Susan Greenfield vs the Royal Institution

Researchers at the Université de Lyon in France, have discovered what appears to be an unexpected new form of ultrahard diamond and a new ultrahard form that was previously predicted, both harder then commonly found diamond. These forms were found in the Havero meteorite, which fell to earth in Finland in 1971. The meteorite was split up and spread around research facilities around the world, with the Université de Lyon conducting research on the 30µm thick, 4mm by 4mm square piece of meteorite they were given.

A trial release of a tiny Japanese insect has been sanctioned by DEFRA to try to control the spread of Japanese Knotweed, a rapidly growing introduced plant that reportedly costs over £150 million per year to control.

Since the year 2000, a global network of scientists has been attempting something that is seemingly impossible. The Census of Marine Life is the first ever effort to record everything that lives in the World’s Oceans and Seas.

The majority of all records of life in the oceans have been taken from depths of less than 100m, it is clear that even a ten year project such as COML will struggle to map every living organism. Even so, since the work began, researchers have identified over 5600 new species. To demonstrate the sheer scale of the marine world, the initial COML report estimates that there are still over 1 million species that have yet to be described.

No career seemed insurmountable to me, as a teenager. Im not sure if it was sheer arrogance that got me into science--i'd like to think genuine curiosity and thirst for empiricism had something to do with it, too.

Yet, teens today struggle to see a science career in their future--but, not for the reasons you'd think (it's geeky/boring.)

In the 2010 Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, teens show a strong understanding of the creative and fun aspects of science, but less understanding of the societal implications of that tinkering: