Chances are you’ve had something to do with “mindfulness” recently. Maybe you’ve been sent to “mindfulness” training. Or, perhaps you’ve been listening to a mindfulness podcast. Or, perhaps you’re using a “mindfulness” app, such as HeadSpace. In this episode, Franziska Link investigates the growing use of mindfulness therapies at universities, such as UCL, in their provision for student support and welfare. What good are they? What do they involve? What are the pros – and the cons – of this approach. Franziska interviews four people with quite different relationships to mindfulness therapies ..read more

Alex Hancock explores how research about museum collections is helping to connect British museums with more of the publics they claim to support. His emphasis is on decolonisation, engagement, and white European power. Ultimately, how do structural inequalities manifest in our museums, and how do we move to a new set of relationships? Alex undertook this project for the STSNewsRoom in summer 2021. His reporting focused on two specific events. First, Alex discusses with Tannis Davidson the “Displays of Power” exhibition at UCL Grant Museum of Zoology, which explores legacy of empire through obj ..read more

We sampled undergraduate projects in a previous episode. Now, it time for the Master’s students. Today’s episode offers a sampler of student-made podcasts. These were created by Master’s students in our science journalism module, run by Dr Jean-Baptiste Gouyon. The assignment was straightforward: imagine you’re working for a news magazine. Create a three-minute feature about a recent piece of research at UCL. The piece must include a short interview segment, and it must make sense within the context of the show. They have a tight deadline, and they have to work pretty much with the tools they ..read more

It’s one of those fundamental tenets taught to every student: science is international; it’s the same everywhere, it respects no borders; the work is the same no matter where or when you are. Assessing this idea is a core task in STS. Our philosophers, historians, and sociologists work overtime on case studies to explore internationality. Our policy and communication experts grapple with variations and work to understand where there is consensus and where there’s consensus.   In this episode, Beatrice Han (BSc Sociology and Politics of Science student) investigates science and internation ..read more

Did you know that in March 1967, the British government bombed an oil tanker stranded on rocks off Cornwall? Dan Sharpe certainly didn’t when he began to dig into the life and career of the Britain’s first Chief Scientific Adviser, Lord Solly Zuckerman. He advised prime minister Harold Wilson during this environmental catastrophe and recommended the bombing. Join Dan as he traces the life and career of one of the most influential British science advisers of the 20th century from arriving in the United Kingdom as a young adult, to observing primates at ZSL London Zoo, to pioneering a novel appr ..read more

Scientific knowledge has evolved over the past few centuries in various political and socio-cultural contexts. There is seen to be a substantially disproportionate legacy of European thought in scientific education. How the fingerprints of colonialism continue to shape the way academic institutions function and teach science is a question of utmost value in the process of ensuring diversified knowledge sharing. While the subject of decolonising raises several questions on institutional privilege and power, it is worth noting that this is also a subject deeply personal and resonant amongst the ..read more

The assignments students do in STS modules today are nothing like what they used to be. These days, they build portfolios with all sorts of things: short writing, long writing, posters, blogs, in-class presentations. Add to these, projects like podcasts, film clips, campaign strategies, briefing papers, debates, and proposals. Research of different kinds. Creativity. And Challenge. We diversify our curriculum because we know the future for our students holds work as varied as we can imagine. Today’s episode offers a sampler of student-made podcasts. These were created by year 3 undergraduates ..read more

You’ve heard of Plato. He’s one of those philosophers from Ancient Greece. Think in the time range 400-350 BCE and you’re in the right range. Plato wrote core works in the Western canon: The Republic, The Timaeus, and so much more. One of his lesser known texts is The Gorgias. That’s this year’s STS1Book. It’s a work massively relevant today. At its heart is a key question for communication: should we prefer people who are truth tellers in society, or should we prefer sweet-talking rhetoricians? This is a question that cuts right to the heart of so much in politics, society, and the way we tal ..read more

Will robots steal my job? Will gene editing cure my cancer? HYPE is a fundamental part of science communication, the development of new technologies, and the crucially important interface between business, investment, and new technology. How does HYPE work? Can it be used for good? In this conversation at the 2022 STS1Book celebration at University College London, Gemma Milne discusses her book, SMOKE AND MIRRORS, with Jack Stilgoe. They discuss her interest in HYPE as an ever-present phenomenon in our society, and how it affects thinking about technology today. Gemma and Jack reflect on the i ..read more