*warning blog contains egg-streme amount of egg puns.

IEDE researchers preparing for British Science Week

Thursday 17th March 2016 was a cracking spring day, with egg-stravagant activities held at King’s Oak Primary School in South London. UCL IEDE Researchers (Emily Nix, Valentina Marincioni, Virginia Gori, Yekatherina Bobrova and Dr Hector Altamirano-Medina) held workshops with Years 4, 5 and 6 as part of British Science Week. The workshops were developed to engage the pupils in issues researchers, or Building Scientists, at UCL IEDE deal with every day, with a particular focus on winter building performance and the role of insulation materials in achieving healthy low-energy spaces in which to live. In total six 90-minute sessions were held, with two parallel sessions at a time for each year group. (more…)

Take a deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. Now think deeply about an event that made you happy. It can be an old or recent memory, it may (or may not) involve people dear to you, or an activity you enjoy – anything goes, as long as the thought of it makes you smile. Try to recall that moment and the feelings it brought to you. Inhale. Exhale. Next, let us try the opposite. This time, think of a sad memory. Again, it can be old or new, a shared or deeply isolated event, but now, the feelings brought to mind may include melancholy, anger or sadness. Inhale. Exhale.

Now let us compare these two memories. When did they happen? Who were you with? What were you feeling? These details may very well be different (and possibly blurred) but you can probably remember where these events happened. Space – familiar space – is present in our memory. (more…)