Sophia magazine issue 4 out now

Issue 4 of Sophia, UCL's volunteer-run magazine that showcases talent in research, writing and  art, is available to download.

Sophia publishes work by current UCL staff and graduate students. Editor Ed Long (UCL CoMPLEX) describes the articles on offer:

"The global economic crisis and the assorted expenses scandals of the past year have gradually engendered a rather penny-pinching culture, with the spotlight frequently fixed on the public sector.

This is fantastic food for thought for James Shafe (p. 15) but has been less than good news for Sophia as belt-tightening has meant that this issue will have, at best, a very
limited print run. We are actively seeking advertisers and sponsors to fund
printing of Issue 5 and would be very grateful for any suggestions.

This issue showcases the culmination of our first collaboration with UCL's Grand Challenges scheme: a writing competition on the theme of 'Sustainable Cities'. The competition was in memory of Craig Patterson who founded Grand Challenges and was passionate about student engagement with the initiative. The winner of the competition was Olivia Hamlyn, studying for an LLM in Environmental Law; her entry, an account of a fictional city - Athanasia - which exists in balance with its surroundings, is reproduced on page 33.

Our cover and centre pages feature stunningly modelled images from an altogether different imagining of a sustainable urban future on the surface of the Earth's oceans.

Editing an article about the 'death' of the editor could have been a rather strange and unsettling experience. Although, in a personal sense, I'm going to be hanging up my editor's cap in the next couple of months, Susan Greenberg asks what future there is in the act of editing in general (p. 8). While it is certainly true that the type of mass-collaborative editing made popular by Wikipedia has achieved much, and the scope for automated content generation in the putative semantic web is great, I have to say I was relieved that Greenberg still sees a place for human judgement and interpretation."

To download the issue, follow the link at the top of this item.