Day 5: London's Sights & the Student Debate Evening

For those of us not going on the Stonehenge & Salisbury trip today, we had an almost completely free day to explore London for ourselves. Apart from the debate in the evening, we were free to roam and see the sights and sounds of this beautiful city. With maps in hand and a plan finalized, Kristine from Norway, Rene from Germany, Savvas from Cyprus, Micah from Switzerland, and I made our way through London! 

Our first stop was Hyde Park, where we where met with beautiful stretches of green trees and buildings of all ages and architectural styles. The building above, for example, is a relatively new piece in Hyde Park. When standing at the position this photo was taken, it looks as if the structure bends inwards greatly. However, if you stand facing the structure directly, the curvature almost completely disappears. This is due to the position of the boxes relative to one another, creating a cool optical illusion.  

There were small boat rentals at Hyde Park, so we jumped on the opportunity to cycle a boat around the beautiful lake! The view was lovely, and it was fun to get close up with the swans that swim on the lake. 

Over the course of the rest of the afternoon, we strolled through the busy streets of London, walked along the Thames, stopped in a few shops, and took endless pictures. The whole time we were abuzz with conversation, discussing so many aspects of our countries and how we do things differently to one another. For example, men in Cyprus are required to do military service, so Savvas will fulfill his next year and attend university the following year. Micah told us that on Switzerland's national holiday (which is actually tomorrow, August 1st!) everyone gets a free sausage. Good thing the Imperial has loads of sausages in the morning so Micah can still have his!

Here are Kristine and I in front of St. Paul's Cathedral! 

After we had sufficiently exhausted our feet from walking, we made our way back to the Imperial just in time for dinner. Everyone was very excited for the next event - the Student Debate Evening called "Art Meets Science." The question was whether or not art is essential for science. There were some exceptional student responses, and we were all keen to add our opinions to the discussion. We were so keen, in fact, that after the debate had ended, most people had not had the chance to share their thoughts, so we continued back at our common room. I'm amazed at the richness of thought that each participant has. People here are deep thinkers. 

Tomorrow we jump into a full day of lectures, and I am so excited to hear Professor Chris Bunce talk about his research into therapies for leukaemias and lymphomas.

Until then...

- Vivienne 

Day 4: The London Eye & Student Topics!

Day 4 was an amazing day that burst at the seams with discussion, friendships, and experiencing the culture of London. We started the day off with a lecture by Monica Grady, a space scientist and excellent speaker. She walked us through the Rosetta mission that attempted to collect samples from the comet P/67. Even though the retrieval aparattus did not land very successfully, they were still able to collect samples from the comet. This revealed the presence of expected compounds such as carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, but also many unknown compounds on the comet's surface.

The picture above was taken later in the day during the London Eye visit, but I love it so much I think it deserves the honor of first photo in this post!   

The shape of the P/67 comet is believed to have formed when two smaller comets collided, resulting in a comet shaped very similarly to the beloved rubber ducky!

I met these ladies from the United Arabic Empire before the lecture. They were so excited to meet someone from Canada, and asked me questions on everything from climate to the Prime Minister to music. They even sang a traditional Arabic song for me! 

Once the morning lecture was complete, I made my way to the London Eye with a group of around 150 other students. Needless to say, we nearly filled the entire London Eye once we made it though the lengthy line up! Here is the breathtaking view! Since it was a Saturday afternoon London was incredibly busy and we had to wait around 3 hours between the time we left the Imperial to when we hopped on the London Eye. This may sound awful, but it was actually great fun. A wonderful thing about the people of LIYSF 2016 is that there is no exclusion, only inclusion. I have never heard, given, and received more "Hi! I'm so-and-so, what's your name? Where you are from?" It's the differences that make each attendee unique that actually bring us closer and build relationship as we discuss our culture and talk about what school and life is like in our country.

Can you spot the pack of cyclists? Many of the main roads were closed due to the Prudential Ride London to Surrey race happening this weekend. It added excitement to the atmosphere and crowds of people cheered the cyclists on with shouts and claps. It also added much time onto our journey, as we had to wait a long time before we were allowed to safely cross the road. However! This meant we were able to stroll over to Buckingham palace and bask in its beauty. 

Another view of the Big Ben! Every angle is its best angle. 

Here I am with my new friend, Ratnamala from India. We stopped for a short break in one of the gardens we walked through (London requires a lot of walking!).

