The Biologist 68.2

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THE MAGAZINE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY www.rsb.org.uk

Vol 68 No 2 • Summer 2021

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INSIDE BIOLOGICAL RECORDING THE POWER OF CITIZEN SCIENCE BOOK EXTRACT THE STORY OF FLAVOUR AND HUMAN EVOLUTION

Breaking down barriers

CONSERVATION PROTECTING BATS IN UK CHURCHES PLUS LYNX: COMING TO WOODS NEAR YOU?

To deal with AMR and pandemics, we need to understand biofilms

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THE MAGAZINE OF THE ROYAL ROYALSOCIETY SOCIETYOF OFBIOLOGY BIOLOGYwww. www.rsb.org.uk rsb.org.uk

Vol 68 No 2 • Summer 2021 2021

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY 1 Naoroji Street, London WC1X 0GB Tel: 020 3925 3440 info@rsb.org.uk; www.rsb.org.uk INSIDE

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EDITORIAL STAFF Editor Tom Ireland MRSB, tom.ireland@rsb.org.uk Editorial assistant Emma Wrake AMRSB

BIOLOGICAL RECORDING THE POWER OF CITIZEN SCIENCE BOOK EXTRACT THE STORY OF FLAVOUR AND HUMAN EVOLUTION

Breaking down barriers To deal with AMR and pandemics, we need to understand biofilms

CONSERVATION PROTECTING BATS IN UK CHURCHES PLUS LYNX: COMING TO WOODS NEAR YOU?

VOLUME 68 NO 2 Summer 2021

CONNECT WITH US Have an idea for an article or interested in writing for us? tom.ireland@rsb.org.uk

ON THE COVER

facebook.com/ RoyalSocBio

18 Busting biofilms Understanding microbial structures is key to fighting the infections of the future

thebiologist.rsb.org.uk @RoyalSocBio www.youtube.com/ royalsocbio

Chair of the Editorial Board Professor Dan Davis FRSB, The University of Manchester SUBS ART

Editorial Board Professor Matthew Cobb FRSB, The University of Manchester Dr Anthony Flemming FRSB, Syngenta Professor Adam Hart FRSB, University of Gloucestershire Dr Sarah Maddocks CBiol MRSB, Cardiff Met University Dr Esther Odenkule MRSB, GSK Professor Shaun D Pattinson FRSB, Durham University Dr James Poulter MRSB, University of Leeds Professor Diane Purchase FRSB, Middlesex University Dr Natasha de Vere, National Botanical Garden of Wales

Contents

UP FRONT

04 Society News The latest on the RSB’s work and its next President 08 Policy news Human-monkey embryos and a science education Q&A

Membership enquiries Tel: 01233 555665; membership@rsb.org.uk PRODUCTION

10 Policy analysis Should we reintroduce the lynx to the UK?

Subscription enquiries Tel: 020 3925 3464; info@rsb.org.uk The Biologist is produced on behalf of the Royal Society of Biology by Think Media Group, 20 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JW

FEATURES

12 Record takers How we can all do our bit to collect biological data

www.thinkpublishing.co.uk; 020 3771 7200 CLIENT

Printed by Full Spectrum, Basildon Senior designer Juanita Adu Production editor Sian Campbell Sub editor Kirsty Fortune Group account director John Innes john.innes@thinkpublishing.co.uk ISSN 0006-3347

16 On record The first of a regular column on biological recording 18 Barrier methods The importance of work to understand biofilms

Advertising in The Biologist represents an unparalleled opportunity to reach a large community of professional biologists.

For advertising information contact tom.ireland@rsb.org.uk; 020 3925 3464 Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board or the Royal Society of Biology. © 2021 Royal Society of Biology (Registered charity no. 277981)

22 Book extract: Delicious Why did humans evolve to crave richly flavoured food?

26 Interview Sir David Stuart on COVID-19 and synchrotron research

30 Bats in the belfry Saving animals and buildings with the Bats in Churches project

30 Pipistrelles in the pews Protecting church bats and the unique buildings they roost in

The Society permits single copying of individual articles for private study or research, irrespective of where the copying is done.

Multiple copying of individual articles for teaching purposes is also permitted without specific permission. For copying or reproduction for any other purpose, written permission must be sought from the Society. Exceptions to the above are those institutions and non-publishing organisations that have an agreement or licence with the UK Copyright Licensing Agency or the US Copyright Clearance Center. Access to the magazine is available online; please see the Society’s website for further details. This magazine is sent in biodegradable wrap that can be composted or placed with food waste.

Cover: Pseudomonas aeruginosa colony biofilm (with extracellular matrix stained red),

by Scott Chimileski

REGULARS

26 Interview: Sir David Stuart The Diamond director on the new norm of remote experiments

22 Food, glorious food Extract from Delicious, a book exploring humans’ love of flavour

34 Members Meet RSB members studying, teaching and volunteering 38 Book reviews 42 Branches 47 Crossword 48 Museum piece Paleolab, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh

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ery recently someone on a well-known online retail website gave my last book a one-star rating. Their reasoning was: “Title missed lead me I didn’t even finish I’m sorry it just wasn’t my cuppa tea”. It took me three years to write that book.

Every author could tell a story like this. Of course the bigger picture is that now more than ever, at home in lockdown, books have been a source of solace for many of us. And for science, books can present a level of detail that is hard to achieve on TV or radio. As such I was delighted when our editor, Tom Ireland, told me he had secured two exclusive book excerpts for this issue ofThe Biologist, but there was only space for one. So which one, he asked, sounded more interesting?

In Delicious, evolutionary biologist Rob Dunn and anthropologist Monica Sanchez blend our experiences of flavours and food with what’s known about human evolution. It’s possible – although strong evidence is lacking – that cooking released more energy from food for our ancestors, which in turn allowed for the evolution of a more energy-consuming brain. Less

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contentious is the idea that by releasing more calories, less food was needed, which gave humankind more free time for other things, such as art, language and inventing. But what made early humans cook? The authors of Delicious argue that it was not about a craving for calories, but a craving for flavour.

In the next book, CRISPR People, law professor and bioethicist Henry Greely presents a detailed discussion of where we’re at with editing genes.

In 2018 Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced he had used CRISPR to edit the genes of non-identical twin babies. Almost all scientists denounced this experiment as irresponsible. Nevertheless, the technologyexists and Greely tackles the complexities of when it might be ethically appropriate to edit human genes in the future.

So which book deserves your attention? The answer is both: we’re publishing excerpts from each of them, one in print (p22) and the other online at www.biologist.rsb. org.uk. Indeed, without compromising the magazine itself, we are going to add more and more content online from now on. But just to be clear, we’re not going to let you leave any star-rated reviews.

Lisa Maltby

Dan Davis FRSB Chair, Editorial Board of The Biologist

Welcome and BioPic, 1

BioPic MICRO-COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY SCAN OF A VENOMOUS INDO-PACIFIC LIONFISH Courtesy of Dr Kory Evans The Evans lab at Rice University in Texas studies the morphological evolution of fishes, collecting high-resolution, threedimensional skeletal data to understand how and why traits have changed over time across 30,000 species of fishes.

See www.digizyme.com

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UPFRONT Society news, policy updates, opinion and analysis

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‘Young Volunteers’, Froi Rivera, shortlisted in last year’s competition

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Annual photography competition to focus on biological connections

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he RSB’s popular annual Photographer of the Year award is now open for entries, exploring the theme of ‘interconnected’. The Society’s competitions and outreach officer, Raghav Selvam, said he hoped entries capture “the interactions between life on Earth, whether it be the relationships between living things or living things and their environment”.

He added: “Entries can show the impacts of biological processes and phenomena in a range of settings, or portray the chains of consequences and how knowledge about biology can illuminate a story. We also welcome entries that explore this year’s theme at the molecular or cellular level.”

The award has a top prize of £1,000 for the winner of Photographer of the Year (18 and above) and £500 for Young Photographer of the Year (under 18).

‘The olive journey’, by Saurabh Chakraborty

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Submissions close 23 July 2021. To enter visit www.rsb.org.uk/photocomp or contact competitions@rsb.org.uk

Tilaxan Tharmapalan’s winning entry in 2020

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COMPETITIONS

Upfront News, 1 SOCIETY

SOCIETY

RSB announces Sir Ian Boyd as next President The Society is pleased to announce that its next President will be the marine biologist and Government scientific adviser Professor Sir Ian Boyd FRSB. Sir Ian is professor of biology at the University of St Andrews, where his research focuses on the behaviour of marine predators, marine ecosystem management, and the interface between ecology and economics. He was the chief scientific adviser at DEFRA between 2012 and 2019 and is part of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, known as SAGE. He also chairs the UK’s Research Integrity Office and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in May. Sir Ian was

knighted in the 2019 Queen’s birthday honours for services to science and economics on food and the environment.

“I am delighted to be the next President of the Royal Society of Biology,” said Sir Ian. “The work done by the Society is an increasingly important part of broadening the scope of the appreciation and study of biology. I look forward to helping the Society to be a leading light in the post-COVID era when our understanding of biology will be important for future resilience.”

Sir Ian will take over from Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow at the end of her term as President in May 2022.

Sir Ian Boyd FRSB

RSB is seeking representatives for UK workplaces The Society is looking for active, enthusiastic and engaged members to become RSB ambassadors.

Ambassadors act as the key contact for the RSB within their organisation or workplace, helping showcase the benefits of membership, promote the work of the Society, and encourage members to get involved.

The Society is looking to add to its network of ambassadors within around 20 organisations – including in universities, research institutes and industry – and is currently accepting applications from UK-based members at the AMRSB, MRSB and FRSB grade.

To find out more or to apply visit www.rsb.org.uk/rsb-ambassadors

EVENTS LEGACIES

Reuters/Alamy Stock Photo

Sir Patrick Vallance and science minister quizzed in spring RSB events In March young scientists and engineers posed questions to high-profile politicians and policymakers, including the Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, as part of the Society’s annual Voice of the Future event.

The event, organised by the RSB on behalf of a number of learned societies, allows scientists to question politicians in a role-reversal of a normal select committee inquiry. As well as Vallance, questions were also posed to members of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee and Science Minister Amanda Solloway.

The Society has continued to connect the scientific community with MPs and parliamentary policymakers in a series of online events this spring.

Later in March RSB members were joined by Carol Monaghan MP to discuss spending cuts, policy work and the activity of the Science and Technology

Sir Patrick Vallance

Select Committee, as part of the RSB’s Engaging with Parliament event series.

In April the latest in the RSB’s ‘Policy Lates’ events saw RSB members join an expert panel to discuss the challenges and opportunities for students moving from school to higher education.

Videos of all the events can be watched on the RSB’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/RoyalSocBio

Life members leave generous gifts to the Society The RSB is discussing how to honour two of its long-standing Fellows who left legacy donations to the Society totalling almost £300,000 in the past year.

John Barker FRSB, who edited the Journal of Biological Education for 25 years and was a life Fellow, died in 2020 after contracting COVID-19. He left a gift of £200,000 to the Society, which it is hoped can be used to maximise the impact of the Society’s science education work. A further £85,000 was left to the RSB in the will of Dr Ann Burgess FRSB, also a life Fellow, in early 2020.

The RSB is extremely grateful to both John and Ann, and is currently discussing a suitable way of marking these gifts.

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Outreach awards open for entries

In case you missed it...

The editor’s pick of stories being shared online

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The RSB’s Outreach and Engagement Awards 2021 are now open. The award aims to honour outreach work by new scientists and established researchers who inform, enthuse and engage the public.

The New Researcher Prize, of £750, is open to bioscience researchers reading for a master’s/ PhD or in the first year of a postdoc position. The Established Researcher Prize (£1,500) is open to bioscience researchers who are beyond the first stages of their research career.

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Three new Trustees appointed to Council Professor Louise Cosby FRSB and Lucy Hudson MRSB have been elected to represent individual members on the RSB Council, with Dr Suzy Moody of the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM) elected as a Member Organisation representative.

Professor Cosby is head of virology at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Belfast.

Hudson is a technical manager of the Department of Biology, University of York. Dr Moody is a microbiologist specialising in fungal bioremediation who has served on SfAM’s Policy Subcommittee and Executive Committee.

The new Trustees were elected at the Society’s AGM in May, where Dr Louise Leong FRSB, Professor Hilary McQueen FRSB and Professor Claire Wathes FRSB were also reappointed to Council.

The Society thanks Professor Caroline Austin FRSB and Professor Paul Hoskisson FRSB, who are both stepping down at the end of their terms.

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multiplies it within trillions of E. coli cells, before the relevant genetic material is extracted, purified and shipped around the world.

THE NEW YORK TIMES bit.ly/Makingthevaccine

Playful papers

The non-psychedelic psychedelic Researchers investigating the use of psychedelic drugs in the treatment of mental disorders say they are close to developing a ‘non-hallucinogenic psychedelic’. The study, published in Cell, used a novel biosensor to determine that a compound known as AAZ-A-154 is able to interact with a classic psychedelic target receptor (in mice). The development of such compounds could make the administration of psychedelic therapy – which currently requires hours of pre-screening and supervision – much more straightforward. However, many scientists argue that hallucinations may be essential to the therapeutic benefits seen in trials of drugs like ketamine or psilocybin (magic mushrooms).

THE GUARDIAN bit.ly/newpsychedelics

Inside the factory A fascinating ‘behind the scenes’ report from a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Missouri shows how millions of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are actually made. With the help of diagrams and videos from inside the facility, the article reveals the process that takes the master DNA plasmid that codes for the virus spike protein and

A tongue-in-cheek guide to ‘types of scientific paper’ by the popular science cartoonist Randall Munroe (known as ‘xkcd’) has spawned dozens of alternatives mocking the types of paper that dominate subdisciplines of the sciences. The original comic featured 12 archetypal types of paper including: ‘We put a camera somewhere new’ and ‘My colleague is wrong and I can finally prove it’. Modified versions were soon being posted on Twitter by academics in fields ranging from entomology to ecology. bit.ly/typesofpapermemes

What’s it like to be a bat?

Bats may understand their world in terms of time, rather than space, the authors of a new study on echolocation suggest. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), used normal and helium-filled air to manipulate the speed of sound in the bats’ environment, and observed how accurately they detected the location of their prey. The results suggested that bats are born with an innate sense of the speed of sound, and map the world in units of time, not space.

PNAS bit.ly/bat-time

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Upfront News, 2 OBITUARY

Dr Ian Gibson Hon FRSB

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MP for Norwich North 1997-2009 and supporter of science in Parliament The biological community has lost a real champion with the death of Dr Ian Gibson, the former MP for Norwich North who died of pancreatic cancer in April aged 82.

Following his degree and doctorate at the University of Edinburgh Ian worked at the University of East Anglia from 1965 until his election to the House of Commons in 1997.

He started as a research scientist and became Dean of the School of Biological Sciences in 1991, with experience in two American universities along the way.

With this solid scientific experience Ian emerged as a Ian was a man who gave his life strong campaigner for science to the scientific and political (and cancer care in particular) and both remained close to his betterment of humankind heart throughout his life. One senior scientist recalled his long. He loved football and in his youth gratitude that Ian had been able to “get had been a player for three different a letter on the top of Charles Clarke’s Scottish sides. in-tray” – Clarke being Secretary of After leaving Parliament Ian remained State for Education at the time. active, using his experience to help Ian’s most significant period of Newton’s Apple, the charity which influence came with his chairship of organised meetings for research the House of Commons Science and scientists to enable them to better Technology Select Committee from understand how science policy was 2001 to 2005. He was also chair of organised. When watching Ian in action the All-Party Parliamentary Group he always managed to connect with the on Cancer and a Fellow of the RSB. students because he himself had been Ian stayed in Parliament until he through the experiences they were (deliberately) left in 2009 in the wake of going through. the Parliamentary expenses scandal, In the words of one of his having reached the conclusion that he Parliamentary successors for Norwich, had been badly treated by a kangaroo Ian was “a man who gave his life to the court. For the remaining years of his life scientific and political betterment of Ian was based in his beloved and humankind”. How true that is. adopted city of Norwich (though he did teach at Harvard), whose football team Dr Stephen Benn he had passionately supported for so RSB Director of Parliamentary Affairs

FUNDING

RSB urges PM to reconsider research funding cuts Society chief executive Dr Mark Downs has written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson voicing the sector’s concerns following the announcement of £120m in cuts to the Global Challenge Research Fund.

The £1.5bn fund supports cutting-edge research and is part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), which aims to “maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity to the developing world”. Researchers were informed in March that the ODA budget will be cut by half for the financial year commencing in April, with UKRI having to cancel new grant applications at short notice.

Dr Downs wrote in his letter to the Prime Minister: “Much of the work enabled by this competitive fund addresses areas where the biosciences make a real and much-needed difference, not least among them biosecurity, global health, anti-microbial resistance, and sustainable development.

“I share the dismay of very many at the potentially truncated projects, ended jobs and dissolved knowledge networks as a result of cuts to the ODA budget. It is antithetic to the Government’s stated ambition to build the global standing of UK research and innovation.”

The reduction in funds could leave “a lasting scar on the progress and capacity of UK science,” he added. “We want to see realistic and supported ambitions that fulfil the potential of the UK bioscience community, and the international networks they have carefully forged over many years.”

Read the full letter at www.rsb.org.uk/news

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APPOINTMENTS

Primate embryos are not generally used in drug screening

Jon Scott appointed to key policy committee

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The Society is pleased to announce it has appointed Professor Jon Scott FRSB as the new chair of its Education and Science Policy (ESP) Committee.

Professor Scott is a higher education consultant and has held roles as professor of bioscience education and pro-vice-chancellor (student experience) at the University of Leicester. He has extensive interest in teaching, assessment and attainment across the biosciences and their application.

Scott replaces Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FRSB, who is stepping down at the end of a four-year term as chair of the ESP Committee.

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Brexit causes lab supplies shortages

ETHICS

Concern over monkeyhuman embryology study

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esearch that created hybrid human and monkey embryos has been criticised by geneticists and has reignited concerns about the ethics of such work.

In the study, published in Cell, human stem cells were injected into monkey embryos and were observed growing and differentiating together for up to 19 days. Researchers from Kunming University in China and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, USA, said the aim was to observe how cells from different species communicate within an embryo in the hope of

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informing future models for drug testing or tissue transplantation.

Researchers generally do not allow human embryos to grow in vitro beyond 14 days, although this procedure used stem cells rather than human embryonic cells. Developmental biologists also questioned the quality of the study and the choice of primate embryos, which are not usually used as model organisms in drug screening.

Life science researchers in the UK are reporting difficulties obtaining vital supplies for laboratory work due to Brexit-related issues, according to a Times Higher Education article.

The report claims that institutes in the UK, including the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire, are having trouble sourcing reagents and equipment because of stockpiling and delays to imports.

Sources quoted in the article say that paperwork and supply chains have become far more complex since the UK withdrew from Europe, and that delays to the delivery of certain sensitive reagents are compromising some research projects.

ENVIRONMENT

Campaigners urge rethink of reusable plastic bag prices Campaigners have called for higher prices for thicker ‘bag-for-life’ style carrier bags after rising sales figures

Policy news, 1

POLICY NEWS Lauren McLeod: “The pandemic has exacerbated a lot of pre-existing issues in the education sector”

suggest shoppers are buying them more and reusing them less. According to The Guardian, Marks & Spencer alone sold more than 80 million thick reusable plastic bags in 2019 – six times as many as in the previous year.

