I’ve been wanting to get this down on paper for a while but I haven’t found a good opportunity. Now, it’s a sunny afternoon in Oban, not a cloud in the sky, and the trees have gone a lovely autumnal golden colour… I should be out cycling, but I can’t contain my enthusiasm any longer.

There are so many amazing women who have worked in marine science over the last 200 years. So. Many.

But nobody is telling their stories. Do you know about Helen Ogilvie? Or Agnes Eleanora Miller? Or Sheina Marshall? Or Isabella Gordon? These Scottish women carried out some inspiring research, but few have heard of them. Why you ask? I have a theory… and it centres around the narrative of marine science, oceanography, and exploration which emerged at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century – when our discipline really took off. That was the heroic age, where scientists accompanied explorers on expeditions all over the world, sampling the deep and writing logbooks and diaries which were lapped up by the Victorian public. Think Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle, or of the Challenger Reports (Sir Charles Wyville Thompson and Sir John Murray). Epic journeys which captured the public imagination – men traveling into unseen lands and bringing back creatures never-before-seen.

The staff of the Marine Biological Station at Millport, 1914 (right), and Sheina Marshall (top left), Helen Ogilvie (middle left), and Isabella Gordon (bottom left).

So where were the ladies? They weren’t allowed on ships at sea, so didn’t feature in those expedition logs or journals. But they did work in museums and curate collections, identifying specimens, illustrating new species, and publishing their scientific work. Without them, many discoveries would not have been possible.

A few weeks ago I met with Catherine Booth, the curator for Science and Technology at the National Library of Scotland – a kindred spirit. While I knew about the travels of Sheina Marshall and enthusiasm for discovery of Marie Tharp, she told me about the letters Helen Ogilvie sent to D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, and about Isabella Gordon and her great sense of humour. We spent nearly two hours trading stories about these ladies – stories which so few have heard.

Catherine had recently put together an exhibit at the National Library of Scotland highlighting the achievements of a handful of Scottish women scientists, some of whom studied the sea and its creatures. It is easy to be impressed with the recognition these women received for their work – they were inspiring in their determination to follow their passions for their topics of choice. But even more so, I was interested in what they were like: who did they know? who did they write letters to? were they happy when they travelled? what did they do in their spare time?

Isabella Gordon, for instance, had climbed nearly all the mountains in Scotland – a crustacean scientist, and a mountaineer! Clearly a woman after my own heart!

Yesterday was Ada Lovelace Day, and I managed to share some of the achievements of Jeanne Villepreux-Power, Helen Ogilvie, and Isabella Gordon on twitter, using #AdaLovelaceDay, but there is so much more to say. You can’t tell a story very well in 140 characters! So watch this space… I’m hoping to do a bit more work on this topic, on Scottish women and beyond. Every time I find a new connection or interesting fact, I want to follow its trail and see where it leads – to start to write our narrative. A narrative of marine science and the women who made it so.

Check out exciting October updates from the HB project teams

Just had to share the latest from Homeward Bound – we’re 53 days from departure, and things are getting exciting! Check out the project’s new branding too – totally inspiring!

via Project updates — Homeward Bound

That’s right… 99 days from today I will be boarding our vessel in Ushuaia, Argentina, and setting sail for the Drake Passage! How did it become so soon!? So much has happened over the previous six or eight months, I couldn’t possibly write it all here, but in brief, I’ve reached my fundraising target (thank you again to all of the individuals and organisations who helped me get there!), started working on a small project with some of the other wonderful women on board, learned a bit about setting strategies, and have already had valuable feedback about some of my own leadership traits as part of the emotional intelligence work we are undertaking. I have learned a lot already, and I can barely fathom how that learning will grow during the intense time on board. I can’t wait!

Today’s excitement is partially because I have finally booked my travel to Argentina. Ushuaia is a long way from Oban! Out of curiosity, I have just asked google Maps to chart me a route, but it only returns “no route found”. I’m sure with a little creative thinking I could find a way to get there by bus or under my own steam, but there’s just not time! Incidentally, this is a good opportunity for me to thank the UKs Natural Environment Research Council for helping fund my travel to and from Homeward Bound as part of their Leadership Training Bursary scheme for NERC fellows. Thank you!

