Tag Archives: biology

Earth Day 2017

It’s the planet that we live on and home to 7 billion people as well as billions of plants and animals. But with climate change and other issues such as pollution, we need to do more to look after our home. Earth Day gives the opportunity to come together and work toward a greener future, showing support for the environment. earth-day

Why is it important?

Humans are using resources at an alarmingly fast rate, currently using more resources than the Earth can produce. Today humans use 1.5 planets’ worth of resources every year!

Climate change is a huge problem for the future of our planet. It will lead to things like increased sea level and flooding, drought, and a rise in temperature. This will make it more difficult for plants and animals to survive and hence humans. Scientists agree that we can reduce the impacts of climate change, but we need to act as fast as we can.

There are lots of other environmental issues such as deforestation, pollution and ocean acidification that are affecting the environment.  These problems can lead to a loss in the number of animal and plant species causing the Earth to have reduced biodiversity (the number of species). Lots of plants and animals are interlinked in food chains, so losing one can have a knock on effect on other species. Biodiversity is vital to our survival, for supporting the ecosystem, finding things like new medicines and for providing humans with lots of raw materials.

coral

How can we help?

There are lots of things we can do to reduce our footprint on the Earth. These are just some things you could try and do:

  1. Shop for locally sourced produce
  2. Eat food that is in season
  3. Eat less meat
  4. Bring your own shopping bags
  5. Use a reusable water bottle rather than bottled water
  6. Don’t drive if there is an alternative
  7. Take holidays closer to home
  8. Recycle
  9. Use energy saving lights
  10. Unplug your electronics when not in use
  11. Plant a tree
  12. Use a reusable coffee cup

 

Ten Amazing Facts about the human body!

You take it everywhere you go, but I bet that there are a few facts about your body that you didn’t know!

1. There is enough DNA in the human body to stretch from the Sun to Pluto and back – 17 times! 

There are about 37 trillion cells in the human body, all of them containing about 5cm of of DNA (when uncoiled). DNA is made up of lots of different nucleotide pairs that can decide some of our features such as eye and hair colour.

2. The average human body contains ten times more bacterial cells than human cells.

However bacteria are much smaller so don’t take up that much space. Lots of these bacterial cells are important, such as intestinal bacteria that help keep our immune systems healthy.unravelled-dna

3. Except for identical twins, each person on Earth has a unique smell.

Just how we each have individual finger prints we all have our own smell. This is determined by your genes, and can be used by other animals to identify individuals.

4. An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body. 

The average heart pumps about 70ml of blood out with each beat and a healthy heart beats around 70 times a minute.

5. By the time you go to bed at night you are about 1 cm shorter than when you woke up that morning.

This is because the cartilage between your bones is compressed throughout the day.

6. Nerve impulses to and from the brain can travel as fast as 250 miles per hour. 

A nerve impulse is an electrical signal that sends messages to the brain when the nerve is triggered by a stimulus. It is really important that they travel fast, for example, if you burn your finger it’s important that your brain gets the message to stop touching it quickly.nerves

7. There are as many hairs per square inch on your body as a chimpanzee.

Humans are not quite the naked apes that we’re made out to be. We have lots of hair, but on most of us it’s not obvious as a majority of the hairs are too fine or light to be seen.

8. The human body is estimated to have 60,000 miles of blood vessels.

To put that in perspective, the distance around the earth is about 25,000 miles, so your blood vessels could travel more than two times around the Earth if laid out.blood-vessels

9. Babies are always born with blue eyes.

The colour of your eyes depends on the genes you get from your parents, but at birth most babies appear to have blue eyes. The reason behind this is the pigment melanin. The melanin in a newborn’s eyes often needs time after birth to be fully deposited or to be darkened by exposure to ultraviolet light, later revealing the baby’s true eye colour.

10. Every day an adult body produces 300 billion new cells.

Your body not only needs energy to keep your organs up and running but also to constantly repair and build new cells to form the building blocks of your body itself.

#TryThisTuesday: Curly Fries!

Today we are looking at the science behind curly potato fries. First, let’s talk about how we make them.

  1. Carefully chop up a potato into straight thick chips.
  2. Boil around 250ml of water and stir salt into this water until no more salt will dissolve.
  3. Fill a bowl with tap water and place half of your chips into this bowl.
  4. When the salty water has cooled pour it into another bowl and add the rest of your chips to this.p1020750
  5. Leave both bowls of chips out overnight.
  6. The next day you should have one bowl of chips that are still hard and straight and the other bowl (with salty water in) will be full of chips that are more flexible, that you can shape into curls.

