FutureTech Lecture with Greg Foot from the Everest Lab

As part of the Third Form FutureTech curriculum pupils attended the first of the six lectures they will have throughout the year. This was given by Greg Foot, a Science broadcaster who has had an established career working around the world on projects for the BBC as well as on programmes such as ‘Blue Peter’.

Greg spoke about the ‘Everest Lab’, a laboratory that is located at the Base Camp of Mount Everest. Pupils were told what it is like to live at Base Camp and the difficulty in carrying out basic functions such as eating - as it can make you exhausted! They were also shown the most recent technology that mountaineers currently have for survival in these difficult conditions and were given the opportunity to look at the most up-to-date studies on how this hostile environment can change you physiologically in a short space of time.

Most of all, the pupils were gripped by the details of the cardiovascular fitness levels of local Nepalese Sherpas and the slight differences in the structure of their genome, enabling some of them to be able to climb Mount Everest up to 20 times in a lifetime!

Finally, two of the pupils were able to try a recently-invented drink which is used to boost fitness levels for mountaineers to help them climb Everest. We will have to wait until our next Rugby fixture to see the fitness of these two individuals to judge whether this works or not!

This was a fascinating lecture and I hope the Third Form pupils have been motivated to investigate further into some of the cutting-edge research discussed and bring this knowledge into their Science lessons after half term!            

Will Irving, Head of FutureTech