Politician's lab visit

Dr David McGivern from the Division of Pathology and Neuroscience recently welcomed Ernie Ross to his lab to show him a day in the life of a scientist.

Ernie Ross, MP for Dundee West, was paired with David McGivern by the Royal Society in an initiative to foster better understanding of science in parliament. Mr Ross spent the morning with David and was given an overview of the research in Dr Rachel Fearn's laboratory where David works, before meeting the Dean of Medicine, Professor Brian Burchell.

David's research focuses on respiratory syncytial virus - a major cause of respiratory illness in young children, which is responsible for thousands of hospitalisations per year.

The scientists spoke to Mr Ross about some of the issues they felt that Westminster should be addressing, including investment in the public understanding of science, the funding of science and the lack of positions available for young scientists to start and pursue a career.

David has also spent four days at Westminster, shadowing Mr Ross and attending a series of lectures and events including a meeting of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee.

David said, "A point made by the Royal Society Science in Society staff was that in general scientists are very poor at lobbying their MPs when they are unhappy with government science policy. People lobby their MPs about a wide variety of issues connected with their daily lives.

But scientists rarely lobby their MPs about issues connected with their daily lives. All of the participating scientists agreed that the scheme had given them the confidence and knowledge to contact their MP about issues that affect their research."