Royal Society of Biology
Science & The Paralympics
Enlightenment was the theme of last night’s Paralympic Opening Ceremony, with science taking centre stage. The ceremony included British scientist Stephen Hawking, the Big Bang, Newton’s Apple and even an interpretation of the Higgs Boson. This celebration of Great Britain’s rich history of scientific discovery and innovation through a fusion of art, science and sport … Continue reading
Flying ant day is back
Submit your flying ant sightings! After the excitement of flying ant day, which happened in the last week of July in most of the UK, there has been a sudden encore and swarms of flying ants were sighted around the UK on 8th August. In some cases at least it appears that the same nests … Continue reading
Podcast from the Standing up for Science media workshop
Rebecca Nesbit, Press Officer at the Society of Biology The Voice of Young Science Standing up for Science media workshops are an opportunity for early-career researchers to discover how to get their voices heard in public debates about science. The last one was here in Charles Darwin House and I went along with my voice … Continue reading
Why do some lakes have a greater diversity of cichlid fish?
Guest blog from Andrew Helmstetter, Savolainen Lab, Imperial College London, who researches ecological adaptation and speciation in the Austrolebias genus of fish (see picture) One of the major questions that is driving research in speciation biology (the study of how new species evolve) is “why do some groups of species diversify faster than others?” The … Continue reading
Have your say on Open Education Resources
Eva Sharpe, Higher Education Policy Officer, Society of Biology calls for people to fill in a HE teaching survey There are many excellent teaching resources publicly available for lecturers to use and re-use in the biosciences across various websites, publications and discussion forums. Although some of these resources are featured in specific online repositories such … Continue reading
Calling everyone with wacky ideas for the MRI scanner!
In honour of the Biology Week competition calling for ideas of objects to put in an MRI scanner, here is a guest blog from Katy Ordidge. Firstly, let me introduce myself… My name is Katy Ordidge and I am a second year PhD student working in UCL’s Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging (CABI). We are … Continue reading
Do you lead by example?
The Society of Biology has recently launched our new registers under license from the Science Council, Registered Science Technician (RSciTech) and Registered Scientist (RSci), primarily focused at those at the early stages of their career. Although my work at the Society focusses on the award of Chartered Biologist (CBiol) and Chartered Scientist (CSci), through our … Continue reading
Is it a bird, is it a plane?
Sometimes it isn’t ants that alert people to flying ant day, but raucous flocks of gulls. Flying ant day occurs once a year, around now, when winged black garden ants emerge in their millions ready to mate. This is quite a spectacle, partly because of the birds it attracts. Thousands of gulls often loudly make … Continue reading