In BIOL2039 last week we were thinking about Dunbar’s number, which is that 150 is the number of people that one person can maintain stable relationships with. Matt Wisdom has suggested some reading for anyone who is interested in finding out more – Thinking Big: How the Evolution of Social Life Shaped the Human Mind by Clive Gamble (who’s in the Archaeology department). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Big-Evolution-Social-Shaped/dp/0500051801 (thank you Matt!).
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Related to this, human social interactions are very reciprocal. A new study shows that levels of reciprocity in one game has effects on subsequent games https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02721-8
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First contender for staff contributor of the week is Mark Chapman, teach yourself to echolocate https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-echolocate (thank you Mark!)
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Second contender for staff contributor of the week is Bjorn Robroek, via his PhD student Magda Steele, who recently attended a British Ecological Society citizen science workshop, providing lots of links:
Free online course – Introduction to Citizen Science and Scientific Crowdsourcing https://extendstore.ucl.ac.uk/product?catalog=UCLXICSSCJan17
Examples of effective citizen science:
Balloon mapping kit https://publiclab.org/wiki/balloon-mapping-kit
Clean air campaign https://friendsoftheearth.uk/clean-air/clean-air-campaign-order-clean-air-kit
iSpot https://www.ispotnature.org/
Project splatter (roadkill mapping) https://projectsplatter.co.uk/
Thank you, Bjorn and Magda!
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What is your ecological footprint? You can measure it here http://www.footprintcalculator.org/
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House mice released onto Gough island are causing a decline in reproductive success of nesting seabirds https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12664
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12 eggs that you’re most likely to find in your garden, park or on a walk https://www.discoverwildlife.com/how-to/identify-wildlife/how-to-identify-birds-eggs/
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Butterfly fish have altered their behaviour in response to coral reef bleaching https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/coral-bleaching-changed-rules-of-engagement-for-feisty-butterflyfish-20181022-p50b6o.html
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The latest issue of New Forest water news is available here https://freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/New-Forest-Water-News-Issue-6.pdf
Posted By : Judith Lock