The Government has recently introduced legislation to raise the charge of single-use bags from 5p to 10p and extend the charge to more shops, but campaigners say the sale of reusable bags is now a bigger problem, as they are often the only bags available and contain substantially more plastic.

POLICY PROFILE

Lauren McLeod MRSB The RSB’s head of education policy on post-pandemic education

CONSULTATIONS

Policy inbox • The policy team is currently

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responding to DEFRA’s consultation on the five legally binding principles that will guide future policymaking to protect the environment.

RSB CEO Dr Mark Downs wrote an open letter to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, voicing sector concerns over the proposed £120m cut to the Global Challenge Research Fund, which he said could leave a ‘lasting scar’ on UK science (see p7).

The Society has recently responded to DEFRA consultations on the regulation of genetic technology and animal welfare in transport, and a consultation on animal welfare in transport in Scotland.

The RSB has published its response to a consultation on the future range of subjects that should be available as GCSEs in Wales and which other made-for-Wales qualifications should be available alongside them.

All RSB consultation responses and briefings can be found at www.rsb.org.uk/policylibrary

What do you do at the RSB? The Society’s education policy team is focused on teaching and learning at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Our work is led by input from a number of committees, our Member Organisations and a diverse range of people, from higher education and school teachers to employers.

I also convene groups of partner science organisations, such as the Association for Science Education, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry, with the aim of facilitating coordinated approaches to education policy across the sciences.

I often describe my role as synthesising and disseminating policy ideas, either from the bioscience education community to policymakers, regulatory bodies and awarding organisations, or in the opposite direction.

We take a long-term view on big changes we want to make in bioscience education, but we also work more reactively – for example, in responding to ideas from government.

What’s your background? How did you get into education policy?

I started off as a science teacher in north London. While I was completing my master’s in science education, I took on a part-time job at the Institute of Physics, where I worked on projects looking at countering gender stereotyping and, again, improving opportunities to get into the sciences.

Do you miss teaching science?

I miss being in the classroom and guiding students through topics. I also miss doing

practical work with students, because it enabled me to do a bit of hands-on science on a daily if not hourly basis. But I don’t miss the long hours that creep in to your holidays or not being able to have a cup of tea when I want!

What are the big issues in science education at the moment?

Curriculum and qualifications, and diversity and inclusion. They are part of our work to ensure everybody has an equal opportunity to continue studying the sciences.

The pandemic has exacerbated a lot of pre-existing issues in the education sector, which has led to a lot of challenges but potential opportunities too. We’ve probably lost progress in increasing diversity and access to the sciences due to the changes made in the ways qualifications were awarded and difficulties with access to learning.

However, there are also opportunities around considering whether our forms of assessment are really fit for purpose.

We’ve had an incredibly busy year responding to all of the changes made across all the different nations very quickly – I probably wrote as many consultation responses in six months last year as I did in my first three years here. Now we’re at a point where we’re thinking about the broader and longer-term impact of the pandemic to education. There is a need for a drastic long-term plan to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on science education – for example, thinking about ensuring the security and diversity of the STEM pipeline of the next 10 years after the disruption to education at all levels.

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Georgina Fauconier FRSB is the RSB’s policy intern and a PhD student at Brunel University London, researching European smelt in the Thames

The lynx effect The Lynx UK Trust is submitting its second application to trial the reintroduction of this striking wild cat to a forest in central Scotland

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Walking through a forest in the early light you see a flash of fur in the shadows between the trees. You stop, looking and listening intently, but can’t see or hear anything other than the birds chirping.

Even a glimpse of the elusive Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) ending the night’s hunt is a special experience – most people will only ever know one has been near from footprints in the snow. This secretive nocturnal predator is currently found in rugged, hard-to-reach and dense forests across Eurasia, from western Scandinavia to Eastern Russia. But could this fantastic creature soon be glimpsed on wild walks in Scotland too?

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Amid growing interest in rewilding landscapes and species reintroductions, the Lynx UK Trust is reapplying for a permit to conduct a five-year scientific trial to assess the consequences of reintroducing a small number of GPS-fitted lynx to the UK. It’s a contentious issue: the trust says it will bring ecological benefits and boost biodiversity and ecotourism, while landowners are concerned about predation of livestock and Scottish wildlife.

THE CASE FOR CATS

Britain lost its native apex predators – such as wolves, lynx and bears – hundreds of years ago, mainly due to overhunting and habitat loss.

LYNX AND THE LAW The EU Habitats Directive Article 22 encourages member states to assess the feasibility of reintroduction to enhance biodiversity and reinstate species that have been exterminated by people. The UK Government’s 25-Year Environment Plan also states that reintroductions will be considered as part of the UK’s effort to meet global commitments to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss

Shutterstock; Laurent Geslin/naturepl.com

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Reintroducing lynx to the UK could boost woodland growth and biodiversity, say campaigners

The lynx became extinct in the UK in around 700 AD, most likely hunted to extinction for its fur.

Without an apex predator grazers and browsers can become sedentary and overgraze areas of ecological and economic importance. When an apex predator is reintroduced, scent marking across the landscape changes the behaviour of grazers and they instinctively move more to avoid predation.

The Lynx UK Trust says the cats would help control overabundant roe and sika deer populations, decreasing the need for culling.

The increased movement of grazers would also allow the growth of young saplings and other vegetation, increasing woodland and improving biodiversity. The trust believes the lynx – with its distinctive ruffs of hair around the collar and black ear tufts – would also serve as an ambassador for nature restoration.

A previous application to reintroduce lynx by the trust was rejected by Natural England in 2018. Michael Gove, environment secretary at the time, said that there were a number of concerns, including the resilience of the trust, a lack of funding and a reliance on volunteers1. Rewilding Britain also had a number of concerns with the trust’s first proposal2.

Shutterstock; Laurent Geslin/naturepl.com

– with decision-making devolved to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The first formalised reintroduction of a species in the UK was the Eurasian beaver, successfully reintroduced to Argyll, Tayside and Devon over the past decade (and after several failed applications).

Eurasian and Iberian lynx have been successfully reintroduced since the 1970s to a number of European countries, including Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Croatia, Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia. Even though the lynx is a shy, elusive species, reintroduction sites have benefited from ecotourism and increased local revenues: a study on Harz National Park in Germany reported that over half of respondents cited lynx as the key reason for visiting.

BIG CAT CAVEATS

virility within populations and to prevent inbreeding.

A new year-long study3 by Vincent Wildlife Trust, in partnership with Scotland: The Big Picture and Trees for Life, will assess people’s views about the possible reintroduction.

In 2020 a poll by YouGov4 showed that the public are largely supportive of the idea of reintroducing charismatic creatures – but just 36% want to see the lynx specifically brought back (30% want to see bears reintroduced to the UK). Opposition to the idea comes mainly from farmers and landowners who are concerned about the loss of livestock and damage to property.

Lynx can attack anything from small rodents to large deer, game birds and sheep, and there are also concerns about the predation of vulnerable Scottish wildlife such as wildcats and capercaillie. Research suggests that lynx only target such

However, reintroduced populations are often small and geographically separated. Studies suggest that these small, isolated populations may not be sufficient to create genetically stable and continuously distributed populations. Active management is therefore required to ensure genetic

The trust believes the lynx would help control overabundant roe and sika deer populations

REFERENCES 1) Letter from the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to the Lynx UK Trust, 30 November 2018.

2) Eurasian Lynx Policy Statement, Rewilding Britain, Accessed 30 April. rewildingbritain.org.uk 3) Eurasian Lynx Qualitative Study, Vincent Wildlife Trust, February 2021. www.vwt.org. uk/research-all/europeanlynx-qualitative-study 4) ‘Third of Brits would reintroduce wolves and lynxes to the UK, and a quarter want to bring back bears’. YouGov, 28 January 2020.

5) Jobin, A. et al. Prey spectrum, prey preference and consumption rates of Eurasian lynx in the Swiss Jura Mountains. Acta Theriol.

45(2), 243–252, 2000.

animals in times when deer populations are very limited5, but farmers cite data from Norway, where authorities had to compensate farmers for the loss of tens of thousands of sheep, a fifth of which were believed to have been killed by lynx. The Lynx UK Trust says this is unlikely to happen at the specified reintroduction site in Queen Elizabeth Forest in the Scottish Highlands.

Others opposed to the idea say that modern forests are now busy and well-used spaces, and introducing predators will lead to further human-animal conflicts. Many lynx are lost every year in traffic accidents and small populations are highly susceptible to unpredictable demographic events, which can lead to population declines.

There are, of course, other ways to kick-start woodland expansion and improve biodiversity that don’t involve releasing large predators into a new environment. For example, keeping thick, thorny vegetation (scrub), which has historically been cleared to ‘tidy up’ woodland, provides protection for seeds and saplings against grazing and browsing animals.

WHAT NEXT?

The Eurasian lynx preys on deer but can attack livestock and a range of other wildlife

In Scotland, after a formal application has been submitted, a licence for a species release is required from NatureScot. The National Species Reintroduction Forum, chaired by NatureScot, represents a number of stakeholders and advises on species translocations and release. In England, a permit application would go through DEFRA and Natural England.

Whatever the outcome this time round it is undeniable that UK landscapes are suffering from severe biodiversity loss and radical steps need to be taken to protect natural areas and conserve wildlife.

Whether those steps involve the arrival of these beautiful animals to the forests of central Scotland remains to be decided.

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POLICY ANALYSIS

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ECOLOGY & CONSERVATION Right: Underside of a red-green carpet moth (Chloroclysta siterata) resting on a window in Derbyshire

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Below: Cockchafer beetle (Melolontha melolontha), spotted in Wiltshire

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Understanding changes in the natural world relies on good biological data.

As James McCulloch explains, all contributions to this cause are precious

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With potentially millions of extant species worldwide, a large proportion of them undescribed and even more unstudied, any attempt to ensure that no more species are lost to extinction may seem futile. Right here in the UK, animals, plants, fungi and other organisms are likely to be silently disappearing without us noticing or without ever being observed in the first place. However, the first and most important step in safeguarding the survival of these species is far simpler than many people imagine – and anyone can make important breakthroughs.

When you think of the main methods of species conservation, such as land management, habitat creation, green infrastructure construction and captive breeding programmes, there’s one thing that each of them needs to be successful: data. Even something as complex as a captive breeding programme relies on relatively basic data, such as what a species eats and where it breeds – information that can be gleaned from a simple biological recording effort.

Although some species thrive in captivity, for others their captive environment has to match what they would experience out in

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the wild and this data data must mustbe besourced sourced from biological records.

Biological recording can take one of three routes: through organised citizen science projects; listing all you can identify (either from all or specific taxonomic groups) at a site, sometimes known as a ‘bioblitz’; or incidental recording of whatever you may come across on a day-to-day basis.

With the first route the project usually has a specific goal. For instance, the Big Wasp Survey (www.bigwaspsurvey.org) aims to garner a better picture of the

distribution of different social wasp species across the UK and see what might be affecting their populations.

The latter two routes can be just as important, both scientifically and for conservation. There’s no need to devote lots of time either: just a minute spent peering under a log in my back garden revealed the Australasian flatworm Kontikia ventrolineata, the first record for Surrey, while a short session sorting leaf litter using a bonsai sieve revealed an undescribed species of springtail (a small insect-like arthropod) that had never been recorded in the UK before.

Conservation programmes too often focus on charismatic megafauna such as mammals and birds, but every species, regardless of whether it is large, showy, feathered or furry, can benefit from biological recording and it is those under-appreciated taxa, such as invertebrates, that may in fact benefit most. For large species such as the Socorro dove (Zenaida graysoni), even with such a range-restricted population, it is often relatively easy to find and record their presence. However, with smaller organisms, concerted biological recording

Nick Upton/2020VISION/naturepl.com; Alex Hyde/naturepl.com

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All recordings great and small

Nick Upton/2020VISION/naturepl.com; Alex Hyde/naturepl.com

Biorecording feature, 1

Every species, regardless of whether it is large, showy, feathered or furry, can benefit from biological recording

efforts are often the only way of determining a species’ presence at a locality or even its existence at all. This is one of the clearest benefits of biological recording: if you don’t know where a species lives or even whether it exists, how is it supposed to be conserved?

RICH BIOLOGICAL DATA Biological recording is about more than just confirming the presence of a species at a locality. In the case of the Socorro dove, one of the main challenges facing the reintroduction of this exceedingly rare bird

is knowing what exactly caused its dramatic decline in the first place: was it human persecution, the introduction of invasive species or habitat degradation?

If more biological recording efforts had been in place prior to the Socorro dove’s categorisation as ‘extinct in the wild’, it would be much easier to prevent it from slipping back into extinction once reintroduction is ready to take place.

Confirming the presence of a species at a particular locality can be the tipping point as to whether a planned development goes ahead or a crucial insight into how the site

should be managed to maximise biodiversity, but the record’s associated data can be just as insightful. One of these possible data points is the date on which the record was made. This data can be used to indicate the phenology of a species – that is, the time of year the species goes through each part of its lifecycle.

One of the many initiatives across the country that is making use of data such as this is the Sussex Botanical Recording Society’s churchyard survey. This primarily aims to record the species of vascular plants present at churchyards across the

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ECOLOGY & CONSERVATION Right: Green-winged orchids (Anacamptis morio) pictured in Ashton Court Park, Bristol

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Far right: Green dock beetle (Gastrophysa viridula) female swollen with eggs, photographed in the Peak District National Park

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Below right: The distribution of the southern small white butterfly (Pieris mannii) is increasing rapidly due to environmental change

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One’s biological records can make a difference in research and conservation even if undertaken on an occasional, casual basis county of Sussex, which can then be supplied to the land manager. If a rare or endangered species is discovered, phenological data can be consulted, which can inform the manager to only carry out activities such as mowing at particular times of the year in order to cause the least damage to the population of the rare plant.

One example is the green-winged orchid (Anacamptis morio), which flowers relatively early in the season. Habitat data supplied with biological records also tells us that this species needs nutrient-poor soils, meaning that cuttings have to be removed post-mowing. The land management of the site is often seen as the main act of conservation taking place, but in fact without the biological recording efforts that came before it, there may have been no such plan or even any recognition that conservation efforts were needed.

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prevent range restrictions such as this from happening.

Furthermore, it’s not just the environment that’s changing our ecosystems, but the species within them as well. Non-native species are appearing in our countryside now more than ever and there is only one way that they can be tracked. Natural colonisers such as the willow emerald damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis) often enter the landscape gradually, sometimes coexist with the same species at the point of origin and are usually similar to some of the species already there.

However, those that are more exotic and brought to our shores by human activity can be quite dissimilar in terms of ecological needs to anything the ecosystem is used to.

The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) has been imported into Western Europe from its native range in Southeast Asia and a nest of these formidable wasps can kill thousands of pollinators a day. The species with which it coexists in Asia have developed strategies to avoid predation, but the prey where it has been introduced have no such defences, with disastrous implications. In this situation, biological recording is essential in order to identify adventive populations and ensure that they cause as little damage to the local ecosystems as possible.

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TRACKING CHANGES Land management has long been a steadfast method of conservation, but as we head into the future biological recording will become especially prudent as the environment around us changes.

With environmental change occurring at an increasingly fast rate, the impact this is having on species will need to be carefully tracked too.

Biological recording has shown that the southern small white butterfly (Pieris mannii) has expanded its distribution from its historic range around the Mediterranean and Asia Minor across Europe at a rate of 100km each year and is poised to cross the English Channel any day, if it hasn’t already, most likely as a result of climate change.

The way we farm is also having an observable impact on species, with populations of species such as the great yellow bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus) becoming more fragmented as a result of farming intensification. The distribution of the great yellow bumblebee, which used to be widespread across southern Britain, has shrunk to the extreme north of Scotland and the Outer Hebrides.

This could soon be the fate of countless other species, but without biological recording it’s impossible to know how each species is faring and how best to

ENSURING ACCURACY

Alex Hyde/naturepl.com; MYN/Dirk Funhoff/naturepl.com

Rod Williams/naturepl.com

One of the most obvious criticisms of biological recording and citizen science projects is the accuracy of the data collected. The identification of many of the UK’s 70,000 species is difficult even for specialists and certain taxonomic groups can be prone to misidentifications by citizen scientists. However, there are systems in place to mitigate these issues.

The recording schemes that collate and analyse records of particular taxonomic groups will vet the records they receive and, where necessary, omit those without sufficient evidence – such as inconclusive photographs or voucher specimens – from publications, databases and distribution maps. The recording schemes also provide valuable identification support to recorders of all abilities and will correct any misidentified photographs. As a result, even complete novices are able to dive into submitting important records without worrying about providing inaccurate data.

Although the threats facing our wildlife may seem huge, the key to solving these problems is a task that can be done by anyone, regardless of their previous experience of natural history or conservation. Everyone’s biological records can make a difference in research and conservation even if undertaken on an occasional, casual basis.

You can find more information on biological recording and how to get involved on the websites of the Biological Records Centre (www.brc.ac.uk) and the National Biodiversity Network (www.nbn.org.uk). You can send your records to either the specific taxonomic group recording scheme, with details available on the BRC website or to iRecord (www.brc.ac.uk/ irecord). No matter how common a

species might be, every single record is valuable and will be gratefully received by your local recording centres and recording schemes.

James McCulloch has won several awards for his biological recording projects, including the Bernard Skinner Award for excellence in entomology and the Gilbert White Youth Award for terrestrial and freshwater recording organised by the National Biodiversity Network.

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FURTHER READING 1) Michael J. O. et al. A vision for global biodiversity monitoring with citizen science. Adv. Ecol.

Res. 59 169–223 (2018).

2) Pescott, O. L et al. Ecological monitoring with citizen science: the design and implementation of schemes for recording plants in Britain and Ireland. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 115(3) 505–521 (2015).

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ON RECORD

James McCulloch, winner of the Gilbert White Youth Award for terrestrial and freshwater recording, will be writing a seasonal column on recording for the summer, autumn and winter issues of The Biologist this year

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Mini-miners in your garden

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The Biologist is pleased to launch the first of a series of seasonal columns on what wildlife recorders can look out for in the UK right now

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The warmer months provide a bounty of biological recording opportunity as a significant proportion of the UK’s 7,800 vascular plant species are at their most evident, with flowers in bloom and leaves unfurled.

The development of this glorious foliage assists the recording of more than just the plants themselves. Without too much time or effort spent searching, you can find various intricate patterns etched onto the plant’s tissue. These green corridors are the work of the larvae of various leaf-mining insects spanning a wide range of taxonomic groups.

Flies and moths are common culprits, with beetles and wasps (particularly sawflies) also making their mark beneath the epidermis of a variety of plants.

For gardeners especially, leaf mines may seem an unsightly and undesirable feature of their flower beds, but they very rarely cause any significant harm to the plant.

To the recorder they are in fact a blessing: while adult leaf miners are difficult to identify, even closely related species can produce unique and distinctive leaf-mine patterns, allowing much easier

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identification by citizen scientists at all levels of experience.

Given the range of taxa that produce mines, their structure and form can vary considerably. The most recognisable mines are those that snake across the leaf, becoming wider as the larva grows in size and sometimes ending in a terminal blotch. Some mines are entirely composed of a blotch, occasionally boxed in by two of the leaf’s major veins. The least conspicuous miners form their corridors in the stem, fruits or the roots of the plant.

