SIYSS REFLECTIONS
Sarah Ong, 18 December 2006

Monday, Dec 4th

A welcome dinner was held at the hostel for the 24 SIYSS participants from 16 different countries. Some were representatives from their schools/universities, some had their place because they were winners in specific science fairs, e.g. Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. We had some icebreakers and were each made to introduce one other participant to the rest of the group.

Tuesday, Dec 5th

In the morning we had a guided tour of Stockholm by bus. Near the end of the tour each participant rubbed the head of a small iron boy statue, the significance being that we would be coming back to Stockholm again. After lunch we had an ethics seminar, with some role-playing. A few videos were shown. In one a cynical humorist who made the point that the world will be fine even with the climate change humans are causing - the physical world will persist even if humans destroy all living things to leave behind plastic. Humans should not talk about 'Saving the World', rather, we should talk about 'Saving Ourselves', which could more urgency to the climatic chaos we are creating. I was especially impressed by one video from http://gapminder.org, a website that seeks to make statistics in the public domain more user-friendly.

Later on we visited the Nobel museum. Just before we started, our tour lady approached me and asked in Swedish which school we were from. Once I explained in English that we were from SIYSS, she asked if we wanted to meet a Nobel Prize winner. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw Prof. George Smoot, one of the 2006 Nobel Prize winners in Physics, standing behind her. Prof. Smoot was very willing to interact with us, asking about our research areas and posing for several photographs.

We had a 'Swedish evening'. Some people tried out the Swedish sauna while others started baking gingerbread cookies and Swedish pastries. Everyone helped to cook the main dishes - hard-boiled egg with caviar, meatballs and breaded fish fillet. Spicy muled wine was new for me.

Wenesday, Dec 6th

We made our presentations in the Swedish Royal Academy of Science, on the same stage where the Nobel Prize winners were announced. The projects covered a wide range of topics, like the flight curve of table-tennis balls, and reducing infections from the insertion the catherers of intra-uterine devices after surgery. It was especially exciting for certain SIYSS participants to gain inspiration for their own projects based on other's work. What was apparent was that many of the participants had much innate interest in research. They talk of their projects with great enthusiasms and a few have even spent several years in research.

We had a night activity with Swedish and Norwegian high school students who were part of Dynamitdagrna, a programme also organised by the Swedish Federation of Young Scientists. Participants from both programmes were mixed and each small group had to attempt making a 'magneto train' (slanted magnetic tracks included) that was either the fatest, the lightest or the most beautiful.

Thursday, Dec 7th

We were given a presentation by the secretary of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute (KI) and fielded questions at the press conference for the 2006 winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The prize winners gave credit to their collaborators and affirmed commitment to their research.

We were given a tour of the Cell and Molecular Biology Department of KI after listening to 3 presentations by its professors. Prof. Jonas Frisen presented 'New neurons in old brains' - very interesting work focused on studying when different neurons were formed based on a sharp increase in C-14 in the atmosphere due to nuclear bomb tests during the Cold War period. Prof. Urban Lendahl's 'From developmental biology to Alzheimer's disease' served to illustrate the importance of serendipity in science research. Dr Sergej Masich's 'Electron tomography - a method to visualize cellular structures and molecules in three dimensions' featured beautiful clips showing the fluidity of the cellular membrane. The demonstrations we saw were 'Chicken embryo preparation' (Dr. Jonas Muhr and Prof. Johan Ericson), 'Large scale genomic analysis' (Dr. Bjorn Andersson) and 'Electron microscopy' (Dr. Serjev Masich).

Friday, Dec. 8th

The morning was spent attending the Nobel Lectures in Physics and Chemistry. The prize winners in Physics detailed the progress of related research in astrophysics and the collaborations they had with different people. Prof George Smoot and Dr. John Mather were awarded the prize 'for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotrophy of the cosmic microwave background radiation'. In contrast, Prof. Kornberg (Chemistry) gave a formal science presentation. He was awarded the prize for 'for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription'. After lunch we had free time, some young ladies went to rent gowns, while the young men rented tails. Some people went shopping and skating. I met up with a Swedish friend I had made at the Research Science Institute 2005, a summer science research programme co-hosted by MIT.

Saturday, Dec 9th

At Uppsala University, which is North of Stockholm, we were introduced to the Swedish Consortium for Artificial Photosynthesis. It is an interdisciplinary subsection of the Chemistry department. Phytobacteria is genetically modified in the attempt to maximise hydrogen gas formation for potential use in fuel cells. For some of the bacteria up scaling was being tested.

We visited Museum Gustavianum where we learnt about Linnaeus, the father of the modern taxonomy, sending off students to far-off corners of the world to collect a wide collection of specimens, although most did not make it back. We also learnt, although most people do not mention it, that Linnaeus had once split life into three groups - animals, plants and stones. One more gruesome aspect of the tour was learning about the acquisition and use of corpses for proper medical training.

After lunch we went back to Stockholm and attended the Nobel Foundation's cocktail party and the SIYSS participants had much opportunity to rub shoulders with the Prize winners (and take photographs).

Sunday, Dec 10th

Most of the ladies went out in the morning to get their hair done. After lunch and the filling up of evaluation forms, photographs were taken of us in our gowns and suits outside the hostel. Thank goodness it was not too cold! We were surprised to find that a line of 5 limousines was hired to send us to the Nobel Prize Awarding Ceremony at the Concert Hall. The speeches by the heads of the different committees that decided on the Nobel Prize winners were inspiring, and written to appeal to a wide audience. The Nobel Night Cap at the Royal Institute of Technology saw guests partying in over a dozen differently themed rooms till well past 5 am (I left earlier to accompany and say goodbye to a few participants who had early flights). By luck I made a new KI contact before I left.