Introducing Alice

Hello all, I’m Alice and I’m the new SEPnet intern at Things We Don’t Know. I’ve just finished my third year studying physics at Royal Holloway, University of London, so I’ve just got my masters year left to go.

My interest in physics started in secondary school when I was taught about fundamental particles and forces. At that time, science had found neither the Higgs boson nor the Graviton, and I decided then that I would study physics and contribute toward the search. We’ve now found the Higgs boson, but as the Graviton still eludes us, I am writing my Research Review on the work that has been done so far at CERN to find it, or at least, to find where it isn’t.

Holly Godwin

Hi, I’m Holly, and I’m working as part of a SEPnet placement at Things We Don’t Know this summer. Firstly I would like to introduce myself and give you a bit of an overview to explain how I got into physics and why this website is different to any other.

Holly at work in the TWDK offices. Photograph ©TWDK

Joshua Fleming

First of all hi, my name is Josh and I’m the new summer intern at Things We Don’t Know (TWDK). I’m studying Biology, Biochemistry specifically, at Leicester University and have just completed my first year. To give you a better idea of who I am, I thought I’d give you a bit of background information about how and why I started studying Biology, and what I hope to achieve this summer.

Josh hard at work in the TWDK offices in London. Photo ©TWDK

Summer Physics Internship 2014

Hi, my name’s Grace and I’m joining the crew here at TWDK as this year’s SEPnet summer intern. I’m currently a Physics student at the University of Southampton. Physics has always been my favourite subject, with English coming a close second. I love to get into the nitty gritty of how things work, and I love the feeling of being completely blown away by the complexity of the universe. For me, it’s not enough to know that things work - I want to know how and why. When I’m not trying to bend my mind around Quantum interference equations I like to read, write, climb and watch mindless TV.

Our latest summer intern, Grace, in our London office.
Photo: TWDK

Introducing Fiona

As the new communications manager here at Things We Don’t Know, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Fiona Hutchings and I am also a mother, a geek, someone who binges on Netflix, a music writer (and obsessive music fan) and a book worm. The one thing I'm not, is a scientist.

Fiona Hutchings is our new communications manager

At TWDK our mission statement is pretty clear; 'explaining the mysteries of science, in simple language'. As communications manager part of my job is to share our work and make it as accessible as possible to everyone from a rocket scientist to the casual reader. I am an avid science fiction fan, from Firefly to Star Trek and of course Doctor Who, but I have always found science fact more than a little intimidating. It wasn't a case of not being interested - I am - but as fluent as I may be in the basic functions of a TARDIS, I found attempts to try and understand the factual grounding behind these shows really difficult. I want to understand more about the body, planet and universe I live in. Trying to investigate and find the answers to my questions was frustrating - there seemed to be so many words I could hardly pronounce, never mind understand, and I don't consider myself stupid (karaoke choices aside). Like many, I suspect, I gave up trying to understand, figured science didn't need me and was discovering stuff all the time just fine on it's own.

When TWDK was born, it reignited my enthusiasm to find out more about the world (and galaxy) I live in. Scientific news so often concentrates on what we do know but now I could find out about the hundreds of questions we still haven't answered. Better still, I could find out about them in a language I understood. Questions so often lead to yet more questions but asking why, how, what and when has being driving discoveries for hundreds of years. Luckily, the rest of the team here and our many excellent guest writers are incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the many different fields of science, finding answers and sharing them with the world. I am thrilled to be a part of that.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, firstly because my mother always told me it is polite to introduce yourself. But also because I wanted the chance to tell you a little bit about my background and my way of working. If you pop by and talk to us on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ there is a good chance it is me you will be talking to. Complex science queries are referred to our editorial team, all of whom have a science background. Sharing articles we and others have written is part of my job and I want to do that in a friendly and accessible way. I want you to feel comfortable asking questions because questions are what TWDK is all about. And if you want to write for us or have a topic you'd like us to cover, then I want to hear from you too.

TWDK Introductory Video

As you may have guessed from the title, or seen on our homepage, we have a new video by the very talented Jon King over at Envisuals. This video strives to explain, in about 90 seconds, all the things we're trying to achieve, how, and why. We hope you like it - we do!

