March 2014 archive

Graduate Student Profile: Jessica Miller

Science Comma talks to Science Communcation alumna, Jessica Miller. 1)      Why did you choose this course? I have always enjoyed science; however, I realised during my BSc in Biological Sciences at the University of Exeter that laboratory work wasn’t for me. During the third year of my undergraduate degree I took a module in Science …

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Reclaiming Thalidomide Victims’ Lives: Post-war powered arm prosthesis

The 1960s witnessed ever-more complicated limb prosthetics, moving beyond the unrealistic, aesthetically unappealing wooden limbs of the early twentieth century, towards modernistic, beautifully functioning and natural-looking designs. This defined the transformation of post-war science. The pneumatically-powered prosthetic arms (pictured) were designed for Thalidomide victims, yet fit with and shaped trends in post-war science as it …

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The Festival of Britain (1951): Shaping citizens for science

This guide to the 1951 Festival of Britain, as well as two contemporary documentaries, Festival in London (1951) and Brief City (1951-2), show that the Festival clearly inspired contemporary notions of science and the post-war citizen. These sources also show that such notions inspired the development of the Festival itself. They show the importance of …

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