Now where will be going? One of my fellow Homeward Bound-ers has plotted a fantastic map of some of the places we might visit (details are still being finalised, and weather dependent):

We will be visiting at least four research bases, and while thi itinerary isn’t finalised, it looks like this could include:

• The Carlini Research Base, an Argentinian base on King George Island, which is one of 13 bases Argentina operates. It was originally established as a small naval station in 1953, but was eventually transferred to the Argentine Antarctic institute in 1982. So it’s two years older than me (as a science base, at least!). Fun fact: Metallica performed at this base in 2013, unamplified (due to environmental concerns) and inside a specially constructed dome. The gig was streamed live worldwide!
  

  Carlini Research Base

• Brown Station, another Argentine Antarctic base, established in 1951, but now only open in the summer season. The station was burned down by the station doctor in 1984, but has been rebuilt. Paradise bay, where it is located is meant to be a beautiful spot, and you can see Gentoo penguins there! 

• Vernadsky Research Base, a Ukranian Antarctic base, but one which was originally established by the British (the British Falklands Islands Dependancies Survey). It was first called Wordie house, after Sir James Wordie, who visited it as part of Shackletons expedition (Shackelton! That’s history!). Wordie house has been restored as a historic site, and the present base has been located on Galindez Island since 1954. Ukraine took the base over in 1996, when it bought the station from the UK for a token sum of £1!. Geeky fact: in 1977 the base was renamed Faraday Station in honour of Michael Faraday.  

• Rothera Research Station, a British Antarctic Survey base established in 1975. Usually 130 people can be found at the base in summer months, but this number shrinks to just over 20 in the winter (or so says Wikipedia!). Fun fact: Rothera serves as the capital of the British Antarctic Territory, although after the ratification of the Antarctic Treaty in 1961 most countries don’t recognise territorial claims in Antarctica. Britain has ratified this treaty. You can see what the weather is like live at Rothera using the Base’s webcam: https://www.bas.ac.uk/data/our-data/images/webcams/rothera-webcam/

• Palmer Reseach Station, located north of the Antarctic circle, and operated by the USA. The station houses just over 40 staff in the summer, and much of the science focuses on marine biology (sounds like my kind of place!). It was named after Nathaniel B. Palmer, who is recognised as the first American to see Antarctica. Fun fact: Palmer was the setting for a gathering of the last human survivors of a virus in a Japanese film called Fukkatsu no hi, from 1981.

I’ll try to write a bit more about some of these places in the next few months, as well as about some of the other places we will visit, and about preparing for the trip. 

It’s great to learn about the history of a place before you go, so I will do my best!

The week before last I found myself in Edinburgh on a beautiful sunny morning, walking to the National Museum of Scotland. As I made my way from Haymarket Station, past the University of Edinburgh, and up to the National Museum of Scotland, my mind wandered to all of the incredible inventions and inventors which came out of this fantastic city – the Stevensons and their lighthouses (engineering marvels!), James Clerk Maxwell and his radio waves, and even Prof. Steven Salter and his wave energy converters. How the Scots invented the modern world… indeed!

It was a fitting start to the day, as I’d been invited to participate in one of Accenture UK’s Girls in STEM events, run in partnership with STEMettes as a closing plenary speaker to an audience of 140 11-15 year old girls. I was a little anxious – the rest of the panel taking part in the day were an incredible bunch of women in science and engineering, doing amazing things. ClydeSpace’s Jennie Doonan, for example, has built things which are now in space!

Trying to keep the classic ‘impostor syndrome’ at bay, I met the other ladies on the “Women in STEM” panel, and some of the other Accenture organisers over coffee before the students arrived. What always occurs to me is that regardless of career level, events like this are real levelers… we are all just people, at various stages in our lives, trying to pursue the careers we love, and enjoy the lives we have outside of them. That, and everyone was incredibly friendly!A few minutes later, the noise levels in the hallway downstairs increased, and… you guessed it! Our audience had arrived!

