The Neptunium Zone was a general science Zone supported by Wellcome. In this zone students met six scientists, all working in different areas. Yo is a software developer who writes code for experiments within biology and Theo works for a company that makes breath chemical detectors as a scientific writer, explaining to scientists and doctors how to use the technology in their research. Oli, the winner of this Zone, is a PhD student in environmental science studying fossils to work out the history of a threatened forest in Brazil. Nina is a geologist who has studied volcanoes and now researches materials different buildings are made from, Kerrianne is a PhD student making and testing optical fibres and Edward is a research associate in neuroscience looking at how our brain is wired up.
Chats in this Zone were lively with lots of back and forth conversations. The scientists were good at building a rapport with the students and engaging them with their subject areas. For example, after hearing about Oli’s work with plants in a chat a student said ‘I honestly didn’t think plants could be interesting until 10 minutes ago’ and that they had been inspired to study plants in the future.