With so many species of leaf-mining insect in the UK, some are impossible to identify to species level without rearing the larvae to adulthood. However, with information about the foodplant and clear photos of the mine, identification of a large proportion of the British fauna is possible.

While some species of leaf miner are strongly polyphagous (feeding on plants from multiple families) or oligophagous (feeding on plants from several genera within the same family), many are monophagous and feed only on a few closely related plant species, narrowing down the possibilities significantly.

IDENTIFICATION AND RECORDING Identification of the leaf miner is often based on the shape of the mine and where on the leaf it originates and develops, as well as the pattern of frass (poo) inside the corridor, for which a backlit photo of the leaf is useful.

Several websites enable you to identify leaf mines by foodplant – for example, www.ukflymines.co.uk covers the whole range of leaf-mining insects.

A good place to start with recording leaf miners is by looking at holly – only one insect species in the UK, the agromyzid fly Phytomyza ilicis, forms leaf mines in holly leaves and is therefore easily identified.

The National Agromyzidae Recording Scheme, http://agromyzidae.myspecies. info, receives and analyses records of this large family of predominantly leaf-mining flies in order to improve our understanding of their ecology and taxonomy. Records of agromyzids and other leaf miners can be submitted via iRecord (www.brc.ac.uk/irecord) with a supporting photo and provide a valuable contribution to science.

Biorecording column, 1 Phytomyza ilicis is the only species of leaf miner to feed on holly leaves, so is easy to identify

Phytomyza ilicis is the only species of leaf miner to feed on holly leaves, so is easy to identify

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MICROBIOLOGY Coloured scanning electron micrograph of tooth plaque

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Breaking down barriers A better understanding of how bacterial biofilms form is vital to prepare us for future pandemics and the worsening of the antimicrobial crisis, writes Susana Direito

Eye of Science/Science Photo Library

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In the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 the majority of the estimated 50 million deaths attributed to the virus were likely to have actually been caused by so-called secondary infections, where bacteria commonly found in the upper respiratory tract proliferate and exacerbate the illness1.

Inflammation or excessive mucus in the lungs allow ordinarily harmless bacteria in the respiratory tract to form stubborn biofilms and become dangerous and often deadly pathogens, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes pneumonia.

It is no different with the viral pandemic that has been sweeping around the world since last year. As of April 2021 almost three million people have died from COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and co-infections and secondary infections are a common complication of severe cases. Although the prevalence

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of these infections is not well understood and seems to vary in different studies, it has been found to be as high as 50% among patients who have died2,3.

WHAT IS A BIOFILM? Biofilms were first seen by the inventor of the microscope, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, in the 1680s, when he observed aggregations of tiny ‘animalcules’ in the thick plaque scraped off his teeth – what we might today call a macroscopic, multispecies biofilm.

The films are in fact dynamic three-dimensional structures that can be assembled by a wide range of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi and protists.

A thick and often slimy extracellular matrix fills the spaces between cells, sometimes of multiple species, providing connectivity, stability, and a degree of protection against environmental, chemical and

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MICROBIOLOGY FIGURE 1: CREATION OF A BIOFILM

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Most microorganisms can attach to and grow upon surfaces. After attachment, the production of extracellular polymers helps solidify the attachment and link cells in the growing biofilm, which show marked changes in growth rate and gene transcription compared to free-floating cells.

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Free-floating cells

Attachment to surface

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mechanical stresses. Biofilms can form on almost any surface that microorganisms can colonise: in our own bodies, such as in the lungs, in dental plaque or on medical implants; in streams and rivers; even on our toilets and sinks. Some microbiologists even think that the biofilm might be the default bacterial lifestyle, with free-floating bacterial cells increasingly seen as in a transitional or dispersal stage4.

The matrix, often formed from a mix of DNA, protein and polysaccharides, can physically and chemically prevent antibiotics from reaching the bacterial cells. This barrier can also prevent the hosts’ immune systems from clearing the infection too, making infections persistent or chronic. What’s more, the close contact between the microbial cells in a biofilm allows them to exchange genetic material and resistance genes, increasing the rate at which antimicrobial resistance arises and spreads.

Wet and nutrient-rich environments are optimal media for biofilm development, meaning most of the human respiratory tract (including the nose, mouth, throat, larynx, trachea, bronchi and lungs) are ideal places for these assemblages to form.

Biofilms are thought to form in up to 80% of

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Biofilm grows and matures

human infections5 and play a major role in cystic fibrosis (CF), an inherited condition caused by a mutation in a gene that helps regulate liquid volume on epithelial surfaces6. This leads to thick sticky mucus building up in patients’ lungs and digestive system, triggering bacteria (often Pseudomonas aeruginosa) to form biofilms in the lungs7. As a result, CF patients face regular and very-hardto-treat infections.

Biofilms are not only extremely important in medicine, but are also economically important, causing widespread issues in cleaning, food and wastewater processing industries. Given the huge role biofilms play in both bacterial and viral infections and industry, surprisingly little is known about exactly what triggers their formation and how to prevent them forming in the first place.

A BIOFILM PANDEMIC Despite the vast amount of research being conducted on understanding, tracking and treating SARS-CoV-2, information on the secondary infections and biofilm formation associated with COVID-19 is limited, with studies often based on small sample sizes. A study in Wuhan in China, where COVID-19 was first detected, revealed that half of patients who died suffered from a secondary infection3, and we know COVID-19 patients with co-/secondary infections are more likely to die than patients without these infections8. Other studies have pointed to co-infections of both bacterial and fungal origin in severely ill patients9,10.

Biofilms, 2

Finding active anti-biofilm substances is a major goal of current research in microbiology including the use of bacteriophages (viruses that infect and kill bacteria) and bacteriophage endolysins (bacteriophage enzymes that digest the bacterial cell walls) can also be hindered by the protective effects of the biofilm, and resistance to these treatments can also arise and spread quickly within biofilms11.

COMBINATION THERAPIES

Detachment and dispersal

Pathogens that have been detected in COVID-19 patients include a wide range of bacteria that are known to form biofilms (Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus (including MRSA), P. aeruginosa, Haemophilus influenzae, S. pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydia pneumonia, Legionella pneumophila, Serratia marscecens, Enterococcus faecium, Enterobacter and Chlamydia species), as well as fungi (including Candida and Aspergillus species); and other viruses (other coronaviruses, influenza A and B, rhinovirus/enterovirus, parainfluenza, metapneumovirus, respiratory syncytial and HIV).

Polymicrobial secondary infections – i.e. a secondary infection caused by more than one organism – are also possible.

For these reasons treating the viral disease alone cannot be the only focus of our efforts: a better understanding of how biofilms form, how to prevent them and how to break them down could help minimise the number of deaths caused by COVID-19, as well as the impact of the next viral pandemic.

It is not as simple as the administration of antibiotics to patients suffering with COVID infections. As well as the fact that biofilms help prevent the perforation of antibiotics into the colony, the indiscriminate and ineffective use of antibiotics on a pandemic scale will only aggravate the already very serious problem of antibiotic resistance – thus potentially making us even more vulnerable to secondary infections during viral outbreaks. Potential alternatives to antibiotics,

Making use of different phage cocktails or combination therapies with antibiotics may be more promising strategies, as well as treatments engineered specifically to penetrate biofilms. Even more important would be the ability to intervene before biofilm formation takes place, or prevent bacteria being able to form biofilms, and finding active anti-biofilm substances is a major goal of current research in microbiology12.

Different therapeutic strategies are being investigated for different stages of biofilm formation, from prevention of bacterial adhesion to surfaces to substances that can penetrate mature and solidified microbial microenvironments.

A key goal is substances that disrupt the formation of the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), which forms the tough viscous scaffold of the biofilm.

This can only occur when we have a good understanding of how biofilm formation occurs and in what circumstances – a challenging area of study.

These are highly heterogeneous and complex communities of living organisms that evolve rapidly.

Such research requires contributions from several disciplines, including microbial genetics, microbial ecology, biophysics, soft matter physics, engineering, mathematical modelling and others, and partnerships between academia and industry.

Given the ongoing pandemic, biofilm research has never been as relevant. And a better understanding of biofilms will mean we are better prepared to deal with the inevitable next pandemic and the worsening of the antimicrobial resistance crisis.

The National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC) is currently running a #BiofilmAware campaign to raise awareness of biofilm research, which will include the introduction of the first #BiofilmWeek on 16 August 2021. See www.biofilms.ac.uk/

REFERENCES 1) Morens, D. M. et al.

Predominant role of bacterial pneumonia as a cause of death in pandemic influenza: implications for pandemic influenza preparedness. J. Infect.

Dis. 198(7), 962–970 (2008).

2) Lai, C. C. et al. Co-infections among patients with COVID-19: The need for combination therapy with non-anti-SARSCoV-2 agents? J. Microbiol.

Immunol. Infect. 53(4), 505–512 (2020).

3) Zhou, F. et al. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet 395(10229), 1054–1062 (2020).

4) Boudarel, H. et al. Towards standardized mechanical characterization of microbial biofilms: analysis and critical review. NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes 4, 17 (2018).

5) National Institutes of Health.

6) Davies, J. C. et al. Cystic fibrosis. BMJ (Clinical research ed.) 335(7632), 1255–1259 (2007).

7) Moradali, M. F. et al.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa lifestyle: a paradigm for adaptation, survival, and persistence. Front. Cell. Infect.

Microbiol. 7(39) (2017).

8) Lansbury, L. et al.

Co-infections in people with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J. Infect. 81(2), 266–275 (2020).

9) Lai, C. C. et al. Co-infections among patients with COVID-19: The need for combination therapy with non-anti-SARSCoV-2 agents? J. Microbiol.

Immunol. Infect. 53(4), 505–512 (2020).

10) Chen, N. et al.

Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet 395(10223), 507–513 (2020).

11) Eriksen, R. S. et al. A growing microcolony can survive and support persistent propagation of virulent phages. Proc. Natl.

Acad. Sci. USA 115(2), 337–342 (2018).

12) Koo, H. et al. Targeting microbial biofilms: current and prospective therapeutic strategies. Nat. Rev. Microbiol.

15, 740–755 (2017).

Susana Direito is an NBIC research Fellow and part of the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership core team at the University of Edinburgh. Direito has won awards to partner with industry in order to address problems caused by biofilms and to help in the development of disinfection technologies.

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Using high temperatures, humans are able to make food that is aromatically simple far more complex and pleasing

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Delicious book extract, 1

The science of flavour The human craving for rich flavours has been a largely unacknowledged and unexamined force in our evolution, according to a new book that explores the concept of ‘deliciousness’ in nature

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When Rob Dunn, an evolutionary biologist, and ecologist, and Monica Sanchez, an anthropologist, stopped to eat by some ruins on their favourite Croatian island a few years ago they began to think about the food of ancient people. Our own meals are about pleasure, but to ancient humans they would have been simply about survival. Or were they? The pair set out to investigate and found that neither of their fields had deeply considered the role of pleasure in the decisions our ancestors made.

“In most scientific or scholarly work on the diets of early humans, the pleasure had been taken out of food,” they write in their new book, Delicious.

While many researchers have tried to work out the diets of early humans, and the role of hunting in the extinction of ancient animals, barely any research considers whether flavour influenced the species our ancestors chose to eat. The authors attempted to connect what is known about the needs of animals and early humans, what is known about how our senses have evolved, and what gastronomy tells us about the experience and importance of food in our culture, to better understand how ‘deliciousness’ has influenced the human story.

In this exclusive extract, the pair explore how bipedalism may have impacted early humans’ ability to enjoy flavour.

EXTRACT FROM DELICIOUS: THE EVOLUTION OF FLAVOR AND HOW IT MADE US HUMAN

by Rob Dunn and Monica Sanchez Roughly 75 million years ago, the primate family tree divided in two. One branch, the Strepsirrhini, became the lemurs, bush babies, and their relatives. The other branch, the Haplorhini, would beget modern monkeys, apes, and humans. As haplorhine noses and eyes evolved, some skull bones were lost – collateral damage associated with an imperfect process, the nuts and bolts left over after rebuilding things.

One of those bones was the transverse lamina, a long bone that helps to separate the mouth from the nose, a kind of shelf between the mouth floor and the nose floor of the head. The loss of the transverse lamina (also called the lamina transversalis) may have led many primate species, including apes such as gorillas and chimpanzees, to evaluate their food in a new way. Dogs sniff their food, then bite it. Once they have bitten it, the dominant experience of the food is simple and driven by the small palette of sensations the tongue offers. Bitter.

Sweet. Umami. Sour. Salty. Not so for monkeys, apes, and other haplorhine primates. Each bite of their food has a taste and, within their mouth, also an aroma.

In humans, air being exhaled out of the lungs and along the length of the neck must make a right angle turn

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to exit via the nose. This sharp turn relates to the orientation of the nose relative to the head and to the way in which the neck is held relative to the body. In other primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas, the turn is less sharp.

Daniel Lieberman speculates that the sharp turn around which exhaled air must travel during human exhalation may lead the air to bounce into the mouth and up through the nose, turbulently.

Experiments on cadavers seem to bear out Lieberman’s intuition.

In bouncing turbulently, the exhaled air might spread even more aromas from the mouth to the nose. Finally, bipedal species also need to hold their food further forward in their mouths while chewing and manipulating it (in front of the epiglottis) or risk choking. Lieberman argues that this allows more time for retronasal aromas to be appreciated.

Such aromas could be savoured while the tongue was manipulating the food, pushing it around and releasing volatile chemicals from the food’s bottom and then top and then bottom again.

As both Gordon Shepherd and Lieberman have highlighted,these evolutionary changes in noses, heads, and bodies make hominid olfaction in general, and human olfaction in particular, unusual. One result is that humans are less able to distinguish aromas in the soil than a dog or a pig can. But they are far better at being able to experience retronasal aromas as part of the experience of flavour. No one has written a better description of the human experience of the way that flavour combines retronasal smell, taste, mouthfeel, and other experiences than what the French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin penned in 1825. He was writing about the modern human experience. Yet, inasmuch as our noses and mouths have changed relatively little over the last four million years (at least compared to the extent to which they had changed previously), it is also probably a reasonable description of the eating experience of Australopithecus, ancient humans, and Neanderthals.

Above: Did anatomical changes in early humans allow us to enjoy retronasal aromas more than other mammals?

Below right: The chemical reactions from cooking meat produce complex aromas that humans are drawn to

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“As soon as an edible body has been put into the mouth, it is seized upon, gases, moisture, and all, without possibility of retreat. The mouth … is a cave in which aromas are trapped and seized upon. Lips stop whatevermight try to escape; the teeth bite and break it; saliva drenches it; the tongue mashes and churns it; a breath-like sucking pushes it toward the gullet; the tongue lifts up to make it slide and slip; the sense of smell however, oh that sense of smell, appreciates it … without … a single atom or drop or particle having been missed by the powers of appreciation.”

Side by side in the forest or dining room with a dog or a pig, you and a dog or pig perceive different worlds. We miss part of what the dog and pig perceive, but they miss part of what you perceive. We flounder when asked to find truffles, but excel at savouring their flavour. Dogs are good at finding truffles, but fail to enjoy their flavour.

Meanwhile,the pig innately and lustily runs toward the truffle and probably doesn’t ever really know why. In this way, the truffle is a suitable emblem of some of the ways in which our sense of olfaction is unique, but also the extent to which the flavour world of each species is unique. One might argue, then, in returning to consider the story of ancient humans, that such humans were not only unique in their culinary traditions and cuisines, but also uniquely able to appreciate the flavours of foods, including their retronasal aromas.

A key question in considering aroma and human evolution is whether there are any aromas to which humans are innately drawn, or toward which we at least have some predisposition.

As truffles are to pigs, what are to humans? No one knows. It is possible that some aroma associated with roasted meat was as instinctively attractive, once in the

Delicious book extract, 2

In cooking, the mixture of amino acids and sugars under warm conditions produces new compounds... More than six hundred aromas have been identified from cooked beef mouths of the first humans, as the aroma of truffles is to pigs. Or, our brains might be primed to learn to love such foods, but not hardwired to love them. Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, has noted that one feature that many of the foods enjoyed by chimpanzees, gorillas, and humans share is that they tend to have very complex aromas. Recent studies of individual chemical compounds similarly note that humans, independent of their culture, ethnicity, or geographic origin, tend to find compounds that are complex to be more pleasing. Perhaps our brains are predisposed to learn to like a subset of complex aroma compounds and then also complex mixes thereof. In Chinese there is a word, nung, which means, in the context of foods, ‘rich’. It describes the way in which the human palate likes “convoluted tastes, one leading to another in convoluted paths,” as Hsiang Ju Lin and her mother, Tsuifeng Lin, put it in Chinese Gastronomy.

Once our ancestors discovered how to control fire, they found a way to alter foods, intentionally, so as to favour such complexity, which their brains may have been predisposed to love. And, compared to dogs or pigs, they especially loved such complexity once it could be savoured in their mouths.

Some aromas, such as those of the truffle, are complex by nature. Others are complex by culture, due to the ways that humans process food. Cooking meat is one of the ways that humans take something aromatically simple from nature and make it complex. At moderate temperatures, the chemicals in cooked meat that yield

aromas come from chemical reactions in which the proteins, fats, and acids released from muscle cells combine, break apart, and become airborne. Meat begins to smell fruity, flowery, grassy, and nutty.

At high temperatures, however, something else entirely happens, and it happens not only to meat but also to vegetables. At high temperatures, the deliciousness of cooked foods is transformed by food chemistry, in a process so magical it gets a French name, the Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction is named for the physician and chemist Louis Camille Maillard, who reported the discovery in 1912.

Maillard did not study food. He was instead trying to figure out how organisms assemble amino acids to make proteins. Toward this end, he mixed and then warmed amino acids and sugars together. When he did, he found that totally new compounds were produced, compounds that smelled good. Maillard had, unwittingly, mimicked part of the process of cooking. In cooking, just as in Maillard’s experiments, the mixture of amino acids and sugars under warm conditions produces new compounds. The compounds include pigments that make the surface of foods change texture and colour.

These are the pigments we see when meats brown, breads crust, or malted barley is baked before brewing.

But the process also yields hundreds of other compounds, many of them small enough to be airborne and hence sensed by our noses.

The Maillard reaction is chemistry inasmuch as it is subject to chemistry’s laws, but magic inasmuch as it remains both slightly unpredictable and incompletely understood. Every few years new chemical products of this reaction are revealed. It seems likely that they will continue to be revealed for many years to come; fire and fermentation are magicians that hide their best tricks.

This aromatic complexity is characteristic of cooked meat, but also one of those things in nature that have evolved to attract animals to eat them, such as fruits.

More than six hundred aromas have been identified from cooked beef. But this complexity is rivalled by that of fruit and fruitlike fungi such as truffles. Ripe strawberries produce 360 compounds, raspberries produce 200, blueberries produce 106.

Perhaps, as McGee argues, we are innately drawn to complex aromas. And perhaps, as McGee puts it, “cooking with fire was valued because it transformed blandness into fruitlike richness”. Cooking made meat, and also vegetables, complex. It turned the parts of plants and animals that did not evolve to be eaten into mixtures that cannot be improved upon, mixtures akin to those produced by fruits or truffles, and yet nonetheless distinct.