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The Science

The addition of salt to the water allows you to make curly fries due to osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of water from an area that has few molecules in the water to an area that has more molecules in it to try to even things out and create a balance.

waterin

Plants like our potato here are made up of millions of cells that have a cell membrane around its edge which allows some things in and not others. Water can easily flow through this but the salt we dissolved in it can’t. Cells are filled with lots of little molecules so water usually flows into the cells and fills them to dilute the liquid. But when we have lots of salt in the water, there are more particles in the water outside of the potato cells than inside so the water leaves the cells.

waterout

bendyWhen cells are filled with water they are quite rigid and packed closely together making a fairly sturdy chip. When the cells are dehydrated, they are smaller leaving space between cells, allowing the chip to bend without snapping.

Osmosis is used in all plants – not just when you cut them up and put them in a bowl of water! Plants use osmosis in their roots to allow water to move from the soil into their roots.

 

#TryThisTuesday: Guess The Flavour

For this Try This Tuesday all you will need is some starburst or chewy fruit sweets.img_4490

Close your eyes and pick a starburst at random without looking. Unwrap it with your eyes closed.

Hold your nose and eat the starburst, make sure you keep holding your nose the whole time.

Can you guess the flavour without looking at the colour of the sweet or the wrapper? You might get some of them wrong!

If you let go of your nose halfway through chewing, you might suddenly be able to taste the flavour.

The Science

Smell and taste are really closely linked, so it is really hard to guess the flavour of the starburst when you hold your nose. About 90% of what we taste is due to smell. Both senses use similar receptors and rely on the same molecules to send messages to the brain about what you can taste and smell. Flavour is actually a mix of taste, smell, texture and other cues like temperature.

It is also important to close your eyes when you eat the starburst, as you can make unconscious links between colour and flavour. Our brain is really good at picking up associations such as a purple coloured sweet is likely to taste of blackcurrant. When the colour makes us expect something to taste a certain way, we taste what we expect unless it’s really different.

This colour association affects some people worse than others,  the pathways to the brain can get crossed over causing synaethesia. This might mean that when they see yellow – they taste lemon.

Dippy the Diplodocus

Dippy is a famous diplodocus skeleton cast that has been on display in the London Natural History Museum since 1905. Today it was disassembled as Dippy is going on tour throughout the UK! Dippy is visiting eight places across the UK between February 2018 and October 2020. We are very excited as Dippy is coming to the Great North Museum between May and October 2019.

dippy

History of Dippy

Dippy’s history begins when a skeleton was discovered in Wyoming, USA in 1898. It was a new type of diplodocus and at the time it was described as ‘the most colossal animal on earth”. Andrew Carnegie acquired the bones for the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburg, USA, hence the new species was named Diplodocus carnegii  after him. King Edward VII saw a sketch of the diplodocus and mentioned how he would like a similar specimen for the Natural History Museum in London. Andrew Carnegie then made a cast of his specimen and Dippy was created.

Dippy was disassembled during World War II to protect it from bomb damage. It made the move to Hintze Hall (the main entrance hall of the museum) in 1979. Dippy was taken down today, as it is going on a two year tour of the UK.

The unveiling of Dippy in 1905
The unveiling of Dippy in 1905

Diplodocus Facts

  • They were up to 27m in length
  • They weighed about 10,800 kg (as much as a large truck).
  • Lived at the end of the Jurassic period (154-150 million years ago)
  • Its heavy tail was used to scare off predators.
  • They were vegetarian.
  • Diplodocuses lived in North America.
  • Its name means double beam, due to the unusual double row of bones on the underneath of the tail.
  • It was a slow moving dinosaur, moving at 5-9.3 mph.

Interview with a Scientist: Kirsty, Marine Ecologist

We recently interviewed Kirsty, a 2nd year PhD student at Newcastle University. Kirsty has been studying European lobsters and their movements between habitats. She uses statistical models to understand how environmental conditions influence the timing and pattern of lobster movements.

What impact does your research have?phd

It can help us understand the impact of movement patterns on the number of lobsters that we can catch so that we don’t catch too many and they are sustainably managed. Sustainable management ensures that there are enough lobsters for the future, benefiting not only the environment, but also the fishing industry.

What did you do before your PhD?

I studied Zoology at Glasgow University then did a Masters in Forest Ecology at Edinburgh University. Since then I have worked in various Ecology related roles including being a Park Ranger, working in Wildlife Management and assisting research on seabirds and marine renewables.

Why did you chose to do a PhD rather than get a job?

I had worked as a research assistant before and really enjoyed it, I knew I wanted to do more research. By doing a PhD I got to choose the area and lead the research. It’s a great opportunity to devote your time to just one small area of interest and learn some advanced skills. I hope it will help me improve my career and that I will be able to get better research jobs in the future.

How did you decide on your PhD?

