Science in London ‒ DAY 15

[two groans and one sigh]. The last night of little sleep was the worst! Besides, it’s not like I have the incentive to get up because of an exciting tour or lecture. There’s no faces to look forward to at the breakfast hall this morning let alone breakfast at all. Of course, the threat of missing my flight is a pretty serious matter and I spring out of bed. It is a sad day for certain.

But what good is all the stuff we’ve learned if we don’t go propagate it in our communities around the globe? What good is this forum if we just keep the experience among ourselves? Why our new outlook on life if not to look out towards a new world of opportunities? No, today is an important day because it marks the completion of a science forum that has not only influenced the minds of 425 participants but is about to percolate into their societies as these young scientists advance the knowledge of tomorrow.

Back to more concrete matters, I squeezed out the final blurbs of my toothpaste and got ready to go – taking one last photo of my room:

The first and last photo I’ll get with that darn slow elevator:

Down in the Beit common room it is clear that some owls have not moved since I said goodnight a few hours ago:

After getting some quid for the tube (underground rail) I parted with the fourteen day home I’ll never forget.

Needed to get some Fanta for whatever reason:

The best part is that I ran into Gabriel for a final farewell at South Kensington Stn:

“Have a happy life man.”

On the tube near Heathrow:

My final LIYSF tweet photo:

My salutations from Canada to all who attended and a hearty wish for a bright future to each and every one!

At the moment the gravitational force was balanced by the growing pressure of gazillions of air molecules under the wings (liftoff):

 

Goodbye farms:

Sea ice off of Iceland and a huge line on Greenland:

The ridge is where the inland ice cap on Greenland surrenders to the earth whose color gives this land it’s name.

And these jolly good little intricacies are back again (-53ᣞC outside):

Ice profoundly displays hexagonal symmetry due to the dominant hydrogen bonds between molecules. I suspect these crystals have some sentimental value or deep reflective meaning for LIYSF but I won’t go there.

On this return flight, the Sun didn’t set as on the arrival flight. In fact, I land in Vancouver only an hour later (local time) than I left London so the net motion of the plane (as seen by the man on the Sun) must be towards the East. The Earth underneath the plane is rotating so that Vancouver will arrive below after we’ve drifted an hour’s longitude later from where we started. A jolly good puzzle – correct me if I’m wrong but this is my best guess.

At last, it is just me and my blog for nine hours:

Middle, soaring over my Rocky Mountains. On right, back home.

Reminiscing on the crowded comments in my notebook from my new friends crowded my eyes with tears, and I turned to consider how LIYSF has contributed to my person:

In many a sense I leave as I arrived a fortnight ago: wearing the exact same outfit (except my lost watch), running on three hours of sleep, and still madly chasing the winds of my busy life. But in far more ways, I leave a different Etienne; permanently impacted by the enlightening lectures, the astonishing tours, the engaging participation, and in a truly deep sense the hundreds of inspiring personalities from around the globe who constitute the heart of this forum. Considering that science was the only common ground for an awkward lot of 425 students two weeks ago, the insta-friendships which sprung from this foundation are a testament to the ability of the London International Youth Science Forum in connecting and empowering young scientists from vastly diverse backgrounds. Scribed into my heart is something difficult to define or capture with words – sentences will never encompass the story that took hundreds of individual roles to distill. Though my suitcase weighs somewhat less without the Canadian maple leaf cookies, there is a mass of memories in my “carry-on” that will forever impress the gravity of facts, fun, and faces from this momentous experience.

Etienne