Delicious is published

by Princeton Press.

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Structural biologist Professor Sir David Stuart

During the pandemic researchers have been operating the Diamond Light Source synchrotron remotely. Post-pandemic, remote and automated experimentation is likely to become the norm, says director of life science at Diamond Professor Sir David Stuart

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Diamond Light Source is a particle accelerator in Oxfordshire designed to produce intense beams of x-rays, and infrared and UV light to aid scientific research. During the COVID-19 pandemic the facility has remained operational, prioritising pandemicrelated research – for example, work to understand the interactions between the viral spike protein and human antibodies, or the screening of potentially useful therapeutic compounds.

Professor Sir David Stuart is life sciences director at Diamond, joint head of

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structural biology at the University of Oxford and a Medical Research Council professor of structural biology at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. He is best known for his work elucidating the structure of viruses, and was recently knighted for his contribution to structural biology and his work on the COVID-19 pandemic.

He tells Tom Ireland about some of the insights the Diamond beamlines have been able to provide – and how researchers can now operate technology at the facility remotely and automate entire experiments.

Tom Ireland: Can you tell us a bit about what the synchrotron has been able to do in terms of providing insights into the structure of SARS-CoV-2 and the macromolecules associated with it?

Sir David: Diamond provides both cryo-electron microscopes and x-ray capability.The cryo-electron microscopes are not significantly different to the electron microscopes in top laboratories around the world, but I think the difference is that we are organised to run the microscopes as intensively as possible. They’re run very efficiently and we’ve been able to keep

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‘Automation means users can concentrate on getting good biological samples’

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David Stuart interview, 1 One of the sextupole magnets responsible for bending the electron beam around in a circle

them working throughout the pandemic so far. There’s been a lot of electron microscopy work looking at structures of spike protein, spike-antibody complexes and some work on the viral polymerase. We’re able to allow people in, perhaps from smaller laboratories, who wouldn’t have access to the equipment at their institutions.

It’s quite different on the x-ray crystallography side. X-ray crystallography really is done almost entirely nowadays at synchrotrons. For any difficult project, or any project where you need to move

Where synchrotrons may have really moved forward is in introducing automation, and Diamond has been one of the leading light sources in doing this. Our robotics and automation give you the opportunity of doing things remotely

quickly, you need access to a synchrotron, which can give you really high-resolution atomic-detail structures of the proteins that you’re interested in and at high throughput.

Where synchrotrons may have really moved forward is in introducing automation into the process, and Diamond, I think it’s fair to say, has been one of the leading light sources in doing this. Our robotics and automation give you the opportunity of doing things remotely.

This is something that we introduced a few years ago now and have been gradually doing more and more of, having the users

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send us their samples by courier. Then the users remotely drive the experiments and collect the data to solve the structure.

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So researchers can actually operate the beamline from anywhere around the world?

Yes, you have software called NoMachine, which gives you a window onto the machines at Diamond, and it’s as if you were there – you get the control system for the beamline. It has actually taken a little while to set up because you have to make sure you know who’s in control of the system, but it works beautifully.

Now,especially during lockdown, we’re developing the next thing, which is a complete automation of the system, which we call ‘unattended data collection’.

You fill out all the information on a web form about what’s in each of the little pins that you send into Diamond.

We then use that information to design the experiment, then essentially the software queues up all of the experiments and executes them. It can run very efficiently through the night.

Normally users operate the beamline on the more difficult experiments during the day and then the automated stuff kicks in overnight.However, because the algorithms have got better, the quality of the data collected automatically now means that in many cases it’s very hard for most users to

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do better. So now, where we can, we use unattended data collection. You just send these things off, keep an eye on the database that you put the original information into, and then the structures start coming back at some point.

COVID, all the users always came to do the experiment with cryo-electron microscopes. Now we have no users on site and again we use the virtual machine software to let the users drive the experiment remotely.

Absolutely fascinating – we’ve all been working from home a lot, but operating a particle accelerator from across the country is taking it to another level.

Do you think this level of automation – that is, researchers not even needing to come to the facility – will continue post-COVID?

If you go back a few years, cryo-electron microscopes were very much hands-on – people spending hours in a dark room.

There has been a real shift and the software there has gradually got better too. Before

Well, we won’t go back to what we were at the beginning, but there are always going to be some experiments where there’s a real benefit to the user in being on site. The advantageof the automation and the robotics is that the user can concentrate on the real problem, which is getting good biological samples.

If you can increase the throughput, then you can think about doing different sorts of experiments.You can look at samples that were too risky to justify bothering with or you can look at a large number of crystals and pick the best one with the interesting results. That enables you then to dissect out different conformational states because the spike is actually not a rigid molecule – there’s quite a lot of flexibility and that’s really biologically important.

For example, for the ACE2 receptor to bind, the receptor binding domain has to point upwards on the spike to reveal the binding site.

This model, produced with x-ray crystallography data from Diamond, shows electron densities on the main protease of SARS-CoV-2

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It enables you to dissect out different conformational states because the spike is actually not a rigid molecule – there’s quite a lot of flexibility and that’s really biologically important

Can structural biology help us get a head start in understanding which mutations might be important or worrying for transmission or vaccine efficacy? Or do you really just have to wait until case numbers of a particular variant rise to understand which mutations are advantageous?

I think understanding how and where the ACE2 receptor binds and what mutations do around that site is a way that you can perhaps pick up worrying things more rapidly.

The question really is: can you design therapies that can get around the potential problem of variants escaping immune responses? You might, for instance, put additional sugars on to hide some of the sites and focus the immune response elsewhere. But, also, if you can stop the receptor-binding domains going up to be recognised by ACE2, that would be a good neutralisation mechanism for an antiviral – the exact conformation of the spike protein wouldn’t be so important.

Or if you could convert the pre-fusion state of the spike to a post-fusion state, then that would kill the virus – its machinery of getting in would be destroyed. So I think there may be alternatives that get around this problem of variants. I think in the long term what we really need are good antivirals.

spike – the receptor-binding domain – because we thought it would be interesting to see if it was possible to get compounds that would stop receptor attachment to the spike.

So they did initial screening and as compounds came up as potentially interesting they were then fed back to Diamond for structural analysis.

On the basis of that work, a small number of compounds have been identified. They were then taken to testing in cells to check the effectiveness at neutralising the virus or knocking down virus replication in cells. The next stage will be to put them into animals. They need some more work before they could go into human efficacy trials, but hopefully they’re not far off.

Has Diamond prioritised COVID-related work this year and essentially shut down to other research?

COVID is given priority, although we are doing other things. We are currently running round the clock four days a week instead of our usual six days (the seventh day is usually devoted to machine physics). Very early on we decided that we would set up a rapid access call that didn’t go through the normal peer-review

David Stuart interview, 2

The variant viruses now – the Kent, the Brazilian and the South African – not only have mutations in the spike, they also have mutations in the N-terminal domain, which is way away, right on the outside. The best explanation for that at the moment is that this modulates the presentation of the binding site.

That’s a case where if you collect a lot of data from the electron microscope you can then start to tease apart different conformational states and get important biological insight.

If you could convert the pre-fusion state of the spike to a post-fusion state, then that would kill the virus – its machinery of getting in would be destroyed routes, but was just reviewed by two or three people internally within Diamond, to get things moving quickly. There was a period when if we hadn’t done that we couldn’t have justified keeping operating – all other work in universities was shutting down.

Although a lot of people repurposed their research towards COVID-19, there is still far less research going on than normal.

That meant that we were actually able to give more access, with fewer constraints, than we would do normally when there’s a greater demand for the facility.

Find out more about the Diamond Light Source at www.diamond.ac.uk This interview was conducted at the end of January 2021.

Can you tell me a bit about the drug repurposing project being done at Diamond Light Source?

There’s a drug discovery company in Oxford called Exscientia, which negotiated access to a library of about 12,000 approved drugs and drugs that have made it through some sort of trial in people.

They got access to that and used AI to do the initial screening against a number of targets: the main protease, the papainlike protease and also a portion of the

The Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire is the UK’s national synchrotron

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Bats in Churches feature, 1

A common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus)

On a wing and a prayer X In the village of Peakirk, just outside Peterborough, lies the beautiful 11th-century church of St Pega. This Grade I listed building is home to a series of rare 14th-century wall paintings, including an unusual warning to church gossips, where two women in medieval dress are having their heads pressed together by a devil.

The church is home to more than just ancient artwork, though: it also has a 300-strong maternity colony of soprano pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus pygmaeus).

As of 2018 the bats were regularly flying through the interior of the church, leaving droppings and urine all over the pews and startling churchgoers.

St Pega is just one of thousands of UK churches facing similar issues. In small numbers, bats often go unnoticed, but when they roost in large numbers a conflict arises between the wildlife, the church community and the priceless artefacts housed inside. Some data suggests around 70% of rural churches in England

contain bat roosts, although in some areas it could be as high as 90%.

In the Holy Trinity Collegiate Church in Tattershall, Lincolnshire, 600 soprano pipistrelle bats swoop and swirl around the grand medieval church most summer evenings, before slipping through a small gap above a heavy Gothic door and out into the countryside to forage. This is in addition to a colony of approximately 200 Daubenton’s bats (Myotis daubentonii) that have been using the church for decades.

Unlike residential and commercial buildings, where bats and people are separated by a ceiling, churches usually have an open roof architecture. Droppings and urine fall directly onto surfaces in the main building, and the bats take to the naves and the aisles to socialise or learn to fly. All exposed surfaces must be cleaned up before each event and the mess can stain walls and damage culturally important items1. Such is the burden of cleaning, which often falls on volunteers,

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It is thought up to 70% of rural UK churches contain bat roosts.

Ione Fitzpatrick explains how the Bats in Churches project is helping to protect these nocturnal congregations and their homes

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Right: St Lawrence’s Church in Willington, Bedfordshire, has installed a heated bat box disguised as a hatchment (see below) so the bats can’t access the interior of the church

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Opposite page: Natterer’s bat at St Lawrence’s Church

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the bat droppings have even caused some churches to close.

Bats have been around for around 50 million years, long before humans graced the plains of Africa let alone conceived of and constructed churches. Originally bats made use of nooks in caves and trees to roost, but with the clearing of woodland for agriculture and housing in England many of these opportunities have been lost. Looking through the lens of a roosting bat, it’s easy to see why aging churches – peppered with holes and gaps in the stone or stained glass – became a tempting prospect. Much like a woodland, they provide a cavernous but sheltered canopy under which bats can sleep, fly and socialise. Cooler areas such as crypts provide spaces for hibernation while warmer areas, such as the timber beams under south-facing roofs, are ideal for maternity colonies.

The Bats in Churches project was born out of the need to protect the valuable heritage housed in our nation’s oldest buildings while continuing to protect bat populations. To create harmony between these twin figureheads of the rural landscape, it was essential to provide church communities with workable solutions that enable them to use their buildings as intended while celebrating, rather than lamenting, the presence of bats.

The project has been able to pursue its difficult task thanks to the creation of Natural England’s Bats in Churches

Class Licence. This gives highly trained ecologists the flexibility to get creative in their bat mitigation solutions. A grant totalling £4.5m (£3.8m coming from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the project partners making up the rest) covers the costs of the project over five years (2018-2023) and the project partners - Natural England, the Church of England, the Bat Conservation Trust, the Churches Conservation Trust and Historic England – have agreed to make their shared vision a reality.

In 2012–2014 the University of Bristol carried out research into Natterer’s bats (Myotis nattereri) in historic churches, and found bats are very loyal to their church roosts and to their foraging areas, suggesting that they could be slow to find new roosts if displaced. Population modelling indicated that excluding the bats from the church would have a detrimental effect on their welfare and conservation status. However, the study did have some success in trialling the use of deterrents, such as high-intensity ultrasound, to humanely move the roosts within the churches to prevent accumulations of droppings and urine in sensitive areas2.

The study suggested that deterrents are likely to be most effective in the spring, before the young are born and when Natterer’s bats are more transient. In most sites the bats moved away from the ultrasound noise and found other locations

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within the church to roost, and a majority continued to use the new roost site even after the acoustic deterrent was taken away.

In stark contrast, the trialled use of artificial light as a deterrent was ended early because of welfare concerns. The bats were reluctant to leave their roost at all, raising the potential of entombment and death from starvation. Overall the researchers were able to show that with careful regulation and close monitoring, the use of deterrents could be a useful tool for licensed ecologists.

While every church and its associated roost is unique and demands a bespoke solution, the plans being trialled by the Bats in Churches project are often based around creating alternative roosting sites with enclosed flight spaces, so that the bats can enter and exit their roosts without flying around the main body of the church or roosting over sensitive items. The solution is then put in place temporarily and, if the bats take to it, it is imposed permanently on the condition that it is monitored for several years to ensure the population remains healthy.

When much of the lead roofing was

Peter Moulton/Alamy Stock Photo; St Lawrence’s Church

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stolen from the roof of St Pega’s in 2018 it put both the rare wall paintings and the pipistrelles at risk. However, it also provided an opportunity to re-roof the church in a way that helped keep the business of the daytime and nighttime congregations separate. A survey of the roost in the summer of 2019 found a 300-strong roost still in residence, safely within an enclosed section of the roof, and they will continue to be monitored for several more years.

St Lawrence’s Church in Willington, Bedfordshire, is another example of this type of bat mitigation project being trialled through the collaboration of a highly skilled ecologist, church architect, local bat group and church community.

By building a heated bat box disguised as a hatchment around their primary entry and exit point at the top of a stained glass window, bats are still roosting there in high numbers but are no longer able to access the interior of the church. The priceless artefacts inside are now protected from the damage that bat urine and droppings were causing and the community are once again able to use

Chris Damant/Bernwood Ecology

Peter Moulton/Alamy Stock Photo; St Lawrence’s Church

The first survey season revealed grey long-eared bats, one of the UK’s rarest mammals, roosting in a church in Devon their church as intended without the hours of cleaning.

The plans at St Moran’s Church on Cornwall’s Roseland Peninsula are more elaborate, with the creation of two enclosed flight spaces on either side of the church and a tunnel between the two that acts as a fly-way for the bats to move between them. The church, which has been unofficially closed for several years, is now getting ready to open its doors again for community events.

It is thought that around 6,400 historic churches across the country contain bat roosts3, but this is an out-of-date estimate. It is likely to be many more and it varies across the country. In Norfolk, for example, anecdotal evidence from ecologists suggests that over 90% of churches house bat roosts. The Bats in Churches project is inviting members of the public to survey their local churches this summer for evidence of bats (no previous experience is necessary) to help provide a more accurate idea of how bats are using churches regionally and people’s attitudes towards them. This should help provide better support and

advice for churches struggling to strike a balance between bat and baptism.

The volunteer-led Bats in Churches study has already thrown up some surprising results. In the first survey season a combination of sound analysis from a bat detector and DNA analysis of the droppings revealed grey long-eared bats (Plecotus austriacus), one of the UK’s rarest mammals, roosting in a church in Devon. Of the 115 churches in England that have been surveyed so far, evidence of bats was recorded at nearly 70%. To reach their target of 500 churches, the project is in need of volunteers for the remaining two summers that are left to complete the survey. More information on getting involved can be found on the links below.

For more information and case studies from churches around the UK visit www.batsinchurches.org.uk A video of the Bats in Churches project at Willington, Bedfordshire, can be found at bit.ly/batsinchurches

REFERENCES 1) Hales, J. Bats in churches: objective assessment of associated damage mechanisms.

Archaeol. Int. 17, 94–108 (2014).

2) Zeale, M. et al. Mitigating the impact of bats in historic churches: the response of Natterer’s Bats Myotis nattereri to artificial roosts and deterrence. PLOS ONE 11(3), (2016).

3) Sargent, G. Bats in Churches Project. The Bat Conservation Trust (1995).

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MEMBERS A snapshot of our members at work and leisure

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I am interested in how hormones talk to each other to influence appetite

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At the moment a lot of my time is spent applying for funding to get my new laboratory off the ground.

About half my time is also spent teaching students and this is done largely from home, pre-recording video podcast lectures and coming up with different ways to adapt workshops and practicals that would usually have been run face-to-face before the pandemic.

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ON ANOTHER DAY…

A day in the life Dr Rebecca Dumbell CSci MRSB on life as a neuroendocrinologist in lockdown

I might be teaching in person on campus. This involves a lot of hand sanitiser, masks and social distancing, which can be tricky when the students are so spread out and my glasses are steamed up from wearing a mask. I then travel home and work on some data analysis for a paper I am writing and then later on record and edit a lecture podcast. A lot of communication with colleagues and collaborators is done remotely now, and I usually have one or two meetings in a day to discuss some data, future projects or some upcoming teaching.

MY ALARM GOES OFF…

I AM ALSO…

And at the moment my commute is usually downstairs to my home office, set up in my dining room. I started my lectureship at Nottingham Trent University during lockdown 1.0 and a lot of my work has been from home since then. This means I get to wear warm socks and drink coffee from my own machine, accompanied by my co-worker – my dog – who is very good at reminding me to take a break from screen time.

On the board of trustees for the British Society for Neuroendocrinology and I regularly meet other board members to work on future or current projects such as webinars and a mentor scheme. This is really fun because it helps me stay connected with people who have similar research interests and it is a good support network.

MY WORK INVOLVES… Working on the neuroendocrine regulation of energy balance, so I am interested in how hormones from throughout the body and the brain talk to each other to influence appetite and burning energy.

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AFTER WORK… I take my co-worker for a walk, usually around the local nature reserve where we see all kinds of wildlife and are sometimes treated to a beautiful sunset. I enjoy cooking in my spare time and I have of course fallen into the lockdown trend of sourdough baking, with my homemade starter ‘Fred Bread’.

Members and members listing, 1

The career ladder Professor Wendy Bickmore CBE FRSB on her path to becoming director of a research unit Wendy Bickmore is director of the MRC Human Genetics Unit at The University of Edinburgh.

was a genome sequence. The idea that you could study human genome organisation by microscopy and that chromosome banding patterns reflect an underlying functional compartmentalisation of our genome were the inspiration for my subsequent career.

I FIRST DISCOVERED BIOLOGY… At school. I had an inspirational teacher and supportive parents who tolerated me dissecting earthworms at home. I wanted to study medicine, but then I read Steven Rose’s The Chemistry of Life. The idea that you can explain biology through the rules of chemistry inspired me (and still does). I went on to study biochemistry at university, but I hated practicals and didn’t want to do a PhD. However, I was lucky enough to do my final year research project at the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit. I loved the camaraderie of a research laboratory. Having the time to make and correct mistakes, to troubleshoot and get an experiment to work convinced me to do a PhD.

THE BEST THING ABOUT MY JOB IS… The joy of being part of making new scientific discoveries. As director of the MRC Human Genetics Unit I also get to think about, and enjoy the success of, everyone else’s science and to help direct the future of science.

THE WORST THING ABOUT MY JOB IS… I can’t be in the laboratory any more. I really enjoyed doing experiments with my own hands. Now I sit behind a computer most of the day – even more so during lockdown.

A KEY PIECE OF ADVICE WOULD BE… Go to seminars and read papers outside of your own area. This will give you new ideas and an edge in your own research area.

A PIVOTAL POINT IN MY CAREER… Was in a journal club during my postdoc.

