Secret sex life of damselflies revealed: Age is no barrier to love-making
Daily Express, 16th July 2015

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.”

Who would win in a fight between a rhino and a tiger?
BBC Radio Leeds, 22nd August 2014

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. 

Age doesn’t dull damselfly sex
Red Orbit, 16th July 2015

​More on the reproductive senescence paper.

Carleton researcher probes the (indefatigable) sex lives of damselflies
Ottawa Citizen, 17th July 2015

​More on the reproductive senescence paper.

Invisible: The high-vis trick that blinds the eye
New Scientist, 24th March 2014

​Ed Yong at New Scientist covered Richard Webster’s Biology Letters paper, calling it “the first real insights into just how [disruptive colouration] works…”.

How Edge Camouflage Fools the Eye
Live Science, 25th October 2013

​Live Science covered our Biology Letters paper on disruptive colouration, with some quotes from yours truly.

Digital revolution could lead to creation of thousands of jobs
Yorkshire Evening Post, 26th April 2013

​I was tangential to the main piece – talking about how Big Data can help wildlife conservation – but I still got my ugly mug and a bit about my work in the YEP.

Mimikry im Tierreich: Kleine nehmen’s ungenau
Die Zeit, 25th March 2012

​More coverage of the Nature paper.  You’ll have to try Google Translate for the English version!

Researchers solve Darwin’s evolution of mimicry puzzle
BBC News, 21st March 2012

​More coverage of the Nature paper.

As hoverflies grow, so do their acting skills
New York Times, 21st March 2012

​More coverage of the Nature paper.

A fly’s imperfect disguise
Science NOW, 21st March 2012

​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.

“Citizens’ groups trying to purrrge feral-cat problem”
Ottawa Citizen and Time Colonist, 15th January 2012

​Some time ago Chris 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.

“Healthy, parasite-free people are smarter, researchers say”
Toronto 24h, 26th September 2011

​24h also published a piece on the IQ paper. Again, the researchers 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.

“Healthy people are smarter: study”
Ottawa Sun, 22nd September 2011

​The Ottawa Sun picked up on Tom Sherratt and Chris Hassall's paper on the relationship between IQ and parasites. This online story was a slightly expanded version of the print story. 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”…

“Why is average IQ higher in Massachusetts than Louisiana?”
Washington Post, 16th September 2011

​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.

“Why is average IQ higher in some places?”
Scientific American, 6th September 2011

​This was a piece written in SciAm 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).