As they filed into the auditorium, chattering merrily to each other, so did we… also chatting to each other. Bill Macdonald, Scotland Managing Director for Accenture UK gave a lovely talk, and showed the girls a brilliant video about where STEM subjects can take you. With and from Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti (she spent 199 days in space!), lots of robots, and other cool science, I was feeling totally inspired already – and it wasn’t even 11 am!

The panel then took their place, and Bill invited a few girls up to ask the panel some questions. “What inspired you to do your job?” “What subjects did you take at school?” “What do you do outside of your job?”. But by far the best question of the day was: “What is the biggest mistake you ever made?”.

Some of these ladies had made some good mistakes! Designing a circuit, then ordering a batch of them, only to find they didn’t work was pretty good, but Jenni had accidentally pointed a huge satellite dish away from the satellites it was communicating with, bringing systems to a halt and leaving her (at the time) much more experienced colleagues wondering what on earth had gone wrong. She had to put her hand up and admit that she’d made a mistake. I know we all make mistakes, but that really brought it home to me – we all really do make mistakes, and sometimes really big ones! But we also recover and learn from them, and often end up more resilient and better off for them.

After the panel the girls headed off upstairs to start the activities led by STEMettes. In teams of five or six there were a few little ice-breaker competitions. Which team knew the most languages? I was amazed – one team had eleven languages! Eleven! What a diverse group of girls we had! They also had to make up rock band, complete with a name, hit single, and signature move – I wish I could remember more of the names, but they were mostly science-y and really good!

Angela Constance MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning also dropped in, and gave a fascinating, inspiring talk about all of the unsung Scottish heroes of science and engineering  – all women. I didn’t know more than a handful of them – and definitely have a few more to look up! For me, it was nice to see the minister again, and I definitely support their initiatives to encourage girls and women in STEM in Scotland. Hopefully I can do more over the next year, looking forward to Homeward Bound and Antarctica in December.

Then came the hack-a-thon, teaching the girls how to code. Teams of two got a laptop and had to use JavaScript to battle it out against other teams of two in a game of robot warfare. The robots were driven by lines of code, which told them where to go and what move to make against the competition. I wish we’d had that at school! Much, much more fun (and more intuitive!) than LOGO and driving a turtle cursor around a screen. The competition was fierce, and much more so with the knowledge that a really good prize would be awarded to the winners. When the internet broke down for a few minutes, preventing play, I overheard one team say “but this is really stressful! we want to keep playing because other teams are winning and we can’t play anyone right now and they might win the prize!”. Brilliant! Hats off to STEMettes for being so engaging!

With the winners settled, and tablet PC prizes given out… it was my turn. What could I say to top off what was already an inspiring day for STEM? A bit of inspiration, a bit of fun, a bit of my story, and a message to take home – I hoped! So up I got, in front of the audience, and went for it.

The time went so quickly – before I knew it I’d reached the end of what I wanted to say. Psychologists call it ‘Flow’ – when you are concentrating and fully engaged in what you are doing, and at your best and most creative. That’s how I felt talking about science, why I love it, and why I want to help more people to become involved with it. We don’t all need to become scientists, but encouraging more and better engagement with science can really benefit us all. It’s not scary, is what I wanted to say, though I was scared of math when I was at school (not any more!). Science takes you places and helps you to understand the world around you. Science, technology, engineering, and maths are so essential to modern life and so entwined with everything we do.  We simply can’t afford not to be engaged. Science opens doors. And if I inspired even just one of those girls to step up to that door, turn the key, and open it, then I will have succeeded.

A brilliant day, and a huge thank-you is due to the organizers, Accenture Tech UK and STEMettes, all of the Accenture volunteers, the totally inspiring panel of amazing women in STEM, and all of the girls who came along. Let’s hope there are more like this to come!

 

“Shake off your mistakes, be bold, and keep going!”  – Karen Lambley, Virgin Media UK

Yesterday I attended the Accenture Tech UK / STEMettes Girls in STEM event in Edinburgh. It was brilliant! We had about 140 11-15 year old girls come along to the National Museum of Scotland, where they had the opportunity to ask questions of a fantastic panel of women working in STEM, to hear about Scotland’s unsung female STEM heroes from Angela Constance MSP, and to learn a bit of coding in Java as they battled it out in the ‘Hackitzu’ game. I was invited along as the closing plenary speaker – not only to sum up the day, but to inspire and encourage the girls to meet the challenge of STEM head on.

