Jenni Ajderian

(originally published by  The Student )       Walk into Grazyna Dobrzelecka's exhibition in the Forest gallery and you may well think this is just an empty room with the last show's remnants still nailed to the walls. Ten tiny pieces of art trail the bare white walls to the windowsill, where a visitor might end up feeling a little too conspicuous in the wide street-side window.      Named for the mythical Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun, the exhibition continues Dobrzelecka's interest in birds and flight. His previous showing, Pigeonholes at the ECA, was inspired by the effects humans have on the life of the humble city pigeon. Here his reference to birds specifically is restricted to a single tiny black and white photograph, but themes of freedom and captivity run through each piece, from the 2lb lead weight on one wall to the one-sided chess game on the windowsill, entitled Entrapment .      Elsewhere, Wing consists of a right-angled triangle of lin

(originally published by The Student )      Yes, another London-based four-piece come to try to steal your heart. The Vaccines have found their way into the public ear via the well-trodden path of fellow indiesters and friends Laura Marling and Noah and the Whale, but somewhere along the way they found a couple of electric guitars and a range of emotion rare in today's mainstream indie-pop.      What did you expect from the Vaccines? is populated entirely by songs which are teasingly short, and demonstrate a less-is-more attitude to song-writing. First track Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra) gives us an almost impressionistic snapshot of youthful obsession at a scant 1:24 long, which may not have made it the best choice for a first single (it reached number 157 in the charts back in November 2010), but the perfect way to start an album. Described by Zane Lowe as 'The Hottest Record in the World' just following its release, this first song serves as a tantalising introduc

(originally published by The Student ) ASTROPHYSICISTS AT the University of Edinburgh will be joining an international team of scientists in the search for earth-like planets in other solar systems.      The Kepler project, which since 1994 has searched the sky for planets similar to our own, aims to identify planets where water, and potentially life, could exist.      Edinburgh's scientists will be part of the team constructing an instrument for Kepler called the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher-North (HARPS-N). Based on a similar device in the southern hemisphere, HARPS-N will be mounted on a telescope in the Canaries and analyse data collected by the Kepler project.      Dr Ken Rice, a Reader at the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Astronomy, described the project as “the first hope to find planets like Earth”.      By observing tiny fluctuations in the gravity of stars in the Kepler field, and light we receive from them, scientists have been a

(originally published by The Student )      THE UNIVERSITY is set to launch its first Sustainability Awards to help reduce its environmental impact. A ceremony later in the year will see awards given to the teams which complete the most environmentally friendly challenges in an online workbook provided by the Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA).      Last year the University of Edinburgh was accredited Gold in the NUS' Environmental Impact Awards, and was the overall UK winner. This, the two-year-old Green Impact Scheme, compared Universities from across the country in terms of sustainability and global awareness. EUSA's newest venture is a similar scheme within the University itself, encouraging teams to think of new ways to reduce our effect on the world outside of Edinburgh.      Teams can be made up of staff and students in every part of the University, and will be accredited with Bronze, Silver or Gold awards according to the type and quantity of