Blog

Have you ever heard of ecofiction? Neither had I until about a year ago. Ecofiction is fiction where nature and/or our relationship with our physical environment plays a major role in the plot. Topics like climate change, conservation, illegal trade of endangered species, and environmental disaster are commonly represented (with…

Blog on the SBS seminar (4^th March 2021) from Dr Victoria Pritchard written by Max Vallarino, student from the “Meet the scientists” course

In an age where natural biodiversity is under greater threat than ever before, it is important to use every tool at our disposal when devising management plans…

Blog on the SBS seminar from Prof Marcel Jaspars written by Jessie Jungels, student from the “Meet the scientists” course 

In a world of growing antibiotic resistance and newly emerging diseases (not to mention, Covid-19), drug discovery and development have become more important than ever. Even though nature is one…

I model projections of bioenergy crop yield and energy, carbon capture, and environmental impacts, and in the last year myself and Astley Hastings have published three papers on Miscanthus x giganteus as a bioenergy crop. What I have discovered is that in England miscanthus is a robust bioenergy crop against…

As we approach the milestone of a year since the Covid-19 pandemic forced a seismic shift in the delivery of teaching in universities around the world, I reflect on our experience of blended learning here in the School of Biological Sciences.

At the beginning of 2020, the term “blended learning”…

I have been visiting a local school as a STEM ambassador for the last 5 years. I work part time and spend my day off from my research and student supervision in SBS, teaching science and technology to 4-12 year olds which is extremely…

When I mention that my PhD is in wildfire ecology, most people immediately ask if I study the fires in Australia or California. I am often met with surprise when I reply that I study Scottish wildfires and that there are in fact plenty of wildfires here. While these fires…

The Zoology Museum turns 50 on the 17^th December 2020. I thought I’d use this blog to talk a bit about what the Zoology Museum means to me.

I am the Education and Outreach Officer for the School of Biological Sciences, and have been involved in doing public engagement for…

The astronomer Carl Sagan famously said that “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.” But while…

I am one of the newly appointed research fellows at the School of Biological Sciences. Before joining the University of Aberdeen,…