Testimonials
“I can’t recommend Ascus Labs highly enough, friendly and helpful expert staff, and plenty of fascinating equipment for the curious artist. ”
“Excellent. My teenager accessed the labs with Keira at helm to explore Biology as hadn’t studied science before. to explore his interests and to learn to navigate the lab. Without this experience which my son loved he wouldn’t have been able to easily transfer into science at Nat 5s and Highers. He absolutely loved this experience. Also very neurodivergent supportive.”
“We had such a successful and rewarding experience developing our prototype at ASCUS thanks to their lab manager who was kind, understanding and helpful”
— Nexacath, Medical students and lab members
“The scientists involved in the CIIE project agree that working with artists made them take a step back and look at their research from an artists perspective and identify motivations behind their scientific interests. This has been crucial in rethinking our long term science communication and public engagement strategy. The collaboration allowed scientists to discover similarities between the artistic practice and their own day to day work and sparked a new wave of interest in science communication and sci-art collaborations in particular”
— Kasia Kokowska, Manager of the Centre of Immunity, Infection and Evolution on the CIIE Residency
“I found ASCUS at a time where I was desperate to the see the world more intimately than my own two eyes could manage. Since then, through their open lab, microscopy course and dedicated professional partnerships, my art practice is free to explore so many more dimensions, and I am well equipped to open doors for others. Most importantly, we've had FUN!”
— Emily Fong, Artist and collaborator; G-lands
“When we discussed stereotypes, the misconceptions tended to be that STEM roles are for males, often socially awkward and so smart that they wouldn't want to talk to beginner scientists like the students. I suppose they had 'mad scientists' images in their heads? I try to highlight the contribution of women and minority groups to science in our lessons but I think seeing real people in their area of expertise has helped a lot. It has reinforced the interdisciplinary nature of STEM with a real world context, and taken away any misconceptions regarding the stereotypes around the STEM professions.”
— Neeki Armani, Teacher at Edinburgh Montessori Arts School on our programme Unearthing Microlife