arboreal lifestyles

Today's issue of Current Biology includes a special section on the theme of plant interactions (see the cover below). My contribution is a somewhat whimsical appreciation of some of the many ways in which animal lives revolve around trees, from humans to ants, and not forgetting the sloths. The feature is out now:

How life dances around trees

Current Biology Volume 33, Issue 11, 05. June 2023, Pages R455-R458

FREE access to full text and PDF download

See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2023.

I'm not on Instagram myself, but I believe if you follow CurrentBiology there, you'll find my features highlighted there as well.

Cover of the special issue, volume 33, number 11. The photo shows old oak branches laden with epiphytes in the coastal region of South Carolina, USA. Image credit: Daniela Duncan/Getty.

dances with science

Open Archive Day

I hear Rambert (formerly Rambert Dance Company) are on tour and perform at the New Theatre Oxford this week (Wed-Fri), so it's a good excuse to dig up a feature I wrote in 2011 about their work with scientist in residence Nicola Clayton (whose research field is corvid intelligence, hence the title):

Dances with magpies



image source

dances with diatoms

German publications in November and December cover foaming proteins, dance your PhD, chemical elements you can by from Holland & Barrett, boron-boron triple bonds, and diatoms. Phew. I won't even try to conjure up a connection between these, apart from the byline. So here goes:

Tierischer Eischnee und andere Schäume
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 2013, 61, 1227-1229
(a feature in English covering the same ground is here)

Ausgeforscht: Elemente für den Hausgebrauch
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 2013, 61, 1307

Ausgeforscht: Tanze deine Diss
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 2013, 61, 1191

Kieselalgen: Weder Tier noch Pflanze, aber klimarelevant
Chemie in unserer Zeit 47, 368-374, DOI: 10.1002/ciuz.201300621
abstract and restricted access to PDF download

Dreifachbindungen: Bor-Chemie im Aufwind
Chemie in unserer Zeit 47, 340
abstract and restricted access to PDF download

dancing about science

My feature article about science-inspired dance, and Aesop's fable -inspired science is out in today's issue of Current Biology:

Dances with magpies
Current Biology, Volume 21, Issue 22, R905-R907, 22 November 2011
doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.008


Summary and free access to PDF file

A European magpie (source)

Rambert Dance Company