This International Women’s Day, I organised an event at the Yorkshire Museum, with the York chapter of ScienceGrrl. The idea was that we would flood the museum with female scientists who would talk to the passing public about their work. Children were given a ScienceGrrl postcard with spaces for doodles by our scientists – if they collected eight then they got a badge! Armed with our lab coats, an item from our workplace and a big badge that says “I’m a scientist – talk to me”, we went to work.
We had a wide variety of scientist from different backgrounds, including women from industry, Ph.D. students, postdocs and academics. Thorunn Helgason from the Biology department at the University of York brought along with her a USB microscope with a butterfly and a soil and root sample for studying. We also had three nuclear physicists there from the University of York – Ph.D. student Victoria Truesdale, postdoc Lianne Scruton and myself. Victoria was showing her immensely popular particle zoo, Lianne was melting ice with diamond from a LYCCA detector (I made a video demo of this, here) and I brought along a Geiger counter, and a piece of Fergusonite. This contains thorium, which is radioactive. I made a vine of the Fergusonite being placed next to a Geiger counter. Listen to the clicks before the stone is presented; the sources of radioactivity that contribute to the background are concrete, cosmic rays, and even you (specifically: your bones).
Biology student Ruth Wade brought in specimens of the various stages of ladybird growth – a firm favourite with the children!
At the front of the museum, we had two solar telescopes from the Astrocampus, but unfortunately we only started to see the sun in the afternoon.
It was great to meet lots of inquisitive children (my favourite: the little girl waving her postcard saying, “Mummy, there are scientists everywhere!”) and inquisitive parents, and also it’s fascinating to hear about what other female scientists are doing. There’s a lot of great research going on.
A last note, tweets like this make all the organisation worthwhile. Brought a little tear to my eye.
Huge thanks to the museum for your hospitality, and for letting us invade! Let’s do it again sometime.
The Unstable Nucleus 
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