I thoroughly enjoyed the Biology in Action trip. It was an eye opening experience which allowed us to see the various pioneering fields that you can go into and to see how hard work, determination and time can positively affect your career. I found the talk by Liam Drew on “Appreciating our mammalian-ness” especially thought-provoking as he described the evolution of the things that made mammals and showed how these traits help make us human. It was particularly fascinating to learn about the origins of milk; it is modified sweat which could have been originally used to incubate or disinfect eggs. Milk also helped to develop elementary post-natal care which allows mammals to become attached to and thus bring up their young which is different to other types of animals. For instance, turtles lay their eggs on beaches and leave the young to fend for themselves.
Additionally, I found the talk on the possibility of life outside of our world enthralling; scientists have discovered that the survival limits of terrestrial life lines up with extra-terrestrial conditions. For example, one of Jupiter’s moons – Europa has warm conditions and has more water under its outer crust of ice than on the whole Earth. We were also privy to future scientific projects e.g. ExoMars, genetically modified food, personalised treatment for oesophageal cancer and future drugs to combat obesity. It was remarkable to see cross curricular links forming between the different professions and was inspirational to see people speaking so fervently about their passions within the STEM field.
Lisa, Year 12L