9 great moments from the MRC Festival Zone (so far)

We’ve been blown away by your brilliant and creative questions, comments and answers from the first two weeks of the MRC Festival Zone! Below is a handpicked selection of standouts (so far) to celebrate the halfway point of the event. Keep visiting the ASK page to put your questions to the scientists and support staff, and who knows, maybe your question will make it onto next week’s list?

Without further ado, let’s dive in…

1. Bloodiest ASK Question

How long can a person survive after they have been beheaded?

Unfortunately, not long at all! But Nathan says there was a ‘beheaded’ chicken from the 1940s who apparently lived 18 months after it was beheaded! “It managed to live,” Nathan says, “because its brainstem and blood supply was left intact — the areas responsible for vital functions in organs such as heart and lungs.”

 

2. Weirdest ‘Typical Day’

“I’m usually found in the lab sprinkling pollution onto bits of lung.”

What!? Liza surely does have the weirdest start to her day. “I start my experiments early in the morning by adding pollution to pieces of lung.  After a few hours (and several coffees!) I dust off the pollution and see how the lung is.”

 

3. Most #OnTrend Scientist

Why are they called memes? Because of how quickly they spread!

aimee0breton commented: @Nathan I love that you know what memes are! You are such an intellectual millennial. Haha.

In answer to an ASK question, Nathan said: “The term meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book ‘The Selfish Gene’. He meant this as a term that compared how ideas are passed between people like genes are; once an idea is made, it takes on a life of its own and the most successful ones multiply and spread through the population – very similar to genes!”

 

4. Coolest Profile Photo

Damian Mole. Surgeon. Scientist. Coffee drinker and Esk Valley Swing Band member!

 

5. Noisiest Question

Question: why do our tummies rumble?

… because it is busy digesting your last meal, says Claire! “It churns the food up and mixes it with digestive juices. It also moves the food down to the intestines and lower in the digestive tract. As your digestive tract is moving everything around, pockets of gas can form and if they get squeezed that makes the noise you can hear!”

 

6. Grossest Answer

Question: What is the weirdest thing you know about the human body?

Joanne and Joey both agree that the weirdest fact about the human body is that there are about ten times as many bacterial cells as human cells. Bacteria make up 3-6% of your body weight! Joanne admits that it is kinda gross, but that the bacteria are really important for a variety of reasons, such as to keep our gut healthy!

 

7. Most Popular TV Show

Turns out a LOT of scientists watch The Big Bang Theory!

is it scientifically accurate? Ashley says that the whiteboards on the show feature scientific formulas taken from real math and science projects, and Joanne points out that the actor who plays Amy is an actual neuroscientist! But Hannah says it’s not her favourite show: “it doesn’t show animal research on monkeys that well – it’s really highly regulated in reality in the UK, and Amy would never just have a monkey sat on her desk/lab bench with electrodes on it!”

8. Best Joke…

Science and comedy doesn’t always go hand in hand

Every scientist was asked to put their favourite joke on their profiles, but were any of them actually funny? We’ve chosen our top three favourites:

Leo, tell us a joke. I have two goldish, I called them One and Two, so that if One dies I still have Two left.

Laurent, tell us a joke. I asked my French friend if she likes to play video games. She said, "Wii"

Claudia, tell us a joke. Have you heard the one about the sick chemist? If you can’t helium, and you can’t curium, you’ll probably have to barium.

Which do you think was the best? Can you think of a better joke? Let us know in the comments!

9. Student Winners

Congratulations to Ashrea and Machopiggies!

Each week the scientists taking part in the MRC Festival Zone will nominate a student to win a £20 voucher and certificate.

Machopiggies was named as student winner of week one for “an incredible ASK question, and showing real care for all people in society, as well as thinking of ways to make life better for them.” This week, St John Wall Catholic School student Ashrea was nominated because of their really interesting questions in a live chat.

Congrats to both winners! Who will be receiving the £20 voucher next week? It could be you!

Posted on June 15, 2018 by in News. Leave a comment

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