You might be used to writing scientific abstracts and reports – but have you ever tried to put your research into a rap? A few weeks ago, we received a not-so-usual press release: Four eighth grade students from The Nueva School in Hillsborough, California are releasing “They Grow”, a science-ified version of the popular Drake song “Headlines”. […]

We talk a lot about how to inspire the next generation of plant scientists. But how do our students inspire us? Last week, I met one of our undergraduate students, who is the President of our student-led Botanical Society. She told me about all the activities that they have planned for the next year:  interactive botany activities at our University family […]

Padlet is a new online tool that helps people to collaborate by posting their thoughts and comments on a virtual board. Contributors can simply access it through a URL on their computer or mobile phone, without having to register first. It allows anonymous contributions, while at the same time offering a variety of privacy and […]

Gene mutations often get a bad name. But they are essential for populations to become more diverse. By acquiring new traits – ideally superhero powers or at least vaguely useful ones – a population can move from lower to higher fitness levels over time. ‘Fitness ‘ in this context does not mean completing the London […]

Every year at the Society for Experimental Biology’s (SEB) annual meeting there is a special networking event: The ‘Women in Science’ dinner – which in fact is attended by both genders, as many issues such as combining a scientific career with having a family can affect men as well as women. Last night’s speaker was […]

Should scientists use social media for work purposes? What types of content can researchers put online and how can they make it reach even further? How to engage students via Twitter? How do you manage information overload? These were some of the topics and questions we addressed in our workshop ‘Linking research and teaching with […]

‘What is a plant?’ I imagine that none of the four speakers at the Society for Experimental Biology’s (SEB) ‘Science with Impact’ session had expected that question. Steven Cooke (Conservation Physiology), Christine Raines (Journal of Experimental Botany), Christoph Benning (The Plant Journal) and Henry Daniell (Plant Biotechnology Journal) each had fifteen minutes to talk about […]

Anne Osterrieder is a Research and Science Communication Fellow at Oxford Brookes University.  Over the next few days I’ll be blogging from the annual meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology. This year it takes place in Valencia, Spain and as always features tons and tons of plant, cell and animal biology. I don’t think […]

What do peacocks, CDs and certain plants have in common? They all have multi-coloured parts – feathers, surfaces or petals – which change their hue depending on the angle you look at them. This physical phenomenon in which an ordered repeating surface structure rather than a pigment gives an object its colour is called iridescence. […]

 “Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t.”   Gertrude B. Elion, Nobel Laureate 1988. A few days ago, Prof Alice Roberts, […]

Valentine’s Day is here and unless you share the cynics’ view that this is a holiday invented by the flower industry, you might set off to buy a bunch of flowers for your other half on the day. Next time, why not do something completely different this year and create your own unique flowers? The […]