I chose the topic because I’m interested in spatial studies. Understanding why animals choose a particular area is really important in making decisions about species conservation and I thought this project would give me the chance to develop lots of transferable skills.

kirtsyWhat advice would you have for someone wanting to study Biology or Zoology at university?

Go to open days and talk to as many people as possible, make sure it’s the right course for you! Speak to people working in the field if you have the chance and get some experience, the RSPB are a good organisation to volunteer for.

What is the best part about being a PhD student and going to university in general?

Meeting different people who are interested in the same things as you and developing your own identity.

What do you plan to do after completing your PhD? 

Id like to stay in academia and keep doing research on spatial ecology.

Has university help you get where you want to be?

Yes, I have learned lots of different skill sets and developed more resilience and motivation.

 

interview-kirsty

The Chemistry of Being Scared

Happy Halloween! We all like being scared sometimes, whether it’s scary movies or a rollercoaster, but why do we get scared?

We feel fear when we see or hear something that makes us anticipate harm. If you are walking through a haunted house this Halloween and a skeleton jumps out at you, the skeleton is a stimulus that triggers a signal in your brain.

The hypothalamus is part of your brain that activates the ‘fight or flight’ response. When you are scared molecules of glutamate (a neurotransmitter) travel to the hypothalamus. This then triggers the autonomic nervous system, a response that you can’t control.

brain

Nerves from the brain carry impulses to glands which produce adrenaline, released into the blood. Adrenaline causes our heart rate and blood pressure to increase making us ready to run away quickly.

When we get scared we also get goosebumps. This is a trait that evolved in our hairier ancestors. When our hair stands up on end it makes us look bigger and more threatening to whoever is scaring us. This is seen in other animals too, such as cats.

However, we aren’t scared forever. Eventually our body realises that there is nothing to be worried about.  Sensory data of what we have seen and heard is sent to the hippocampus in the brain which can store and retrieve conscious memories. It gives context to what we have seen and asks questions such as have I seen this before and what happened last time?

If a skeleton jumps out, we will realise that it isn’t real and is probably just someone dressed up! The hippocampus will determine that there is no danger and sends a message to the hypothalamus. Adrenaline production stops and our heart rate goes back to normal.

thinking

We have evolved to feel fear to allow us to survive. People and animals who feared the right things survived and passed on their genes. This makes sure we don’t do stupid things like picking up poisonous snakes or walking off buildings.

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9 Scientific Mistakes in Disney and Pixar

Sorry to crush your dreams but we have inspected some of our favourite Disney films and some things just don’t sit right in our scientific minds. Here are nine examples of what would really happen, according to science. But remember anything is possible in the world of Disney…

1. Finding Nemo

All clown fish are born male. Each group of clown fish has one female, the biggest fish. When the female dies, the biggest male fish will become female, this is know as being a sequential hermaphrodite.  When Nemo’s mother was killed by the barracuda, Marlin would have become female, leaving Nemo as the dominant male.

finding-nemo

2. The Lion King

Rafiki is introduced to us in the Lion King, where he performs Simba’s birth ceremony. He also sings a song in the film “Asante sana, squash banana, wewe nugu, mimi hapana”. This is a Swahili rhyme which translates to “Thank you very much (squash banana), you’re a baboon and I’m not!”. Rafiki doesn’t belong to any species, he is a cross between a mandrill and a baboon, he has the colourful nose and cheeks of a mandrill and the mane and long tail of a baboon.

3. Up

In the film Up, Carl ties thousands of balloons to his house to go on an adventure to South America. However, the number of balloons he uses are not enough to lift a house. Estimating that the house weighs 45,000 kg, you would need over 3 million balloons!

up_movie_balloons_house-wide

4. Inside Out

Inside Out personifies five major emotions; Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust which all work together to guide and protect their human (Riley). However, there are actually six core emotions, with Disney missing out surprise. These six emotions are found to be universally recognized and expressed across the world, even in remote tribes that would not have learned the meaning of such facial expressions elsewhere.

inside-out-pixar-disney

5. Tarzan

After baby Tarzan was left alone in the jungle to be raised by gorillas, he eventually grows up and meets Jane who teaches him to speak English. Unfortunately in the real world, no matter how great a teacher Jane was, Tarzan would never have been able to talk. Scientists have described a critical period up to the age of 5 which is vital for language development. If children, like Tarzan, aren’t exposed to a human language in this time they will be unable to learn to speak later in life.

tarzan

6. Aladdin

Aladdin and Jasmine travel from Cairo (Egypt) to Athens (Greece) in one second on the magic carpet, meaning they would have to travel at 621 miles per second! The air resistance would be 100 million times larger than their weight, causing them to burn up, like when meteors burn up when they enter our atmosphere.

aladdin-1992

7. Star Wars

Star Wars is well know for its fights in space, full of explosions, blaster and engine sounds. However, space is a vacuum, meaning that it is devoid of matter, there are no gases or air there. Sound can’t travel in a vacuum, as sound vibrations don’t work, therefore we shouldn’t be able to hear any sound.

star wars

8. The Good Dinosaur

In the good dinosaur, a young dinosaur by the name of Arlo befriends a human boy. Arlo is an Apatosaurus which lived around 151 million years ago. Human beings as we are or Homo sapiens only evolved between 200,000 to 100,000 years ago so in reality Arlo and his friend would have missed each other by quite a few million years.