It’s quite a topic to speak about, and I was honoured to be asked to take part, alongside some incredible women with amazing careers in STEM. To get some inspiration, I polled my colleagues working in marine science, as well as the women taking part in the Homeward Bound Project about how they got into science, and what they love best about their jobs. I thought I’d share what some of them wrote here, as it makes a wonderfully inspiring read!

What women in science love about their jobs:

“What I love about science is that I get to continuously learn about new things. Especially how the beautiful natural world works, and how I can use this knowledge to help look after the world – including people!”

“You get to discover and explore the world in ways few others can.”

“You get to be like a detective, exploring things potentially no one else has looked into – each finding fueling your curiosity to find out more and making you realise how little you still know – and contributing to solving some of the world’s pressing problems.”

“My work in particular means I get to see incredible phenomena from space, pretty much every day, and that never gets boring. Other than the work itself, getting to meet fascinating people and travel to many different places is a huge perk!”

“I love the freedom to pursue an idea that rings true to me, and being able to inspire others to join me on the journey.”

“Working in science offers you the chance to learn everyday, cultivate your knowledge and acquire experience in very diverse areas as statistics, presenting your work at conferences, team management, writing effectively, interacting with the public, motivating young audiences… it is very enriching!”

“Science is like one big voyage of discovery where we don’t yet know how much we don’t know – it’s an adventure.”

“You get to make things better and better. It’s science that allows you to figure out what is working best and what is helping or obstructing you to get to your goal. Whether that’s getting a farm to have better soils or to grow plants on the roof of a skyscraper. It’s not just a new idea but the process of monitoring and improving.”

“Science is about discovery; You will learn new things all your life, with science you can discover what these new things are and what they are made of; Science is about being able to ask all the crazy questions you have always wanted to ask, deep down we are all scientists.”

“Systems thinking applied to world I care about, creating opportunities to help people, nature, our planet.”

“I love that every single day is different, and every single day I’m learning something new. Every day is what you make it and you can never be bored as a scientist.”

“I love science because its fascinating and every new piece of the puzzle we uncover leads us to understanding just a little bit more about the world we live in. I love it because it doesn’t yield its mysteries with the press of a button and we have to think, really hard and long (years not hours), to earn this reward. If you are prepared to commit to the challenge, you will be repaid in ways beyond your dreams.”

Advice for those wanting to take up careers in STEM subjects:

“My main piece of advice during their studies was to talk to their lecturers and demonstrators about how they got where they are and not to be afraid to ask for help or work experience. Most people want to help you succeed so grab opportunities with both hands!

“The one key thing that got me where I am, is the support of inspirational people – school teachers, university supervisors, mentors I meet at events like the one you’re doing. These are the people that have given and continue to give me the confidence I need to be a scientist. I can also say that being a mentor is something people love (I know I do – just signed up to be a STEM ambassador), so the girls you’re speaking to should never be afraid to chat to people in science about their interests.”

“When I was that age, I was bonkers for animals (well, I still am, actually), but the only career path I knew about was becoming a veterinarian – and at that time, the math and science scared me off. I desperately wanted to be like Jane Goodall or be a dolphin trainer, but nobody could tell me how I could do either of those things. What I didn’t understand at that age was that science was the route to those careers. (In my mind, science was old white men in lab coats.) So, I often ask kids if they want to work with animals, or if they’d like to work in a zoo or aquarium, or if they dream of helping to save a species from extinction, (or if they want to build robots, or cure diseases, etc.) I then tell them that they’ll need to do well in their science classes, and pursue a degree in science if they hope to have any of those careers.”

“Always keep your sense of wonder and never stop asking questions! Also thought that the girls could start e.g. from being citizen scientists in their area (see for instance http://bit.ly/1lQbJQe) and test if they like it.”

