L'Oreal Young Scientists Meet The Right Honorable Vince Cable

On Thursday afternoon I spent an hour in the office of Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. He works in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. I was in his office taking photos of a meeting he had with 8 school students of varying ages who had attended an event called Unconference. They were a group of young science students brought together as part of the L'Oreal Young Scientists initiative. At this event they had discussed, at great length, the participation and interest of young people in science in the UK and what they think could be done to improve it.

Their conclusions from Unconference were presented to Dr Cable and a lively group discussion took place. Dr Cable took great interest in their findings and was delighted that there was such enthusiasm for improving the level of interest in science amongst young people.

A Sunny Day For Some Science On A Southbank Soapbox

On Friday last week I had the pleasure of photographing an event called Soapbox Science. Soapbox Science is an annual public science communication event, sponsored by L'Oreal that transforms public areas in central London into an arena for public learning and scientific debate. The event follows the format of Hyde Park’s Speaker’s Corner, which is historically an arena for public debate. There were three separate time slots, each lasting an hour, with four leading female scientists standing atop their soapbox, talking about their area of expertise to any passers by that cared to listen. And many passers by did just that. Not only did they listen, but they also asked questions and engaged with the speakers a great deal.

Some of my favourite photos from the event, a couple of which I've added to my website's event gallery:

There is also a video on the BBC website which can be seen here.