Tagged With: biodiversity
How genetics can reduce the threat from the world’s changing diet
Rebecca Nesbit is an ecologist, blogger and author of Is that Fish in your Tomato?, exploring the opportunities and risks of genetically modified foods. A trip to the supermarket gives me cheap and easy access to foods which would have been alien to my grandparents, and walking past food shops in London suburbs often introduces … 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
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
Giving the hedgehog a helping hand
By Fay Vass, chief executive of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Read blogs about the other mammals in the #UKMammalPoll and vote for your Favourite UK Mammal. The argument in favour of hedgehogs could be won simply on their cuteness. However, there is far more about this amazing mammal that could swing the vote. Hedgehogs … Continue reading
The living soil: tread carefully
Professor James Prosser OBE FRSB, chair in molecular and cell biology at the University of Aberdeen, discusses the living world of soils. As you walk around your garden, you may not realise it, but you’re treading on a dense and diverse community of many different life forms. This community creates and sustains the soil and … Continue reading
What should we eat to save the planet?
Barbara Knowles is senior science policy adviser at the Society of Biology, and loves the landscapes, food and natural treasures created by traditional farming. Hardly a week goes by without another academic paper telling us to eat less meat, and to intensify agriculture sustainably to feed the growing population, protect biodiversity or reduce greenhouse gas … Continue reading
Changing the world
Barbara Knowles is senior science policy adviser at the Society of Biology and compiles its science policy newsletter. She also volunteers for an NGO in Transylvania which focuses on conserving and understanding biodiversity, landscape and high nature value farming. Scientists working in biodiversity conservation and sustainability science go through stages of despair and recovery while … Continue reading
Biofuels: a darker shade of green
Following on from The Biologist’s write up of the Society of Biology’s recent Policy Lates event on algal biofuels, Michael Walsh looks at how biofuels are moving beyond their first generation. We all know that we face increasing challenges in order to meet our energy needs. With the climate changing, global population increasing, and fossil … Continue reading
2013 science policy highlights – haymeadows in Transylvania
Laura Bellingan, the Society of Biology’s head of policy, looks back on her trip to Transylvania to visit senior policy advisor Barbara Knowles. Barbara has worked to protect Romanian haymeadows and communicate about science, with her Motor Neurone Disease as no barrier. Looking back over the year a large number of policy relevant stories and … Continue reading
Species of the Week: The Malayan Tiger
In 2004, the Malayan Tiger, was welcomed as its own subspecies after careful consideration of genetics and measurements from the closely related subspecies Panthera tigris corbetti, the tigers of Singapore. The Malayan Tiger is exclusively found in the Malay Peninsula, and there are estimated to be approximately 500 in existence. Unfortunately, tiger numbers continue … Continue reading