Last day of I'm a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here!

 first heard about I'm a Scientist on Twitter, through which I followed last year's event with growing curiosity, and from a safe distance. What struck me, and prompted me to throw my hat in the ring this year, was that scientists, students and organisers all seemed to be having a huge amount of fun.

Science being fun is something that matters to me. We have it hammered into us these days that science has to be economically justified (yawn), internationally competitive (eyes closing), suffused with impact (nodding off), steeped in metrics (asleep) and generally divorced from what inspired many of us to do it in the first place. OK, we know it must be all of those things, but for me it has to be fun too.

My work is focused on the eye (if you'll pardon the pun) and I am a cell biologist at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. I'm interested in what happens to the cells of the retina when we lose our sight, and I'm also investigating new ways of preventing vision loss.

I'm fortunate to work in the largest dedicated eye research centre in the world, which means I am surrounded by experts on every conceivable aspect of vision, from optical illusions to cell transplantation.

Although vision research is something of a specialised area, the students taking part in I'm A Scientist have bombarded me with interesting questions about the eye. My favourites include "Why is it when it's dark things look more black and white than colour?", "Is there a way to create a fully functional eye to cure blindness?" and "How does laser eye surgery work?". I've also had a few questions about my unconventional career path (it's a long story but I go direct from A levels to PhD with nothing in between).

We're now into the second week and the evictions have started. If I get voted off early I'll probably request a recount, or in desperation ask that the votes are counted again using the Duckworth-Lewis method. I may not do "graciousness in defeat" very well, but I won't begrudge the eventual winner their hard-fought prize.