Blog posts

What makes a good scientist?

Andrew Wang profile

MSci Immunology

Apologies for the highly controversial title, but I am sure any aficionados of science irrespective of disciplines would have found themselves at this ubiquitous crossroad at some point of their scientific career. For the fortunate ones, this might not have happened too frequently but for the ones who are constant worriers on how decisions can have a lifelong impact on themselves even beyond the scope of childhood ambitions, this dilemma seems evermore pertinent.

Perhaps, it might have been induced by the late nights spent camping out at the library whilst revising for the finals, or from another perspective, it might have been inspired by a talk from a senior or someone of a certain degree of expertise.

So, about second year…

Dora profile

MEng Chemical Engineering

Second year. ChemEng. Ohhhh weeeellllll.

The one thing which kind of describes how I feel right now is that I looked at the calendar and I realised it’s March. MARCH. MARCH?! I honestly don’t know what happened in the past 5 months. I was trying to think of things I did, but I just feel like I procrastinated away 5 months and now I am so behind with everything that even my to-do-list making apps want to cry… So what happened in the past 5 months?

Labs. We started and finished second year labs. This year we were only doing 1 experiment for 3 weeks.

What can you do in 3 minutes?

Mathematics of Planet Earth

I haven’t written anything for a while, but I have a good excuse. I participated in FameLab, both British and Polish editions.

FameLab is an international competition for scientists, who want to communicate research effectively. The idea is simple: we have 3 minutes to talk about our favourite scientific concept. The stage is ours for 180 seconds, after which we are judged on the content, clarity and charisma.

The ‘3C’ rules are pretty self-explanatory.

  • The topic must be interesting for the audience and possible to convey in three minutes. One of the most common mistakes the contestants make is trying to explain all we know about microbiology during one short speech – not possible.

A New Found Relationship: YOU and IMPERIAL

Mwana Hussein

MEng Electronic and Information Engineering

Imperial is like dating.

Initially, it’s a great new experience you are totally infatuated with it! You can’t believe out of all the other schools out there, Imperial decided to reciprocate the feelings you had when you applied!

So you decided to take the leap of faith and move from home to live in halls and be a FRESHER!

Ohh! You are so excited about this!

Most people call this stage the HONEYMOON phase but we’ll just call it AUTUMN TERM. And just like those midnight messages you cherish with you and bae nothing will feel more amazing than walking around campus with that red lanyard you receive during your 1st week..

IT’S ON! EIE VS EEE!

Mwana Hussein

MEng Electronic and Information Engineering

I want to tell you about EIE (cause I love it) and a bit on EEE!

So you are probably asking yourself the BIG question I was asking myself a while ago.

EIE vs EEE!?!?!?

Don’t freak out! I know it can difficult to decide but I am hoping to give you some insider information that can help you make that decision. If you still can’t decide, I guess it’s good for you to know you have about 2 weeks to decide once you join and try a bit of both!

But be careful of trying both you might fall in love with the EIE spirit 😉

Now we know one thing about the two: they belong to the same department so one would relationalize surely they must be similar?

My First Trip to the Imperial Cinema

Thomas Stokes profile

MSci Physics

University is a time of firsts. Clichéd as it may sound, it is true of a great many things. Such novel experiences are not confined to the start of a degree; case in point: last week was my first trip to the student-run Imperial Cinema.

Quite why it has taken me nearly four years to do so, I am unsure – the cinema, hosted in the Imperial College Union building, boats a superb 8m-wide screen, bolstered with surround sound Dolby audio and plays host to the best films, be that big blockbuster or niche indie, trickling out of cinemas. All this, for a very affordable £4 (for non-members).

Henry’s Society Review-ICGS Imperial College Gliding Society

Henry Xu profile

BSc Biological Sciences

OK, So I’m back.

I’ve been busy, you’ve probably heard people from Imperial say that a lot.

I’ve had countless 9am-9pm days that I couldn’t even imagine back in Yr 1.

So you’ve got an offer, huge congratulations on your hard work so far!

Be ready for some  ‘Imperial Sauna’ (aka central library) time this fall.

……

But I still love you all.

So I’m here to give you an exclusive review on ICGS.

One of the oldest university gliding societies in the UK.

I’ve enjoyed it so far.

……

So where are we based?

Well, Central London is not exactly an ideal place for gliding.

Throwbacks.

Andrew Wang profile

MSci Immunology

Nostalgia. 

Am I the only one here who feels that time has gone by so fast and wishes the clocks would rewind, just so I could smell the roses?

Anyway, it is official. Five months into the MSci Immunology course, and I am literally a week away from completing the first half of the degree. It most definitely feels surreal at times like these, where I attempt to pen my thoughts and reflections in a hopefully coherent and logical manner especially so, where much has occurred. 

In short, this post was evoked by my sentimental self where I was perusing some images taken during the course and I thought: hang on one second, why not document this through some images here! 

Real ‘fieldwork’

Victoria Burton profile

Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Programme (PhD)

The majority of invertebrates hibernate during the winter, since they do not produce their own body heat like mammals and birds it is too cold for them to be active. However, 10cm under the ground the soil is often a few degrees warmer than the air and many soil animals are still active, including earthworm, so I am still busy out in the cold and rain digging them up for my PhD research – I recently found 16 earthworms from a 20 cm x 20 cm soil pit at a farm where the soil temperature was 4°C!

When temperatures fall below 0°C and water in the soil freezes many earthworms simply burrow into deeper layers where they can survive but earthworms which live on the surface instead rely on chemical defences to tolerate cold temperatures.

Sometimes things hit the fan…

Ksenia profile

MSci Physics with a year in Europe

Firstly, a disclaimer. I am in no way trying to slander Imperial College London and the Physics department. They are being very supportive and understanding of my newly developed situation. This is more of a personal account of what’s been happening in life, because answering the question ‘Hey, you’ve not been around…what’s going on?’ gets tedious a hundred iterations in.

Around June, I had my last two exams of first year postponed to the September re-take period. I spent a healthy chunk of the summer revising and felt on track to do just well enough to be ready for second year.

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