Author Archives: Rebecca Nesbit
A student’s first experience of animals in research
James Iremonger is a second year Cell and Molecular Biology student at Heriot Watt University, with interests in nutrition and neuroscience. As a winner of the Society of Biology Animals in Research essay competition, I was given the opportunity to complete the Home Office Modular 1-4 courses, provided by Learning Curve. The course, held at … Continue reading
Video: yeast, past and future
As well as its role in brewing and bread making, yeast can be used in biorefineries to make biofuels for transport and is a key model organism in synthetic biology. Engineered strains could produce future foods and pharmaceuticals. No wonder the National Collection of Yeast Cultures has some interesting stories, as explained by this video … Continue reading
Would you be fooled by a fly? Play a game to find out!
Christopher Taylor, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, invites you to play an insect game to assist with his research. In the natural world, not everything is what it seems. Deception is rife, and it can be hard to know whether to trust your senses. What first looks like a dead leaf might … Continue reading
Sustainable energy from oil (plant oil that is)
In advance of the Society of Biology’s Policy Lates discussion on algal bioenergy, Rebecca Nesbit looks at some of the hurdles we need to overcome to produce liquid fuel from plants in a more sustainable manner. First generation biofuels are made from starch, sugars, fats and oils, but often come from food plants. This has … Continue reading
Find the largest fairy ring for UK Fungus Day
As part of Biology Week 2013, we are celebrating UK Fungus Day on Sunday 13th October. The day is organised by the British Mycological Society and will involve events, lectures and fungal forays. It is a celebration of fungi and fungal research, exploring both the good and the bad! The fun has already started with … Continue reading
Help us name the House Spider Survey app
Each autumn there’s a sudden increase in the number of house spiders we see indoors, and this year we are developing an app to record their arrival. We now need your help to name the app. All suggestions are gratefully received in the comments below or vote in the poll. [yop_poll id=”2″]
Can we trust climate models?
By Rebecca Nesbit, Society of Biology On Friday I attended an extremely interesting discussion at the Cheltenham Science Festival on ‘can we trust climate models?’. Our climate is influenced by a vast number of inputs and feedback loops, from ocean currents to changes in albedo. Based on these complex factors, climate models have to make … Continue reading
World Biodiversity Day
Caroline Bellingan, a student at Wimbledon High School, shares her thoughts on World Biodiversity Day Biodiversity is the term given to the degree of variation in life forms with in a given species or ecosystem and it is a hot topic that is being flagged up very frequently at the moment amongst those in the … Continue reading