EF Academy Oxford scientists visit New Scientist Expo in London

On Sunday, October 1st,  we went to the New Scientist Live expo which took place at the ExCel center in London. Being literally surrounded by science, we were all very excited. The exhibition halls were arranged into “areas of science.” Going from the Engineering to the Cosmos Area gave us graphic insights into developments in treating patients with dementia, innovative car prototypes, amazing images of our galaxy… and so much more!

“I heard incredible talk about Huntington’s disease presented by Dr. Edward Wild, who was able to describe this condition and tell us a little bit about his ongoing research to find a way to prevent it using simple, easy-to-understand terms. To conclude, it was an awesome opportunity for students interested in scientific areas, like me, to discover fascinating curiosities related to it and acquire knowledge in an unusual and funny way.”

What truly fascinated me [Iulia] was a talk given by a professor at Cambridge University about the relationship between black holes and the galaxies they develop in. This particular aspect of the exhibition opened my eyes not only to the huge amount of work researchers have been doing to untangle the universe, but also to how little we know about the universe so far.

We also learned about the possibility of carbon-based life forms existing elsewhere in the cosmos. For example, Saturn’s moons arguably can provide an appropriate climate for a life form to exist. The talks were categorized into particular fields. We also attended a talk about Nuclear Fusion, and how, in science, we are attempting to emulate an even higher temperature of the sun’s core.

The stand that I [Gregor] found myself most interested in was the engineering stand. An engineer explained to us that we are now having to redefine the way we look at designing technology due to different conditions on other planets. This is proving to be a revolutionary step in the field of mining.

The Virtual Reality (VR) stand included a presentation on how people can now be trained for different professions without even having to leave the comfort of their own homes. VR is now able to accurately and realistically reconstruct the real world to an extent that will eventually make for a much safer environment for all of us. I [Gregor] really enjoyed partaking as a volunteer, mainly because it really gave me an insight into just how much attention to detail there must be in the realistic digital recreation of real life.

As a group, at lunch, we visited the different food stalls and had a chance to talk about the different experiences we had. We heard some interesting stories from a lot of our peers about how they now have new interests in different areas of science. Here’s one from IB Year 1 student Ana Julia Trento Bezerra:

“I heard an incredible talk about Huntington’s disease presented by Dr. Edward Wild, who was able to describe this condition and tell us a little bit about his ongoing research to find a way to prevent it using simple, easy-to-understand terms. The day was an awesome opportunity for students interested in scientific areas, like me, to discover fascinating curiosities related to it and acquire knowledge in an unusual and funny way.”

This blog was co-written by Iulia Bock & Gregor Muenchengberg current IB Year-2 students at EF Academy Oxford…or possibly the future of scientific research.