Well first off I have to say a big THANK YOU to everyone for voting… it was quite the surprise for me when I won (and a big congrats to Heather who gave me a serious run for my money and who managed to answer every question… superwoman)! Also a standing ovation to the students, teachers and organisers of IAS, it was an absolute pleasure to be part of this wonderful event!
When I entered IAS I thought I knew what to expect having talked with my friend Fiona Hatch (last year’s winner of the Sports Zone) and having been involved with The Physiological Society that funded the Human Limits Zone this year… how wrong was I?!?! It was even more frantic, fast-paced and exciting than I imagined. I loved getting all your questions, ranging from the specifics of my kidney/blood pressure research, animal experimentation, and impact of hormones on our existence to the unexpected and thought-provoking… like what happens when you fire a gun in space, role of hormones in gender and sexuality, and time dilation at the event horizon of a black hole!
I got a real kick out of the live chats… some done just as I crawled out of bed, others during the middle of a crucial experiment and a couple in the office with colleagues crowded over my shoulder throwing out suggestions to your questions almost as fast as you could ask them (and I could type them…my poor fingers)! I hope more of my colleagues will take part in these events in the future (and if they’ll let me I wouldn’t mind doing a few more myself… it’s addictive)!
The most rewarding aspect for me was when a couple of students told me that they now thought science was cool and that they wanted to become a scientist when they left school! That meant a lot to me! I hope that you walk away from this appreciating that science isn’t just something you study in a school classroom a couple of hours a week… it’s about this amazing life we live and the wonderful world around us… you can’t ignore it and why would you want to when there are so many exciting things waiting to be discovered or invented! Kids are the greatest natural scientists of all… curious, imaginative, creative, always asking questions “but why?”, testing limits and boundaries, scrapping the instruction manual in favour of trial & error, and let’s not forget damned tenacious! Don’t ever lose those traits! Don’t ever lose that awe and wonder of the world around you and NEVER be afraid to ask a question… there really is no such thing as a silly question (more often than not others are thinking the same thing… and the answer hasn’t yet been worked out)!
I’m hoping to use the money in collaboration with The Physiological Society to develop a model to demonstrate how the processes of the kidney work which allow it to filter blood, reabsorb vital solutes (e.g. salt, glucose, etc) and regulate the water content to produce concentrated urine. Hopefully when it’s complete we’ll roll it out to school nationwide and I’ll get to demo a few myself in person!
So once again and big thanks to all,
Regards,
Keith