{"id":7530,"date":"2018-06-21T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/?p=7530"},"modified":"2018-04-11T09:35:32","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T08:35:32","slug":"celebrating-science-and-year-of-the-young-person-julia-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2018\/06\/21\/celebrating-science-and-year-of-the-young-person-julia-black\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Science and Year of the Young Person – Julia Black"},"content":{"rendered":"

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2018 is both the Year of the Engineer and the Year of the Young Person and this blog is about one of our many colleagues who are inspiring the next generation with their Outreach work.<\/p>\n

Meet Julia Black a Molecular Geneticist at Marine Scotland Science. Gummy bears and strawberry laces in science! Read on to find out more.<\/p>\n

Who are you and what do you do?
\n<\/strong>I\u2019m Julia Black, a molecular geneticist, have been working in the MSS Marine Laboratory since 1999, mostly on the diagnosis of fish and shellfish pathogens.<\/p>\n

Why is what you do important?
\n<\/strong>Detection of disease in farmed and wild fish and shellfish leads to improvements in and the healthy maintenance of Scotland\u2019s aquaculture and fisheries. We often have to process a lot of samples in a short period of time to give a rapid result.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your career path been \u2013 how did you get here?
\n<\/strong>Did a degree in Genetics at Aberdeen University, worked in the tissue typing (organ transplant matching) department of the Blood Transfusion Service for over 5 years and then got a job here at the Marine Lab.<\/p>\n

If you weren\u2019t doing this, what do you think you\u2019d be doing instead?
\n<\/strong>Travel agent or travel guide writer \u2013 I love to plan a holiday!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite fishy fact?
\n<\/strong>So many \u2013 swimming goggles can be made from fish scales. Scales can also be found in some lipsticks while ketchup originally contained fish (mainly anchovies).<\/p>\n

What made you decide to be involved in Outreach?
\n<\/strong>Schools are struggling for resources \u2013 being able to go into school or help with work placement students gives the children opportunity to experience or learn something completely new.<\/p>\n

What do you enjoy most about doing Outreach?
\n<\/strong>Going into primary school classes \u2013 the enthusiasm is infectious, makes you look at your own subject with new eyes. And you can get asked some very interesting questions (some of which are best not to repeat!!). I often do what I call Sweetie Science \u2013 raspberry jelly \u2018agar\u2019 plates with hundreds and thousands to represent bacteria and DNA made from gummy bears and strawberry laces.<\/p>\n

Would you encourage others to get involved in Outreach too?
\n<\/strong>Absolutely, I went into one school with a colleague \u2013 the children were initially not very engaged, as the rest of their class was on a residential trip. But by the end of the session, we had them all looking down microscopes and competing to build the best wind turbine from pencils and cereal packets. Events like the Doors Open Day in Stonehaven are great too \u2013 so many people coming in who may otherwise have never engaged with Marine Scotland before.<\/p>\n

Further Information<\/strong><\/p>\n