Author Archives: Natasha Little
What if you shared your food with others?
By Diane Fresquez, an American food science journalist living in Brussels, and the author of ‘A Taste of Molecules: In Search of the Secrets of Flavour’. Diane will be chairing the RSB’s event, Come Dine with the Future, in Cardiff on Wednesday 30th November. From food waste to expanding waistlines, we are experiencing a global food … Continue reading
Biology Week in Schools: The Eggs-cellent Victorian Eggs-periment
By Dr Diane Lees-Murdock CBiol MRSB, course director BSc (Hons) Biology, Ulster University and Mr Chris Murdock, DH Christie Memorial Primary School, Coleraine, N. Ireland. Year seven pupils at DH Christie Memorial Primary School have been learning about the Victorian diet and how nutrition varied between the rich and the poor. To celebrate Biology Week, … Continue reading
Visit to an animal research facility
By Dr Laura Marshall MRCVS MRSB, science policy manager at the Royal Society of Biology Kings College London (KCL) invited RSB representatives to its Guy’s Campus recently, for a tour of their animal research facilities. This was one of a series of visits, organised through Understanding Animal Research, to help explain what happens at the … Continue reading
The fantastic red fox
By Martin Hemmington, National Fox Welfare Society. Read blogs about the other mammals in the #UKMammalPoll and vote for your Favourite UK Mammal. A master of adaptability, survivor against the odds, and an animal that divides opinion across the UK: the red fox has now taken over from the gray wolf as being the most … Continue reading
Beaver ballot: why we should give a dam
By Dr Alan Law, freshwater science researcher, University of Stirling. Read blogs about the other mammals in the #UKMammalPoll and vote for your Favourite UK Mammal. The Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) has recently been reintroduced on a trial basis to England and Scotland. Yet its future remains on a knife edge. Their new presence has … Continue reading
The water vole: can we save ‘Ratty’?
By Merryl Gelling, post-doc researcher at WildCRU and Mammal Society Council member. Read blogs about the other mammals in the #UKMammalPoll and vote for your Favourite UK Mammal. There can be no denying that the water vole, although physically fairly small, has the biggest ‘cute’ factor of all our UK mammals. At first glance they … Continue reading
Securing the future of Scottish Wildcats
By Vicky Burns, Scottish Wildcat Action Read blogs about the other mammals in the #UKMammalPoll and vote for your Favourite UK Mammal. Scottish wildcats are now critically endangered. Once a common sight throughout Britain, hunting, habitat loss and, more recently, introgressive hybridisation means there are now less than 300 left in the wild. The biggest … Continue reading
Favourite UK Mammal – the ones that got away
Opinion piece by Fiona Mathews, Chair of the Mammal Society, and associate professor in mammalian biology at the University of Exeter. The poll for the Favourite UK Mammal has a shortlist of just 10 species. Yet there are about 64 land mammals (including bats) in the UK, and another 37 marine species found in our … Continue reading
Science and policymaking: reflections from a global meeting
By Alessandro Allegra, doctoral candidate in science and technology studies, UCL Over the last two days of September 600 scientists, policymakers, and knowledge brokers from all over the world gathered in Brussels to discuss how to improve dialogue between science and policymaking. The global conference, organised by the European Commission and the International Network for Government … Continue reading
Return of the native: the pine marten
By Jenny MacPherson, pine marten project manager, The Vincent Wildlife Trust. Read blogs about the other mammals in the #UKMammalPoll and vote for yourFavourite UK Mammal. My first encounter with a pine marten in the wild was back when I was a first year zoology undergraduate. I was poised upwind of a badger sett with … Continue reading