Dear all,
The final SEEN of 2011-12 L. 3rd years, if you would like to keep receiving SEEN, please send me an email address. Good luck with your exams and have a great summer!
Judith
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Careers
3rd years, Excel Southampton placements (including the scheme I manage with Southampton City Council, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Marwell Wildlife) have now closed. If you did apply for my scheme I will be in contact soon!
Two opportunities from the last SEEN are still available:
Catherine Chatters at Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust: Jo and I would be grateful for some help with survey work during the summer. We need a lot of survey work along the tributaries of the River Avon, especially now that Jo is working on a major joint project with the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to tackle invasive non-native plants along the River Avon and its tributaries.
John Poland at Hampshire Ecological Consultants: we are very keen to offer summer placements. There are still opportunities for third year students (and some 1st and 2nd year assistants) to shadow us on various projects. We can offer expenses (and paid positions where possible).
If you are interested in either opportunity, please let me know.
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Behind the scenes at the museum
Christine Taylor from Hampshire County Council Arts & Museums Service has sent me information about 2 events she thought you might all be interested to hear about. A free guided tour of the museum store to celebrate national insect week, on 30th June and 1st July.
She is also running a shield bug workshop on Saturday 8th September.
If you are interested in either event, please let me know.
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Darwin club
Our final Darwin reading club was today. Everyone who attended got a lot out of it, so we are very keen to do something similar, with another book, next semester. Keep an eye out for information at the start of next semester.
We are still hoping to organise a trip to Down House at the start of June. If you are interested in going please contact me so that we can get a good idea of numbers.
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In the news
From Tom Saunderson, 2nd year Biology (thank you, Tom), polar bears did not evolve from brown bearshttp://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6079/344.abstract
From Mike Hockey, 2nd year Natural Sciences (thank you, Mike), whale interactions, watch the filmhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17991601
From Pete Boyd, PhD student (thank you, Pete), a series of strange beetles dreamt up by his friend Naomihttp://www.flickr.com/photos/gnommi/sets/72157622128744041/. This is my favourite Coccinellis ho-ho-ho merrychristmassi “This rotund specimen lives entirely on a diet of cheap perfume and stale chocolates. It harbours an interesting defence mechanism: it covers itself in brandy butter, fermented holly berries and holly leaves, rendering itself spiny and utterly unpalatable.”
Santino, the stone-throwing chimp, is back! http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/05/stone-throwing-chimp-is-back.html?ref=hp
This year I introduced the 2nd years to the wonderful world of the burying beetle, but if seeing them in a lecture wasn’t enough, you can now see them on TV! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012w66t I like to think that I played a part in this because I suggested to George McGavin that they include them when he gave his talk, arranged by biosoc, last year. George is obviously quite a fan, well they are beetle-rilliant!
Plankton chronicles – http://richannel.org/collections/2012/plankton-chronicles#/a-sea-urchin-odyssey
The Anthropocene (our last 250 years) http://vimeo.com/39048998 part of the Planet under pressure conference (first years, good revision for the Human Ecology lecture)
Old weather vs new weather http://vimeo.com/15389435
Jewel caterpillars which deter ants http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/05/09/the-biology-of-the-translucent-jewel-caterpillar-the-nudibranch-of-the-forest/
Stiletto science – http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/05/09/3498890.htm – review
http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/04/26/rsif.2012.0179.full – article
Minute mammoth – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18003093 – review
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/05/04/rspb.2012.0671.full – article
Dolphins and humans cooperatively hunting –http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/05/01/dolphins-that-help-humans-to-catch-fish-form-tighter-social-networks/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NotRocketScience+%28Not+Exactly+Rocket+Science%29– review
http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/04/26/rsbl.2012.0174.full – article
How did plants and animals reach unreachable locations? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/science/its-not-so-lonely-at-the-top-tepui-ecosystems-thrive-up-high.html?_r=1 – review
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2012.01666.x/abstract – article
If Spring comes early it’s better for bat mothers to produce daughters, so they reabsorb male embryoes –http://inkfish.fieldofscience.com/2012/05/in-spring-bat-moms-choose-girls.html – review
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0036344 – article
Farting dinosaurs – http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/05/07/the-reports-of-dinosaurs-dying-of-farts-are-greatly-exaggerated/ – review
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(12)00329-6 – article
Special issue of Philosophical Transactions B – Conservation Physiology
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/site/2012/conservation_physiology.xhtml
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Species of the week
Cross river gorilla – http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/2012/05/08/video-first-camera-footage-endangered-cross-river-gorillas-2/
Posted By : Judith Lock