2023 |
Insects and climate change
I spoke to Eric McAlister for her Radio 4 series on insects. My specific contribution was on metamorphosis and how climate change is impacting on insect life cycles with consequences for people. I think it aired a while before on BBC Radio 4, but I only just got the link! (Clip starts at 23:25).
Insect Conservation
I was interviewed as part of a fascinating 5-part podcast series by Bill McQuay for an Audible Originals podcast. Bill has brought together a group of leading entomologists who are working on insects declines around the world, and there is a really interesting and nuanced discussion about the limits of evidence, how scientists should engage with the media, and where entomology should go next. Definitely worth a listen!
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2022 |
Urban park design
I was interviewed as part of this reporting piece on green space and climate solutions. I took the opportunity to advocate for a shift in the scale of thinking from small demonstrations and "pocket parks" to large-scale landscape management changes that are needed for major challenges.
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2019 |
Adaptation and Climate Change
As part of a large team, led by Viktoriia Radchuk in Germany, I was a co-author on a big synthesis paper of responses to climate change. The conclusion was not positive, but (as ever) the results show just how poorly we understand the natural world.
BioDAR Coverage
These stories covered our launch of the BioDAR Project, designed to use weather radar to monitoring insect abundance and diversity. You can find out more at the project website: www.BioDARProject.org. You can see a very excitable interview with Sky News below:
Climate change and insects
Dr Chris Hassall (Biology) appeared on the Paul Hudson Weather Show and explained how non-stinging insects have evolved to mimic their stinging counterparts, to avoid being preyed upon themselves.
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2018 |
Urban biodiversity
I was speaking at the Pint of Science event and gave a quick introduction to the topic with Dr George Holmes and (now Dr) Caroline Ward. We were both talking about conservation biology - me about urban biodiversity and them about the far more intriguing "Fantastical beasts and where to conserve them"!
Soundscape Ecology
Dr Chris Hassall (Biology - FBS) writes this article about why some scientists are turning to “soundscape ecology” or “ecoacoustics” as tools to understanding the changing natural world. The iPaper printed the article.
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2016 |
Insect mimicry
I wrote this piece as an overview of interesting areas of mimicry research when my paper with Doug Moore came out about acoustic mimicry in hoverflies.
Artificial nature?
We proposed this Conversation article when Martin Dallimer, Ian Kellar and I had a disagreement over whether there was value in astroturf “pop-up parks”. I think we agreed that there was some value, but nothing like nature green space!
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2017 |
Ghost Ponds
I reviewed this paper, as well as examining the PhD student who was the lead author. It’s a fantastic piece of work showing that plants discovered in “ghost ponds” are being revived after lurking underground as dormant seeds for up to 150 years.
Dowsing (!?)
Sally Le Page did a great job hunting down UK water companies that were using dowsing to find leaks. I was asked for a comment and I think the journalist was very pleased when I said that using divining rods to find water underground "isn't a technique, it's witchcraft"... As you can tell from the two Guardian pieces, that seems to have had a fairly immediate impact (see that, REF panel!). Genuinely, though, people should be concerned that 10 out of 12 water companies in the UK are passing on the costs of these unproven practices to their customers.
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2015 |
Sex and ageing in damselflies
The Daily Express picked up on our recent piece on damselfly reproductive senescence (or the lack thereof). The author had some fun with it: “GOOD news: the older you get, the better the sex. Bad news: it only applies if you’re an azure damselfly.”
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2014 |
Rhino vs Tiger
A fluffy little piece in the lead-up to the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley between the Leeds Rhinos and the Castleford Tigers. Apparently I’m getting a reputation for taking these things on, and it was a good opportunity to talk about nature and science on local radio.
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2013 |
Evolution of Camouflage
Ed Yong at New Scientist covered Richard Webster’s Biology Letters paper, calling it “the first real insights into just how [disruptive colouration] works…” Live Science covered the work, with some quotes from me.
Digital tools for Yorkshire
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2012 |
Evolution of Mimicry
Coverage of my paper with Heather Penney, Tom Sherratt, Kevin Abbott and Jeff Skevington in Nature. See my blog post where I explain the paper and the findings. You’ll have to try Google Translate for the English version of the Die Zeit piece!
Feral Cat Control
Some time ago, I was featured on a Skeptic North blog post about the control of feral cats using a technique called “trap-neuter-release”. It was an off-the-cuff review of some claims made about TNR by a group of conservation biologists, published in a highly respected journal, in response to an inquiry from a member of the public concerning TNR. A reporter from PostMedia then got in touch, who told me that he was writing a story about the use of TNR to control Canadian feral cat populations nationwide. Chris went back and took another look at the literature and gave his opinion. The journalist did a reasonable good job in balancing what is a fairly undecided issue.
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2011 |
Human IQ Research
The original SciAm piece was written by Christopher Eppig – the lead author of the original study that showed a link between IQ and parasites. Eppig cited our study in his piece as being supportive of his previous findings (which it certainly is). Eppig and colleagues (who published the original paper on the link between IQ and parasites) published a second paper using a similar dataset of IQ scores and health data, this time limiting their analysis to the US states. They found approximately the same patterns, which is surprising given the smaller variation in IQ scores and parasites. The Ottawa Sun and Toronto 24h picked up on my paper with Tom Sherratt on the relationship between IQ and parasites. The title isn’t quite accurate, but it conveys at least part of the message of the paper. Also, this title is better than the title that appeared in print: “Nasty bugs eat away at IQ”… Toronto 24h also published a piece on the IQ paper. Again, the journalist picked up on the correlation for the title, but the content of the piece was pretty well balanced. The author detailed the range of hypotheses, the reasons for an association between IQ and race, and finally a closing remark about the importance of health care in cognitive development.
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