With only 1 week till we announce the final 5 scientists In the Zone, the pressure is on! We’ll be counting students votes on Friday 6th July at 1.45pm and ONLY the most recent vote counts! So students, make sure your favourite scientists goes through to final and Vote now!

Live chats: Speedy fingers, muscle and aggression!

In 30 manic live chats students have been putting scientists through their paces this week. Probing 7 – 11 scientists on: “has science helped athletes perform better?“, and “how did Fabrice Muambas heart fail?”

In 11 -19 Zone students have been chatting about: “how does numbness stop the pain?“and “do hormones have a direct connection with aggression?”

Scientists have definitely been feeling the strain. Helen said: “great chat! my fingers are hot from the speed of the typing!”

"how do bones know how and when to move justy by communicating with your brain?" See student question. Image by Jjskarate

Questions, questions, questions

In 7 – 11 questions have been flooding in! Students have been keen to find out:

“wny fo muscles get weak?“, and

“how do pain signals travel to your brain?“

Question of the week goes to student manahilmahrukh for asking “how do bones know how and when to move just by communicating with your brain?“

In 11 – 19 Zone students have asked lots of Drugs in Sports questions, including: what drugs athletes can use in sport.

Question of the week goes to student mshaw for asking: “if you did a head stand in space would your blood still go to your head?”

Next week’s 7 – 11 Zone scientists are:

• Francesca Ludwinski, PhD, University of Manchester: “I investigate why so many people suffer with back pain as they get older, and what we can do to repair this by growing cells in a lab“
  
• John Dickinson, Postdoc, Liverpool John Moores University: “I’m an applied sports scientist working with professional and Olympic athletes, my research focuses on respiratory issues in elite athletes“
• Miranda Armstrong, Postdoc, University of Oxford: “I look at how doing exercise and being active may change the chances of people getting ill or injured”
• Peter Voshol, Postdoc, University of Cambridge:“Digging for the holy grail understanding how we survive the challenges of Life and Nature”
• Sarah Hardman, Government/public sector, English Institute of Sport: “Analysing the engines of elite athletes’ to find out what makes them, from a physiological point of view, the best in the world!”

And 11 – 19 Zone scientists:

• David Muggeridge, Researcher, Kingston University: “The effects of Dietary Nitrate supplementation (beetroot juice) on parameters of performance in athletes at sea level and at altitude”
• Jonathan Robinson, Applied Exercise Physiologist, University of Bath: “I am an applied exercise physiologist, I work with athletes to improve their sporting performance.”
• Peter Etchells, Postdoctoral, University of Bristol: “I use motion capture equipment (like they used in Avatar!) to look for evolutionary reasons as to why people find certain types of walk attractive.
• Sam Carr, Lecturer, University of Bath: “My work helps us to understand how the psychology of human relationships is enormously important at participation and elite levels of sport.“

Thank you!

A big thank you to Alison, Helen, Matt, Miranda, Jemma, John, Katie and Lisa, who’ve now finished their weeks In the Zone! Teachers and students have got a lot out of all the hard work you’ve put in.

Mr Hilton from Loughborough Grammar School said: “A big thank you to all the scientists, and thank you for answerin so many of their enthusiastic questions with so many interesting answers”