July 28th 2017
The New Forest and Hampshire County Show is a long established three day agricultural show attracting on average 98,000 visitors over three days. Every year Peter Dawes from the Wessex Medical Research trust invites researchers from the University of Southampton to contribute to the ‘discovery tent’ and raise awareness of Research that is funded (past and present) by the trust.
Around 100 researchers from the University sign up to volunteer and this year over 15 biological sciences staff and students took part in the three day event manning either the Biological Sciences, neuroscience or the biomedical imaging unit displays.
On Tuesday 25th July, Judith Lock and her BioBlitz team (Judith, Chester and Mairin) were encouraging children to take part in the big butterfly count http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/about by making a brightly coloured butterfly observatory for their garden.
”It was a really great day. Lots of people of all ages who were interested in the broad spectrum that is biological sciences” Judith Lock
Amrit Mudher was active on the neuroscience stand and showcased her work on Alzheimer’s Disease using fruit flies as models.
On Wednesday 26th July Mariana Vargas Caballero and team (Jacqui Nimmo and Ksenia Kurbatskaya) engaged young and old with hands-on activities on her research into synapses in the brain.
This is what the visitors said:
‘That many hundred brain cells?” 4 year old
“Procedural memory takes a lot of practice” 35 year old
“Nice to take something away” 20 year old
“Love the neuron models” 50 year old
On the same day Roxana Carare and her team used a selection of ‘heads’ at the Neuroscience stand showing the anatomy of the brain and its network of cells.
On Thursday 27th July Jessica Teeling and team (Sarah, Joe, Ella, Daniel and George) spend the day building brains, bugs and barriers to inform the general public about their research into systemic infections, neuroinflammation and dementia. Throughout the day children, parents and grantparents visited the neuroscience stand where they were invited to use their creative skills to generate a healthy and a diseased brain, dressed up as scientist and receive a macrophage tattoo!
In the mean time Neil Smyth and colleagues from the Biomedical image unit used microscopes and images to amaze the visitors of ‘wildlife’ in close up view.
Colleagues from Faculty of Medicine, the Wessex Immunology group and Cancer Sciences all contributed to a fabulous three day event using the famous and popular stem cell mountain, killing cancer cells, antimicrobial resistance and making snot. Connections between agricultural enthusiasts and scientists were made at ease, sharing passion for each others work.
A visit from Mrs Sarah Troughton, Lord Lieutenant for Wiltshire, summed up the impact of this discovery and science event at the new forest show.
I so enjoyed meeting all the staff and volunteers you had manning the stands and I learnt a lot!
All-in-all a very successful event!