MADELEINE'S HEP HERD

Today is Ada Lovelace Day so in the spirit of the day I'm sharing some inspirational history. In spite of the fact that neither of us now work as scientists I'd like to dedicate this Ada Lovelace Day blog post to Dr Yvonne Beale and the exhibition that wouldn't have existed without her. Back in 2002, Yvonne and I were members of Edinburgh Women's Science Forum (EWSF).  I had been a member and an office bearer for over ten years and met Yvonne a couple of years earlier at Orkney Science Festival.  She came to Edinburgh to study for a PhD in genetics and got involved in EWSF activities. Although there is still a need for groups like EWSF, this particular organisation seemed to have reached the end of its natural life span but Yvonne inspired me and the rest of the group to create a small legacy before closed down fully. We proposed to spend our remaining funds on a flexible exhibition that could easily travel to different locations for a few years after we wound up. ...

Both life and death have been getting more attention than the virtual world recently. At the end of April I lost an old friend to a sudden heart attack. David Johnson first came into my life in the early 1980s as my brother's composition tutor at Napier College. He was a composer, musicologist, performer, teacher, arranger and a square peg in a round hole (a bit like me). We didn't always share the same outlook on life but friendship isn't really about being the same. It's the differences that make it interesting. To see the worth in those differences while recognizing the similarities is to find a friend. I'll miss David's singular opinions and his impressions of characters from the Goon Show. His obituary in the Guardian describes his public life at least as well as I could. This photo was taken in December 2007 (hence the Christmas party hat) and is the most recent photo I have of David. I may post more when I dig out the pre-digital archive. As I said...

My working life has more or less been taken over by the Edinburgh International Science Festival for the next couple of weeks. My "day job" at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences includes arranging and promoting events for the festival and this year we have six of them! More than I've had to do at once since the glory days of the Edinburgh Women's Science Forum in 1995/6. If you want you can find out more about our events on the ICMS website and blog . The press have taken much more of an interest in this year's offerings which is pleasing, though I'm sure it's the glamour of Hollywood attracting them to this talk rather than a new found interest in maths or juggling ! If you're at a loose end on Thursday 9 April it would be nice to see people at the screening of 21 in Filmhouse Cinema which I'll be introducing. Of course art is not completely on hold - there's always something churning away in my head and there's alway...