Author Archives: Guest Blogger
Do we need more scientists in Parliament?
Haralambos Dayantis blogs about the Society of Biology’s upcoming debate on ‘do we need more scientists in Parliament?’ The first #policylates event at Charles Darwin House is only a few weeks away, where panellists will be discussing whether we need more people with STEM backgrounds in Parliament. The issue has already generated some discussion on … Continue reading
How does Chris Packham’s garden grow?
Since the completion of the human genome project, DNA sequencing has become much faster and cheaper, opening up exciting possibilities for medicine and our understanding of human biology. But it goes far further than that, as is demonstrated by this video, first shown at the Biology Week launch event in Parliament held in partnership with … Continue reading
bTB or not bTB? How to control it is still the question
Guest post by Catherine O’Connor, Epidemiologist for the Health Protection Services, discussing the badger cull As an epidemiologist, my job is to understand the how, what, when, where and whys of disease transmission. Though we now possess much fancier tools than those used by the father of epidemiology, John Snow (he of the Broad Street … Continue reading
Bumblebees’ gruesome parasites
Guest blog by Sive Finlay, a PhD student from Trinity College Dublin who recently won Best Biology Student at the 2012 SET awards for her undergraduate project Bee populations are in severe decline, an alarming and worrying trend when you consider their vital importance as commercial and ecological pollinators. Research and media attention often focuses … Continue reading
Ethical dilemmas: pest control
Guest post from Eve Potter, a health writer with an interest in the ethical debates that modern biology produces. In advance of the panda debate she looks at an environmental issue which she finds exciting but scary: biocontrol Biological pest control essentially refers to the use of natural enemies to control pests. Various predatory mites or … Continue reading
Science Action Network needs you!
Tom Holder works for Understanding Animal Research and is running a campaign to encourage scientists to respond to misinformation about animal research Pop quiz: Question: An animal rights group accuses researchers of cruel practises in animal labs, further pointing out that it could all be done on computers anyway. Is this True or False? The … Continue reading
The Virtual School: calling all biologists!
Guest blog by Frédéric Kastner from The Virtual School The Virtual School’s vision is to create an innovative, free education resource that allows children from all over the world to learn about biology. To help us achieve this we’re asking for support from passionate biologists, whatever their background.
The many nests of the hairy wood ant
Guest blog from Samuel Ellis, a PhD student at the University of York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis There are an estimated 22,000 species of ants, and it is likely that the weight of ants on the planet is greater than the weight of humans. They are very important to ecosystems all over the world … Continue reading
A career in industry – the pros and cons
Guest blogger Avika Ruparell describes her experience of working for industry following her PhD I finished a PhD in molecular microbiology at The University of Nottingham at the end of last year and I’ve been working as a microbiologist for Unilever for just over 4 months now. In between the post-thesis submission and viva, I was … Continue reading
Marmosets and research into Parkinson’s Disease
A fascinating video of a Parkinson’s sufferer’s visit to an animal research facility. The video was produced by Richard Scrase from Understanding Animal Research, and here is his insight into its making: