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Guest post: Paula Salgado, a structural biologist in Steve Matthew’s lab at Imperial College London, describes her experience of the “I’m a Scientist, get me out of here!” event that concluded last Friday.

As 3.30pm on Friday 25^th June approached and I found myself in a workshop, away from my computer, I was anxiously waiting an opportunity to check the Aluminium Zone website to find out the results of the last round of votes. Sounds a bit strange, but only if you hadn’t followed the exciting events unfolding for the previous two weeks.

The first I heard about “I’m a scientist, get me out of here” was just before Christmas 2009, as a group of Twitter-happy and scientifically minded people gathered in a warm pub in South west London. Across the table, Sophia Collins passionately described her project. “It sounds fun,” I thought, “answering questions from kids online, being challenged by their curiosity.” The idea was planted in my mind and as the registration deadline approached, I decided to join in. When an email telling me I had been selected to join 99 other scientists from across the UK (and beyond, at least one participant joined in from the US), I was excited, if not slightly worried at was to come.

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