Disrupting the lab – Science Disrupt’s take on Science 2.0

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September 15, 2017

Last night I went to Science Disrupt‘s event on ‘Science 2.0’ in London (although I’d argue we’re at a much higher version number for science already). The focus was on disrupting the lab via citizen science, DIYbio, and startups making research and biology more accessible.

Gemma and Lawrence (the lovely Science Disrupt founders) kindly invited me to chair the panel, so I kicked off with a brief and lofty introduction about why opening the door to science would be helpful to society, including a brief note about what we do at eLife and why we care about open source tech. My slides and script are openly available on Figshare.

Obligatory proof:

The main talks were varied and thought-provoking.

Martin Jones, who is deputy head of microscopy prototyping at the Francis Crick Institute. He spoke about historical and current efforts to hack microscopes and build tools to suit research questions. His main points were that if researchers rely on manufacturers to supply microscopes, then they have to wait a long time for developments to suit their needs (never mind the expense of buying new equipment all the time). So it’s important that people like Martin exist, who can fiddle with microscopes and adapt them (with the manufacturer’s permission). I liked his point that the equipment should be made to answer the question, instead of the equipment dictating the question (à la “ooh, fancy new tool, what can I do with it?”).
Microscopes these days can collect a lot of images, and if run at full pelt, the amount of data that institutes would need to store would quickly suck up many research dollars. So they’re trying to be clever about which data they actually need to collect. Oh, I wish I’d been clever when doing my own microscopy – sooo many images to store!
All this data also takes a long time to analyse but actually it doesn’t necessarily require an expert eye – you just need to recognise a structure that needs a line drawing round it. So taking a leaf out of the Zooniverse book, they ran a citizen science project to annotate their 3-D stack of a nuclear envelope: Etch-a-Cell. It has been pretty successful, with over 3,000 people analysing 60,000 images so far, and with their crowdsourced results very close to that of the poor PhD students who are doing the whole stack manually:
I loved the way Martin put it:
Citizen science is engineered serendipity.
Next was Johannes Solzbach, co-Founder of Clustermarket. He comes from a finance background so offers the business insight to the idea that his two partners approached him with: what if the sharing economy was applied to science equipment and space? So Clustermarket is essentially the Airbnb for lab equipment, the middle man between institutional providers and young biotech entrepreneurs looking for support taking their concept from bench to market. The overall aim is to lower the barrier to biotech startup success, which is currently gatekept by VC investments (and thus reliant on your network, not just your idea).
There was an insightful question from the audience: doesn’t this compete with the academics wanting to use the same machines? Apparently not yet, as institutions prioritise internal research and the machines have a lot of open runtime, so it helps to rent them out to externals.
At the moment, the service is free to the startups, Clustermarket take commission from the institutional providers charges to the entrepreneur. But with interest from pharma and big tech companies, it sounds like this venture could work out.
Finally Thomas Meany introduced Cell-free Technology, his early-stage startup that is breaking cell biology out of the cell, i.e. a synthetic biology enterprise. Check out his pitch for RebelBio back in July (including the story of a pony GIF transgenerationally stored in DNA):
He showed us a demo of his Adafruit-powered tech, that combined fluorescent protein engineering, design and programming to mock up a potential application. At the moment, it’s early stage (cool factor to-the-max), and he’s assembling a diverse team. There’s so much that could be done with synthetic biology (including new dying processes that are bacteria-led, DNA-based skin sensors in tech, etc etc) – so reach out to Thomas if you’re interested!
We finished the talks with questions for the panel – including an approach from the audience to connect Martin up to fancy futuristic computer-assisted image analysis within two years!
And I used the opportunity to probe the panellists for their impressions of the tension between commercial success and openness, something that I think and talk about often. We were quite one-sided in our beliefs: if it’s open, more value can be gained from it. Wise advice received by a VC investor[rough quotes only, sorry journalistic integrity]:
“An idea is value-less, making it secret doesn’t add any value, but sharing it means it has the potential to become more than an idea so might as well be open and see where the value is.
The real value of these events is the networking – afterwards I met a mathematician formerly of CERN, a VC specialist interested in deep learning, a chemical engineer and a Dr of chemistry keen on open science. Win win!
And then I made everyone jealous with my train-home-treat:

By foul play and blessing

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On December 13,the night Aleppo fell/was reclaimed (delete as appropriate depending on your stance), I was lucky enough to view a showing of Sea Sorrow, the new documentary (her directorial debut in fact) by Vanessa Redgrave, actress and staunch activist for the refugee crisis. It’s due for release online next year, according to Cambridge News. Here’s my thoughts on it.