Here is a small piece of the extensive gardens near the Big Ben. As you can see, this small section boasts a stunning array of flower species, many of which I have never seen in BC.

When my group finally back to the Imperial, we arrived just in time for the Student Topics Evening. This wonderful session goes down as one of my favorite events of LIYSF so far. Ten students from the poster evening last night were selected to give a 3 minute talk on their project. They were challenged to do so in a way that would capture the audience and be easy for anyone, regardless of their scientific background, to understand. All ten participants did such an incredible job. They presented on everything from producing plastic made from banana peels to the mathematics of card tricks.

After this amazing session, many of us from the London Eye group headed out to find dinner. We found a little Chinese place and I settled on the delicious chicken teryaki. With me was Vincent from China, Sophie and Grace from New Zealand, and Rene from Germany. The store was almost closing, but Vincent managed to convince them to let us stay a little longer! Score! Just when I thought the day couldn't get any more wonderful, a bunch of us played cards late into the night in the Beit common room. I learned a New Zealand card game that I will be bringing back to teach my fellow Canadians - trust me, it's a good one!

Tomorrow is a largely free day at LIYSF, with the Stonehenge and Salisbury group heading out while the rest of us have the day to explore London. I hope you have enjoyed coming with me on day 4 of LIYSF 2016. See you tomorrow!

- Vivienne 

Day 3: Scientific Visits, Tim Tams, and Poster Presentations!

This morning I woke up bright and early for the first of  the visits to different scientific establishments across London. This beautiful building is part of Imperial College, and is the first thing I see when I walk out of my halls of residence!

I was very excited to attend the University College London - Haematology and Blood Transfusion Department for today's scientific visit. A large group of us maneuvered our way on the tube, and arrived early enough to walk through the area and have another window of opportunity to share more with eachother about ourselves and our countries.

While we were waiting, a very generous Australian fellow named Jackson pulled out a box of authentic Australian Tim Tams and gave one to myself and fellow Canadian, Corrine. I thought they would be like Tim Tams I've had in Canada, but they were so much better! Apparently it's the "double coat" of chocolate that makes them so irresistable to Australians and many, many others from around the world. 

Once it was time for the tour, we split into smaller groups and my group began in the laboratory shown above. This lab works like clockwork. Connected to the two silver tubes coming out of the wall in the middle of the photo is a pneumatic tube transfer system that travels under the street beside the hospital and brings in blood samples for testing from all across London. After touring the lab above, we were given a tour of another lab that does more specialized diagnoses of sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia. The biomedical scientist showed us results from real patient samples and helped us see the differences between normal and diseased states. We then headed to the flow cytometry lab, where the basic science behind flow cytometry was explained, and we again compared normal and disease states, this time for cancer diagnoses. According to our guide, flow cytometry greatly aids in the diagnosis of types of leukemias and lymphomas. 

Next, we made our way to the hospital associated with University College London. On our way, we passed the original hospital that is now the university's elegant library. According to our very knowledgeable tour guide, this hospital turned library is built in the shape of a cross, as it was believed this layout was best for restoring patients' health. Now, students can load their brains with knowledge in this old hospital by diving deep into the books!  

At last, here is the new hospital! Once inside, we toured the cancer center, vending machine-like fridges with blood, and ended our grand tour off with two more laboratory tours: one in the general blood work lab, and the other in the blood transfusion lab. In the blood transfusion lab we held samples of plasma, red blood cells, and platelets. It was so cool to handle the samples and to see the precision in which samples are categorized, tested, checked, re-checked, and stored. This lab alone receives hundreds to thousands of samples a day!

Following the visit to University College London's Haematology and Blood Transfusion Department, we had an amazing lecture by Professor Kevin Shakesheff. He is doing cutting-edge work in his lab on the topic of regenerative medicine. In fact, Shakesheff pointed out that regenerative medicine research is currently being done on almost every tissue type. He showed us videos of early embryos, bringing me back to lectures with Dr. Tony Stea in Developmental Biology. Professor Shakesheff stressed that understanding the first 8-weeks of development would being the key to unlocking the full capabilities of regeneration. I wish he dived into more details, but I appreciated that he showed plenty of videos and gave examples to tie things together. In the picture above, Shakesheff is showing different body parts that have been printed with a 3D printer, such as bones, ears,  and capillaries. 

Fun fact: The very first MRI machine was created at his university (Nottingham University)  in the 1970's! 

After the lecture, all attendees giving poster presentations had an exceptionally early dinner at 4:30pm, followed by a time to set up our posters for an interactive evening of scientific sharing from around the globe. I'm amazed that there are high school students performing western blots, designing PCR primers, and diving into the Baltic Sea to collect plant samples! Others have built robots, studied rare diseases, and investigated cellular stress responses. 

I was so happy to share my research project with many LIYSF participants and judges. One student from Ireland is determined to bring the Genomics Education Partnership to his university! I hope he does and that the GEP research spreads even more.

Tomorrow is another full day bustling with activity, so until then, thank you for reading and for following along my exploration through science in London!

- Vivienne 

Day 2: The Warmest Welcome That Ever Was

Today was the first full day of LIYSF 2016, and a very full day it was. We started off with the Opening Ceremony. First, Director of LIYSF Richard Myhill gave his warmest welcome, followed by LIYSF President Richard O'Kennedy. Next, Professor Romain Murenzi, the Director of UNESCO's Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building, gave the Keynote Address. Professor Murenzi has had the most interesting life, with many obstacles that could have kept him from his dream of being a scientist. However! Professor Murenzi isn't the kind of person to let anything stop him from reaching his dream, as was very clear from his life story. He was born in Rwanda but spent his childhood in Burundi as a refugee. Life and schooling was tough, but Professor Murenzi was tougher. He has been a leader in the field of applying multidimensional continuous wavelet transform to quantum physics. If you had to google that, don't worry, I definitely did!

Instead of focusing on his research, Professor Murenzi talked about overcoming challenges when the odds are all against you. He compared being a newborn baby to being a ground state electron, and all subsequent knowledge you acquire and understanding you gain, you jump up energy levels, and this energy (now stored in the minds of individuals) can be used to better our world through creative thinking and problem solving. This may be the best science metaphor I have heard. 

Can you spot the slightly blurry Canadian flag making its way down the aisle? This was such a great part of the Opening Ceremony. Flag bearers were randomly selected from each country represented, and this display emphasized just how many countries are present at the forum - 75 to be exact! 

After the Opening Ceremony we made our way to the Great Hall for introductions to all of the staff who make LIYSF possible. I walked with this group of lovely people, including Rene from Germany,  Lorenzo and Martina from Italy, and Erica from Italy.  

Martina and I! Martina and I had such a lovely conversation about life in Italy. 

After the introductions, we were free to find lunch somewhere around the Imperial. I walked through the London streets with these wonderful people: Shu from Japan (who is currently studying Engineering at Oxford), Hadass from Israel, and two lovely girls from China. As you can see from the smiles, we found a great place for lunch. We met up with a few more students at East side, a restaurant located right by Prince's Gardens. Lionel from Malaysia, Renee from Germany, Erica from Italy, and Chris from China.  

After a delicious lunch, we had a lecture by Professor Steve Cowley on "The Quest for Fusion." Even though I don't have a background in physics, this was interesting! He discussed the great potential of making and harnessing energy from fusion reactions, the power source of stars. Above, you can see the building progress of ITER, a nuclear fusion research center and experiment itself. So, why aren't we using fusion to generate all of our energy yet? Cowley pointed out two of the problems: cost and size (ITER is enormous)!

After the lecture we had the opportunity to purchase tickets for the optional excursions happening throughout our time at LIYSF. Unfortunately, the line of about 400 people took almost an hour and a half to reach the ticket table. Many people were so hungry they decided to go to dinner instead. I'm glad I persevered through the line, because line ups are one of the best places to meet people. I met Gregory and Alex from Portugal, and we discussed Portugeuse eating patterns, which was immensely entertaining as we compared meal times and sizes. They just couldn't believe that I eat dinner before 8pm!  

One of the many beautiful buildings near the Imperial. Notice all of the flags - many buildings in the area have a diverse range of flags just like this building. Also, notice the speedy cars! Thankfully cross walks are abundant. 

After dinner we had the Welcome Party at the Chelsea Old Town Hall, with one of the most beautiful interiors I have seen so far. There was music, dancing, and a lot of people guzzling water from the heat! 

Represented in this one photo is Poland, Belgium, Israel, and Malaysia!

After the Welcome Party, a group of us took a stroll through more of South Kensington. There were lights everywhere, a cool breeze, and the streets were packed with both people and cars. I met another Canadian named Alessia, four people from Cyprus, two others from Taiwan, and two from Tunisia.

After everyone realized how late it was and how early we had to get up the next morning, we made the walk back to our halls of residence, and said our goodnights. What a great day it was.

