My Desire To Study The Physical Natural Sciences

The Physical Natural Sciences stand at the forefront of solving a wide variety of problems within an era of newborn, endless discovery. I want to be in the vanguard of progress, learning about and unearthing solutions to both known and unknown problems. I have a desire to study the physical natural sciences to grasp just how the world around me works from a quantum level to a macroscopic level; from quantum physics to chemical reactions and the formation of stars.

UNIQ spring school on science and the environment at Oxford University gave me that feeling of satisfaction when learning about new things more than once. I was intrigued by a lecture on the use of Perovskite and Silicon within solar panels. The ever-changing demands of a continually growing society would need a deeper understanding of harnessing solar energy with materials. New developments in the alteration of materials are exciting, not just because it’s cool to see the big changes in character due to a small change in chemical makeup, but also because of its implications on the future. A big question of today is ‘How do we sustain Energy use whilst reducing the impact on the earth?’, and this is just one of the stepping stones towards maintaining our carbon footprint.

Discovering inviscid fluid flow while attending an Engineering summer school at Cambridge University had me shook to see that mathematical equations could be applied to the beautiful, and seemingly unpredictable results of fluid flow within gas chambers. Seeing the stark contrast between the regularity in separated steady flow and the oscillating vortex wakes found when air flows across a cylinder showed me that a minute change in the velocity can change the resultant flow massively. Working in a team during the Engineering Education Scheme has made me realize the importance of creative and analytical thinking, which could be applied tremendously to scientific theory, just like the equations mentioned before, to fluid flow. Understanding chemistry is applicable to all areas of life, whether it be biomedical drugs, or the makeup of planetesimals. Seeing how chemical reactions occur through reaction mechanics fascinated me due to the numerous ways of synthesizing a compound. ‘Organic Chemistry’ has taught me that chemists need to be creative in devising synthesis pathways, and resourceful to reduce costs of materials and production. Being the creative lead, as well as the commercial lead, during my participation on Young Enterprise has shown me the great importance of conveying a new creative application of a product in a simple and easy to understand way. My continued progress on ‘Introduction to Chemical Engineering’, a MOOC, has taught me the value of assimilating new knowledge, whilst applying the basic principles of A-Level Sciences and Maths in the wider context of Chemical production.

The formation of planetesimals through the several stages of Element burning to produce both inorganic and abiotic organic compounds, informs me that all of the sciences are interconnected. One case of this is ‘Murchison CM2’, a meteorite which contained several abiological organic compounds such as amino acids and nucleobases. This illustrated the importance of communication between each different field, listening to others and opening your mind to several different theorems. Mentoring GCSE chemistry classes allowed me to consider how I can simplify my explanations and reinforce my understanding of the subject matter. It was also very rewarding to see the impact mentoring had on the class, seeing that their knowledge was improved.

In my spare time, I self-teach AS Further Mathematics from Year 13 and am progressing towards Grade 8 Piano. Through this, I have developed the ability to assimilate key information and ideas in a short timescale, a skill which would prove useful in keeping up with both the pressures of university life and the ever-changing world of science.