Presenters Rebecca Winkels and Patrick Russel round up the Elements stories of the week - whilst dealing with some unexpected visitors.
Becky Summers tells us the way the Internet can be used to crowfund projects, Lou del Bello explains how passive houses can keep us warm and Rebecca Winkels highlights how the pig genome can be useful for medical research.
Becky is fascinated by the way science twists, turns and interacts with the world today. She studied Environmental Sciences at UEA in Norwich, along with spending a year living as a scarfie in New Zealand. Some of her favourite adventures include tracking polar bears in the Arctic, riding flea-ridden camels in the Sahara and helping kids to plant trees in India. She worked at several international NGO’s and think tanks, such as the Tyndall Centre (UK) and Trade Aid (NZ).
With an Undergraduate in Communication Sciences and a Masters Degree in Semiotics, you may wonder why Lou ended in science journalism.
After some years spent working as environment journalist, she moved to London from Italy without regrets, ready for new adventures. If you are interested in the environment, energy, oil, (but also if you aren't) you will find her on Facebook, Twitter, and many other odd social networks.
Patrick graduated from Cardiff University with a degree in physiology and psychology last year, so naturally he loves covering stories on health and neuroscience. Since graduating he has spent a year trying to make the dream of becoming a science journalist a reality. He completed internships at the Science Media Centre, the University of Birmingham Press Office and Forster Communications and wrote articles for the Telegraph Online, Original Magazine and local newspapers. When he is not trying to demystify the scientific world you can usually find him at festivals or travelling the world!
Always curious never really into just one thing Rebecca decided that a career in science would be too one dimensional for her after finishing her undergraduate degree in Biology. Internships in different areas of the media helped her to decide that communicating science is what she really wants to do. Being a curious person she basically is into everything that differs from the usual and everything that is new!
This post is by Theresa Taylor
@journalist_jill
Deputy Editor
Theresa worked as a journalist a a daily newspaper in Johannesburg. Her two years at the paper were spent dodging rocks during service delivery protests, interviewing the weirdest and wisest of South African society and generally having a great time. Keen to join her love of writing and story telling with an undergraduate she did in chemistry and zoology, she came to London to work as a freelance science journalist and complete an MA.
The Chelyabinsk impactor is likely to have been significantly smaller than 2012 DA14 (10 metres before entry into the atmosphere) but clearly still has potential to cause some limited damage