If you've got a YouTube (or Google+) account, you can now subscribe to our YouTube channel - which will soon be bursting with fascinating science videos!

Introducing the team

The team at Things We Don’t Know is steadily growing, so I thought we could take this opportunity to introduce you to the main people involved behind the scenes.

You’ve probably seen a few posts already from Ed – he’s the man who came up with the concept, is one of our two directors and the person doing most of the technical stuff in the background. Ed is working hard to get the website ready to launch, but when he’s not doing that he works as a spacecraft Engineer in Germany.

I’m Laura, and I'm working on communications for the company. At the moment that’s mainly updating people on progress on our Twitter and Facebook pages, but once the site is live I think I’ll be a bit busier! When I'm not editing blogs and suchlike on here I'm working in London promoting Britain to tourists around the world.

Stewart, a former physicist is our second director and looks after the finance and legal bits and pieces. When he's not working for us he's busy in the complex world of tax, or setting up his own wine business.

Amruta is our chief editor for the site and works closely with Ed to ensure our editorial team will have all the tools they need to get the job done. She's got a lot of experience with online editorial work, previously working for the European and German space agencies, and the European Commission. Based in India, as well as keeping our editors in line, Amruta will play a key role in helping to ensure we have a truly global focus.

And finally Jon is our new intern from QMUL, here for the summer through our partnership with SEPnet, to help us gather information on current research in Physics and translate it into simple English. Jon will be blogging about his experiences working with us over the next few weeks. Catch up on his first week here.

To stay in the loop with what we’re doing you can follow us on the blog here, Twitter - @twedk or Facebook - Things We Dont Know.

Jon's first week

Hi, I'm Jon, last week was my first week of a summer internship here at Things We Don't Know. I applied for a number of positions this summer, but was absolutely delighted to be offered the chance to work on this particular project, and so accepted immediately when I was offered the position. This is a great opportunity for me to share my enthusiasm for science, and especially to work with people who recognise how important it is to be able to honestly say "We don't know" and acknowledge the vastness of the mysteries which still exist in our scientific understanding.

This week, I have met with Ed Trollope, the man behind the idea for the project, who is in charge and also deeply involved with much of the content, especially in the area of physics. We discussed his vision for the company, and how he would like me to approach my role, writing up and tagging pieces on scientific quandaries across a range of fields. I was also introduced to the company's other director, Stewart, and he shared some of his experiences in science with me, these stimulating discussions around the communication of science, and the manner in which an engagement with the subject can be maintained, have helped form my own ideas in terms of the manner and style in which I will be writing.

On Wednesday, Ed and I were working at the Hub, a shared workspace near Kings Cross, with a diverse mixture of small and medium-sized businesses based there. The facility is unlike any office I have worked in before (and I've had the pleasure of a very wide range of working environments), with large shared working areas, a cafe area, and private meeting rooms available. It was full of interesting, vibrant, and hard-working people, focussed on a broad range of commercial interests, and the stream of snippets of overheard conversations were surprising and thought-provoking. I hope I'll have the opportunity to work there again soon, although the freedom to work independently on Thursday and Friday has meant I've been able to focus well and produce a number of pieces for the site.

As for the work I've been doing thus far, I have been producing content for the website based upon a series of articles provided for me as jumping-off points, and my own research into the unanswered questions these pointed to. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to work independently, following a thread and seeing if there is some interesting unsolved puzzle at the end of it has been tremendously exciting. I have been able to learn much about fields as varied as Active Galactic Nuclei and Nanotechnology, Climatology and Dark Matter.

I’m in Switzerland for the rest of this week visiting the research facilities at CERN with my university physics society (I have just completed my 2nd year at QMUL), but am very much looking forward to getting back to London and TWDK, and peering further into the unknown.

--Jon

Why TWDK?

When we teach kids science, we teach them the knowledge scientists have built up over the centuries. We teach them what we know, and sometimes when we came to know it. We teach them what we used to think, and when we realised we were wrong. But we don't teach them that we don't have all the answers, that there are problems, holes and errors in our theories. There are still Things We Don't Know.