“I would like to see us say over and over again until the point has been made – that the newspaper that drops on your doorstep is a partial, hasty, incomplete, inevitably somewhat flawed and inaccurate rendering of some of the things we have heard about in the past 24 hours – distorted, despite our best efforts to eliminate gross bias, by the very process of compression that makes it possible to lift it from the doorstep and read it in about an hour.”

-David Broder – US Political Reporter (from Fiona Fox’s blog at the Science Media Centre, Aug 20th 2015)

Food for thought. Very realistic food for thought about the swiftness and urgency of the media cycle – though perhaps a bit more pessimistic than necessary, in my experience.

Since the start of 2016, I’ve been on an exciting media journey around my involvement with the Homeward Bound Project, as the press-release for my meeting with Angela Constance MSP was released and picked up in several outlets, including the National, the Times, and BBC Scotland radio. And it keeps going. I go to a sewing group on Thursday evenings, mostly with a group of women who are a good deal older than me, and I was (embarrassingly!) the celebrity of the night, as they’d seen me in the Oban Times.

It’s all been a bit of a whirlwind, starting with liaising with the fantastic people in the Scottish Government’s media team (thank you!), all the way through to speaking to journalists, and giving the bigger picture as people begin to pick up on the story. The press release went out between Christmas and New Year – a good time for stories like mine, as the news cycle tends to be a bit quiet, and it’s all happened from there.

While my story wasn’t specifically ‘science’ (e.g. not related to a new discovery or finding), I am a scientist, and while I would say I’m quite a personable scientist, it’s still sometimes quite painful to see your words in print or hear yourself on the radio. And when the facts aren’t quite 100% accurate, it makes the perfectionist geek that is the scientist inside me a wee bit agitated. But it’s been a really positive experience overall, and I’d encourage more scientists to get out there and share their stories, if for no other reason to inspire more people with the wonder and awe that is science.

So I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned over the past few weeks, in the hope that it might help more people get their science out there.

1. The right angle can make a huge difference!
   This was a real biggie for me. When I was first given a place on the Homeward Bound project, I wanted to get out there and tell everyone, through any and all media outlets. If it was the Oban Times first, then so be it! But my colleague Euan in the SAMS communication department encouraged me to be patient, and a bit more strategic… with the right angle, this could be a really big story, and I’d get much more uptake, with much greater impact. Pretty soon, the angle came from a Scottish Government news item: Push to increase women in science. Bingo. Euan had some contacts in the Scot Gov media team, and we went from there. After a few weeks, I’d got an opportunity to meet Angela Constance MSP, and there would be a press release issued by Scot Gov (NOT SAMS!) about it. It helped that I was the only scientist based in Scotland selected – another ‘hook’ from the media perspective. We knew that the Times’ Scottish version would pick it up when the press release went out, but I had no idea that so many other outlets would also pick up the story. In fact, when a friend posted the article from the Scotsman on Facebook, it was the first I’d heard of it! Since then, there’s also been coverage in the National, Modern Scot, ComputeScotland, the Oban Times, Kingdom FM, For Argyll, and BBC Scotland Highlands and Islands. I also spoke to a journalist from Research Fortnight yesterday, so I’ll add that to the list soon! As ever, the angle was important in getting people interested.
2. Plan plan and plan your interview!
   To get the story out there, I started with a brief video-recorded interview with the Scot Gov media team. I prepared, and on Euan’s advice, came up with three key messages to get across, both for the media release and in conversation with Angela Constance. I was ready and had it all covered… or so I thought! When they asked “so Raeanne, would you mind telling us a little bit about what you do at SAMS”, I was totally thrown off guard. It’s the simplest thing, but I stuttered and stammered, and eventually garbled an answer, to the point that I felt the need to email them afterwards and get across what I really do for a day job. Ouch. Looking back through my notes from the NERC Media Skills course I attended last spring, one of the key points was have a quick (<1 minute!) overview of what you do. It became incredibly obvious to me how important this was. Decide on a 1-minute job description, and stick with it! Since then, for each interview I’ve done I’ve made a mind map of what I wanted to say, and had it in front of me while I spoke to each journalist. This really helped me get my own message straight in my head, and allowed me to communicate it well – apparently this was particularly good on my BBC Scotland Highlands & Islands interview, which I was told needed almost no editing.
3. Make sure the details are right
   This is a small, but obvious one. I’ve stopped counting the number of times I’ve had to explain that I am not Glaswegian, nor was I born and bred in Glasgow over the past few weeks. I’m not sure quite where that came from, but if you do get the opportunity to read over a press release, read it, and then read it again before it goes out. It will save you a lot of explaining later on.
4. Don’t sweat the small stuff
   But  with that said, don’t sweat the small stuff! Seriously! Does it really matter if people read that I’m from Glasgow? So long as the message gets across about my project and about our goals and aims… not really. In the same vein, the title of the Times article makes me cringe every time I see it: “Female scientists overlooked, says explorer”. I don’t think I quite said it like that to the journalist, but the reality is that the journalists don’t write the headlines, and the headlines are written to catch the audience’s attention. And if it caught more people’s attention? Then again, it’s helped get my message across, as the rest of the article was really quite good.
5. Print and radio – the differences
   Print and radio are different. With a print article, your quotes are put in context by what the journalist chooses to write, which often you might have less control over, particularly if the article is based on an interview, instead of a press release. All the more reason to prepare well and not mince your words… see #2 above! With radio, you will be recorded, and it’s your voice which will be transmitting your message. If the interview isn’t live (mine weren’t!), then there is an opportunity to re-answer a question and/or rephrase things if you mix up your words. Broadcasters aren’t out to get you, and want to make sure they get the best snippets from you for their broadcast. But at the same time, what you say is what you get – so prepare… again, see #2!
6. A nice article can open new doors This is a key message. Since my story has been in the press, some fantastic opportunities have opened up. First of all, I’ve been able to talk about this project to a huge amount of people who’ve seen the article in the papers, or heard it on the radio, which is fantastic. I’ve seen a huge surge in Twitter followers (nearly up to 500!), and I’ve also been invited to be a ‘science hero’ for a primary school in Somerset, via my partner’s mother. Probably the most exciting is being invited to take part in a STEMETTES event, hosted by Accenture (read about it here) on the 28th of January. This is a real honour, and I feel really privileged to get to speak at such an inspiring event!