Sea Sorrow is an essay-by-film that juxtaposes the current refugee crisis with the fight for human rights in the wake of fascism after World War II. It’s a clear call to action for citizens to stand up for the principles enshrined in the various conventions for Human Rights and Child Rights ratified over the past 60 years [fn1].

Whilst there are glimpses into the struggles faced by modern refugees, including a highly emotive clip of the attempted rescue of fleeing people from a dinghy in the Mediterranean, it seemed that the majority of screen time was dedicated to celebrity activists. That’s not necessarily a complaint. I had felt that there was little point in preaching to the choir of Cambridge, but Vanessa Redgrave herself addressed this point in the after-show Q&A: even the converted must be re-inspired, must be supported to maintain their fight, because the fight is tiring. The celebrity activists provided this motivation. Vanessa emphasised the importance of the arts as a means of expression and therapy, a belief echoed in the film through poignant passages delivered by Emma Thompson and Ralph Fiennes. Ralph Fiennes’ performance of the dramatic speech by Prospero in The Tempest, recollecting the events that displaced him and his daughter from their prior life, was a powerful illustration of the very real dangerous passage that thousands [fn2] of people have been forced to take to flee their home countries:

PROSPERO: My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not,
So dear the love my people bore me, nor set
A mark so bloody on the business, but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepared
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg’d,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us,
To cry to the sea that roar’d to us, to sigh
To the winds whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

…

MIRANDA: How came we ashore?

PROSPERO: By Providence divine.

The Tempest, William Shakespeare, Source: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/tempest/full.html

Emma Thompson read out correspondence from Sylvia Pankhurst published in the Manchester Guardian imploring the UK Government to stand by their promise and take  action to permit entry to Jewish refugees being exiled from central Europe. The parallels to the current situation were clear enough: the British Government is once again being called up for inaction, even on their insufficient promise to take in 20,000 refugess over five years [fn3].

Whilst I found the transitions between chapters of the story – a full-screen shot of a rustling thermal foil blanket – clunky and distracting, and I found there was insufficient focus on the many volunteers hard at work to help (they’re an inspiration, feature them! [fn4]), the overriding message was clear: activism must continue, the desire to help must be sustained, the fight will be long but it is vital. As Andrej Mahecic, UNHCR, pointed out, the film humanised the numbers. Every single datapoint in the refugee crisis is a person.

[The Geneva Convention] cannot be swept away for the sake of short-term political convenience.

Lord Alfred Dubs

There were high-level solutions on offer: Peter Sutherland, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Migration and Development, demanded a common European policy that provides access for vulnerable people to all countries in Europe; Alf Dubs reiterated that the Government must pay heed to the Dublin III regulation that supports the asylum claim of refugees with nuclear family residing in the UK, and of the Dubs amendment that extends asylum eligibility to unaccompanied minors [fn5]; and there was a call to help at the other end of the crisis (campaign against war as a method for change, stop selling the weapons used in these wars). The (lack of) action by the UNHCR in Calais was called out, but I felt that the answer given was particularly interesting: the UNHCR is under-funded for their work in the low-income countries currently taking the majority burden of the refugee crisis, so it is difficult to justify allocating resources to projects in countries with wealthy governments (with these governments primarily responsible for taking action).

The plight of child refugees was a key point in the discussion. With the Calais camp having been dismantled at the end of October, many unaccompanied child refugees are believed to have gone missing (read: fallen foul to traffickers; Interpol estimates 10,000) – whilst many of those that were distributed to centres round France are still waiting for their asylum claims to be processed. It was estimated that 387 children who were in the Calais camp were entitled to be relocated in the UK; they haven’t all been brought over yet.

Finally, there was some good news: Dan Ellis, of Cambridge Refugee groups fame, announced that the Cambridge Rotary club had recently handed him a cheque for £9,000 following a charity auction of promises. This will help Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign to attain charity status, as Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group have just succeeded in. Thanks Cambridge Rotary!

If you feel moved to act, especially given recent events in Syria, here’s how you can help:

Offer to house a refugee / family. There have been many offers to help in Cambridge. However, our city is currently hosting only nine refugee families due to the inaction of our Government in resettling people (plus, it’s particularly expensive to do so here). Nonetheless, it is important to maintain and build on the welcome that Cambridge residents have offered, to show the will of the people here to contribute. The accommodation you offer must meet necessary requirements for it to be offered to a refugee family. For more information, and to offer your house, see links at Cambridge City Council, Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign, Refugees at Home and Rooms for Refugees.

