I would toy with steel catheters as if they were model trains and scribble on scrubs instead of paper. My grandparents have videos of 7-year-old me giddily shouting “aneurysm”, thinking it was a curse word. For a year before being whisked off to Abu Dhabi, I had been left with my grandmother, a wizened gynaecologist at the biggest hospital in Delhi. A stark contrast to the silent bustle of American hospitals, those in India were absolutely hectic: the population of...

UCAS Personal Statement--Application for Natural Sciences As we asymptotically refine our understanding of exactly how a biological process occurs (say, enzymes in DNA replication), we are increasingly empowered to artificially exert control over the process (through PCR, in this case). And this is what excites me most about biology: advances can transform complex systems into tamed technology, helping us incrementally leverage mastery over life itself. At the UK team selection camp for the 2018 International Biology Olympiad (IBO) at the University...

Fourteen months ago, I took the leap. As soon as I stepped off the plane, the biting cold stamped out any remnants of warmth clinging to the glasses fogging my vision. It felt like a different planet at first: busy suburban evenings spent in Arabian malls the size of airports became late nights wandering the noisy British underbelly; pristine, neat rows of skyscrapers were replaced with a dense urban sprawl that comprised the innards of my new home. But I...