Month: November 2011

Tricky Questions

On each of the past two Mondays I have shared a drink and a bit of chat with the freshers on the Biochemistry and Biology courses. Both were rather enjoyable occasions.

But in both cases I came across questions that I couldn’t answer, though I have since looked up the the information I didn’t have to hand.

While explaining my research on RNA viruses to some of the biochemistry students the conversation wandered to the subject of ‘flu viruses and vaccines. I mentioned that ‘flu vaccine preparations are generated by infecting chicken eggs. One student asked me if fertilised or unfertilised eggs were used.

Guest post: It’s Welfare Week!

Guest post from Roddy Pracana:

Hi everyone! I’m Roddy, and I’m the Biosoc’s Welfare officer. I’m writing this because it’s RCSU Welfare Week!

As you know from the email sent by the RCSU’s president Luke (if you bothered to read it), this week is packed full of exciting events! I would definitely not miss Wednesday’s cycling tour at lunchtime and Ice skating at the Natural History Museum in the evening (for £6 only!). If you are looking for more a more relaxing activity, there will be a free Yoga taster class on Thursday.

On a more serious note, it’s important everyone is aware of the welfare services provided by Imperial.

Numbers are up

First of all – following on from the last post, many congratulations to the Imperial College team for their successes in the Grand Final of the iGEM competition in Boston, in which they were runners-up. What a fantastic achievement!

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see the team’s talk before they left of the US and was mightily impressed. Not just by the quality of the work in the project and the presentation, but also by the inclusion of some maths in their analyses, which was used to model the rate of production of plant growth hormones by their engineered bacteria.