Foster a child refugee. This is not something to be taken lightly, but if you think you can offer a loving and stable home for an unaccompanied (and likely traumatised) child, please see link at https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/syrian-refugees or sign up at http://www.cambridgerefugees.org/fostering. Successful applicants should receive training.

Become a visiting friend to an unaccompanied child. Training is on offer to support adults to befriend, assist and support refugees resettled in your local area. For more information, the advice given was to contact your local authority. Pledge to help via Cambridge Refugee Resttlement Campaign; and explore the offerings at Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum. The National Youth Advocacy Service was also recommended as a good place to start for learning how to help vulnerable young adults.

Contribute to the welcoming atmosphere via Cambridge City of Sanctuary and Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum.

Learn about the rights of refugees by registering for Amnesty International’s free online course. Then tell others.

Help fundraise for Cambridge Convoy Action Group to support volunteers travelling to France and Greece, and/or go yourself to help sort donations, prepare food, and more.

Donate Phone Credit for Refugees and Displaced People to enable vulnerable people to communicate with their loved ones and access vital resources and information on their smartphones. This is the easiest way for you to help right now, and it’s extremely effective.

Explore the info and stories at Refugee Action, the Refugee Council, the UNHCR stats portal, Parliament’s research briefings,  and the Shaw Review on the detention of vulnerable persons (including asylum seekers) in the UK.

—-

Footnotes:

[1] Vanessa Redgrave specifically drew attention to:
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
The European Convention on Human Rights, effective 1953
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989
Further, the Geneva Conventions were brought up, given the refugee crises have been due to war.

[2] I couldn’t find a total number of people who have crossed the Mediterranean Sea; help / sources appreciated.

[3] In 2015, the UK Government expanded the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement (VPR) Programme to take in 20,000 syrians by 2020 (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/472020/Syrian_Resettlement_Fact_Sheet_gov_uk.pdf). As of June 2016 (the latest official stats I could find), 2,898 Syrian refugees had been resettled in the UK (http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/what_we_do/refugee_services/resettlement_programme/refugee_resettlement_the_facts). There are currently 4.8 million Syrian refugees living outside of Syria, with over half in neighbouring Turkey (http://www.unhcr.org/uk/syria-emergency.html). A further 8.7 million Syrians were estimated to be displaced within Syria in early November – this number has likely changed since. Overall, there are over 65 million displaced people (read: forced from their home, with 21 million classified as refugees) worldwide (UNHCR stats).

[4] In fairness, the film included a conversation with vounteers in Calais, including Liz Clegg of the Women and Children’s Centre at the camp, and made a point of highlighting the heroic efforts of Greek citizens to bring onshore the many refugees that arrive on their coastline each day.

[5] Thanks to FullFact for clarifying the difference (and it’s very different) between the Dublin regulation and the Dubs amendment at https://fullfact.org/immigration/ask-full-fact-dubs-and-dublin/.

 

Build Bridges Not Walls

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Yesterday was a horrific day. Historic, and horrific.

I felt humiliated, embarassed to be British. I hoped that my fellow Europeans would read beyond the decision, see the statistics, and recognise that there are millions of UK residents who stand with them, in union with their goals.

I am terrified and appalled at how quickly far-right movements across Europe took the bait and initiated divisive plans of their own. The times ahead may be even worse than the turmoil of the past few years. The cancer of hatred against our way of life that has infiltrated through and destroyed several beautiful countries in the Middle East, may now be just the beginning. The knock-on effects of mass migration away from war zones and economic hell has stirred up protectionism and inherent racism amongst our peers across Europe. America stands on the brink of a presidential election with one of the most divisive people I have ever heard speak. Trump wants to build walls to keep “others” out. Britain has just pulled up the drawbridge across the Channel. I fear for what more may follow on the mainland. All the while, other nationalist countries are left to grow more dangerous whilst we in-fight. I do not see this as an apocalyptic exaggeration; I see this as merely a reflection of the state of the world today. That is what is terrifying. It’s easy to wreak havoc, with guns, bombs, knives. It’s extremely difficult to protect aagainst lone wolf terrorists, lured in by rhetoric that gives them something to stand for, when they feel little control over anything else. A new rhetoric is now gaining ground. It was so effectively worked by a handful of power-hungry politicians over the past months, with this result.

