Biology Week
Using citizen science to understand more about house spiders
Citizen science describes projects whereby members of the public work with researchers to provide useful and interesting scientific data. In the last five years or so, the approach has seen a big growth in all sorts of areas of science.
Orchids, bears and the Galapagos: one travel grant recipient shares her story
Ecuador is declared the ‘Land of Orchids’, and for good reason. This small diverse country in South America has over 4,200 species of orchids owing to the vast number of climatic conditions provided by different habitats in the coastal regions, the Andes and the Amazon basin. Ecuador is therefore the perfect place to host the … Continue reading
#iamabiologist: using twitter to bring those working in the biosciences together
#iamabiologist studying the movement ecology of wild grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) using telemetry devices. This forms part of my doctoral work investigating the impacts of marine renewable energy developments on grey seal movement and behaviour in tidal environments. I was extremely excited to get involved with the #iamabiologist Biology Week Twitter campaign. I think it … Continue reading
Genome editing: where do we draw the line?
Genome editing is at the forefront of modern medicine, and has the potential to improve the health of millions of people worldwide; genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s could in theory become a thing of the past. The genome is the complete set of an organism’s DNA, containing all of the information that … 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
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
Otter magic
By Pete Cooper, postgraduate student at The University of Exeter. Read blogs about the other mammals in the #UKMammalPoll and vote for your Favourite UK Mammal. Why are otters so endearing? This may seem obvious, what with their ‘cute’ charismatic appeal, prevalence in our culture from Wind in the Willows to Tarka and resemblance to … 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
Decorating the dolphin: why a marine mammal deserves the crown
Opinion piece by Billy Mills – Biology Week intern at the Royal Society of Biology. Read blogs about the other mammals in the #UKMammalPoll and vote for your Favourite UK Mammal. While helping create the UK Mammal Poll, I noticed that many people seem to be unaware of the diversity of mammals that live in … 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