I presented a paper from Julie Korenberg and Mary Rykowski that used fluorescence in situ hybridisation to reveal the distribution of different repeats along human chromosomes, long before there

IN ANOTHER LIFE I’D BE… A gardener or forester – I love being outdoors surrounded by plants and I am passionate about reforestation, especially in Scotland.

My Society and me World-renowned brewer David Ryder MRSB on how RSB membership helps produce good beer I joined the Society quite a few years ago (47 to be precise!) because I felt that membership would complement my career goals of becoming a good brewer of beer.

After a degree in biological sciences and a PhD in biochemistry, my journey took me to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Belgium

and finally the United States, where I have continued to learn my trade as well as teach others along the way.

I have worked at Stella Artois, City Lights and MillerCoors, met an incredible number of people on my journey and, of course, have learned from the best.

In biology there is always something new to learn.

In brewing, there are many exciting frontiers to further fermentation science, particularly when it comes to innovation in beverages for the future, which will, of course, include functional beverage products with many associated exciting possibilities.

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Opportunities, awards and events

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Madison Childs, Jersley Chirawurah, Hannah, Robert Hanson, Joelle Isabel Marzan, Simon Matchett, Carris AFFILIATE Agata Chirek, Wenqi Cho, Shi Min Hanson-Baiden, Varsha Hansraj, Yeoh Matthews, Erik May, Alex McAleer, Omar Abdelalim, Salha Abdulgialil, Choong, Siddhaant Chopra, Hao Ing, Bazila Haq, Abbie Harmer, Jacqueline McCallum, Sarina Nunu Abdulla, Nouf Abdulqadar, Mohammed Walee Chowdhury, Tsz Simon Harnqvist, Charlotte Harris, McCarthy, Emma McCartney, Olivia Ciaran Acuna, Ella Adams, Thomas Yin Genevieve Chu, Megan Clark, Chay Maxwell Harris, Meghan Harris, McCoy, Samantha McGivern, Liam Adams, Arafat Adebayo, Petra Clifton, Elsie Coakley, Alice Codling, Michael Harrison, Mohammad Jafri McGrandles, James McInnes, Annabel Adebola, Precious Adedigba, Matthew Collett,East, Rhiannon Hassan, James Mckee, Louis McLoughlin, Joshua Christopherfrom Adshead, Fatin Humaira Members all grades are Bolton North willColton, be free forBridie staff Hawkins, at institutions Angus Comerford, Jade Coney, Hawkins, Lawrence Hawkins, Kerry McManus, Calvin McMillan Pes, Ahmad Fuzi, Nur encouraged to Fatihah attendAhmad theRSB’s talking to members as part with HUBS membership and Debbie Cook, Caitlin Cooke, Amy Haworth, Caitlin Hayes-Smith, Lauryn McWilliam, Arslan Mehmood, Fauzi, Anique Ahmed, Pearl Akazue, AGM, which willAkhtar, be held online of a free online eventGeorge on 24th advance registration is required.

Cooper, Henry Copping, Madeleine Hayman, Brendan Hayter, Selina Mellin, Saarah Mengrani, Sara Akbar, Armaan Hussain on 21st May from 11:00 13:00.

February at 18:15.

Visit See www.rsb.org.uk/events Coram, Hannah Corness, Benwww.

Cortes, Owen Head, Pu Yun Hee, Nicholas Hannah Mercer, George Meywes, Akrim, Raneem Al Zalek, ZachtoAlbert, Ines Cortina, Alex Couchman, Helm, Hewson, Christopher Eleonora Milea, Oliver Millman, Tan Joseph Alberts, Edward The Trustees’ reportAlderman, and rsb.org.uk/events to register.

TheCaitlin RSB’s Outreach and Rosemary Coupe,future Keira Elizabeth Hickman, MeganAward Hills, Megan Min Hao, Marta Mirecka, Erica Moco, Rachel Aldred, Al-Harthi, Arub accounts willZaina be presented, Help shape policies Engagement 2021Hine, will Coventry, Jodie Cowan, Thomas Craig, Lee Hird, Abigail Hobbs, Rupert Hoff, Inshah Mohammed, Muhammad Ali, Farhaan Ali, Mohammed Ali, the new president-elect at the Crawford, Plant Health be open for nominations in Amelia CaitlinSummit Crawford, Emma Hollamby, Samuel Holland, Hassan Mohd Azhar, Nur Farah Munira Ali,RSB Zeinab Ali, Sundas Nawaz announced, and StefanMaria for Future Leaders on 2nd-4th March.Houston, This award rewards Sebastian Crichton, Michael Crossan, Lauren Kimberly Howard, Wahidah Mohd Kamal, Malleke Ali Begum, Sahar Aloraibi, Cameron Cruickshank, Andrew Currie, Claire Howson, Alice Imogen Mokkedem, Claire Monk, Rebecca Carolina Altomonte, Alves, Przyborski FRSB,Gabriela professor of March. Visit planthealth.rsb. outreach work byHuang, scientists A winning entry from Hazel Nah in Destinee Cushnie-Mason, Alexander Huckle, Emily Hudson, Pak Yam Hung, Moore, Tom Moore, Beth Moran, Sebastiao Alves Rodrigues, Andrew cell technology at Durham org.uk to find out more. and established researchers the 2020 NancyThomas Rothwell Awards Dadswell, Eline Dalderop, Caitlin Jenny Hunt, Thomas Hunt, Rhiannon Portia Morgan, William Leonard Amador, Larisha Amatya, University, will deliver a Heads of Danvers, University to inform, andHussain, engage Daniels, Lucy Piotr Darski, Hurll, Hamza enthuse Hussain, Ilyas Morgan, Eva Moríñigo Vega, Erica Nurul Iffah Amir Shah Ruddin, Nana Science Lab Morris, onlineKira training Charter Lecture.

Advance Bioscience (HUBS) Annual the public.

TheHamdi Society’s Gabriella Davies, Rhian Davies, Romey Waleed Hussain, Hussein, Morley, Tegan Morrison, Ama Amponsah, Precious Davies, Bethany Romanie Abdullah Ijaz, Hristina Ilieva, Raquel Tom Morrison, Aledamanda.

Morton, Nathan Ampontuah, Anciunaite, course.

Contact registrationOdeta is essential via Meeting 2021 Davies, will focus on Nancy Rothwell Award for Davis, Georgina Dawson, Daniel Day, Inocencio, Kirsten Ireland, Amelia Morton, Joshua Mouratsing, Dimitra Hannah Anderson, Nathan Andrade, hardy@rsb.org.uk for more www.rsb.org.uk/events or research, policy, inclusivity, Specimen Drawing will also Michael Acheampong Debrah, Ryan Irvine, Ceara Irvine, Hanif Iryani, Mouzourou, Matthew Mower, Naomi Alexandros Angelopoulos, Fosua information or to apply. events@rsb.org.uk and awarding gaps.

It will be open for entries in March.

See Demel, Bronwyn Dennis, Charlie Kaleighshandra Isaac, Alice Jackson, Moylan-Torke, Rebecca Mpi, Emily Jesica Antwi, George Appeah, Ahmed Resources from the Mulry, RSB’s members have held online 12th-13th April. www.rsb.org.uk/awards.

Dennis, Camilleon Depre, Owen Derrick, Amelie Jackson, Magdalena Jaglinska, Muir, Lorraine Muir, Caitlin Arif,RSB Jason Armstrong, Lukeanother Arnold, Mattia Dervasi, Eleftheria Desipri, Chloe JamiesonVivian Mung’aro, Heather Murray, Kate Arsac England, Elen Ashmore, new online science festival opportunity to engage with the HUBS is also running an TheJameson, SocietyTahirah is offering 40 Gurpreet Dhaliwal, Allana Dickson, Hixon, Anita Janowska, Tegan Jarvis, Jane Murray, Jamil Musa, Christian Asiedu, Nabeel Science Aslam, Adam Science at Home are Zoe freeNairn, to House of Commons online workshop on learning state-funded primary schools Jean Dillon, Asia Dimitrova, Rachel Sajad Jassim, Adam Jedrzejewski, Tania Nakra, Divya Srinivas Asmat, Alicia Aston-Maxwell, Axel access.

Visit www.rsb.org.uk/ and Technology Committee in and teaching during the in the UK free access for four Dinsmore, Tracy Diver, Alistair Dodds Katie Jefferies, Melissa Jeffrey, Harry Nallanchakravarthi, Vladislavs Nanaks, Augeard, Freya Austin, Shafiullah science-at-home February.

Mark Logan, for pandemicBegum on 21st April.

It is of theirWanzhu teachers Gopher Olaskoaga, Dogu, Charlotte Jenkins, Jia, to Leuthe Jia Ying, Amal Naqvi, Jana Natal, Michela Azimi, Yasmin Azizbayli, AlexMP Badescu, Doig, Leigh Donaldson, Jennifer Yifan Jiang, Shane Johnson, Bethany Natali, Filza Naveed, Deepak Nayyar, Kelvin Baffour Ankrah, Camille Bailey, Down, Olivia Downs, Ellie Drinkhill, Jones, Libby Jones, Dominyka Shakeera Nazeer, Zoe Newson, Emily Ffion Baird, Sabahat Bajwa, Caroline Samuel Driver, Oscar Drury, Jasmine Judenyte, Avisah Kadri, Aaron Newton, Kok Lam Ng, Winnie Ngu Pei Baker, Saskia Baker, Adriana Bakoulina, Duffell, Bonny Dunlop, Nicholas Kandola, Rehmat Kang, Poorani Sing, Emily Nicholson, Melina Muggunna Balasubramaniam, Dunning, Ruth D’urban-Jackson, Kannan, Jacqueline Anastasia Nikolakopoulou, Natali Nikolova, Argentina-Gabriela Baluta, Garrison Robyn Eadie, Morgan Ecclestone, Kassinaki-Baty, Simran Kaur, Deana Mariam Nisar, Karolina Nowak, Bamping, Fabian Banait, Saumitra Alexandra Edwards, Megan Edwards, Kent, Jaimee Kerven, Hana Ketley, Triantafyllia Ntoumani, Piumi Sara Deepak Bane, Olivia Banks, Asal Rayane Efraim Correa, Naoshin Ehsan, Rameez Khan, Safiah Khan, Nupe Hewage, Chimsom Nwagu, Barakate, Daniel Bardey, Pippa Barlin, Kylie Eichberg, Ghafran Elforjani, Morshedul Alam Azad Khandaker, Alice O’Farrell, Callum Oddy, Kehinde Solomon Barnard, Amber BarnesANIMALS USED FOR INTRODUCTION TOEllen, Sarah scientifically accurate.Rebecca Presented bias, how itOjomo, can impact the Tamara El-Khalifi, Katy Ibraaheem Kholwadia, King, Ojo,and Foyinsola Stevenon Olajide, Yates, Sam Barrett, Neil Bartolo, Ellerby, Stacey Ellison, Harshitha Sarenta King, Asiaeditor Kinghorn, Francesca It Ollis, Stacey Olumese, SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES PROJECT MANAGEMENT by The Biologist TomJonathon workplace. contributes to the Serena Bashal, Dheneez Battung, Enumula, Seval Erdogan, Hannah Kirk, Melsa Kirney,basic Rika Kitami, Addis Enioluwada Oluwajoba, Diana Gemma Baylay, Louise Bell, George Available online Available online Ireland, it covers principles RSB’s Industry Skills Certificate Evans, Jessica Evans, Jonathan Evans, Klemann, Jasmine Ko, Catherine Omokore, Caitlan Onabanjo, George Belshaw, Rachel Benson, Julia Berger, This interactive electronic module This course is for those involved in that apply whether you are and Technical Skills Certificate.

Irene del Mar Fariñas Lucas, Jonathan Koomson, Sergei Kositzki, Mustafa Opelt, Andrada Opris, Sophie Ord, Maren Berland, Alexa Bernal, Scott is aimed at Bhatti, veterinarians and or responsible for project writing tabloid news story £12 + VAT Farrel, Jessica Farrell, Eva Faure, Koşucu,aChethana Krishna Rao,orSwathi FROM Victoria-Jayne Owen, Irene Owusu, Bexon, Amber Maisie Biggs, Robert Ferris, Simon Fisher, Megan Krishnakumar, Kulkarni,and Ayla other academics wish to Sylvia-Kelly Owusu-Sekyere, Afolasade management.

Participants will medical adviceSharavi for patients, Anna Richa Biju, Isabelwho Black, Harry Fitzpatrick, Florence Kuloglu, Iswarya Matyas Oyewole, Eashani Pabari, Begona Blackburn, Blackburn, Mark performOliver in vivo studies in the UK. learn the skills andFleming, planningKelly tools includes tips on Kunalan, presenting PERSUASIVE SCIENTIFIC Fletcher, Lucy Flett, James Forcer, Kutnyanszky, Ravi Lad, Jack Ladhams, Palenzuela Herrera, Constantinos Boak, Anthony information Boateng, Belinda It provides on the UK they need to complete a project, complex information.

WRITING Jade Forrester, Dave Foster, Jakub Neel Ladva, Emma Lamb, Elfyn Panayiotou, Sayumi Panditharatne, Boateng, Rob Boddington, Marco legislative framework for Franczak, and howMelissa to anticipate and resolve FROM £48 + VAT Available online Georgia Parnell, Freeman, Sacha Lambert, Vito Latorre, Freddi Emily Parkinson, Bonfanti, Juliette Bontoux,required Ruby working withBordeanu, lab animals the issues are Chloe likely to Frick, Ambikathey Gadhvi, Gallacher, Lavender, Nicole Leadbetter, Jodie This course aims toJohny, provide Sherin Parokkaran Linaa Booth, Gabriela Inêsand the Yoana Gancheva, Lee, Vannessa Lee, Georgia Parusheva, Barbara Passadouro, Machado Reis Borges, ethicalMorais issuesdos to be considered. encounter as a Jemma projectGane, manager.

GOPHER SCIENCE LAB Lees, Hui sound understanding of good Meha Yuhong Gao, Yurika Garcia, Eleanor Lee Leong, Megan Levell, Charlotte Patel, Bronwen Paxton, Sophie Teighan Borlase, FROM £48 + Luke VAT Bossons, The course contributes to the Available online persuasive scientific writing: how Gascoyne, Isabel Gatenby, Matthew Lewis, Cole Lewis, Xikun Li, Aleesha Pearce, Matthew Pearson, Katie William Bourne, Kally-Ann BowdenRSB’s Industry Certificate Online for primary toPeden, develop andMathilde reinforce sound Gaw, Sevcan Gazi,Skills Niamh German, Lidder, training Shona Lightheart, Hui Yuan Thalia Pelegrin Smith, Bethany Bowring, Francesca CORE BUSINESS SKILLS andGharu, Technical SkillsGibbs, Certificate. teachers to engage andLinay, inspire arguments, approach issues.

Kajol Annabel Joshua Lim, Wei Heng Lim, Alex Desbordes,and Storm Pemberton, Tamar Boyle, Kathrin Bremberger, Caitlyn Gibbs, Abigail Brontie Georgia Lindstrom, Jiato Yi explore Ling, Camila Pepper, to Brigden, Grace Bright, Harry Britton, FOR BIOLOGISTS FROM £48 +G-Medhin, VAT primary-aged pupils It Pepanashvili, also exploresRhiannon simple devices Goddard, Tom Goetze, Louis Gojcaj, Llanes-Kidder, Zara Logan, Amanda Cheelsea Pereira, Joaquin PerezRachel Bromley, Jake Brooks, Sarah Available online how everyday things work and give your writing more impact.

Monica Gold, Armanda Good, Theo Loh, Bethany Lord, Min Lou, Louisa Grande, Luke Perks, Stelinda Peros, Broomfield, Jessica Broster, Eleanor This 10-module course provides WRITING FOR NONease their transition from primary FROM + VAT Anna Petrova, Goodbody, Cerys Goodman, Bethan Lovatt, Daniel Ludwikowski, Xin Jie Adam£48 Peterman, Brown, Izabel Brown, James Brown, those withMiranda a life sciences SPECIALIST AUDIENCES to education.

Goodridge, Joanna Gordon-Yorke, Lui,secondary Mariya Lukashyk, Hamish Miglena Petrova, Patrick Pfeiffer, Jodie Brown, Brown, Jessica Thomas Gould, Kirstin Gourlay, Chloe MacDonald-Mair, Amy Mace, Jasmine Mevin Philip, Phillips, Sunny Bullard, James Burch, Burnell, background with Reegan core business Available online FROM £14.40 + VAT Completion ofAlys online training Grant, Lynsey Grant, Diana Grecu, Mackintosh, Rachel Maclean, Shannon Pierlejewski, Sedat Alp Pinar, Zena Kristopher Burzynski, Lilli Butler, Lois skills they can apply to real-world Suitable for anyone wishing to courses contributes to your Ross Green, Harrison Greenwood, MacLean, Matthew Macleod, Ciara Pirzad, Ryan Pitaluga, Lauren Pitcher, Butler, Caitlan Byrne, Hazel Cameron environments.

This course communicate science to a wider UNCONSCIOUS BIAS Kate Magee, continuing professional Alex Griffin, Shannon Griffiths, Taylor Madin, Hannah Magee, Maya Plummer, Isobel Ponsford, Lee Shanu-Wilson, Maisie Camm, Clara contributes to theJane RSB’s Industry audience, this course willVarshini explore Available onlineFlorence Makombe, development record.Powell, See Ciara Griffiths-Etienne, Amrutha Eve Maguinness, Popplewell, Lauren Carrillo, Jessica Carroll, Carville, Gunda, Alya awareness-building Malik, Izmah Malik, Annabelle Power, Olga Predeina,for Emily Price, Noemi Rebecca Catton, Mei SkillsCastello, Certificate. how toEllie-Jayne write in aGunn, clearJialin and Guo, This course learn.www.rsb.org.uk details Saumya Gupta, MeganatMallanao, Mangas Price, Lucy Priddle, Lisa Chai, Dante£112 Chamdal, FROM + VATMarva Chan, Li engaging wayJiulian whileGutierrez, remaining looks the ideaHector of unconscious ofRebecca all our courses.

