Dear Old Bedalian
Scientists, your time has come. Tim Crocker (1964-70) and Andrew Kemp (1973-80), please rise to
the challenge – you have a slot available in the next Bulletin. Other OB scientists are enthusiastically
invited to come out of the closet. Mark Hutton (1975-80) has even set up a LinkedIn group specifically
for OB scientists.
Other important news is that Summer is here and Parents Day not so very far in the future. On Saturday
1 July all Old Bedalians and friends of the school are invited to enjoy the usual range of exhibitions,
performances and tea, not to mention the beauties of the estate in both its landscape and its buildings,
including the acclaimed new Art and Design Building. A full programme will be published in due
course.
Best wishes
Dennis
Scientist of the Month (1)
Scientist of the Month (2)
Scientist of the Month (3)
One that got away
OB Sporting Initiative
A Challenging Journey
Daniel Alexander (1976-81) is a barrister, but was mainly a
scientist at Bedales (Maths/Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry and
Latin A levels followed by Physics and Philosophy at Oxford). He
reckons about 80% of his work involves cases at the forefront of
technology, most recently in the Supreme Court before a panel
presided over by another undergraduate scientist turned lawyer,
Lord Neuberger, in a case concerning a patent for the cancer drug
pemetrexed disodium. Daniel's recent cases have concerned
digital signal processing for mobile communications,
antipsychotics, Alzheimers medication and COPD dry powder
inhalers. More topically, as Chair of the Intellectual Property Bar
Association, he is doing policy work on the many consequences of
Brexit for this area of law. Good to know that at least one aspect
of Brexit is in safe hands
Juliet Corley (1980-87) is a marine biologist who works with
Mahonia Na Dari,(Guardian of the Sea) a small NGO in Papua
New Guinea which has been doing an amazing job of training
generations of local schoolchildren to manage their coral reefs
sustainably, churning out 60 young “marine ambassadors” a year.
Some graduates go on to jobs where they are influential in
environmental issues and can pass on that knowledge to a culture
which still believes strongly in witchcraft. A common,
environmentally disastrous, practice is to dump all waste,
including televisions and car batteries, into rivers, so that your
discarded possessions can't be used to enchant you! The
organisation relies heavily on grants and donations, but they can
also always use volunteers – even remotely with IT and social
media!
Nicholas Maxwell (1952-56), Emeritus Professor of Philosophy
of Science at UCL, has just published two books with formidable
titles: In Praise of Natural Philosophy: A Revolution for Thought
and Life and Understanding Scientific Progress: Aim-Oriented
Empiricism. These are part of his ongoing campaign to
revolutionise the study of science so that it may more effectively
deal with real world problems such as population growth, the
lethal character of modern war, vast inequalities of wealth and
power around the globe, destruction of natural habitats and
extinction of species, pollution of earth, sea and air, and above all
global warming. These are complex books, about which you can
read much more here.
You might be forgiven for not realising that Dido Crosby (197380) has an Oxford Zoology degree, because she is a distinguished
sculptor. Could this be taken as evidence that Bedales scientists
are so talented they can do art as well? Or that art is just that
much more interesting to work in than science? Don’t ask. You
can see Dido’s beautiful animals at the Sculpture Garden, Odney
Lane, Cookham until 21 May. You can also see her work, along
with that of designer Snowden Flood (1975-80), at an exhibition
curated by Snowden at 141 South Croxted Road, SE21 8AX, open
11.00-18.00 on 13-14 and 20-21 May. As I recall, Snowden had
no pretensions to being a scientist.
Joe Pemberton (2008-13) organised an OB football tournament
with great success for the third year running. Held at Bedales,
this year it featured five teams: a current Bedales team, a staff
team and three representing particular recent Blocks. It was
organised on a round robin basis, for eleven-a-side teams. Joe
hopes to grow the event, which raised over £500 for cancer
research. The event was on 8 April this year and is an entirely
OB organised venture. I encourage slightly less young Blocks to
enter the fray next time and show these youngsters how to play.
Contact Joe here.
In July, Jamie Reynolds (2003-08) is attempting the Mongol
Rally, a 10,000 mile charity rally from London to Mongolia in old
bangers, passing through 20 countries. He is competing in order
to raise money for the MS Society. He has built his own
entertaining website which is in keeping with the generally
chaotic and humorous style of the whole event. We wish him
luck in this enterprise, for which by his own admission he seems
ill-equipped. We hope he makes it and advise him that evidence
suggests the course actually ends in Russia rather than Mongolia.
Please support this worthy cause.
Bedales Schools Church Road Steep Petersfield, GU32 2DG
Phone: 01730 300100 | Fax: 01730 300500 | Email: [email protected]