The positive bit is that I’ve had some really wonderful feedback from each piece pupblished. Of course I haven’t read the comments sections on the online articles – and I’m not going to take any of those comments personally if I do. It’s been a busy time, and a little overwhelming (I’ve got a day job too!), but absolutely worthwhile. So get out there and share your story or your science – who knows where opportunities may take you!

The UK’s flagship research vessel, the brand new RRS Discovery, will be moored in London this week to celebrate NERC’s (Natural Environment Research Council) 50th anniversary. It’s a really exciting event, and all the details can be found here.

Perhaps most exciting of all, my lovely other half and I will be ‘science busking’ on the South Bank on Saturday afternoon between 11:00 and 14:00. We’ll be doing some fun scienc-y activities and chatting about the science we do – marine renewable energy, oceanography and more. So stop by for a chat if you’re in London – we’d love to see you there!

Last week I attended the Scottish Renewables Marine conference in Inverness, and left totally inspired. While the talks and networking with the great and good were as expected, it was the winners of the Junior Saltire Award who wowed me.

Both the primary school and senior school teams had designed and built working wave energy converters on a budget of £50 – each of which demonstrated their worth in the FloWave Test Tank at the University of Edinburgh.

The team from Daviot Primary School impressed the crowds with their pendulum-style wave energy converter, with each student giving a bit of the presentation about how it worked.

The students from Alness Academy also showcased their wave energy device, as well as a handful of their other inventions – which included an ROV! They had also developed a tidal turbine, and were asking about how to prevent fish and other animals from going through it – something we’re constantly asking ourselves here at SAMS. Future renewable energy engineers? I hope so! Check out what Energy Voice had to say about this team here.

Both teams were highlighted for their success by Fergus Ewing MSP on his website.

Throughout the event these students had the largest crowds of any of the stands – no doubt inspiring the wave energy industry with their enthusiasm. The passion for creativity and innovation was so evident in these students – the future in science and engineering is bright!