It’s been a long journey at Bangor University and it is now coming to an end, with final module assessments and dissertation drafts being handed in soon. This year I have been forced to consider what comes next. The lectures and seminars I have attended during this year have been of great help, and myContinue reading “The One Blog to End them All”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
How to Hide: Octopus Edition
On 10th November, I attended a seminar by Dr Sarah Zylinsky, as she discussed octopuses and their ability to avoid potential predators. Octopuses are within the cephalopod phylum, a group of molluscs. Despite their large, complex brains and behaviour, they have a “live fast, die young” lifestyle, in which they are active predators. Despite beingContinue reading “How to Hide: Octopus Edition”
Monitoring Biodiversity in Modified Tropics
Marion Pfeifer, gave a seminar discussing her work on how to monitor, and why this work is strangely novel. She began by explaining how most studies only study forests rather than the modified areas, which leaves a large gap in our understanding of tropical ecosystem dynamics. As such, Marion is has been planning a projectContinue reading “Monitoring Biodiversity in Modified Tropics”
Birds Teaching Us To Fly
On 22nd November, Jorn Cheney gave a seminar on the morphing of bird wings, and how this may influence the design of future aircraft. Cheney, began by reflecting on the current methods of flight, which use ‘brute force’ to account for the forces acting on the plane, rather than accounting for via complex mechanics, likeContinue reading “Birds Teaching Us To Fly”
Global Warming: Hope from Despair
On Wednesday 20th November, I attended a long awaited lecture by the world renowned Kevin Anderson; he has done incredible work alongside the Swedish and British governments, along with working alongside the EU to tackle the crisis of climate change. He began his lecture by reminding us of the Paris Agreement; an agreement inContinue reading “Global Warming: Hope from Despair”
Orientation and Navigation in Bats
Dr Richard Holland, discussed the orientation and navigation in bats also mentioning why they are an ideal model animal for homing and mammal migration. Birds may have been thought to be an equivalent study species for bats, however they orient themselves by very different methods. Birds use the inclination of the earth’s magnetic field asContinue reading “Orientation and Navigation in Bats”
The Bee Collapse
I attended a seminar by Dr Paul Cross as he discussed the collapse of the bee populations, its cause, and why it may not be over. In 2006 near entire hives began disappearing overnight, with no sign of where they had gone, causing massive damage to the apiarists all over the world. This was calledContinue reading “The Bee Collapse”
Biology Express: Zoology 