Until tomorrow,

- Vivienne 

Day 1: Arriving at Imperial College London

At just before noon today (London time) I arrived at Heathrow Airport and made my way on the Underground to Imperial College London! There were LIYSF staff positioned strategically throughout the station and area around the Imperial, and offered help and a warm smile to all arriving students. They also offered encouragements such as, "You're so close! Keep going!" and "Just keep walking in a straight line and you can't get lost!" I think they knew many of us had traveled far to get here and needed some encouragement to lug our suitcases just a little further. The beautiful buildings and their architectural mastery was an amazing sight to behold as I rolled my suitcase up to my halls of residence.  

Here is a sign I was happy to see - the Picadilly Line from Heathrow! The ride on the Underground was about 45 minutes. As the train car hurtled on down the tracks, my eyes soaked up all of the beautiful red brick buildings in London. 

Here is one of the architectural masterpieces located near the Imperial. See what I mean about the red brick?! It is never ending and so wonderful.

One of the best parts of today was getting to know other participants in a relaxed and informal setting. There were many introductions made in the line up getting our welcome packages, in the hallways looking for correct rooms, during dinner, and during the tour and evening stroll. 

Here are some of the wonderful people I shared dinner with! Starting from the far left is Hasam and Shahar from Israel, Alice from Sweden, Christine from Norway (who speaks three languages by the way), a fellow from Cyprus whose name escapes me, and Shu representing both England and Japan. It's amazing what happens when seven students from six different countries get together.  

And a non-selfie photo of dinner! 

I have never interacted with people from so many different countries and so many diverse backgrounds as I did in this one evening. The first fellow attendee I met was Alice from Sweden, followed shortly by Shu who is representing both England and Japan (both pictured above). We met up with Christine and Masha from Norway, and Shahar from Israel, and talked for about an hour and a half before dinner. It was instantaneous friendship as we shared much laughter over our countries' traditional food and clothing. I tried to explain poutine, and I'm not sure if I made it sound disgusting as I attempted to describe the cheese curds and gravy... The maple cookies, however, received an all around positive response! Good thing I have two boxes in my suitcase to share during the International Traditions of Home Evening. 

After the delicious dinner we met with our halls of residence team and were given a tour of the key places we'll be going to over the course of the forum. This was also an opportunity to meet more participants! Two students from Germany, Tobey and Alex, explained their work to me in detail. Tobey had an idea for a hologram machine a year ago, and so he wrote around 150 letters to companies asking them for sponsorship. Wow, talk about perseverance! In the end, Tobey had over 25 successful requests for sponsors! Alex is studying the relationship between exposure to different ratios of wavelengths of light and the immune system in plants. So cool! Both students are only in Grade 12, and have already done so much amazing work.

I finally met my wonderful roommate Jade (pronounced Jada) about twenty minutes ago when we both came in exhausted ready for some sleep! She is from Ventimiglia, Italy, which is just 7km from France and located on the coast. So according to Jade, days at the beach are a very regular occurrence!

Today was an excellent first introduction to LIYSF 2016, and the official welcome ceremony hasn't even happened yet! Tomorrow is a full day of lectures and the welcome party in the evening. And for now, time for sleep...


- Vivienne    

In Less Than 24 Hours...

Why, hello there!

My name is Vivienne Beard and I am a fourth year Biology student at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV). In less than twenty four hours I will be hopping on a plane and heading to London, England to represent UFV at the 2016 London International Youth Science Forum (LIYSF). This year marks the 58th year that the forum has been held! Over 400 students from 75 countries will spend two weeks together diving into every nook and cranny of science. There will be lectures by leading scientists, an opportunity to present our own research projects, visits to Cambridge and Oxford, a trip to Buckingham Palace, new friendships with like-minded individuals from around the globe... The list goes on! 

Every day of the forum (July 27 - August 10) I will be posting snippets of my experiences at LIYSF 2016. If you would like to read more about the details of LIYSF, their website (http://www.liysf.org.uk/) provides many student stories, videos of performances and events from previous years' forums, and so much more.

So, dear reader, welcome to the first of many posts devoted to my experience at the 2016 London International Youth Science Forum! It is an enormous honor to represent UFV at LIYSF 2016, and I am so excited to share stories from each day. I hope my pictures and words leave you inspired and in awe of the amazing scope of science happening not only in London, but in all of the countries represented at the forum.

Until next time,

 - Vivienne