Listen, reflect and initiate

We recently celebrated 10 years of the Institute of Developmental Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton. It brought together teams of scientists to present highlights from their research and look to the future.

I spent the day listening while speakers radiated genuine pleasure telling us of the work, the impact and the influence of what they had been doing. The science was diverse from differentiating stem cells to enhance bone grafts, to speeding up recovery of patients in ITU through trials of fish oils.

We heard about key developmental timing to optimise nutrition to avoid long term health consequences and the use of genomics as a personal diagnostic service to tailor treatment.

Most importantly, though we had a chance to hear about each other’s research and realise the depth and spread of the unit as a whole. I overheard animated corridor conversations between staff discussing future ideas for joint working. Others were congratulated on their work. There was a real buzz of excitement.

The climax was an evening where we hosted a celebrity panel with the public and informed school children asking difficult questions. The lecture theatre was packed with folk of all ages that rarely interact together, the medical school shone and the whole day was a triumph.

It has taken 10 years to arrange such an event and the only question we need to ask ourselves is why we don’t do it more often? Dr Lucy Green and Professor Mark Hanson, who organised the event, might give us an answer to this but for the rest of us, why are we all so reluctant to take time off to listen, reflect and initiate? The usual reason we give ourselves is time. Emails, modern living, transport, IT have taken their toll and almost without exception colleagues (including me) say they are busier now than they have ever been before. Some feel that their job is to do, do, do, with limited opportunity to listen and many tell me that scientific focus prevents time out to attend speakers in a different field of study.

So what is the ideal balance between researching, following other people’s research and communicating one’s own? All I know is that after the experience of our day with Development, we are not spending enough doing the last two. Sharing research has many positives including an enhanced working environment. So let’s start by attending more of the lunchtime seminar series packed with good speakers whatever their subject. See you on Monday.

 Professor Karen Temple