Matthew Haddington, Jasmine Afonso, Catriona Mann, Daisy Mardel, Pugnetti, Ellie Pullen, Anna Pursey, Ying Chang, Qi Han Chang, Megan Hagan, Luqman Hakim, Michael Hall, Anastasia Margaroli, Jenny Marsden, Zifeng Qiao, Golda Quarcoo, Dawood Chaplin, Jueru Chen, Xiuyuan Chen, Yusuf Hamadeh, Luke Hamstead, Nor Shea Marsden, Greg Marshall, Alice Qureshi, Veronika Radeva, Joshua Dorcas Cheung, Phylia Chew, Lynn During the COVID-19 crisis we have reduced prices of all our online courses

by Sasanka 20% Upaman Ranatunga Amalia Hamzah, Ben Hancox, Megan Martin, Ethan Martindale, Tanya Ramm, Chikungwa, Shammah Chikuri,

A round-up of upcoming RSB activities for members

Education and training The Society’s programme of online courses

36 / THE BIOLOGIST / Vol 68 No 2

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

AFFILIATE Appuhamilage, Mosan Rashid, Hadia Rasool Naheed, Abbie Ratcliffe, Smriti Jody Affleck, Sairah Ahsan, Sophie Raturi, Mugilan Ravi, Lewis Rawlinson, Akers, Aneela Akram, Shiela Akrasi, Claudia Readman, Rhiannon Reeves, Shanaz Natasha Ayesha Allsop, Rehman, SamuelAshen, Relton, Daniel Thomas Bailey, Bayes, Digna Renwick, ZainabLouise Riaz, Matthew Rice, Caleb Richards, Louise Richards, Beeldsnijder, Hasina Begum, Thomas Samuel Courtney Richardson, Bennett,Richards, Muhammad Bin Amil, Peter Shannon Richardson, Monika Brain, Eve Brannan, Reiss Browning, Rimdeikaite, Holly Roberts, Lizzy Chris Brownlow, Emily Broyd, Kathryn Roberts, Emma Robertson, Luke Roche, Tiago Rodrigues, James Rogan, Bullough, Jamie Burgess, CallumAinur Fatin Nabila Roselee, Louise Burrows, Sean Butler,Dana DianeRoss, Button, Ross, Amelia Royce, Sophie Rudge, Jessica Cadwallader, Edward Carter, Rodney Ruhesi, Pilar Ruiz Illescas, Lucrezia Cattaneo Rossi, Martin Charlotte Russell, Mogesh Sababathy, Nurazimah Saiful, Aneesha Melvina Cervenka, Jenni Chambers, Georgina Sakayanathan, Salama, Chapman, JosieAlbert Cheng, Melisa Chong, Antoinette Salmon, Julie Samways, Fiona Clarke, Brónagh Cobain, Kyaw San, Michelle Sandell, Rebecca Natasha Connor, Nicola Cook, Sanders, Charlotte Sanford, Florence Sawyer, Schuster, Joshua Scott, CharlotteAminul Crawford, V Cressy, Abigail Nat Scott, Keletso Setshogo,Bradley Aimee Criddle, Inna Danyschenko, Sexton, Meshach Shadare, Jawaad Davey, Elyse Davey, Olivia Davies, Shafique, Alyna Shamsi, Muhammad SarahIqbal Davies, Emily Davis, CicelySharif, Day, Adib Sharidan, Umaymah Marc Devanny, Anna Dimitroula, Rashi Sharma, Neelam Shaukat, Daisy Shaw, Madeleine Shepherd, LisaKatie Charlotte Dines, Paris Donnelly, Shitomi-Jones, Syed Mohammed Doran, Christopher Doyle, Emilia Shuaib, Alice Siachifuwe, Tania Sidhu, Earnshaw, Emily Eastley-Jones, George Siegwart, Karampal Sihra, Anna Hawazen Eshahawi, Kimberley Simmons, Sam Singleton, ChunEvans, Wing Siu, Raheema Sivardeen, Madison Farmer, HannahKimberley Feasby, Jake Skaife, Rebecca Smausz, Georgia Smith, Ford, Imogen Forster, Sebastian Katie Smith, Siobhan Smith, Tayla Frasle, Freeston, Alexandra Smith, Phoebe Oscar Smoker, Valeria Soddu, Glover, Ryan Goddard, Caitlin Doreen Robert Southern-Cannon, Chelsea Spence, Argyro Spiliotopoulou, Gould, Maxamillian Grant, Paul Jana Spinner, Hannah Stead, Frannie Griffith, Lisa Groom, Caitlin Hackett, Stephens, Elicia Stevenson, Rory Richard Hall, Szaye Hall, Joseph Stewart, Cerys Stock, Erin Stone, Hamilton-Black, AbigailStonehouse, Hampson, George Stone, Sophie Jeremy Stowell,Ellie Magdalena Anjum Haque, Hawcutt,Stoyanova, Katie Eilidh Sturgeon, Sturza, Herron, BenjaminStefania Hodgson, TomHector Swift, Tom Swinney, Nur Syaznim Honour, Matthew Hopes, Karsono, Chloe Syme, TomAndrew Szabo- Hui, Chrisa Humphreys, Hemmings, Kacper Isabelle Szklarski,Hurdle, Janos Sztanko, Haeyam Romina Alexander Huynh,Taiy, Daniel Hyde,Tajik, Iona Thomas Takezoe, Maxwell Huseyin Tanner, Jake Ingle, Jeyran Isgandarova, Tapping, Giacomo Tarallo, Hannah Isik, Anastasia Ivanova, Luke Jarvis, Taylor, Olivia Taylor, Frances Teasdale, Esther Jayson, AlixSandra Jennings, Chloe Charlotte Tembo, Terrasse, Isobel Ritika Thakkar, Kabisan Jewers,Thacker, Sion Jones, Hayley Kane, Thanendran, Abigail Thomas, Isabella Frieda Keegan, Shania Keh, Fiona Thompson, Fiona Thomson, Alicia Kemm, Kenyon,Jenny FionaTillotson, Thorpe,Emma Eliza Thorpe, Kingsley-Monks, Sarah Lake, Karima Ivy Meng Ying Ting, Maria Dolores Tobias, Theo Tomking, Danielle Lallmahamode, Hollie Lane, Mikey Tongue, Alice Topps, EmilyJohn Torkington, Lawrence, Maana Layeghi, Sofia Torres, Najihah TP Harun, Anna Leslie, Yushi Li, Catherine Liguz, Tran, Joan Tree, Felix Trimmer, Reece Lilley, MaxTuffin, Linford, Orla Logue, Jumayma Lestari Nuriza Tukiran, Justyna Oli Michael Tysoe, Bade Uckac, HarrisonTuryk, Longley, Loveday, Keelan Underwood, Marie Lush, Hannah Osarogie Martin, Samuel Emmanuella Uwaifo, Pavlina Vackova, Martin, Cerys Maryan,Elodie Rachel Alexandra Valentine, Vercoutere, McCarley, Polly McCarthy-Williams, Visesh Vignesh, Lilian Wadle, Charles Wadsworth, Mostafa WaelMcCran, Ali El Sayed, Olivia McConkey, Andrew Oliver Wagstaff, Rovena Ruari McDonald, Wayne Walichchoru McFarland, Evayage, Victoria Walker, Ailie Wallace, Jayme Meadows, Erin Miller, Toby Stephanie Waller, Ben Walpole, Mills, Daniel Molland, Shannon Wands, JianiMiguel Wang,Montano Lei Wang, Shulun Wang, Amelia Ward, Emily Reynoso, Thomas Moore, Nicola

Morris,Rebecca Sophie Mtetwa, Ami Lianne Ward, Ward, Martha Warren, Finlay Warsop Thomas, Mehvish Lynne Waters, Murphy, Katie Murphy, Drew Watson, Lauren Watson, Sophia Naeem, Anastasia Nairne, Hannah Neal, Webb, Ocea Weir, Tamzin West, Shaye Andrew Nelson, Harry Nugent, Fahrul Wettner, Katie Whitcombe, Aisha Nurkolis, Daniel O’Neill, Amaya White, Louise Whitehead, CarolOpalka, Whittington, Whittle, Davina Iselin Opheim,Jake Harry Peachment, Whitworth, HollyMaryAnn Widdop, Peel, Courteney Joanne Pearson, Wilkes, Bethan Williams, Chloe Georgia Pittwood, Tabitha Preece, Williams, Iwan Williams, Joshua Sarah Prunty, Dimitra Psyllinaki, Williams, Sophie Williams, ReeceAlister Williamson, AaronPye, Wilson, LewisRahim, Puddifer, Esther Shandana Wilson, Alice Wingfield, Farnoosh Rasikh, JoannaRobynn Redfeather, Wiszniewska, Jamie Witherford, Suet Natalie Regan, Emma Ridgway, Max Ying Womg, Lesley Wong, Skye Riggall, Jack Roberts, Roberts, Woodall, Aaron Wren,Tamara Adam Wright, Annabelle Wright,Amy Shaun Wright,Lily Jin Isabella Roberts, Robinson, Wu, Yvonne Wyllie,Rogondino, Kyle Wynn,Antonia Yiqing Robinson, Giorgia Xia, Aoha Yamamoto, Alessio Yang, Rout, Jake Rutherford, Bruno Shang Ping Yau, Ellen Ye, Liu Yewei, Salomone de Castejon, Shu Kai Yip,Gonzalez Wan Cheng Yong, Ginali Charlotte Katie Alitza Yuen, Samji, Ivo Young, Sanders-Farmer, Georgia Emilia Zapart, Mikolaj Zawadzki, Sargent, Daniella Scadding, Simon Tongxin Zhang, Yiran Zhao.

Scruton, Elena Selciato, Daniel Shao, Anika Sharma, Mark Sherred, ASSOCIATE (AMRSB) Maximilian Mariagrazia Amina Afzal,Sichrovsky, Shafin Ahmed, Gwendolyn Nita Tarunya Siino,Amarquaye, Virginia Silio, Lewis Smith, Ambalavanan, Ming An, Katherine Zachary Smith, Jorika Smolikova, Tom Andrews, Chikaodi Anyanwu, Megan Snell, James JohanBaines, Standar, Atkins, XeniaSpivack, Bailey, Daniel SimeonBartlett, Stavrev, Yousra Tyler Stephenson, Connor Belattar, Edward Bignell, Abdelrhman Lucy Styles-Forsyth, Venetia Bilal, Summers, Muhammad Noorfaiz Bin Mohd Noor, Henry Swandale, Cameron Tait, Elaina Amy-Joy Bohm, Wilson Bridge, Amy Thomas, Matthew Thompson, Lee Burke, Xingyu Cai, Dylan Cameron, Thornton, Thomas AidanaShe Anna Capaldo, ElenaThurner, Chadjittoouli, Woon Chan, Laura Clark, Joseph Tolegenova, Mark Townend, MJ Coleman, Hollie Compton, Shaun Turner, Bethany Tweedie, Camila Dalton, Utsav Das, Thomas Davies, Nick Vallve, Michael Voyt,Millie Madison Day, Namla Djadjiti, Duckenfield, Wade, Abdul Waheed, Ciara Wallace, Lambert Essiaw, Maria Evdokimou, Adam Luca Flury, Eleia Girgis, MeganFarini, Walsh, Abbie Watkins, Jack Theo Gluckstein, Sophie Goldreich, Webster, Viola Wettemann, Anna Zoe Gould, Daniel Greenley, Johanna Wilde, Joanna Wilson, Wilson, Gutierrez, Prince Gyasi,Tanya Georgia AgnieszkaJiayun Wisniewska, Ewelina Wrzos, Hackney, Hao, Josephine Herbert, Andrew Holmes, Cynthia Rob Young.

Howard, Alexandru Iftode, Anthony Iliff, Evelin Illikkal, Alexander James, ASSOCIATE (AMRSB) Eloina Jamieson, Charlotte Jeffery, Oluwadamilola Adeyemi, Ahmed, Yuhan Ji, Charlotte Jones, Aisha Christian Jones, Kalampalika, Sini GabrielFoteini Afrane-Twum, Ali Albu-Rghaif, Karesma, Inderpreet Kaur, Rianne Kaur, William Alexander, Jaspreet Bansal, Eugene Keena, Georgia Kendall, Abigail Barton, Cameron Bell, Andrea Georgios Kritikos, Thi Thuy Trang Le, Bellia, Clare Benzi, Rui Ling Lee,Bellward, MengxuePauline Li, Aikaterini Liodaki, Francesca Littler, Wanlin Liu, Benjamin Berger, Sunil Bhakar, Victoire Jiaxuan Lyu, Anthony Magauran, Boulat, Elisabeth Bowles, Octavia Ayisha Mahama, Jocelyn Makin, Brayley, Elliott Brown, Patricia Suchismita Mazumdar, Lydia Brown, Molly Bushell, Max Carberry, Andrew Melissourgou-Syka, Mohammad Mir, Gabrielle Chandler,Moore, JoshuaMoustafa Chapman,Morsy, Bella Hang Mishal Nawaz, Jonathan Nevin, Jamie Yung Choa, Kane Costelloe, Nathan Newbold, Katy Nicolson, Ciara O’Brien, Dennis, Jack Dicks, Celine Djedjemel, Joy Okwuwa, Nicolás Olalde Hightower, CaitlinOlmo, Dollin,Amina Ross Duncan, Ella Paula Palmar, Yinkuang Pan, Elspeth Parks,Evans, RutujaChris Patre, Celia Edwards, Hannah Pedeprat-Lamechinou, KrisIsabella Phillips, Fanitsios, Jing Hong Fong, Neide Pinheiro, Maria Player, Alexander Ghawi, Louis Glyn, Abdi Hassan, Daniel Prentice, Constance Pritchard, Matteo Haver,Umair Asari Inyang, Chloe James, Putra, Qazi, Praveena R G Sarah Chandrasegaran, KieranJack Reay, Liufei Jenner, Joseph Jeynes, Jones,

Gregory Jordan, Kelly Jowett, Ren, Soledad Ricciardi, Hugh Katie Richards,Rhiannon Joanna Rigou, Kenney, Kirton,Harvey Felaniaina Robinson, AlexaJessica Roditi,Laurent, Niamh Larry Lantovololona, Ruane, Mohammed Salama, Philip Yung-Tim HoHope Yu Liu, Dilhara Schendel,Leung, Rebecca Shepherd, Mampitiya Silva, Tomas Martak, Bibi Hajera de Shinwari, Lindsey Smart, Jian Song, Roy Soong, Swetha Megan Mayhew, Michael McCaskill, Srinivasaraghavan, Mahima Ssubba, Lynsey McDowell, Chala McGowan, Tabitha Tierney, Boampong Twumasi, Shannon Millard, Mold, Daniel Lydia Tyson Blake,David Stefania Vazaka, Morrison, Nina O’Toole, Parkes, Manuela Villani, AshleighChloe Vincent, Yashwanth Vinod, Mahima Patel, AliceRunkun Phillips,Wang, Ludovico ZiTing Jonathan Wang, Wenhui Wei,Lana Chloe Pipito, Reardon, Windsor, Olivia Winther, Peng Xu, Kyi Richards, Susanna Rillie, Jeanette Ross, Lai Yin Swe, Fong Tung Yu, Alexandros Jamie Rowe, Clara Sanasi, Bishr Shibani, Zannetos, Saaman Zargarbashi, Yaguo Zhang, Jialin Zhao, Jinghua Tanis Slattery-Penfold, MahZhao, Soomro, Yushu Zheng, XInyu Zhou.Sundera Ameena Sullivan, Satisvar Murthe, Collette Tait, Moaz Talat, MEMBER (MRSB) Kathryn Tebbs,Nimer Ella Walker, Eloise Nadia Ahmad Avila, Rukhsarr Ahmed-Bari, Aishat Akere, Walker, Charlotte Ward, Lullamyaa Warsame, Al-dalawi, Anoop Arunagiri, Hannah Westbury, BethanyAdeola White, Grace Atobatele, Trevor Baldwin, Emma Matthew Whitehead, David Wilson, Beazley, Bugsem Bertiz, Neetesh Eleanor Wilson,Ilaria Kelvin Wong, Bhawaneedin, Borghi, Robert Hannah Wright.

Broomfield, Joseph Buckler, Preethi Burnett, Nannette Butcher, Michael Cahalin, Lucy Carson-Taylor, MEMBER (MRSB) Christopher Cassell, Sultan Cetiner, Richard Ackon-Eghan, Adamson, Wing Man Chan, SimonIan Chapman, Kemi Shaik Liakhat Ali,Ophelia Rana KausikAkinola, Chattopadhyay, Ka Wai Chu, Fay Clark, Daniel Clarke, Kris Al-jaibachi, Ngozi Amaeze, Mohammad Clarkson, Sean Collins, Cathy Conerney, Ansari, Nigel August, Justin Barclay, Harry Cooper, Stephen Cooper, Roxann Ruth Brown-Shepherd, Cortis, Charlie Cosstick, Filomena Denise Calixto, Cristina Cañivano Vallejo, Tom Crampton, Simon Crick, Eszter Csibra, Tony Cutting, Rachel Dally, Melanie Charlton, Aparna Chivukula, Russell Dayal, Matthew Debbage, Christabel Cooper, Peter Craggs, Harriet Dube, Carol Edmondson, Elizabeth Crawley-Snowdon, KwasiFairhurst, Dankwa,Juan Syed Evans, John Evans, Paul Dastager, Dawson, Ammerins FernandezJennifer Bonfante, Edward Flaxman, Sara Franco Ortega, KathyFiona Freeston, de Haan, Simon de Pinna, Mariann Gacsi, Robert Mohd Diamond, Melanie Egli,Gainsford, Clifford Enyita, Faizal Ghazali, Elisa Giammarini, Eleanor Elaine Simon James Gardiner, Ciara Gibbs,Forster, Gareth Girling, Goldsmith, Gorst, Iain Grant,Pubudu Paul Gregory, Sonu Goulwara, Gunawardhana, Anna Hager, Maram Hameed, Himanshu Gupta, Ana Gurkan,Jo Alex Hamilton, Rabab Hanaei Hosseini, Hallam, Susan Hammond, Blake Filipa Henderson Sousa, Timothy Hopley, Julie Jamieson, Faez Firdaus Hetherington, James Higham, Rebecca Jesse, Margrethe Johansen, Holmes, Jack Hooker, SimeonDonna Hubbard, Penny Hundleby, Gillian Hunter, Raghib Johnson, Christopher Kariuki, Hannah Husain, Brian Khan, Isbell, Cemal RobertÇağıl Jones, Kent, Aksana Koçana, Thomas Karnecki, William Kay, Fintan Sanjeev Daniel Larcombe, Kearney,Kumar, Polly Kennard, Johra Khan, Katherine Law,Mohammad Ykk Shan Leung, Farhan Khan, Khan, Walter Manoj Khokhar, Alexander Lai Man Chun, Lucchesi, Nicholas Lynch, David Sandro Lanfranco, Lindsay Langworthy, Macknay, Anna Mantzouratou, Kathryn Michelle Lazenby, Vasileios Lenis, McGregor, Toni Miller, Santosh Xiaokun Liu, Amirah Mamdeen, Mohanty, Christopher Mulligan, Mas Benjamin Marshall, Laura McCaughey, Kirsty McLean, Peter Merrowsmith, Muttalib, Kei Shing Ng, Sabine Nouvet, Harriet Miller, Lauren Manzoor Lauretta Nwaka, CoryMiller, Ocasio, Esther Mir, Alaa Abdelkarim Mohammed, Odekunle, Karsten Øvretveit, Mosab Mohammed Hamad, Khaja Ramendra Pandey, Lisa Lewis Penny, Gerald Eleni Mohteshamuddin, Munday, N Misol Jr,Jordan AnnekaPrice, Newbury, David Petsalaki, Alex Radu, Nixon, Caroline Older, Matthew Olsen, Nirmal Kumar Ramasamy, Victoria Peter Ormanczyk, Amit Pandey, Dina Ratcliffe, Mel Reid, Alice Robotham, Pandit, Shanthi Pandit, Khyati Patel, Steven Ross, PaulRobinson, Rowland,Frederico Pranamee Dale Prior, Brett Rodrigues, Rogers, Sarma, AlfiePaul Scott, AnupSubhadeep Shah,

Muhammad Siddique, Sayantan Sinha, Roy, Rajesh Santhanam, Louise Sawrey, Aditi Rameen Shakur, Allan DavidSengupta, Small, Sivasankara Narayani Shaw, Sai Vidhya Perumalla Singan, Francesco Somasundaram, Srikanth,Sit, Laura Smart, Vivek Srivastava, Georgina Joshua Stafford, Jonathan Swan JP, Starkie, Alicja Swioklo, Ganesh Thapa, Mansoor Syed, Harry Gareth Thomas, Rhys Tjondro, Thomas, Thomas Sarah Trinder, Tsur, VictorSirisha Ude, Travers, Itamar Nikolaos Tzenios, Anthony Vencatasamy, Theresa Vavilala, Nagajothi Velram Balaji, Mark Wacker, William Waites, Catherine Wilson,Kevin-Augustine Robert Wilson, Abubakar Yaro, Walsh, Wei, Kayleigh Val Yianni.

