A Summary of what we got up to in 2023

Combining nature and science with analogue photography, read about the pilot workshop Ecollaborate in collaboration with Art Walk Projects, Scott Hunter and Access to Industry

A summary of the second iteration of our creative learning Unearthing Microlife Programme aimed at young adults, bringing a greater appreciation to our wild spaces by looking at them under a microscopic lens.

A Summary of what we got up to in 2022!

A first hand account of a panel event hosted by ASCUS.

Welcome to Dispatches from ASCUS #2! My name is Iona Walker PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and anthropologist in residence at ASCUS for the summer of 2022 I first discovered the ASCUS lab in 2018.

I am in the lab, and it is November 2019. The ASCUS lab is small, but crammed with microscopes, fume cupboards in various states of functionality, workbenches filled with boxes of gloves, slides and intriguing half-finished projects…

Satellite images provide data about the coldest regions on Earth. These are calibrated by measurements taken by snow scientists on the ground. These measurements are known as “ground truth”. But is there room for creativity when searching for truth? And how objective can any one perspective be?

The first iteration of our Unearthing Microlife Programme aimed at bringing a greater appreciation to our wild spaces but looking at them under a microscopic lens.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have helped keep ASCUS going through these difficult times, we really wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we did without you. Whether through membership subscriptions to use the lab facilities, making a donation after we launched our fundraising campaign in autumn, sharing our social media content, or collaborating with us in your project, we truly appreciate everyone’s contributions and we hope you enjoy reading about all the things that kept us busy this year!

Looking to gain insight into what goes on behind the scenes in fertility research labs, and the methods these scientists use day-to-day, five couples interested in fertility treatment and the research around this topic came along to ASCUS Lab to explore the beautiful, but sometimes troublesome molecule: DNA.

A post covid-update.

The first Saturday in September was an early ‘snow day’ in ASCUS Lab, in true ASCUS style. In the first workshop of its kind, Snow Shift: Reimagining Snow Data, we aimed to shift the perspective on snow.