Posts Tagged ‘Imperial’

The question “Is the University of London relevant?” has raised its head more times than I can remember during my university career, which started in 2001. Read the rest of this entry »

As a country becomes increasingly disillusioned about its national sport, it falls to the grass-roots, or more specifically parquet-floor based players to revive the reputation of football. Imperial College’s Ethos 5-a-side league is a place where dreams are made, hearts are broken and matches are played for the love of the beautiful game. This is the story of one team who stared failure directly in the eyes, repeatedly, resulting in appointing a manager and gaining the goodwill of a nation.

The Sci Comm Stallions are a ragtag bunch of individuals studying at Imperial who entered the winter league hoping to keep fit and have some good competitive games of football. Their first match was a close run affair but their fitness issues began to show when 20 minutes proved to be too much for our protagonists. In the end they came away with a 4-2 defeat. This was to be their closest game for seven more matches. In what was a run that last season’s Derby County would have pitied, the Stallions lost eight games in a row. They had the skills and the commitment to win but such results as 11-1 against Stats and 16-1 against the Flying Ducks and Falcons suggested that something was awry.

It was six games into the nine game season when the Stallions answered BBC 6Music DJ Jon Richardson’s call for a team to be managed by comedian and co-host Matt Forde. The call could not have come at a better time, the Stallions had begun to give up hope of getting a win for the season. Their final fixture was against Resp Pharm a team who had also lost all of their previous games. They were ahead of the Stallions by virtue of having conceded less goals. It was safe to say that the Stallions’ cup final game had arrived.

Matt Forde otherwise known as ‘Fordy’ or Gaffer, arrived to meet the lads prior to kick off and shared some words of wisdom. Thanks to Fordy’s amazing insights (‘’If you know where you’re good try and stick to that”), vocal support (‘‘You kicked it into his face you idiot”), and constructive criticism of the referee (‘’How tall are your friends?”), the Stallions fought their way to victory. They ran out 4-1 winners and avoided the dreaded wooden spoon. The match was played to great acclaim on their Sunday afternoon BBC6 Music show and subsequent podcast. This was just the tip of the iceberg for the Stallions and Fordy combination who begin the new season on Thursday 7th of May. You can keep up with their progress on the show (http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/jon_richardson/), expect another rollercoaster ride.

Allow Imperial’s newest DJs to introduce themselves. Colin the astronomer and Seth the science philosopher have set up a radio show dedicated to the fun aspects of science or, as Colin describes it, to “tickle London’s scientific underbelly.”

 Capital Science is a radio show with a difference. Projecting live from IC Radio Studio on Tuesday afternoons, Colin and Seth offer light-hearted chat about science news and events. Last week’s show covered “improvements to GPS, throwing darts at the moon, and some very dodgy acronyms,” plus the most exciting upcoming London events, cherry-picked by Seth.

Every week the duo also big-up an unsung hero of science whose name, coincidentally, is also fabulous; the inventor of the submarine for instance, Cornelius Drebbel, who Seth reckons “sounds like a teacher at Hogwarts!”

The show isn’t just for scientists. Rather than being dense and complicated, the guys insist that their show is “not about understanding science,” and that they themselves “don’t understand a lot of the biology stuff.” It is easy listening, and enjoyable science, “the kind of thing you can listen to whilst you’re doing something else.”

If all that wasn’t enough, Colin and Seth will be handing out “gratuitous officerships” on their Facebook group to enthusiastic fans. You can tune in to the cheeky chaps at www.icradio.com live on Tuesdays at 1pm, and past shows will also be available online.
So, do the Capital Scientists have any messages for the students of London? “Tell your friends!”