As a young girl growing up in the Palestinian city of Qalqilya in the West Bank, Roza Masalmeh always remembers wanting to do something related to science. “I loved science,” says Roza, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer. “I wanted to be an inventor or discoverer. I was always doing […]

Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) shown in her laboratory in 1947  (Smithsonian Institution/Science Service; Restored by Adam Cuerden, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) Scientist is a relatively modern word, dating back to 1834 and first used in a review of  “On the Connextion of the Physical Sciences” a work of popular science written by the Scottish mathematician […]

When I was little, we had a fridge that could be easily opened by my two-year-old self. My mother used to always have an open can of tuna in the fridge to prevent me from roaming around and touching things. I used to think that she took advantage of my aversion for the smell of […]

Where do I want to be in 5 years? Move to a new city? Masters…then PhD? Gap year? Job? Just over a year ago as my 21-year-old self was creeping closer to being released from the comfort of my undergraduate environment, these were just a selection of the many questions surfacing in my mind as […]

As a PhD student very interested in gene regulation who is passionate about supporting women in science, I was very keen to talk to one of the MRC Human Genetics Unit’s new group leaders, Hannah Long. Hannah has recently moved from Stanford to Edinburgh to start her own group here. I sat down with Hannah […]

Let’s get this out of the way early doors; I’m older than your average bear when compared to the rest of my cohort. Heck, I think I’m older than most of the postdocs and the occasional PI too! However, I honestly believe that the only person who has a problem with this is me; I […]