Wilkins, Jonathan Willans, Nicola Williams, Feenagh Wilson, Matthew Wilson, Charlotte FELLOW (FRSB) Wood, Tina Wright, David Young.

Thapasimuthu Anilkumar, Phillip Bennett, Roger FELLOW (FRSB)Bloxham, John Dina Anderson, David Barrett, Cynthia Bolodeoku, Martin Cann, Edmund Bullock, Chang, Crampin,Xianmin Rohan de Silva,Matthew Sankar Deka, Cobb, Diganta Das, Paul Flicek, Manoj Rajiv Dutta, Sheila Francis, Gilles Garg, Russell Garland, Martin Hawes, Guillemin, KhalidAdam Hakeem, Prakash Peter Hollands, Hughes, Firdos Khan, Imran Dmitry Halami, PeterKhan, Hastie, DavidKuzmin, Husey, Gurprit Michael Mark SubhashLall, Parija, SuhelLawman, Parvez, Simon Leake, Minyong Li, Shahid Mahboob Phillips, Sanjeev Singh, Lonneke Rana, Jo-Anne Murray, Emmanuel Vervelde, Simon Waddell, Odokuma, Anthony Okoh, M Gopal Wahajuddin, Chunming Wang, Andrew Krushna Pal, Andrew Richardson, Richard Sharp, JonWhittle.

Simons, Terry Welchman, Nigel Smith, Maria Grazia Spillantini, Elizabeth Thomas, Teresa Thomas, Ian PROFESSIONAL Thompson, DivyaREGISTERS Vohora, Tao Wang, Registered Nina Wedell, Science CharlotteTechnician Weller.

(RSciTech) PROFESSIONAL REGISTERS RSciTech Affiliate Fiona Clarke, Registered Science Technician Harry Nugent.

(RSciTech) AMRSB Daisy RSciTech Affiliate Jean Pinn Dillon, Hayley Freeman, Carla Hughes-Ruiz, Michelle Sandell.

Registered Scientist (RSci) RSciTech AMRSB Jonathan Nevin.

RSci Affiliate Reiss RSciTech MRSB AnaBrowning, Gurkan, Mark Nicola Cook, Virginia Silio.

Wilson.

RSci AMRSB Phebe Ekregbesi, Registered Hannah Sims.Scientist (RSci) RSci Affiliate Zeinab Ali. RSci MRSB MRSB Sylwia RebecaCybularz, Diaz, Rebecca RSci Heide Cuckoo, Miguel Hardiman, Luke Hermida Nutbeen,Ayala.

Precious Owuamalam.

Chartered Biologist (CBiol) Chartered Biologist (CBiol) CBiol MRSB MRSB Caroline Kimberley Cooper, Jennifer CBiol Champion, Jenny Drew, Yan-Yee Lau, Andrea Molyneaux, Craig, Oliver Franklin, Suzanne Jenkins, Robert Leigh, D GlynStone, Lloyd-Jones, Ben Rush, Carlanne Nirusha Adam McVeigh, Kai Paul, Steven Ross, Weerasinghe, Laura White.

Peter Weir, Hon Man Wong, Kimberley CBiol FRSB Alexander Hunt, Wright.

Richard Pitman, MarcLedger.

Yeste.

CBiol FRSB Rebecca Chartered Chartered Scientist Scientist (CSci) (CSci) CSci MRSB John-Patrick Alao, Simon CSci MRSB James Turrington, Benton, Roxann Cortis, Penny Val Yiann. Steven Lynham, Samantha Hundleby, Reeve.

CSci FRSB Wing Kei Ricky Wu CSci FRSB Sandra Phinbow, Marc Yeste.

Chartered Science Teacher (CSciTeach) ONLINEMRSB INFORMATION CSciTeach Sian Chalkley, Due to our bumper list of new Samantha Richards.

members this month, details of RSB training and events are Plant Health Professionals (PHP) at rsb.org.uk

PHP Affiliate Jenny Legg, Katie Parker.

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Members and members listing, 2

NEW MEMBERS

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REVIEWS Books for biologists, nature lovers and their families

THE SCIENCE OF WALKING: INVESTIGATIONS INTO LOCOMOTION IN THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY

Theodore W Pietsch and Rachel J Arnold

Andreas Mayer (translated by Tilman Skowroneck and Robin Blanton)

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS, £92.50

SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

In 1987, Theodore W Pietsch co-authored Frogfishes of the World with David B Grobecker.

His latest book, written with Rachel J Arnold, brings together current information about these fish that resemble frogs (or more often rocks and corals), and which are thought beautiful by many and grotesque by others.

Nearly 5,000 specimens around the world were studied and over 30 years of literature reviewed. Updated material includes new species, changes in geographic distributions, shifts in evolutionary relationships and conservation issues. The 52 species of frogfish form the Antennariidae, a family of anglerfish. Frogfish are characterised by “maintaining the immobile, inert, and benign appearance of a sponge or coralline-algaeencrusted rock, while wiggling a highly conspicuous lure”. The lure is modified from the first of three dorsal spines to attract prey towards a mouth that can expand twelvefold.

When frogfish move, they ‘walk’ using muscular pectoral fins or use jet propulsion.

The introduction starts with the earliest known depiction of a frogfish, a woodcut from 1633. Subsequent chapters cover biodiversity, fossil records, zoogeography, behavioural ecology and more. Found in seas around the world, apart from, curiously, the Mediterranean, frogfish display considerable variation in reproductive habits: some lay eggs while others demonstrate parental care. The final chapter focuses on tips for aquarists and divers, and the need for conservation. Frogfish are vulnerable for many reasons, including over-collecting and climate change, and the book describes ways of addressing these threats.

Enhanced by colourful photographs and fine line drawings, Frogfishes also includes a glossary and 65 pages of references. This is a substantial (1.8kg) and impressive text, scientifically detailed, yet readable. It should interest ichthyologists, marine ecologists, taxonomists, conservationists, curators, aquarists, divers, underwater photographers, anglerfish enthusiasts and natural historians.

Dr Sue Howarth CBiol FRSB

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UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, £38.00

The Science of Walking retraces the history of the growing interest in the physical act of walking – locomotion – in Western societies (particularly France, Germany and Britain). Through the 19th century the topic became of interest to a variety of professional groups such as anatomists, physiologists, neurologists, orthopaedists, shoemakers, artists, gymnastics teachers and the military, whose aim was to describe human walking in its normal and pathological forms in order to improve it or to provide an accurate representation of this phenomenon.

In charting the rise of investigations of the human gait, the author, Andreas Mayer, takes into account the contributions of a wide range of disciplines, from physiology and neurology to psychiatry, in an engaging narrative that weaves together science and history. The author reaches the conclusion that “this mundane activity has proven remarkably recalcitrant to being transformed into a scientific object”.

The book strikes a good balance between detail (it has an extensive bibliography) and

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FROGFISHES: BIODIVERSITY, ZOOGEOGRAPHY, AND BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY

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Reviews, 1 A frogfish, characterised by “maintaining the immobile, inert, and benign appearance of a sponge or coralline-algaeencrusted rock, while wiggling a highly conspicuous lure” Below left: Many of the plants featured in The Botanical Adventures of Joseph Banks can be found at Kew Gardens

readability. It’s a good reminder of how science doesn’t operate in a vacuum, but rather is influenced by and interacts with wider society.

Valentina Marconi MRSB

THE BOTANICAL ADVENTURES OF JOSEPH BANKS Christina Harrison KEW PUBLISHING, £15.00 (HARDBACK)

This is a beautifully presented and illustrated book, of about A5 size, written by the former editor of Kew magazine.

Joseph Banks was a figure of global significance. Born in 1743 and brought up as a wealthy Georgian young man, he was not academic, but developed a passion for botany.

We are taken through his life in nine short chapters, accompanied by illustrations of his

belongings, plants he collected, and paintings of his friends and collaborators.

Many of the illustrations are held at Kew Gardens where Banks became unofficial director, developing Kew into a place of international botanical significance.

Harrison takes us with Banks on many of Britain’s nautical expeditions to exotic locations where he collected plants, including expeditions to Labrador and Newfoundland, Captain James Cook’s voyage on HMS Endeavour where he circumnavigated the globe, and Captain William Bligh’s travels on HMS Bounty to collect breadfruit.

The great delight of this book is the wealth of plant illustrations, and many of the plants can be seen today in Kew. I am only sorry that the illustrations are not of higher resolution or in more vivid colours.

This is an excellent introduction to the life of this amazing and complex botanical

adventurer and pioneer, accessible to everyone who loves plants and has the spirit of travel and adventure.

Professor James Crabbe CBiol FRSB HUMAN Amanda Rees and Charlotte Sleigh REAKTION BOOKS, £12.95

I am not sure which genre one might assign Human. It appears in an extensive series of monographs on a huge range of animals and, having not read the others, I find it hard to put it into context. One thing is clear: there is not a great deal of biology in it.

Admittedly the introduction and earlier chapters do cover the evolution of the species, highlighting the many controversies in this field and acceptance of the theory.

What differentiates Homo sapiens from other

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great apes is discussed in terms both of obviously biological factors, such as anatomy and physiology, but much more in terms of culture. This primarily is what the authors see as uniquely human. To reinforce that, the text is beautifully supported by artworks that mostly relate to the subject matter. For that alone the book is highly enjoyable. The aim seems to have been to define what it is to be human. That is not so difficult if one is constrained purely to biological data, but much harder if behaviour and culture are included, especially when values in different societies vary so widely.

Some of the text is a little fanciful for my taste – for example, mentioning telepathy in a biological context. Indeed, the concluding chapter seems to lose focus and the illustrations are a little gratuitous. But that’s the scientist in me talking.

Les Rose CBiol FRSB

SUBS ART PRODUCTION

THE WILDLIFE TECHNIQUES MANUAL (VOL 1: RESEARCH & VOL 2: MANAGEMENT, EIGHTH EDITION) Edited by Nova J Silvy JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS, IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE WILDLIFE SOCIETY, £129.50

Shutterstock

CLIENT

Wildlife rangers and national park managers have a great ‘office’: an outdoors environment with wide horizons, sometimes literally covering as far as the eye can see. Very few habitats we are familiar with exist as we know them in an unmanaged form. Heathland, grassland and many forests require at least occasional management to maximise biodiversity or maintain the habitat in its current form.

Managing the natural environment to maintain a habitat, manage wildlife or create a space for human recreational use all require a firm grasp of many aspects of the natural world and the ecology of a specific area. People managing such environments need to have a thorough understanding of ecology and wildlife management. The two-part Wildlife Techniques Manual is a thorough and informative starting point.

These books contain a lot of very well-referenced and well-presented information about the many aspects of wildlife management. Specific case studies and examples are given. Topics covered include research and experimental design, management and analysis of ecology data, measuring wildlife habitat, capturing and remote monitoring of animals, ethical issues,

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teaching about wildlife and much more. This is an interesting and extensive reference book and would be very useful for university students and others who need to learn about the techniques covered by the book.

Dr Amanda Hardy MRSB

VERTEBRATE BIOLOGY: SYSTEMATICS, TAXONOMY, NATURAL HISTORY, AND CONSERVATION (THIRD EDITION) Donald W Linzey JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS, £92.50

This latest edition of Donald Linzey’s popular vertebrate textbook is aimed squarely at undergraduate students and their educators. The text is accessible, while still robust with detail, clearly set out and copiously well illustrated, including, for this edition, a set of full colour plates. Each chapter ends with a series of review questions, as well as a

Reviews, 2 National parks such as Yosemite must be managed carefully to maintain habitats and encourage wildlife while providing space for recreation Below: Of the tens of thousands of species of chordates with backbones we could use to illustrate Vertebrate Biology, we chose this cute raccoon

appeal to their teachers, as well as researchers looking beyond their specialism.

Many of the examples in the book are from the US, but other relevant examples from around the world are also referenced.

Although written primarily for students, there is much to commend this book to anyone with an interest in vertebrates, zoology or natural history.

Mike Smith FRSB A MOST INTERESTING PROBLEM: WHAT DARWIN’S DESCENT OF MAN GOT RIGHT AND WRONG ABOUT HUMAN EVOLUTION Jeremy Desilva (Ed.) PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, £22.00

detailed list of supplementary reading, including websites.

Chapters cover topics such as vertebrate evolution and systematics, vertebrate classes, zoogeography, population dynamics, migration and other types of movement, intraspecific behaviour and ecology, interspecific interactions, extinction, and techniques for ecological and behavioural studies. This edition has chapters on issues relating to the increasing impact of humans on vertebrates, covering topics such as climate change, conservation, legislation and wildlife management. There are appendices describing vertebrate classification and endangered species, as well as a glossary and expansive bibliography.

The book will provide a solid foundation for students of the biological sciences, whether their course is based on vertebrate biology itself, or on broader fields such as ecology or wildlife management. It will also

Have a really good idea, then recruit some excellent science communicators to implement it and you have a great chance of producing a book with widespread appeal. That formula seems to work very well here.

Following the editor’s preface and an introduction by Janet Browne, nine analytical chapters form the core of the book. These range across the life and social sciences with consideration of the evolution of the human brain through to Darwin’s views on race and his difficult struggle to distance himself from the social and cultural views of his class and time – and the pernicious continuing impact of such views today. But what comes though time and again is how right Darwin was about so much of the science.

The concluding chapter by Ann Gibbons compares Darwin’s views with what we have discovered in the 150 years of research since 1871. Delightfully titled ‘Dinner with Darwin: Sharing the Evidence Bearing on the Origins of Humans’, it starts with a recollection of a group visit to Down House, then evolves into an imagined conversation around the dining room table there and what scientists of today would want to say to Darwin about his book in the light of modern research.

The evidence we have demonstrates that Darwin was correct in believing that the birthplace of the human lineage is in Africa.

However, he was wrong in thinking that becoming bipedal coincided with the use of tools and that this was then followed by canine tooth reduction and brain enlargement. We now know that bipedalism came well before tool use, but the reason why is still not understood, which demonstrates how much more work needs to be done on this most interesting problem.

Malcolm Dando FRSB

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BRANCHES Upcoming events near you and regional news

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Event calendar June 2021 onwards EAST ANGLIA

SUBS

CONNECTING AND NETWORKING ONLINE Thursday 10 June

ART

This webinar will describe how companies and industry ecosystems seek out innovation, how to connect with these organisations, and how to pitch an idea to them when there is little opportunity for in-person meeting and networking.

This event is free to attend and advance booking is essential.

Online

Wales members are eligible to vote in the AGM. Please register in advance.

Online NORTH WESTERN

BIRDS OF CHERNOBYL Tuesday 6 July, 19:00–20:00

PRODUCTION

Birds are the most studied taxa in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. University of Salford PhD student Helen Whitehead will look at previous and ongoing research on the birds in this fascinating region.

This event is free to attend and advance registration is essential.

Online

A BIOLOGICAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOJOURN IN SOUTH AFRICA Tuesday 7 September, 19:00–20:00

CLIENT

An online talk by Michael Clapham FRSB, chair of the North Western branch, covering three sites: Dinokeng out of Johannesburg, Zimanga out of Durban and the Drakensberg. Guests will be presented with a photographic essay, which will include dancing elephants, scavenging baboons, cheetahs at dawn and dusk, ‘nectar wars’ and hidden symbionts, with biological details of the animal subjects.

This event is free to attend and advance registration is essential.

Online

HONEYBEE ANATOMY Freshwater ecologist Kathleen Carpenter

Shutterstock; Shim Harno/Alamy Stock Photo

NORTH WALES

KATHLEEN CARPENTER: PIONEER AND LIMNOLOGIST Thursday 10 June, 19:00–20:15

An online lecture on pioneering freshwater ecologist Kathleen Carpenter, delivered by Catherine Duigan FRSB, followed by the branch AGM. The event is free to attend and open to all. However, only RSB North

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Tuesday 5 October, 19:00–20:00

Did you know that honeybees have a built-in antenna cleaner on their legs and suction cups on their feet? In this illustrated talk by Janet Preece MRSB guests will find out about some of the adaptations honeybees possess, and how these assist them in their daily lives to be successful social insects and keep the hive running smoothly.

This event is free to attend and advance booking is essential.

Online

NORTHERN

THE WYRE ESTUARY BIOBLITZ Thursday 3 June, 19:00–21:00

Branch chair Jean Wilson MBE FRSB will deliver an online talk on the success of the nearby North Western branch’s biennial BioBlitz event in Wyre Estuary Country Park and plans for the next one.

This event is free to attend and open to all. Advance registration is essential.

Online SOUTH WALES

BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE: THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN DECOMPOSITION Monday 28 June, 18:30–19:45

An evening with Professor Shari Forbes, who directed the first human decomposition facility in Australia, the only such facility in the southern hemisphere. Her research investigates the processes that occur in soft tissue decomposition, and she regularly assists law enforcement with locating and recovering buried or concealed evidence, including human remains, drugs, weapons and currency.

This event is free to attend and advance booking is essential.

Online Visit www.rsb.org.uk/events for more information and to book places

The barn swallow, just one of the birds that has been studied in Chernobyl

Branches, 1 East Midlands members heard how the specificity of pollen grains can help solve crimes

Event reports EAST MIDLANDS

LUNCHTIME TALKS ONLINE 5-12 March 2021

This year’s British Science Week was celebrated with a series of short talks designed primarily to inspire senior school students keen to look ahead to a possible future in science.

The Friday launch of the event included a dash from synthetic spider silk to the horrors and mysteries underlying sepsis, and concluded with ‘what happens if there is a mutation in a human DNA helicase?’ The three 10-minute talks were over in a flash with questions aplenty and knowledge reinforced.

Dr Laura Barter, who is a senior lecturer at Imperial College London, took charge on the Monday, with a very clear emphasis on one way to tackle the challenge of providing enough food for a rapidly expanding population: improve the efficiency of what

is arguably the most important biosynthetic process on the planet – photosynthesis.

In particular, Dr Barter highlighted that rubisco’s ability to capture carbon dioxide has its limitations, but there are other chemicals that could be exploited to give it a helping hand.

By Tuesday, structural biologist Dr Sam Horrell was showing us his route into x-ray crystallography, a structural biology technique at the interface of biology, chemistry and physics. His talk covered bacteria, crystals and using the synchrotron radiation ring at Diamond Light Source, Oxford, to elucidate protein structure and thereby understand more about how they function. (See p26 for more on Diamond.)

Dr Gareth Starbuck, principal lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, took the baton on Wednesday and gave a masterclass on the underlying principles of genetic diversity and how it needs to be maintained if a population is to remain healthy. He described the technique using sex-sorted sperm that made headline news in 2020

when a female foal was born to a rare-breed Suffolk Punch mare called Ruby, providing hope for broader conservation efforts in the future.

