Wednesday 30 October 2013

Is money deciding the future careers of our pupils? – A biology week experience.

The second annual Biology week established by the society of biology took place last week from the 13th – 19th of October 2013. There were lots of exciting events happening across the nation. My favourite of these was the 24hr lecturethon on ants and bees given by Professor Adam Hart from the University of Gloucestershire. I personally tuned in to the live webcast about 2am on the Monday morning and there he was passionately talking about giant ant hills, the intricate homes of wasps and honey facts. He even had an international audience skyping in from Singapore and South Korea despite a few glitches with the connection.

As a member of the society I thought I may as well do my bit in support of biology week. I arranged a visit with my local Basildon academy to give a talk to the year 10’s about biology careers with the help of my fellow keen biology volunteers.  

Pupils in awe of the diverse careers in Biology


We were allocated a double period to excite our pupils and we came away with a mutual feeling of content. The pupils were very engaging and gave positive feedback about the talk.  

The Wellcome trust has some great resources on Biology careers which we adapted for the day. Although the video itself doesn't do justice to the subject matter, it showcased some unconventional choices which was good.  In the video, the curious student chats to a handful of professionals and the issue of pay arises. None of the interviewees gave a clear succinct answer though which made me wonder why? I concluded that they probably didn't want knowledge of their income in the public domain. Still a rough estimate or range would be useful. 



During the course of the talks, the one question that kept arising was the pay grade of the various roles that were exhibited. Although some of these questions may have been an attention seeking ploy, truth is, it helps to know. Nonetheless these questions stirred up a worrying concern in me.  

I worried because the keen desire to know the pay scales made me wonder whether money was becoming the motivation for our youngsters in contemplating future careers.  I may be the odd case but money was certainly not on the table when I stepped into science. I chose science because it was and still is the only subject that makes sense to me.  A role based on facts not theory (although arguably maths is the only factual subject) and I could relate to the subject in real life scenarios.


With the direction the world economy is heading and the rising cost of education I suppose one has to be wise in making decisions that will impact directly on ones future status.  After all, every investment deserves a positive return. So next time we go enticing the next generation of scientist, let’s be sure to mention the price tags.   
It doesn’t hurt to know and I have made note to provide this information in my future talks.  I do however think that it is important to point out to our young ones that roles evolve and the primary motivation to pursuing a selected path should be interest rather than wealth.  Adapting the famous quote, if you care for animals like Picasso painted you have a pretty good chance of being a wealthy zookeeper.  

I'm keen to hear your thoughts on the matter and to find out if my fellow STEM ambassadors have had similar experience.







Tuesday 29 October 2013

Press Release

OBR to launch the 2014 OneStart £100K business competition for Life Sciences
Applications are invited from young enthusiastic Life Science Entrepreneurs for an opportunity to turn cutting edge research into a business plan. The winner receives a £100K no-string-attached start- up funding and free lab space to turn their innovative idea into a business.

Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable (OBR) has once again partnered with SR One to launch OneStart, a £100K biotech business competition. OneStart is the biggest competition of its kind and aims to launch the next generation of bio-entrepreneurs.
This year, there are two parallel competitions running in Europe and the Americas. The competition will be run in stages and covers four tracks: drug discovery, medical devices, diagnostics and health IT.  

Applications for the first round of submissions are now open and close on the 15th of December 2013 at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time.  
Entrants must be under 35 years old as at 1st January 2014 and can be individuals or a team.  The idea should be innovative and have an impact on health care. 35 Semi-finalist will be selected to attend an intensive business start-up workshop with the help of industry professionals. 10 finalists will be invited to pitch their business plan to a panel of experience biotech investors and the winner will be awarded the £100K prize investment.

Launch events for OneStart Europe are scheduled to take place in London, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool.

Further information including launch dates, entry requirements, building a team and the application process is available at http://www.oxbridgebiotech.com/onestart/

Contact
onestart@oxbridgebiotech.com

Notes for editors
Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable is a campus led initiative established to bridge the gap between academia and industry. It seeks to strengthen communication channels between the two sectors through a mutualistic relationship of networking, education and consultancy.

SR One is the venture capital arm of GSK investing globally in promising emerging Life Science companies working on innovative science which will significantly impact health care.

Thursday 24 October 2013

Why I support the #AllTrials Campaign and you should too.

Did you know that about half of clinical trial data have not been published? 

In January this year, Ben Goldacre together with sense about Science launched the #AllTrials campaign to persuade pharmaceutical companies to register and publish the data collected from clinical trials. This initiative is to equip clinicians and other health professionals to be better informed when prescribing/ recommending medications. Researchers, patients and doctors need to know what was done and what they found, to make decisions about which treatment is best. Without registering trial data, vital information on the findings could be lost forever. If health professionals had access to this information patient centric treatment can be better enhanced.


Listen to Ben Goldacres’ TED talk on "what doctors don’t know about the drugs they prescribe".




There are lots you can do to support the campaign. Get Involved
1. If you have not signed the petition, please do here http://www.alltrials.net/

2. You can also donate to the campaign here http://www.justgiving.com/alltrials

This is a global movement and we need more international organisations to sign up. So spread the word to your friends, employers and colleagues and help get all trials registered and results published.

Sunday 13 October 2013

Ada Lovelace - Female English Mathematician



Ada Lovelace is the perfect role model to showcase to our young ladies today who may be wondering why on earth anyone should bother with maths. Born in an era where women around the world were fighting for equal rights in many aspects of daily living including education, Ada had the privilege of being privately tutored and she developed an interest for mathematics from an early age.

Married at 19 and mother of three, she sadly passed on at the age of 36 after battling uterine cancer.

Arguably the world's first computer programmer for her work on 'notes', Ada Lovelace day is celebrated today to recognise the achievements of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

Find out about Ada here and join in the selection of events around the world.