From the Laboratory to the Museum: Sharing Science with the Public

Glasgow Science Festival’s weekend of science at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum is one of the festival’s flagship family events. I sat down for a chat with four researchers involved in this year’s event to see how they’ll be sharing their research with the public. Public engagement is a rapidly growing priority in universities. It is vital for explaining the work of researchers to wider audiences, helping to generate funds for research and encouraging young people to consider careers in science.

The University of Glasgow’s Public Engagement Group has been in place for 19 years, and focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine (STEMM). Over the last ten years the Group has raised over £3m and reached more than half a million people in outreach projects. Glasgow Science Festival (GSF) is the West of Scotland’s headline annual event, bringing a diverse range of events to more than 50,000 people every June since 2007. The ninth annual Festival kicks off on Thursday and will run until 14^th of June.

Since 2012, the University of Glasgow Public Engagement Group has led an internship programme for researchers to participate in Glasgow Science Festival. The festival team works with small groups of postgraduate research students from across the Colleges, mentoring them as they develop and deliver an engagement activity at the festival.

One of this year’s groups represents a wide range of disciplines, from stem cell research to ageing – but they have created activities for the Festival which, broadly speaking, focus around the so-called Glasgow Effect.

“The Glasgow effect refers to the dismally low life expectancy of  people in Glasgow compared to elsewhere in the UK or Europe,” says Kirstyn Brunker, a disease ecologist who investigates how diseases interact with their environment:

“We still don’t know why it’s much worse in Glasgow, since studies have shown that it’s not all down to poverty, poor diet or drug abuse… It remains a bit of a mystery.”

One of the key components of the interns’ event at Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum is yoga and the positive benefits it can have for your health. Ana Costa is a PhD student working in electrophysiology and cell engineering with a special interest in the heart – she looks at stem cells (“cells obtained from the skin, which are then treated to behave like heart cells“) and studies the potential negative side effects of using them for medical purposes:

“Our event at the Kelvingrove Museum aims to show participants that making healthy choices is easier than it looks, and that sometimes even a little session of yoga can help a lot!”

Ana will be showcasing (and explaining the benefits) of yoga poses designed specifically to help your heart – so-called heart opening poses.

Rachael Hewitt is looking at things from a different angle, currently completing a PhD focusing on senescence cells – cells which accumulate in our bodies as we age and impact upon how our cells and organs work:

“Understanding how we age will help develop new treatments for age-associated diseases such as cancer,” she says. She’ll be demonstrating two apps to test ageing at Kelvingrove – one which tests reaction times, and another which predicts your age based on a photograph of your face – “i.e. how young do I really look?!”.

Despite widespread disparity in life-expectancy across Glasgow, the average age of the population is growing. “Understanding the factors involved in improving longevity in Glasgow are vital,” she says. 

All of the interns believe in the importance of public engagement. Dr Elaine Leung, a medical doctor, now a PhD student researching cancer-killing viruses, has been a STEMM ambassador since 2012.

“It is our duty to engage the public about our research as scientific researchers. A large proportion of research is publicly funded – we have an obligation to communicate to the widest audience about what we do in a way that non-specialists can understand.”

Rachael agrees that there is an important link between funding and engagement, adding that it is “the public who will ultimately benefit from our research.”

Inspiring a new generation of people to get involved with scientific research is a primary motivation for all the researchers I spoke to.

“Highlighting the importance of what we do can inspire and encourage young people to consider careers in science in the future,” says Elaine. Family events, such as GSF’s science weekend at Kelvingrove are specifically geared toward this.

The event at Kelvingrove promises to be both informative and entertaining, with activities ranging from dinosaur hunting to sensory illusions. If you’d like to join Ana, Elaine, Kirstyn, Rachael and others, pop into Kelvingrove on the afternoon (1.30-4.30pm) of the 7th of June. There will be more science activities on 6th June at the same time.

In praise of… Kelvingrove Park

As part of Glasgow Science Festival this year, we’re inviting you to submit your favourite photographs and memories of Glasgow’s parks for our ‘Parklife’ competition and exhibition. In today’s blog, festival staff Dr Zara Gladman discusses her favourite spot in the West End: Kelvingrove Park.

When I was six I fed the ducks in Victoria Park; fifteen years later I saw Karen O headline a music festival on the same patch.  In 2004 the sun was blazing (and so was I) at Belle & Sebastian’s much-talked-about Botanic Gardens gig. And I’ll never forget that giant teapot in Festival Park in ’88.

As a weegie I’ve had my fair share of Glasgow park memories. But without descending too far into sentimental drivel, there’s one Dear Green Place for which I will always retain a fondness: that is, The Notorious K-G, Kelvingrove Park.

For students in Glasgow, there are a few certainties:

1) Over the course of your university career, you’ll snog an idiot in a crap indie band; the probability of bumping into him on the subway the next day approaches 1.

2) Buckfast will pass your lips at least once.

3) As soon as exam leave begins, Glasgow will miraculously interrupt its perpetual winter to deliver a scorching heatwave, heralded by the cheers of guilt-riddled, caffeinated students across the city: ‘TAPS AFF!‘

In times such as the latter, there’s only one place worth visiting: the library The Hill. Kelvingrove’s grassy oasis offers some respite from the neglected scraps of lecture notes littering your desk and a chance to expose your translucent skin to those precious rays. It’s a place where students, skater kids, neds, goths, hippies, hipsters, jakeys and those geeks with the diabolos live harmoniously, albeit for a few hours.

By winter, KG takes on a more romantic hue, especially after a decent bit of snow. The Hill is christened with IKEA bags, baking trays and other household items pioneered as sledges.

It took several hours to regain feeling in my bahookey

Of course, Kelvingrove offers more than a place to skid down hills or bask in the sun clouds or perv on those lads doing capoeira.

My background is in ecology, so it would be improper of me not to pay lip-service to the park’s resident fauna: an important corridor for West end wildlife, the ‘grove is home to an array of species, including the grey heron, great spotted woodpecker, goosander, chaffinch, blue tit, red fox and otter. The river itself supports brown trout and salmon.

Finding salmon in the Luggie, one of the tributaries of the Kelvin – part of the Clyde River Foundation‘s ‘Kids in the Kelvin’ project

The landscape of Kelvingrove Park was laid out between 1852 and 1867 by architect Sir Joseph Paxton – the same chap who designed the Botanic Gardens and London’s Crystal Palace. The ‘West End Park’ (as it was then known) was intended as a haven for Victorians to escape the rapidly expanding slums of the city.  Over 160 years later, the park continues to foster happy memories for many a weegie. Me ‘n’ aw.

To finish, here are some lovely images of KG from The Glasgow Story.  Can we start a petition to bring back the water chute?!

Sir Joseph Paxton’s original design for the park.

Kelvingrove House was built in 1783 and became the city’s first municipal museum in 1872.  In 1899 it was demolished and replaced with the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum.

‘Exhibition’ by Harry Spence (1860-1928). In 1888 and 1901, Kelvingrove Park was the site of an International Exhibition to celebrate Glasgow’s position as Second City of the Empire.

The miniature railway as part of the International Exhibition in 1901 was a big hit with park visitors

The water chute on the Kelvin, another popular attraction in 1901

Children playing in the Stewart Memorial Fountain on a hot day in 1955

To learn more about the history of Kelvingrove and Glasgow’s legacy of Victorian parks, check out these websites.

Share your favourite Glasgow park memories and photos by entering our ‘Parklife’ competition. Images will be displayed in a special exhibition at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum on 15th and 16th June. Details of how to enter are here.