Science and relaxing

This week, the front page contains a storyabout science spending cuts. It’s all a bit economics heavy, but the gist is that, in real terms, science spending was cut by a lot in the 2010-2011 year.

At a science university it is not exactly a contentious point to say that science, and research and development in general, is very important. It will be pretty interesting to see what the next move on this is. Will the spending plummet further? It’s taken quite a hit from what figures show, and, given that in real terms it is the lowest it has been for a while, it is cause for some concern.

Science is really vital to everything. I learnt from my project in my last year that research isn’t cheap. Okay, admittedly I had to use platinum and gold for mine, but the point still stands as everything in science is costly. Getting a beaker made me shudder and wonder how something so simple could be so much. This was just one minor project by one person. Imagine how much one research group will rack up (not just on test tube racks) in one year of research? I hope next year science spending increases.

This week has been odd forme. It’s been a really weirdly chilled out one for some reason. Here I am, nearly about to hit the print deadline. It’s made me reflect a bit. I’ve thought about how sometimes I spend too much time obsessing about everything and worrying about stuff. Sometimes, it’s nice to just chill the fuck out and “keep calm” as the all too often used slogan goes.

I think this at a time when I know that Christmas is looming (Oxford Street already have their lights up). That means one thing for Imperial students: January exams. To all the freshers reading this: try to stay calm over Christmas. Relax with your family and take, at very least, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day off. It is all too easy to get really hyped up about work and go crazy. Especially because this will be a step up from the last exam you did. Don’t get complacent but don’t cause yourself too much stress.

One thing that I simply can not chill out about, though, is whoever walks around the Library and SAC (Student Activities Centre) and rips off every single one of the keyboard supports. It’s really annoying as they make typing slightly easier, and when my lab report is due in in about 12 hours, I need all the comforts that can possibly be afforded to me. Seriously, not cool.