Come Thursday, Dr Michael Sweet, a marine biologist at the University of Derby, kept the audience hooked with his talk on the biology of coral and the hope that inbuilt resilience, together with scaled intervention measures, may herald a bright future in spite of the many concerns linked with climate change.

As the week ended, Ian Turner, professor of learning and teaching at the University of Derby, delivered a very informative and engaging talk on ‘Using biology to fight crime’. Who would have imagined the intricate detail that our individual fingerprints can reveal or how the beauty and specificity of pollen grains can lead to solving the most gruesome of crimes?

The event can be viewed on the Society’s YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/ royalsocbio Rosemary Hall MRSB

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BRANCHES KENT, SURREY AND SUSSEX

BRITISH COCCINELLIDAE

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We welcomed members to an excellent online talk on British ladybirds delivered by Dr Peter Brown of Anglia Ruskin University.

Dr Brown runs the UK Ladybird Survey with Professor Helen Roy, and has co-authored three recent books on these interesting and (sometimes) colourful insects.

We learned that only 26 of the 46 British species of this beetle family are brightly coloured, displaying aposematic (warning) colouration. The other 20 species are less conspicuous. Ladybirds are mainly predatory, feeding on aphids and scale insects especially, but a few species feed on mildew, plants or pollen.

Ladybirds can exude defensive toxic and foul-tasting chemicals.

One of the most familiar is the seven-spot ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata), which has a single generation each year (some ladybird species have two). Its larvae are also predatory, hatching from eggs laid by overwintered adults in May or June and, after pupating, becoming adults in August, but not mating until the following spring.

Ladybirds have been reported in huge numbers, typically in warmer years when their prey are common, but their numbers are generally contained by natural enemies.

These include predators such as swifts and swallows, which seem to be immune to their defensive chemicals, as well as spiders, lacewing larvae, mites and fungi. Certain wasps and flies are parasitoids on ladybirds, their larvae feeding inside their hosts.

Another familiar species these days is the non-native harlequin ladybird (Harmonia MRI of the brain showing atrophy caused by Huntington’s disease

axyridis), which is found in a variety of different colour patterns. The harlequin is a voracious predator and its diet includes other species of ladybirds. First ‘spotted’ in Britain in 2004, it is native to Asia and was introduced to North America as far back as 1916. Today it is commonly found in much of Europe, South America and Africa.

Dafydd Lewis FRSB SOUTH WALES

HUNTINGTON’S DISEASE: GENETICS, ETHICS AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE 3 March 2021

Huntington’s disease is an incredibly complex topic. Dr Emma Yhnell, science communicator and postdoctoral researcher at Cardiff University, took her audience on a whirlwind tour through the clinical presentation of this debilitating disease, the challenges of clinical research and recent advances in the field.

Despite the challenges of online delivery, Dr Yhnell’s talk was engaging and provided plenty of opportunities for audience participation. The audience’s enjoyment of the lecture was exemplified by the diverse and insightful questions posed on everything from therapies for patients

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with Huntington’s to the ethics of genetic screening and patient confidentiality.

As someone with little prior knowledge of Huntington’s disease, this talk provided an excellent introduction. Most of us are familiar with the movement issues associated with Huntington’s, but are less aware of the emotional, behavioural and communication issues that can occur. I am sure I am not the only audience member who felt they were leaving with a greater understanding and appreciation of this disease, and compassion for those who are affected and their families.

This was a joint event by the RSB South Wales branch and Cardiff Scientific Society, hosted through Zoom, attended by 70 members and 12 student members of the Cardiff Scientific Society and 18 members of the RSB. A huge thank you to Cardiff Scientific Society for hosting this event and to Dr Yhnell.

Sarah Morgan MRSB WESSEX

MAMMALS AND THEIR TEETH 22 March 2021

It is extraordinary how much can be learned from tiny fossil fragments. Dr Neil Gostling’s talk for the Wessex branch focused on

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Branches, 2 Twenty-six of the 46 species of British ladybirds have warning colouration to show that they release toxic or foul-tasting chemicals

Scottish wildcats are under threat from hybridisation with domestic cats

research from very small pieces of the jaw bones of two very early mammals from the late Triassic, 270 million years ago – Keuhneotherium and Morganucodon. These were shrew-like insectivores with typical heterodont dentition, meaning their teeth are differentiated into different forms.

Although it was previously thought that these earliest mammals were dietary generalists, Dr Gostling and his team found this not to be the case. The early mammals had to eat constantly to support their high metabolic rate, and as chewing different foods causes differential abrasion on tooth surfaces, it was possible to scan the teeth to assess what stresses they had been subjected to. Data from the teeth of modern bat species with different diets were used for reference and this clearly demonstrated that these two insectivores were early adapters and dietary specialists.

Further investigations based on knowledge gained from research into walrus teeth meant that both the age and the sex of these two extinct species could be confidently established using a variety of techniques to count the number of annuli (growth rings) in the cementum layer that anchors teeth into the jaw. Interestingly, this showed that the lifespan of these

mammals was far longer than would be expected for an equivalent-sized modern mammal but shorter than that of an equivalent reptile.

In addition, the cementum count also allows an estimation of basal metabolic rate (BMR). Modern mammals of equivalent size have a very high BMR owing to their enhanced thermoregulatory control, whereas the BMR of Keuhneotherium and Morganucodon was considerably lower, as would also be expected in a modern reptile.

Finally, estimation of blood flow through fossil femur fragments of Morganucodon suggested that the maximum BMR of these early insectivores also places them between reptiles and modern mammals. All this points to the surprising suggestion that these early stem mammals are intermediates between reptiles and mammals.

The scope of this talk, the variety of techniques used to establish the facts, and Dr Gostling’s informal and approachable manner gave rise to a high number of questions from the large online audience.

Dr Hilary Otter FRSB

Contacts BEDS, ESSEX AND HERTS Dr Jacqui Piner • bedsessexherts@rsb.org.uk DEVON AND CORNWALL Christine Fry • devoncornwall@rsb.org.uk EAST ANGLIA Natalie Lamb • eastanglia@rsb.org.uk EAST MIDLANDS Rosemary Hall • eastmidlands@rsb.org.uk KENT, SURREY AND SUSSEX Dafydd Lewis • kentsurreysussex@rsb.org.uk LONDON Professor Patrizia Ferretti • london@rsb.org.uk NORTH WALES Peter Thompson • northwales@rsb.org.uk NORTH WESTERN Dr David Wareing • northwest@rsb.org.uk NORTHERN Dr Cathleen Thomas • northern@rsb.org.uk NORTHERN IRELAND Jonathan Shields • ni@rsb.org.uk SCOTLAND Dr Andrew Spiers • scotland@rsb.org.uk SOUTH WALES Dr Rowena Jenkins • southwales@rsb.org.uk

WEST MIDLANDS

A YEAR OF VIRTUAL QUIZZING THAMES VALLEY Dr Ray Gibson • thamesvalley@rsb.org.uk

5 March 2021

The West Midlands branch has now been holding our monthly virtual quiz on Zoom and Kahoot! for an entire year. For our latest events, our 11th and 12th since the pandemic began, the themes were ‘What makes us sick: genetics, environment and lifestyle’ and ‘Milestones in biology’. Kudos to our winners and congratulations to all our participants!

Follow us on social media for more information on the next quiz night.

WESSEX Dr Hilary Otter • wessex@rsb.org.uk WEST MIDLANDS Lesley Payne • westmidlands@rsb.org.uk YORKSHIRE Dr Lynda Partridge • yorkshire@rsb.org.uk HONG KONG Dr Gert Grobler • hongkong@rsb.org.uk

Dr Hilary Otter FRSB AUSTRALASIA Professor Lloyd Reeve-Johnson • australasia@rsb.org.uk

Our branches need you!

Joining a committee is your opportunity to organise and support the sort of events and activities you would like to see in your region. Contact regions@rsb.org.uk for more information.

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Taking stock RSB honorary treasurer Dr Paul Brooker FRSB reflects on an unprecedented financial year for the Society

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused huge amounts of concern and disruption for staff and members of the RSB. This has had an impact on the finances of the Society, although the impact was less dramatic than expected.

We delivered a better-than-anticipated year-end position, with a small operational cash surplus against a budgeted loss.

Both income and expenditure fell against budget, with expenditure savings outweighing the reduced income. Income showed modest growth over the previous year, albeit falling short of budget by £74,000. Membership held up more strongly than expected in such difficult and unpredictable times, and reduced expenditure on external venues, travel, hotels and events in the latter half of the year helped deliver a significant saving.

Compared with the last financial year our staff numbers fell from an average of 36 full-time equivalents to an average of 34 across the year and finally to 31 people by 30 September 2020. This was achieved with no redundancies,but by the flexibility of our staff as we reorganised and didn’t replace.

Expenditureon staff remained within budget at approximately 58% of total costs.

There are two exceptional items to be included in this period. First, the United Kingdom Biology Competitions (UKBC), which was run from within the Society as a special interest group, decided with support from the Society to strike out on its own and become a separate registered charity. The grant for this activity was £189,000, which appears within the overall expenditure for the year as a one-off event. The Society is now receiving income to operate the

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We were able to recognise legacy income of £85,000 in this financial year thanks to a generous gift from Dr Ann Burgess FRSB

competitions on its behalf under contract.

Second, we were able to recognise legacy income of £85,000 in this financial year thanks to a generous gift from Dr Ann Burgess FRSB, a life Fellow.

When we sold our co-owned London buildings, Charles Darwin House 1 and 2, we decided to move these new liquid assets into the medium-risk Churches, Charities and Local Authorities investment fund.

When the pandemic struck all assets fell precipitously. Nevertheless, the fund bounced back quickly and at the end of the financial year showed an unrealised capital gain of £20,000, while providing an income of around £30,000 over the year.

When these items are collectively taken into account we showed a loss of £180,000 against a budgeted deficit of £340,000.

Your Trustees, Officers and staff are committed to stemming these annual losses and have reviewed all operations.

Our membership subscriptions are the largest source of our income and we are very grateful to all our members for their continued support. Particular thanks are due to the Member Organisations shown below, which have provided additional resources. We actively seek other sources by which to diversify our income stream.

Finally, I’d like to thank CEO Mark Downs, finance manager Surinder Sohal and all the executive team who greatly aid the treasurer’s work. I’m also grateful to all members of the Finance Committee, the Audit Committee, including their chair Rodney Eastwood, and our auditors haysmacintyre for all they have done to ensure that the Society’s financial position continues to be sound and transparent.

The biology brainteaser

Your chance to win a £25 book token Across

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9 To disagree with point is wrong (9,6)

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Compiled by Doug Stanford Volume 68 No 2 4

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This issue’s format

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Across entries are all from the world of biology clued only by a subsidiary indication. Down clues are traditional cryptic combinations.

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10 That is component of glasses (7) 11 Zero indication of wrong ideas being spread (7)

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12 More going outside – not me (9)

How to enter 12

14 Small opening in skin (5)

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Send us your completed puzzles by Wednesday 4th August. Please include your name, address, email and membership number. Post your entries to: Crossword, The Biologist, Royal Society of Biology, 1 Naoroji Street, Islington, London, WC1X 0GB

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15 Keep losing head (7) 18 Was I so timid reversing around this? (7)

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Well done to Dr Tracy Parker MRSB and Dr BE Sanderson MRSB. Book tokens are on their way to you.

29 Unclear about where to put letter (7,8) 29

Down 1 Urges and possibly their reproductive result (4) 2 A small type of gull in ship’s wake (6) 3 Container involved reactions in the absence of oxygen (8)

8 Sensed I left work to indulge in this? (8) 13 I could be working with energy (3)

4 Time to publish paper (6)

15 Back moderates if non-elected general starts preparing for another conflict (8)

5 Renewed or mended inner lining (8)

16 Prepared performance part to appear on TV (3,5)

6 Failing in duty concerning young girl (6)

17 Exhibition certain to get public viewing (8)

7 Overmatched? A big sumo getting tossed around (8)

Last issue’s solution Vol 68 No 1

20 Current politician is mischievous fellow (3)

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22 End with set arranged one inside the other (6) 24 Eroding a metal for example seen on the outside (6)

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Could you recommend a member?

The Royal Society of Biology represents, supports and engages with anyone who has an interest in the life sciences, and offers membership grades to suit all levels of expertise Existing members are uniquely placed to help grow our membership – and to increase the influence we are able to exert. A significant number of new members join as a direct result of a recommendation from someone they know and trust.

If you have a colleague, friend or family member who would benefit from Society membership, please email their details to us – and let us know if you’d like us to mention your nomination. email: membership@rsb.org.uk

www.rsb.org.uk

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#48 A peek inside a paleolab Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, USA

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In most natural history museums the painstaking classification, research and restoration of specimens is largely conducted behind closed doors.

However, at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, USA, beside the mounted skeletons and display cabinets, visitors can peer into a live diorama of modern-day palaeontologists at work.

The Paleolab is a window onto the work of scientists working at the museum, quite literally. Thanks to a panoramic glass wall visitors can observe a working research laboratory and the museum’s scientists and preparators examining or chiselling fossils, and preparing specimens for display.

For several years the centrepiece of this work has been the restoration of a massive mastodon skeleton, one of the museum’s first acquisitions.

Up until around 13,000 years ago mastodon were found across North

America, living on a vegetarian diet in pine forests and boggy areas. This particular skeleton was found in 1897 by a farmer in Waterloo, Indiana, and bought by the museum’s founder, Andrew Carnegie, in 1898. It has been on public display for most of the 123 years since. Museum staff have been meticulously removing more than a century’s worth of materials that have at times been added to the specimen to ‘preserve’ it, including paint, glue and chicken wire.

The Paleolab has given museum visitors the opportunity to watch museum staff work on many other spectacular specimens, including parts of both the known specimens of the titanosaur Dreadnoughtus schrani, one of the largest dinosaurs of any kind in the world, now back in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, where they were collected in 2005.

Members of the museum staff go out into the public space to explain to museum

visitors what the Homo sapiens behind the glass are doing on any given day.

“To this day Paleolab is really the only space in the museum where the public can routinely experience actual science in action,” says Matthew Lamanna, Mary R. Dawson associate curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the museum.

Built and funded by Carnegie in 1895, the natural history museum is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and is among the top natural history museums in the country. The philanthropist led expeditions across the western US that resulted in the discovery of many dinosaurs, including Diplodocus carnegii, and generated 400 crates of fossils.

Words by Emma Wrake

For the museum’s opening times and visitor information see www.carnegiemnh.org

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Gifts in in Wills Wills could couldbe bethe thekey keyto toprotecting protecting Gifts the future future of of human humanhealth health the

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Øøõ èûóèõìèñæè òé ÌØßÒÍ¢ ' shows how suddenly a êïòåäï ëèäï÷ë æëäïïèñêè æäñ äóóèäõ Êö ä ðèðåèõ òé òøõ öæìèñ÷ìĢæ æòððøñì÷ü üòø will understand that while ñòåòçü æäñ óõèçìæ÷ úëä÷ úè úìïï éäæè ñèû÷ úè æäñ åè certain that the future will åõìñê ðäñü ðòõè ÷ëõèä÷ö ÷ò human health.

úëò úìïï ðäîè ÷ëè Ģêë÷ äêäìñö÷ äñ÷ìðìæõòåìäï resistance her life’s work.

ART PRODUCTION

Without support at the crucial early stages, õèöèäõæëèõö ïìîè Íõ Ôäéòõòø æäñ åè éòõæèç ÷ò äåäñçòñ their passion and leave science altogether, with äñ ìððèäöøõäåïè ïòöö ÷ò future human health. Gifts in Wills provide the long term funding and security that allows the Foundation to invest in projects like Íõ ÔäéòõòøĐö äñç ïäü ÷ëè foundations for quality research in years to come.

CLIENT

As Chair of the Medical Research Foundation – ÷ëè æëäõì÷äåïè äõð òé ÷ëè Medical Research Council £ Ò ëäùè öèèñ ÷ëè ìñæõèçìåïè impact that individuals úëò õèðèðåèõ ÷ëè Foundation in their Wills can have on the future of òøõ ëèäï÷ë äñç úèïïåèìñê ëèõè ìñ ÷ëè ÞÔ Ýëèöè gifts fund research and researchers which can have éäõ¢õèäæëìñê ìðóïìæä÷ìòñö for human health.

“As scientists, our duty is to secure the future of research for the generations that follow.”

With a gift in your Will you can play a key role in providing the science that will protect the health of future generations.

Right now, the Foundation is funding research to tackle äñ÷ìðìæõòåìäï õèöìö÷äñæè and investing in researchers ïìîè Íõ Öüõöìñì Ôäéòõòø £

Professor Fiona Watt, President of the Medical Research Foundation and Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council.

Your Will can fund the rational response to health challenges that medical science provides.

While we don’t know what the future holds for human

ĒÝëè éøñçìñê Ò õèæèìùèç ÷ëõòøêë ÷ëè Öèçìæäï Ûèöèäõæë Ïòøñçä÷ìòñ úìïï åè ÷õäñöéòõðä÷ìùè éòõ ðü õèöèäõæë ē Íõ Öüõöìñì Ôäéòõòø

ëèäï÷ë ìñ ÷ëè ÞÔ úè çò know that research, and the åõìïïìäñ÷ öæìèñ÷ìö÷ö çõìùìñê ÷ëä÷ research forward, are the key to meeting those challenges for years to come.

But many of these scientists rely on the generosity and foresight of fellow ðèðåèõö òé ÷ëè öæìèñ÷ìĢæ community – people like you, who are willing to leave a gift to medical research in their Wills.

At the Medical Research Ïòøñçä÷ìòñ òùèõ ' [ of our voluntary income comes from individuals who choose to include a gift in their Will – they are crucial ìñ ÷ëè Ïòøñçä÷ìòñĐö äåìïì÷ü to fund research that úìïï èñäåïè ÷ëè ñèû÷ generation of scientists

to make real world discoveries in the future. Ò Ģõðïü åèïìèùè ÷ëä÷ ä êìé÷ in your Will to the Medical Research Foundation is an excellent investment and will have a lasting impact on science and on the future of human health in the UK. Please consider this very special gift today.

Professor Nick Lemoine MD PhD FMedSci Chair of the Medical Research Foundation

Get your free guide to supporting research in your Will.

To request your free guide to gifts in Wills Ģïï ìñ ÷ëìö éòõð äñç õè÷øõñ ÷ò Ïõèèóòö÷ ÖÎÍÒÌÊÕ ÛÎÜÎÊÛÌÑ ÏØÞ×ÍÊÝÒØ× You don’t need a stamp OR visit medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/support-us/wills Name Address Postcode Email address We would like to contact you from time to time with our latest news. Please tick here if you are happy for us to contact üòø ùìä èðäìï Ýëè Öèçìæäï Ûèöèäõæë Ïòøñçä÷ìòñ çòèö ñò÷ öëäõè üòøõ óèõöòñäï ìñéòõðä÷ìòñ âòø æäñ øñöøåöæõìåè ä÷ äñü time. For further information on how we collect, store and process your personal data, please read our Privacy Notice medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/privacy Medical Research Foundation is a charity registered in England and Wales (Reg. Charity No. 1138223). Please follow Government isolation and distancing guidelines if posting.

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