The Genome Analysis Centre receives strategic funding from the BBSRC
The Genome Analysis Centre receives strategic funding from the BBSRC
As part of National Science and Engineering Week (NSEW), the next generation of scientists will be pitching their ideas to a 
public audience as part of a Showcase of Young Science. Research into crop plants and medicinal plants will go up against studies on the good microbes in our guts and the bad microbes that cause colds in a public vote to see who most deserves funding.
Sergey Lamzin from The Genome Analysis Centre will explain why we get a cold each winter whilst John Innes Centre PhD student Philippa Borrill will talk about how dying leaves help wheat plants fill their grains, and Weslee Glenn will explain how he hopes to persuade plants to make new types of medicine. The ongoing communication between ourselves and the microbes that line our gut will be the subject of Sam Vogt from the Institute of Food Research.
All of the students will be presenting their work publicly for the first time and the audience will vote on which project they think should receive funding. Attendance to the Showcase of Young Science event, at the Institute of Food Research on Tuesday 13th March, 18:30, is free but places must be booked by contacting dawn.barrett@nbi.ac.uk (01603 255328)
TGAC, which is part of the Norwich Research Park, will also be at Science in Norwich Day, the annual celebration of the wealth and breadth of science that calls Norwich its home. On Saturday 24th March TGAC scientists will be having fun with DNA, and playing an interactive trumps based game on food security.
BBC’s The One Show astronomer Mark Thompson, along with the Norwich Astronomical Society, will be observing the sun (if it’s out), whilst the Open Air Laboratory will explore the depths of your pond. From 10:00am there are regular science shows in the Curve Auditorium will look at music, mathemagic and things that make you go eeuww.
There will be plenty of hands-on activities for all the family, from making slime to blowing bubbles, science busking, robots and building and engineering. For more information on Science in Norwich Day, which is supported by CUE East please see: http://soin.org.uk/2012/01/science-in-norwich-day/