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9. Finding Dory

When searching for Dory’s family in Finding Dory, we discover that Dory was born in captivity, in an aquarium. However, Dory is a species of fish known as the Blue Tang. This species can’t be bred in captivity and have to be caught from their wild home of coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific Sea.

dory

 

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7 Senses you aren’t taught in school

Everyone is taught in primary school about our 5 senses – hearing, sight, smell, touch and taste. But did you know we actually have several secret senses? You might not even be consciously aware of some of them, yet you use them everyday.

1. Balance

balance

Most of us manage to stay upright on two feet without falling over. You can probably stand on one leg or in a unusual stance for a period of time without toppling. This is all due to our sense of balance or equilibrioception. You balance is kept steady by the level of a fluid in the vestibular system in your inner ears.

Try testing your balance – Stand with your heels and back against a wall, then try to bend forwards. You’ll find you won’t be able to or you might fall over. When you bend forwards, your bum needs to stick out behind your feet in order to stabilise your centre of balance and stop you tipping over.

2. Heat

heat

When you’re near a fire, you’ll be able to feel the heat on your skin even though the fire isn’t touching you. This heat, as well as the absense of heat, is detected by thermoceptors in your skin.

Thermoception aids your body by giving the correct response when you start getting too hot or too cold. For example, when you’re cold the hairs on your arms will stand up, this response has evolved as it helps to trap air and give you an extra layer of insulation, although nowadays you can probably just put on another jumper.

3. Painpain

Nociception is the perception of pain throughout the body, whether it’s a physical cut or damage to an internal organ. It signals to your body that there is a potential threat and calls for an appropriate response.

4. Body Awareness

proprioception copy

This is a sense you will use all the time but you’ve probably never even thought about it. Also called, proprioception, it is the unconscious awareness of where your body parts are in space and in relation to the rest of you.

Test your proprioception by closing your eyes and touching your nose. Despite not being able to see your hand or nose, I bet you were pretty accurate in finding it?

5. Electrocreception

shark

This isn’t a sense that you have but lots of marine animals commonly use electrorecption to hunt for food. Sharks take advantage of the high conductivity of salt water, their electrorecptivity allows them to detect the electric signals produced by the activity of fish. Duck billed platypus, believe it or not, hunt in a similar way to sharks as they have thousands of electroreceptors in the mucous glands on their bills.

6. Echolocation

beluga

Bats are famous for their echolocation abilities. Although they aren’t completely blind, they hunt at night when it’s almost impossible to see and so echolocation evolved as an alternative to sight to help them navigate. They produce sounds so high pitched, we can’t usually hear them. This sound echos and bounces back to the bats, they use the returning noises to build up an internal image of their surroundings.

They’re not the only ones with this impressive talent, if you’ve seen Finding Dory, you may have noticed Bailey the Beluga Whale also uses echolocation. Belugas use a fatty deposit, known as a melon, on their head to target their sounds in different directions.

7. Magnetoreception

pidgeon

Many birds have the ability to detect magnet fields. This sense is called magnetoreception and is used to help birds find their way on long migrations. No one is quite sure how birds detect or see magnetic fields but there are hypotheses that suggest they use either a protein called cryptochrome or the highly magnetic compound, iron oxide.

Interestingly human eyes contain cryptochromes but we aren’t able to utilise the protein to detect a magnetic field.

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The Great British Beach Clean

This weekend it’s time for the UK’s biggest beach-based litter-picking event – the Great British Beach Clean! Organised by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) the event takes place each year to make beaches cleaner and safer places for wildlife.

43859Not only are thousands of marine species under threat from litter, the waste is also dangerous for humans too and damages tourism and the fishing industry. The beach clean helps lower the threat and raise awareness of the problem at hand.

As well as clearing the sand and rock pools, the event is also vital for marine research. Last year’s data identified wet wipes and balloons as two of the major threats to marine life. Animals may swallow and choke on burst balloon pieces and wildlife can also become entangled in the string. Dolphins, whales, turtles and sea birds have all been killed by balloons so hold on tight next time you have a balloon by the sea side!

If you live locally to a beach and want to get involved the Great British Beach Clean, click here to find an event near you.

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