Dear all,
Thank-you for your contributions throughout this semester. If you come across anything interesting over Christmas (whilst revising, or avoiding revising) please send it to me. I won’t send the next edition of SEEN until teaching starts again, so, in the meantime, have a merry Christmas, a happy new year and the best of luck with your exams!
Judith
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Careers
A reminder for 2nd years that the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is currently advertising year-long placements. They are a great addition to your CV (lots of experience making you very employable) and you get free accommodation and £89 a week to live on. Patrick kindly uploaded details to the external links section of the BIOL2004 webpage but I repeat it here:
The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust are advertising several placements now, some of which are in Hampshire. Interested students, who know they want to work with GWCT, should get a CV, covering letter (describing what they want out of the placement and what skills they bring to it – this needs to give some idea of why they stand out from the crowd) and any references from lecturers – to GWCT by the first week in January. There is information on writing CVs and covering letters on the Careers destination website.
Find out more here:
http://www.gwct.org.uk/about_us/job_vacancies/default.asp
• Geographical Information Science (GIS) and Grey Partridge Research (2 placements)
• Farmland Ecology Unit (FEU)
• Lowland Game & Wildlife Research (LGR)
• Upland Research Unit, Drumochter, Inverness-shire
• Upland Research Unit, North Pennines
• Wetland Research
The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology also offers sandwich placements, details here:
http://www.ceh.ac.uk/personnel/Students.html
I am also awaiting information on placements from FERA.
On Tuesday, Felix Eigenbrod’s PhD student, Emma Brooks, kindly gave an overview of how she got her job at the IUCN. She suggested the following websites as good places to look for conservation jobs:
• jobs.guardian.co.uk/jobs/environment
In collaboration with Biosoc and Career Destinations I am currently organising a Biological Careers day, to take place on Wednesday 22nd February. The day will consist of events run by Career Destinations during the afternoon, which you will sign-up for (details to follow) and 2 careers panels in the evening, one for biochem/biomed careers and one for bio/zoo careers. So far 5 panel members are confirmed. Put the date in your diary!
Another date for your diary, 8th February. 8 students who graduated last summer collected data for ongoing projects in collaboration with Southampton City Council, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Marwell Wildlife. The results from summer 2011 with be presented on 8th February and 3rd years can find out how to apply for the scheme in summer 2012.
Stamp collecting
Nick Evens (3rd year Biology) sent me a link about the RSPB collecting stamps for their save the albatross campaign, suggesting that we all collect stamps from our friends and family over the Christmas holiday. Madeleine and Louisa at the student office reception are also albatross fans and have agreed to be the location of the stamp collection point in the new year. Good spotting Nick!
Darwin book club
Neil Gostling, Alan Marchant’s postdoc, has had an idea for a book club with a difference, to read On the Origin of Species. This is open to all in the Centre for Biological Sciences, staff and students. In semester 2 we will take a chapter, or 2, each week, and discuss what Darwin was ‘getting at’, and how the theory of evolution by natural selection has stood the test of time. Further details about days, locations and which edition of the book to buy will be available in the new year.
Twitcher Challenge
From Joel Parker: I saw a spectacular partial albino blackbird around 8am, Dec. 6 on Lover’s Walk. I tried to photograph it but it disappeared. Can someone find and photograph it? It is the blackbird with the big white spots all over it. This sort of urban albinism is also seen in crows. It can have a genetic or environmental cause (poor diet) according to the RSPB website.
Biological Recording programme
A friend of mine works as an ecological consultant near Chester. She asked me to highlight the courses run by the Botanical Society of the British Isles, which she says are some of the best ID courses she has been on. The Biological recording programmes were accredited by Birmingham University but due to funding changes they can no longer afford to run the courses. You can join the facebook campaign to save the courses:
In the news
Phoebe Cross (2nd year Biology) sent in a link to iSpot, after hearing about it on Radio 4’s Saving Species –http://www.ispot.org.uk/
Animal camouflage – spot the animalhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/8940584/Animal-camouflage-can-you-spot-these-masters-of-disguise-playing-hide-and-seek.html
Pandas at Edinburgh zoo, a lot of money for 2 individuals?http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/07/edinburgh-zoo-pandas-big-waste-money
Are these fossils of embryos or of bacteria? http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/12/dead-fossils-tell-the-best-tales.html
An anonymous vimeo fan sent in 3 links:
2 for Christmas http://vimeo.com/8809467 and http://vimeo.com/5879305
1 following the BIOL1004 protists practical of Volvox http://vimeo.com/26514497 (thank-you, you know who you are!)
Cannibalism in polar bears http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/12/scienceshotpolar-bear-cannibalis.html?ref=hp
Dinosaur nest http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/a-big-nest-of-baby-dinosaurs/
Marine protected areas: are they protected? http://www.nature.com/news/ocean-conservation-uncertain-sanctuary-1.9568
Joel Parker has been staff contributor extraordinaire for this edition, thank-you Joel!
Firstly, an interesting study on silverfish (mentioned in the BIOL1004 lecture on 1st Dec)http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111130202559.htm
Secondly, compound eyes are even older than we thought :http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/12/apex-predator-of-the-cambrian-had-16000-lens-compound-eyes.ars
Empathy in rats
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/12/rats-feel-each-others-pain.html?ref=hp – review including video
http://www.nature.com/news/rats-free-each-other-from-cages-1.9603 – review
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6061/1427 – article
Compound eyes of a Cambrian predator
http://www.nature.com/news/an-eye-opening-fossil-1.9586 – review
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v480/n7376/full/nature10689.html
Want to avoid harassment on a night out, go with a better looking friend, it works for female guppies
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/11/28/rspb.2011.2212 – article
How do hummingbirds fly like insects, despite being birds?
http://www.nature.com/news/hummingbird-flight-has-a-clever-twist-1.9639 – review
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/12/14/rspb.2011.2238 – article
Ocean acidification affects young fish http://www.nature.com/news/acidic-oceans-threaten-fish-1.9607Follow the links to the 2 studies.
I saw this study a while ago but was saving it for this edition because it is about reindeers and the problem of over-heating their brains:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/10/scienceshot-cool-reindeer-heads-.html?ref=hp – review
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/22/3850.full – article
App of the week
Arkive survival – are you quick enough to save endangered species? It’s a free and quite addictive.
Species of the week
You will all be interested to hear that my Frozen Planet poster arrived today. My favourite on it is the narwhalhttp://www.arkive.org/narwhal/monodon-monoceros/
I look forward to your links in 2012!
Posted By : Judith Lock