watched Lord of the Rings and Star Wars – my nerd card now stands less of a chance of being revoked) and I did a project entitled “Chaos and Stability in the Solar System” – we used computer languages C and C++ to simulate the motion of an asteroid and look for chaos. Computing projects are less popular, both as choices and on the open days, so we were able to do a large chunk of our lab reports during the open days. I didn’t get a chance to see the experimental projects upstairs, but heard they were very exciting! Though not as exciting as creating the solar system in your computer of course

This Tuesday is a Global Day of Solidarity for Troy Davis, who has been on death row in Georgia, USA, for 18 years. On the 23rd he will be having an evidentiary hearing and here at Imperial we will be helping to create a photo petition in his support, so please come along to the JCR between 12 and 2 to “lend your face for justice”! There’s a vigil going on from 5pm to 7pm outside the American Embassy too, so go along to that too if you have the time to spare!

This coming week, in addition to Tuesday’s events, I will be staying in London – I could have gone home, but why would you want to if you could have a free week here?  I will be going to a couple of concerts (Scissor Sisters and They Might Be Giants – thank you, I know my taste in music is terrible), and if anyone has any other ideas about cool things to do let me know.

I will be out of the country for half of July (at the EuroScience Open Forum in Turin, then at CERN for a week because of my EUCYS prize), but this summer I will definitely be writing “The Imperial Fresher’s Guide to the Galaxy”. If there’s anything you would like me to cover (I’ll do things like academics, social, financial, etc.), let me know! Having seen the 2011 prospectus, perhaps I should have done it sooner, but hopefully you will all still find it useful.

Finally, if you’re currently (or going to be) an Imperial physicist and you’re interested in writing or editing, please join the group I have created for Schrödinger’s Cat, the department newspaper I hope to start, and contribute ideas or sign up for things.  I did an interview with Simon Singh a few weeks ago that will hopefully go online and in the first issue.

I can’t think of anything else, and I’ve procrastinated from writing my lab report for too long. See you on the other side!

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!