Meet the Founders…
Mia Hatton
Mia has an insatiable curiosity and never stopped asking what many would consider to be childish questions. She considers them to be terribly interesting, and they have led her to some wonderful discoveries. Being curious also earned Mia an Open University degree spanning all sorts of science topics from astrophysics and astrobiology to neuroscience and psychology, which she studied while seeing the world and sharing her contagious enthusiasm for science. Her quest for knowledge will never be complete and spends most of her free time studying maths.
At Letterbox Lab, Mia is informally known as the Head of Getting Stuff Done. If you’ve ever received an email from us, had a question answered via Facebook, or simply scrolled through our Instagram feed, the chances are Mia is your main contact at Letterbox Lab. She also illustrates our booklets, with a little help from Meg and Pico.
Bryan Hatton
Bryan loves learning lots of new different things, which has resulted in him acquiring degrees in animal biology and computer science as well as a doctorate in the origin of life. Like one of his greatest science heroes, Dr Emmett Brown, he considers himself a student of all the sciences because science is a tool for figuring out why stuff happens. Whether you are figuring out why stars explode or why cats chase lasers, it’s all science. He has been lucky to have spent his career sharing his love for figuring stuff out with other people.
At Letterbox Lab, Bryan is the Head of Making Stuff Work. Have you done the Cloud in a Bottle experiment, made an orrery or released dinosaur breath? If so you have directly experienced Bryan’s inventions. He makes sure your boxes get packed and shipped on time, and is always testing the experiments inside to make sure they are as awesome as they can be.
Meg
Outgoing, chatty and friendly, 11-year-old Meg is the go-to knowledge bank for her extensive circle of friends. She will often precede a sentence with “actually” (“Actually, that’s a nebula, not a galaxy”) but is so polite and cheerful that her friends have come to enjoy it. She has artistic flair and loves to create, but is methodical and analytical about her art. She loves to investigate using these skills, and science is her true passion.
When not looking at the Moon through her telescope, Meg is a keen photographer and netball player.
Pico
Meg’s 8-and-a-quarter-year-old brother, Pico, is enthusiastic about pretty much everything. He and his two best friends have astonishing stamina when it comes to Minecraft marathons and making “potions” in the kitchen, but Pico’s recklessness can sometimes get them into trouble. He’s always forgiven eventually because he’s the one that comes up with all the plans, and you never know where an afternoon at Pico’s house will lead.
When not experimenting to find out which science experiment makes the biggest mess, Pico likes magnets and watching Jurassic Park again.
Origin Story
Letterbox Lab was created by Dr Bryan Hatton and Mia Hatton, who together run Hatton Science Communication Limited. We met working at a science centre where we developed all sorts of exciting shows about science, and trained people to present them in a planetarium, laboratory and theatre. As often happens, we bonded over a shared passion for science and all things geek, so in 2015 we got married. Rather than settle down into normal married life we left the UK to adventure around the world on a nine month semi-working honeymoon.
Along the way we met many more people who loved science, and honed our skills doing amazing science activities in strange situations. We have made ping-pong ball cannons in a fortress in the Czech Republic, planetary landers on a farm in Norway, and balloon rockets in a bamboo school in the Malaysian jungle! We also got chased by an elephant and visited the childhood home of Arnold Schwarzenegger, as one does on a typical honeymoon.
We made ping-pong ball cannons in a fortress in the Czech Republic, planetary landers on a farm in Norway, and balloon rockets in a bamboo school in the Malaysian jungle!
We made ping-pong ball cannons in a fortress in the Czech Republic, planetary landers on a farm in Norway, and balloon rockets in a bamboo school in the Malaysian jungle!
On our return to the UK we were inspired to find new ways to make it as easy as possible for everyone to play with science. We want everyone to be able to enjoy the pleasure of discovery, regardless of their background, prior knowledge or the contents of their kitchen cupboards. We took our mission to sunny Wales and created an all-in-one science subscription box – Letterbox Lab was born.
