Alom Shaha

Meet the teacher on a mission to make physics easy to understand.

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Read!” That’s Alom Shaha’s advice for young people. For starters, “The fact that you’re reading this magazine is a great thing”, says the teacher and science communicator. Shaha works in schools and writes books, and his enthusiasm for science has landed him a spot as a judge for The Week Junior Book Awards in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) category. Talking to Science+Nature, Shaha shares his love for tinkering, teaching and cooking.

Taking apart toys

Shaha is originally from Bangladesh, in South Asia, but grew up in London. As a child, he didn’t have access to shop-bought toys. Instead he developed a love of “tinkering” – taking things apart and putting them back together again. His book Mr Shaha’s Marvellous Machines is all about how you can recycle scrap materials to make fun, interesting toys at home. “By making things you can get to grips with the physical principles behind them,” says Shaha.

A sense of wonder