Pics of the Prize Award Evening and Exhibition

Despite the very wet night thankfully plenty of people braved it to come to the opening event. Professor Mike Ferguson, the Dean of Research for the College of Life Sciences presented the cheques and/or certificates after a brief intro to the competition by me. The drinks flowed freely and by all accounts a good time was had by all.

Many thanks to Andrew Melvin of the College of Life Sciences for the pics.

Big screen close up

Big screen close up, originally uploaded by Envisage Photo.

Another photographer’s capture of Big Angus.
Sharing Science DVD courtesy of Welcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression, College of Life Science.
To see the videos in the warm comfort of your own home go here.

Pixelaaaaaaation

winter light night, originally uploaded by paul flickriness.

Julian looking all bitty. What a pity.

VoD @ winter light night

winter light night, originally uploaded by paul flickriness.

the crowds

Freezing cold night, throngs of people. Did they show interest in the strange screen at the end the road? Some did, some were bemused. Is there a place for science on show at this type of event? I would say yes, but perhaps a better screen would be required and more interactivity. We gave out heaps of pencils, pens, furry little lapel bugs (you know – the ones that you find everywhere advertising everything from kitchen sinks to funeral parlour services). Then again on a cold night in November who actually wants to be interacting with a bunch of scientists when they could be guzzling mulled wine and eating oversized wurst. Maybe WE missed the point and should have offered SOUP n SCIENCE. Genius. You heard it hear first folks.

btw Thanks to all the die hards who came down to help.

Finally the day approaches…12th November!

So sorry for all the eager people out there wanting to hear what is happening – no we haven’t trousered the sponsor money and gone off on a nice cruise around the med, tempting though that is.

The delay has been for a number of logistical reasons and a disjoined communication channel. Either way the University is now fully committed to getting this exhibition off the ground and they have been really helpful.

Design Services are doing a sterling job of pulling this off with only 2 weeks notice (yes we have had only two weeks notice aswell ). Huge thanks to Tara Wainwright and Gordon Keir in Design Services – it’s going to be a really great professional production. Thanks also to Leanne Wallace in Events for making this all happen.

Plus it is in the lovely Dalhousie Building and will be open to the Public.

The exhibition will run to January 2010. So if you can’t make the wine and nibbles launch event at 5.30-7:00 on the 12th then please drop down some other time and feel free to comment on this blog about the images.

Closed for Business

Yay, Finally phase one is over. With much cajoling and poster posting we have 30 entries for the competition. Overall thoughts on the images – pretty amazing. Thanks to all that entered….much appreciated.

Phase 2 = the fairly onerous task of making the DVD for the judges to view. Oh well.

Phase 3 = organising the exhibition(s) and ward ceremony.

Phase 4 …?

Time is running out folks

Come on, the competition is very much up for grabs as the number of entries is only a few at the moment. Get those images burnt to CD, form filled out and popped in the internal post.

Don’t leave it to the last minute…please….you know what internal mail is like..

No time like the present – and it is Friday afternoon – who wants to set the experiment up?

Nature on Microscopy

A whole issue of Nature this week with some free articles on microscopy – advances, futures etc.

Check out the articles here.

Malty Goodness

In a generous post-launch gesture Thistle Scientific Ltd. has donated a bottle of 12 year old Glenlivet single malt as fifth prize. Cheers Angus Gleig!

Image Competitions

There are some amazing science-related images out there on the internet. The most famous and some might say, prestigious, microscopy-oriented competition is the Nikon Small World Competition which has been going since 1974. The subject matter is not limited to biological material – the only stipulation that the image is generated using some form of microscopy (low or high end). The images that get shortlisted every year are simply stunning.
Our very own Paul Appleton (Division of Cell and Developmental Biology) won first prize in 2006 with a beautiful and technically brilliant 2-photon image of mouse colon.