As a scientist I think it is very important to bring the research that we do out of the lab and make it understandable to everyone, as well as try to bring our passion for science to the general public.
Because of this I participate in different organizations whose goal is to organize events to bring science in different forms to the general public.
I am the secretary of the Yorkshire delegation of the Society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom (SRUK).
I am also the interim Chair of Sheffield Science Outreach (previously the Sheffield branch of the British Science Association) (BSA).
Below, I provide a few highlighted events I have helped organize.
In addition, I list below science communication blog posts I have written.
Quantum computing: the future of computers (SRUK blog, coauthored with Miguel Figueres, Laura Martinez and Margarita Segovia, link)
Artificial intelligence: hype or revolution (SRUK blog, link)
Science for everyone workshop
This event took place in the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in collaboration with Beverley Nunn, organiser of Fun Palace in Sheffield.
I talked about our experience in BSA Sheffield organising science outreach activities.
We showed a few simple activities we had done on previous events, and the science behind them.
We also had group discussion to brainstorm ideas for events the participants were thinking of doing.
It was a great opportunity to connect to people and organisations in and around Sheffield and to demostrate that doing science activities was not only for scientists.
Fun palaces 2018
This event took place in the Theatre Deli in Sheffield.
As part of the fun palaces series of events, the slogan is 'Everyone a scientist, everyone an artist'.
The BSA made a series of activities around color.
I was part of an activity dedicated to optical illusions and optical tests.
We had a series of printed illusions.
We also had two laptops running interactive tests: one related to color perception and the other the Stroop test.
These proved very popular and made whole families compete for who would get the highest score.
Open Day for the D3i4AD project
This event took place in Bari, Italy as part of the final conference of the D3i4AD project.
A group of school kids came to the University of Bari.
I designed an activity to show the kids how medicines work inside the body.
The focus was on the flexibility of molecules (see image below) and proteins (using pipe cleaners, turned out to be the most popular part of the activity!).
Then, they learned about molecules and protein pockets having complementary shapes that let the molecule bind.
Finally, they could see a real protein-ligand complex on the laptop.
Science of Multilingualism
This event took place on the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield.
The event promoted the benefits of learning a foreign language, especially on children.
The event had stands for Spanish, Bulgarian, Chinese, and Arabic.
In each stand, a few words were taught in each language while the attendees performed simple scientific experiments.
In the Spanish stand, promoted by SRUK, they were shown a neuron and an astrocyte preparation on a microscope, in honor of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.
There were also tasters of food from many countries and a cross-word activity for children to explore the museum.
Nature detectives
This event took place on the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield.
We organized different stands with activities for kids.
In these stands they could learn about different animal parts and what they can teach us.
Among the stands, there were activities about spoor, teeth, and footprints, among others.
The kids also learned how to use a taxonomical key to identify animals.
The Otter lab from the University of Sheffield was also present at the event.
CineScience Sheffield
CineScience is a set fo events where film and science are mixed together.
They consist of a documentary screening followed by a discussion.
The third CineScience event took place in the Diamond building in Sheffield on the 28th of October.
The topic of the session was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motoneuronal disease.
The documentary shown was "Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet", that tells the story of a guitarist virtuoso who was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 20.
20 years later, he is still alive and creating music, event though he can only move his eyes.
The documentary was followed by a panel discussion with several experts: two scientist, one clinician, and one association visitor, that touched upon scientific, clinical, and human aspects of this terrible disease.
Science of Wellness
This event was designed to explain and promote different activities that have been shown to provide mental health benefits.
It took place in the Victoria Centre in Sheffield on the 25th of September.
Six different activities were discussed on this event: exercise, sotrytelling, creative activities, spending time in nature, food and mindfulness.
BSA volunteers explained the scientific evidence for how this activities improved mental health.
The participants were also shown briefly how experiments are designed.
Finally, they were encouraged to perform a simple 'experiment' on themselves.
They each chose one activity they liked the most and performed it regularly over the following month while recording their mood.
There was a follow-up event one month later to discuss the results of the 'experiment'.