And now, I find myself ashamed, embarassed, of fellow Remain voters who seek to blame the other camp. #NotMyVote and #WeAreThe48 were trending yesterday. I understand the reaction, the need to distance ourselves from a decision that we do not believe in. But these hashtags are even more dangerous than the few individuals who think it is now ok to express their racism in direct tweets against prominent individuals. We can see those racists for who they truly are. We can condemn their actions, and drown their words out with words of support for the victims. I worry more for the Leave voters who are not respresented by the racist minority. I worry for our country, as she is split down the middle. Friendships torn, relationships fractured. A divided populace cannot effectively push against the far-right. What do those hastags say to a Leave voter? To me, they say, you are not welcome in my circle anymore. So who should they turn to instead?

To the Leave voters, I would like to say this:

I embrace you. I thank you for having an opinion and using your democratic right to vote. Once again, we have shown the world that decisions can be made by votes, not war.

I would like to hear your thoughts. To hear your reasons for voting differently to me. I would like to understand what it is that made you feel change was needed. What worries you? What concerns you? What do you hope for now?

I would like to stand beside you as we build our new country. To recognise your hopes and fears. To include you in my circle. To make decisions that benefit you as well as those that help people like me.

We are better than this. We must stand together against the racist undercurrent now coming to the fore. We must take each other by the hand and form the greatest, strongest, network of compassionate individuals, who will not let intolerance, hatred and acts of violence sway us from our course forward. We must make sure that the greatest peace movement on this earth was not for nothing. That our great-grandparents did not die for nothing. That our grandparents’ hard work to build a united continent was not futile. As we move forward to a new kind of Europe, we must embrace each other, celebrate our differences, and stand tall against those who seek to enforce one way of life on us all. We must support each other, bring the disenchanted into the fold, help those who struggle to be compassionate when their own way of life is threatened. We must think beyond borders. We must include, not marginalise. We must be open, not fenced off. We must build bridges, not walls.

Humanity has come so far in recent years, to celebrate those who love one another regardless of gender. We have celebrated the heterogeneity of our species. Our compassion for each other has overwhelmed the hatred felt in some countries, who fight still to prevent any form of love other than the heterosexuality they deem to be the only way. We can take hope from this. The legalisation of gay marriage started as a grassroots movement. The tide of inclusivity and humanity carried by everyday individuals was heard by politicians and lawmakers. Change happened because we made it loud and clear what we wanted.

We have no power to change the outcome of the vote. But we have the freedom to act now as we choose, to build the future as we would like to see it, to be part of something greater. I choose inclusivity. I choose standing together. I choose showing the world the best of ourselves. I choose to #BuildBridgesNotWalls.

If you share my hope for a better tomorrow, join me in sharing compassion for each other and use #BuildBridgesNotWalls – today we fight for positivity and respect on social media.

If you are interested in doing more, please message me at globalinclusivity@gmail.com – all are welcome.

Interesting reads:

http://theconversation.com/brexit-europes-new-nationalism-is-here-to-stay-61541

 

 

Dear world

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I went to bed last night with only a little anxiety in the pit of my stomach. “Don’t worry, it’s going to be fine. We have the status quo – people don’t like change, they won’t vote for it on the day.”

I woke up this morning to the news of the nightmare I daren’t envision. Radio 4 chimed, “…with the news this morning that the UK has voted to leave the European Union.” Shock. Disbelief. Quickly turning ot disgust, anger, sadness. I cried. I despaired. Then I made a resolution to myself.

I am not ready to give up yet. I considered fleeing to Scotland, to my utopian dream of a beautiful country led by an amazing woman. Then I realised that this country is not dead. Nearly 16 million of my fellow UK residents voted to remain in the EU. Nearly 16 million voted for inclusivity, for peace, for building a better world together. Those voters are my peers, my friends. The 18-30s are empassioned, open-hearted and talented people.

Let me welcome you now, to our new project. The next few years are going to be rough. So let’s do this together. Let’s take the bull by it’s horns, and let’s stay. Together, we can build a tolerant community, work hard to elevate citizens on our doorstep and around the world from poverty and lack of opportunity. We can release the actual potential of this hotbed of political passion. We don’t need official affiliations (they help, but oh well). We don’t need stereotypical politicians saying they know best. We need the real experts, we need actual intelligence, and we need your enthusiasm. Turn your tears into hugs. Join me.

On April 18, 1951, a great union of countries, that only years previously were fighting in the trenches, was founded. It was a wonderful achievement. We have an opportunity now to continue their mission, without borders.

