London bits and bobs

I moved to London about halfway through my PhD and, I suppose as you would expect from London, I feel like I’ve stumbled on some pretty interesting things so far. I must admit, I never saw myself as being the sort of person who would enjoy living in London, I still don’t find cycle commuting the best experience, but I must say, London does have its perks!

Electricity at the Wellcome Collection

A fair while ago (sadly the date has now slipped my mind!), I stumbled upon the Wellcome Collection at Euston after dropping a visiting friend off at the station. At the time they had a temporary exhibit on about electricity. I very much had ‘a moment’ while I was looking around this exhibit. They had various displays, artworks and information about the history of electricity: how it was discovered, utilised, how it gradually made its way into our homes (under the guise of the ‘silent helper’) and how it really has revolutionised our lives. It really struck me how at the time people were a little frightened of it and unsure of it, but now its everywhere and has changed our daily lives massively. This got me thinking – what will be the next big innovation or technology to shape our future? I left the exhibit feeling pretty fired up to get back to my PhD research in materials science. I feel like new technologies enabled by breakthroughs in materials science could change the world massively and being part of that would be so exciting. But I still don’t think I want to use the above hair styling device.

Public lectures at the Royal Society

The Royal Society is an old scientific institution with past membership including Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Robert Boyle and numerous other great scientific minds, albeit less famous ones! I’ve written about the Royal Society before in a blog post I wrote for my doctoral training centre but I first became more aware of this organisation after moving to London, where its headquarters is based. Whenever I’m here I always find myself feeling quite inspired at the ‘world of science’, how much is involved in it, how much it has shaped our society and how much it has evolved over time. Cycling to this lecture from Imperial College after work was also the first time I saw Buckingham Palace as it happens and I wasn’t expecting to see it, I was just following google maps when I stumbled upon a rather grand building! This has happened to me quite a few times in London now, causally cycling past Big Ben, the houses of parliament, various palaces when I was just commuting somewhere. That’s London for you!

Parkruns and van Dycks in Dulwich

I’ve been quite a big fan of the parkrun for quite a while now. I think it’s a lovely way to bring together a community and start off your Saturday well! I’ve been trying to do as many different parkruns around London as I can, largely as an excuse to get myself out to see more areas in London. I went to Dulwich (or Dull-ich as it is pronounced) for the parkrun there a while ago. After a recommendation from someone from my running meetup group (London Social Runners), I nipped into Dulwich Picture Gallery afterwards. It was only a 5 minute bike ride away, so it seemed rude not to really. I didn’t really know what was there beforehand, but I saw my first van Dyck (Samson and Deliliah was the subject, the exact name may have slipped my mind already!) while I was here. I’m not an overly ‘cultured person’, with little experience of art and feel I lack to correct education to even appreciate it, but this short visit did change my mind there. Staring at that painting for a while I felt like I actually got why he is such a famous artist. It wasn’t so much the Samson or Delilah in the painting that got to me, it was actually the old women behind looking on with such intent as the hair of sleeping Samson was being cut. It’s so powerful how an artist can capture that kind of impression. Before this, I was never really sure of the benefit of a painting over a photograph (now that we have cameras of course). I wouldn’t dare utter that thought in the gallery of course, but rest assured, I have been educated there now… and just on the way back from a parkrun. Dulwich does not disappoint on a Saturday morning. Nice parkrun too, pretty park and a good one for a PB!