12 February 2019
Last Friday, Year 10 were lucky enough to be taken to The Apollo, Victoria, for a series of thought-provoking lectures about many different aspects of science at GCSE Science Live!
Firstly, we enjoyed a lecture from Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock about the moon and how it really is ‘the mother of us all’; without it, humans may not have come into existence. We also heard from Professor Andrea Sella, a chemist, whose lecture entailed a demonstration of how water is abnormal in its behaviour in the different states, which subverted our conceptions of water being an ordinary substance.
We also learned that dogs have been domesticated for around 30,000-40,000 years, thanks to Professor Alice Roberts! This was an astounding fact for many of us and her lecture made us think about the animals surrounding us and their extraordinary evolution over time.
The last lecture of the day was delivered by Professor Jim Al-Khalili, who showed us that it is simply technology that is prohibiting us from travelling into the future, and nor is time travel into the past impossible; this really amazed us.
I think that, for many of us, the highlight of the day was hearing from Professor Lord Robert Winston, an embryologist who made the first test-tube baby. During his talk, we were lucky enough to see videos of an egg travelling down the fallopian tube inside a human body and many other incredible videos - it really was a once in a lifetime opportunity! His pioneering work captured everyone’s attention and enabled us to really see the delicacy and fragility of the first stages of human life.
The examiner section of the talk was extremely useful as we were given many tips about what examiners expect when they look at our papers. The speaker also gave us many revision and examination techniques that we can use.
This was an amazing trip and we have definitely had our eyes opened to the amazing possibilities of science, and the questions we could answer with it in the future. The lectures enabled us to question some top scientists, who are experts in their field, and learn many new and exciting things from them. I would like to thank Mrs Connor for organising such a beneficial, interesting trip for us.
Sophie, Year 10