Like-minded friends, let’s remain in the UK and make sure that what emerges from this omnishambles is a beast of beautiful tolerance, hope and global inclusivity.

*If you are interested in getting involved in what is currently an embryonic community project, please comment or message me on globalinclusivity@gmail.com*

 

Post has been updated to reflect full history of the European Union. This history can be explored further at http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/1945-1959/index_en.htm

Life on the edge: know thyself. Take opportunities. Learn by iteration.

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As a final year PhD student fast approaching submission, I am standing very close to the edge of vast nothingness. The potential unemployment that looms frightens me. I’m not alone at the edge: I’ve heard similar sentiments from others in this position, but that does little to quell my vertigo. It might surprise you to learn that I applied for my PhD mainly out of the fear of the post-undergraduate black hole. I didn’t expect to actually be offered the studentship, the interview practice would have sufficed. Four years later and the Wellcome Trust four-year PhD programme (first year rotating around three labs with a MRes qualification to boot, followed by a three-year PhD) has been a springboard for my career. Not only have I had the privilege of researching what I deem to be a fascinating question, working with some exceptionally talented people, and travelling around the world to present my work at conferences, but I also took full advantage of an excellent opportunity offered to students on this programme: a three-month science policy internship at the Academy of Medical Sciences. That experience was groundbreaking. It opened up a whole new world of interest and opportunity.

As I look beyond my thesis (yes, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if I can’t quite glimpse it yet), I have been investing a significant amount of energy into thinking about my next steps and engaging with potential career options. Who am I? What interests me? How can I contribute to society? Several years of rumination – I’ve probably clocked up 10,000 hours by now – has brought about the beginnings of a sense of direction. In fact, the answer might have been there all the time: it doesn’t take a Sherlock to appreciate the importance of books to me. I was one of those kids you might find engrossed in the latest novel, nose to paper, torchlight radiating from beneath the duvet marquee I constructed nightly. My childhood was enriched with powerful narratives and intricate descriptions penned by the likes of Philip Pullman, Brian Jacques and Michael Hoeye. This nourishment-by-scripture hasn’t left me, but the pages I turn have morphed into those of cutting edge research. It can be hard work accessing the thoughts of a few leaders in a field you are not privy to, and that is why I value good science communication efforts so highly, and why my bookshelf is now adorned by popular science books. But these great efforts are supremely rewarding: inspire one person at the sweet spot of opportunity, motivation and capability and your small teachings could be transformed into great bounds of progress. And so I have turned my attention to practising my writing skills as one means of disseminating the insight from my sphere of research. After all, reading the words of others has been our species’ means of passing knowledge down generations for milennia.

Earlier this month I entered a Naturejobs writing competition.The top prize was the opportunity to become a journalist for the day, reporting from the Naturejobs career expo in London later this September. The competition also offered the chance to get feedback from the Naturejobs editors on your style of writing – that carrot particularly appealed. The brief was, well, brief. Compose a 600-word essay on one of a select list of topics, from mobility to funding, all of interest to early career researchers. I chose science communication. I took onboard the advice offered by previous entrants, which mirrored by own experience of writing so far – draft, show to others, sleep on it, then destroy and rebuild – and submitted my final entry within a whisker of the deadline. Note to self: something to learn from for next time!

Happily, I was one of the runners up. After some fantastic back-and-forth feedback and editing from Julie Gould, the Naturejobs blog editor, my essay was posted on their blog site last Friday (thanks Julie!).

If you became a scientist to make the world a better place, you’re not alone. But to achieve this, you need to do more than just the science. Your findings need to reach the ears of decision makers, politicians, the media and funding bodies. One way to reach them is by communicating your science to the general public. Read on…

What a sense of achievement! The feedback I received has really propelled me forward in my pursuit of better penmanship. Plus, the article has given me incredible exposure in the world of science communication, including a spot on SciLog’s top 25 list for this week. And here’s me putting that invaluable feedback into practice, with a few actionable points for you, the reader:

Know thyself

When it comes to your career, a few hours at a career event really doesn’t do life decisions of such magnitude justice. Spend time getting to know yourself and your passions, then act on them. If there’s something that really makes you tick, follow it, work on it, live it. This simple advice, frequenctly retold in various forms, can be a lifechanger. Doing what you should do may not align with what you want to do, but the latter is much more likely to bring you success and satisfaction.

