SEEN 4.9

The National Pollinator Strategy was released for consultation on 6^th March – read more about it from the British Ecological Society http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/blog/2014/03/12/defra-get-buzzy-protecting-pollinators/

We’re trying out some tweeting in BIOL1003. You can see what we’re up to by searching Twitter for #sotonbiol1003. Last week’s tweets include the barnacle song, performed by the world’s least charismatic boyband. I’ve also just tweeted about a new study on snowshoe hares which suggests that their seasonal camouflage is not due to phenotypic plasticity, so their response to climate change will be due to other evolutionary processes http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1782/20140029.abstract?cpetoc

Fossilised crocodile skull fragments found on the Isle of Wight (2 parts were independently found 3 months apart but remarkably fit together) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-26538496

Elephants can tell the difference between different groups of people

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/03/10/elephants-hear-age-gender-ethnicity-in-human-voices/ – review

http://www.nature.com/news/elephants-recognize-the-voices-of-their-enemies-1.14846 – review

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/03/05/1321543111 – article

Darren Naish tells us about Komodo dragons http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2014/03/05/hell-yes-komodo-dragons-again/

Epigenetics – read more about non-genetic inheritance here http://www.nature.com/news/epigenetics-the-sins-of-the-father-1.14816

Royal Society Publishing celebrates international women’s day

http://royalsocietypublishing.org/international-womens-day-1

http://royalsocietypublishing.org/international-womens-day-2

http://rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org/site/misc/women_in_science.xhtml

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/04/wikipeadi-edit-a-thon-boost-women-editors?utm_source=social_media&utm_medium=hootsuite&utm_campaign=standard

And finally…