Biology Science Blog

Category: Education

How do you give?

by Natasha Neill, Executive Officer at the Society of Biology Many members will be aware that the Society of Biology recently launched our shop, a place to buy your Society branded goodies and celebrate your membership. Another element of the shop, the support it offers us as an organisation, is crucial to our work, but sometimes difficult for a learned society to communicate. Its important for members to understand the wider work that we do. We aim to influence science education policy, ensure that advice on careers is available for students and that the next generation of scientists are inspired not scared, of biology and its wonders.  I’m responsible for fundraising at the Society, so started with fact finding and researching; trying to find advice and guidance that would fit our niche. I recently read It ain’t what you give it’s the way that you give it by Caroline Fiennes, who has…

Would you like termites with that?

Lauren Hoskin is a recent graduate in microbiology. She is interested in a career in science communication and writes for her own blog, Science Says as well as for the Student Hubs blog. Many problems faced by humans do not have simple answers, especially in the area of food security. How will we feed nine billion people in 2050? How do we make sure food is distributed equally? The list goes on. But there is one solution to the ever-growing problem of meat production which could help to reduce carbon emissions. PROteINSECT, launched in early 2013, is a Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA)-led project which has started to look at the idea of insects as animal feed. Rearing fly larvae on a range of organic waste and using them as a source of cheap and nutritious protein for animals would help to use waste effectively and improve land efficiency….

“Sorry James, this is not my cup of tea”

Guest post by Dr James Revill, Research Fellow with the Harvard Sussex Program, SPRU, University of Sussex. The issues raised in James’ post will be discussed at our ‘Bioscience to Bioweapons’ Policy Lates event next Thursday, and on Twitter with the hashtag #PolicyLates. The strategic use of disease in warfare has been subject to a long standing and cross-cultural taboo that condemns the hostile exploitation of biology as the act of a pariah. In short, biological weapons are simply not cricket. However, such disapproval is not fixed but context dependent and remains malleable to engineered erosion by governments and other groups . This is a particular concern in light of the twin challenge posed by the changing capacity and geography of bioscience and the evolving perceptions of security, including the perceived rise of terrorism and new wars in the 21st Century, on the other. Such circumstances have been converging to once again…

Not by good intentions alone

Guest post by Tatyana Novossiolova, a Wellcome Trust doctoral candidate studying the governance of biotechnology in post-communist Russia at the Division of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. The issues raised in Tatyana’s post will be discussed at our ‘Bioscience to Bioweapons’ Policy Lates event next Thursday. In May this year, Science reported the creation of a hybrid between the H5N1 avian influenza virus, which has 60% mortality rate in infected humans but does not easily spread from person to person, and the H1N1 virus, which caused several thousand deaths during the 2009 global pandemic. In light of its limited practical utility, the experiment was denounced as ‘appalling irresponsibility’. Back in 2011, similar concerns were raised following the announcement that two teams working independently in the Netherlands and the US created contagious H5N1. Far from being isolated cases, those experiments epitomise the worrying trajectory that some bioscience research has taken over the…

Inspiring future generations (and feeding them)

People will fight passionately for medical advances, and indeed science has done a huge amout to save lives and reduce suffering caused by health problems. But the point was made at UK PlantSci 2013 that, ultimately, this is only valuable if we can feed people. I don’t think there is a single delegate at PlantSci who doesn’t have concerns about lack of funding for agricultural research, but there was an uplifiting session about tackling some of the problems facing plant science. I don’t mean climate change and population growth, but lack of skills, funding and understanding. If people don’t understand what plant scientists do or what they achieve, how can they be expected to value plant science? The UK Plant Sciences Federation was founded so we can work together on this kind of issue, and education is very high up the agenda. School children learn lots of facts, but…

MPs’ thoughts on academic career paths

From a potential ban on neonicotinoids to the importance of the EU, there were some provocative questions at last week’s Voice of the Future. There were many times when I had my preconceptions challenged by the MPs’ answers, and many issues I hadn’t stopped to consider. This Storify (below) sums up the debate brilliantly, and you can watch the entire event here, but I’ve taken the opportunity to share some of my thoughts, and look forward to your comments. Unsurprisingly, a major issue raised by young people was the career structure in academic science. Unlike most commercial settings, aspiring academics must do multiple short-term contracts after which many will never get permanent jobs in research. Universities and Science Minister David Willetts MP was keen to explain that there are reasons for the high number of PhD students relative to senior staff, including that the structure shouldn’t be too top…

In praise of apprenticeships

by Rebecca Nesbit I was interested to hear an interviewee on the Today programme worried about the reluctance amongst many parents and schools to recognise the true value of apprenticeships. As someone who graduated prior to top-up fees, I often ask myself ‘if I was 18 now, would university still be the right thing?’, so I was curious to learn more about what apprenticeships are on offer in the life science sector. The range of biological science that apprenticeships cover includes environmental sciences, nanotechnology, genetics and the immune system. Opportunities include laboratory technicians, working on everything from environmental and medical science to fermentation. The ‘on the job’ training for these apprentices may include collecting and analysing samples, preparing cultures or specimens, managing laboratory supplies and equipment, setting up experiments, and recording data. Apprenticeships are clearly an excellent way to learn the practical skills employers need and the attitude needed…

Ecological adventures during Biology Week

As we start to plan Biology Week 2013 here at the Society of Biology we take inspiration from some of the successes of 2012. Here Nick O’Connor, a teacher at Highcliffe School, describes his A level field course in Dorset The Year 13 A level Biologists spent a superb 3 days along the Jurassic Coast on the Isle of Purbeck. This was a great chance to study outdoor biology with wellies on! We arrived at with great expectations at Leeson House Field Studies Centre which is set in an outstanding environment nestling in the Purbeck Hills overlooking Swanage Bay.  We were met by our expert Biology tutor, Mr Mike Gould, and he took us through the field trip itinerary. We spent the first day looking at woodland ecology in the grounds of Leeson House. We also studied the abundance and distribution of lichens (which are a symbiotic relationship between an alga and…

What you said about Open Education Resources

Dr Eva Sharpe, HE Policy Officer at the Society of Biology, reports on the results of our survey into the use of Open Education Resources Earlier this summer, I blogged about a Society of Biology project to promote the use of Open Education Resources (OER) by the bioscience community.  As one strand of the project we’ve been collecting existing bioscience resources which we’ll be promoting through a new website launching this autumn. Over the summer we surveyed HE bioscience teachers on their current use of OER, any barriers they have found, and comments on our plans for the new website. Here I summarise the responses. Only half of our respondents were currently using or creating OER. Those that weren’t using OER gave a mixture of reasons, from only teaching postgraduate courses and therefore needing very specific teaching resources, having excellent “in house” content available, and a pool…