Take opportunities

When there’s that job ad or competition that catches your eye, or the chance at an internship/secondment that makes your gut tingle, go for it. Even if you don’t get it, the process of trying has probably taught you something valuable. That learning alone makes it worth your time and effort.

Specifically, are you an early career scientist interested in developing your writing skills, gaining exposure and disseminating your work? I would highly recommend entering a writing competition. There are many of these around, but if Big Data is your thing then Naturejobs has a really interesting competition open right now – go and challenge yourself to turn what is inaccessible to most into something meaningful for many! Write about what you know using your inner voice, in a structure that can be easily followed by the reader, and with a sprinkling of passion.

Learn by iteration

Now this is a hard one to live by, but once the fear of mistakes has been conquered (note the perfectionism I hinted at in my previous post), it really does open you up to progression by trial-and-error. For an interesting take on the importance of prototyping, see the Ted talk by Tom Wujec on constructing towers from spaghetti and marshmallows.

Up next…

I appreciate that the first posts here have been more introspection than science communication. So now that I’ve set the scene for you, I promise some more meaty posts soon, literally (think succulent burgers) and figuratively (think juicy neuroscience).

Hello, world

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Ok sure, I’m not the first science-geek to start their blog with ‘Hello, world’. But really, I mean it. Hello, world. And welcome, reader.

Exocytosis – the fusion of intracellular vesicles with the plasma membrane, leading to the release of the vesicular contents to the extracellular space.

In neuroscience, exocytosis is how one neuron talks to another. I’ve chosen it as the moniker for my blog since it symbolises exactly what I am trying to do – talk to you. Not only that but, for me at least, writing is a form of exocytosis. I like to spend time packaging my thoughts, holding them in storage, until a signal triggers their externalisation. That’s why this blog has been five years in the making. I have amassed quite a number of vesicles in that time, of a spectrum of flavours from musings to doctrine, and at various stages of maturation. It’s time to start releasing them.

Why have I waited so long? To be totally honest, I suffer from perfectionism. I couldn’t bear exposing the limitations of my thought processes and knowledge to an unrestricted audience. Over time, and with experience in academia, I am learning to let those reservations go. We are all limited by the bounds of our own experiences and teachings, and there’s some substance in that. So here I am, here are my thoughts, here is my world.

Just so that you know what to expect, let’s set the scene:

I am a few months away from submitting my PhD thesis on how your early life environment (from before you were born!) affects your health and risk of disease when you are an adult. In particular, I am fascinated by how the brain develops, and how the brain controls what you eat. My thesis ties these interests together – more on that later.

So that makes me a young scientist, specifically in neuroscience, psychology and physiology. But life is multi-dimensional. I also follow the world of politics, social science and public health closely. I deeply care about finding ways to optimise our lives through simple, elegant design tools and with the mission of improving health and happiness. This is what lead me to be interested in the brain, aside from the deeper questions of consciousness and perception. If we can understand what makes us behave in certain ways, we can understand how to change or adapt that behaviour for good. Marketers do this to us all the time, in order to sell their goods and line the pockets of a few, so why not use this force for good, for the many? What really makes me tick is the Design Museum. A trip there is some special brain food: I have no need for psychostimulants as long as the doors to that place stay open. Now that we are well into the technological age, it is possible to innovate in some spectacular ways. There is information everywhere, some of which is free for us to dig into, to spot patterns and spark new understanding. And every day, a new way of collecting, using, or visualising this data is created. These are the interests that drove me into science, and that continue to shape my journey now.

On a lighter note – for my wallet if not my waistline – I love food. And I am lucky enough to live in a great city for it: Cambridge. This middle class bubble is full to the brim with pop-up indie food restaurants, and foodies to share the experience with (see my friend’s blog as an example of who I get to dine with).

Exocytosis will be my means to share my passion for food, the brain, behaviour, design, technology and science with anyone who cares to listen. Welcome aboard!

About

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Welcome to my blog! I have split my posts into categories to help you follow whatever interests you, but I hope you give them all a try whilst you’re here, even if just a teaspoon’s worth.

In Life, I try to digest the ups and downs of life as a young science professional living in Cambridge.

In Food, I literally digest, or bake.

In Science, I attempt to share cutting edge stories as well as historical narratives in the world of the life sciences, technology and beyond.

In Policy, I discuss the ins and outs of converting knowledge into progress, through a medical science lens.

This blog is written by me, all views my own. Comments, feedback and discussion are actively encouraged – please do make this a (fruitful) conversation!