wytham woods

A couple of years ago I wrote a feature for Oxford Today about the climate change research that Earthwatch carries out in Wytham Woods, just outside Oxford. Wytham Woods is actually a reasonably large (by today's standards) patch of wood, with an intriguing history and an amazing track record in ecological research, to the extent that there is now an entire book about it:

Peter Savill, Christopher Perrins, Keith Kirby, and Nigel Fisher:
Wytham Woods: Oxford's Ecological Laboratory
Oxford University Press 2010
Publisher's page with link to pdf of first chapter



When I visited the Earthwatch project in Wytham Woods, it was run as a corporate partnership, recruiting volunteers only among the employees of the relevant company. From next year, however, the project appears in the generall Earthwatch programme, so everybody can join the fun, jug the trees and weigh the voles:

Full details of the Earthwatch project.

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Oxford Today relaunch

Oxford Today, the alumni magazine of Oxford University, has a new publisher and a new editor, so the first issue of the academic year was celebrated as a "relaunch" today with champagne, canapees, and speeches. Even the vice chancellor (organic chemist Andrew Hamilton) put in an appearance, and for me it was an opportunity to put faces to email addresses.

I've been writing science features for Oxford Today since 2004, and have now also taken over the science findings page which compiles very short news items on scientific results emerging from research conducted here (open the PDF version of the magazine and scroll down to page 11).

My latest feature, about data sharing in genetics, appears on pages 30 to 32 of the magazine and online here. As punishment for my recent rant on inverted helices I've been served with a wrong helix as well. Intriguingly, the same illustration also contains a correct (but much smaller) image of the double helix, on the 2-pound coin, so it can't be because someone flipped the image. Very pleased however that the spiral staircase appearing in the portrait of HELEX director Jane Kaye has the correct chirality.

We were told that not only the printed magazine has been spruced up, the website is also being relaunched in an improved format, with added content, including even music videos. I'll have to check those out.

PS I have been assured that links to earlier online content of Oxford Today will remain functional, so my previous pieces, such as this one on multiple sclerosis and epigenetics are still accessible via my website and blog.

lop-sided bird compass

More than 40 years ago, Wolfgang Wiltschko discovered that migrating birds use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation. Further research has shown that the bird compass responds to the inclination of the magnetic field (i.e. its angle against the horizontal) rather than the north-south direction as such, and that it is likely based on chemical reactions involving molecules with unpaired electrons, i.e. radicals. This chemical compass is believed to reside in the eyes. In 2002, Wiltschko and coworkers have shown that the birds need the right eye but not the left eye for orientation – suggesting that the left hemisphere of the brain does the calculations on the magnetic measurements coming in from the right eye. Careful with the conclusion that the compass is located in the right eye only -- my guess would be that the left eye has the same compass but the right hemisphere of the brain just doesn’t know what to do with the signals.

Now Wiltschko’s group at the university of Frankfurt has reported that getting light into the right eye is necessary but not sufficient for the compass function (1). The right eye, the researchers find, actually has to be able to see properly. The experiment involves goggles that let through the same amount of light on both sides but blur the vision on one side. If the birds have a blurred view on the right eye, they lose the orientation, if it’s on the left, they orient just fine.

Wiltschko et al. discuss two possible explanations:

1) compass orientation may rely on computational connections between compass data and visual input. The case against this interpretation is that, in the 2002 experiment that first showed the dominance of the right eye in orientation, there was practically no visual input that could have served such a role. Still, the authors seem to prefer this version, as they go to great length to defend it.

2) the normal process of shutting down the input from the eye with the blurred vision may shut out the compass data as well. To me this is the more plausible interpretation (if only because it’s easier to understand).

Some fairly elementary questions remain, however, for instance, if one tests a reasonable number of birds, will there be a small population of “lefthanders” that has the compass processing on the other side ? Also, if a young bird lost the right eye in a fight, would the brain find a way to process compass data from the left eye? And lest we forget, the precise molecular details of the molecular compass also remain to be uncovered, see my pieces on the bird compass from last year, in Oxford Today (as a sidebar to the ESR feature) and, in German, in Chemie in unserer Zeit. A significant 2009 paper that I missed when I researched those articles comes from Stefan Weber's group at Freiburg and reports the observation that light can stimulate the formation of radical pairs in the most promising candidate molecules believed to host the chemical compass, namely cryptochromes (2). This adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that the bird compass really is a radical pair mechanism residing in cryptochrome proteins.

Reference:
1. K. Stapput et al., Curr. Biol. 2010, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.05.070
2. T. Biskup et al, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 404.

Epigenetik, April, Krebsgenom

the monthly round-up of German pieces includes the epigenetic roots of multiple sclerosis (also covered in a recent feature in Oxford Today, see here), cancer genomes, and two (hopefully) funny pieces:

Ausgeforscht: Ein Molekül namens Dornröschen
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 58, 418

Red-Queen-Paradox im Bildungswesen: Studenten zahlen statt zu studieren
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 58, 443

Wird Multiple Sklerose epigenetisch vererbt?
Spektrum der Wissenschaft April 2010, S. 21-23

Das Krebsgenom: Invasives Wachstum
Trillium Report 8 (1), S. 40-41

clues in the signposting

According to George Ebers from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genomics at Oxford, the true causes of multiple sclerosis (MS) may be neither in the genes, nor in the environment as such. The clue, as he has come to conclude after decades of research in the field, is in how the environment interacts with the signposting that affects gene expression, known as epigenetic markers.

I wrote a feature about this work for Oxford Today, which is now available online (free access to all):

Piecing together the causes of lives torn apart
Oxford Today Volume 22 Number 2, Hilary 2010, pages 20-21

The printed version comes with a nice big picture of cellist Jacqueline du Pre, whose life and career were cut short by MS.

stop flaring

One of the major unsung crimes against our planet is flaring -- i.e. the process of burning off unwanted natural gas in an open and entirely useless flame, technically known as a flare. According to World Bank figures, 5.25 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of associated gas – the equivalent of 25% of US gas consumption – was flared in 2004 (http://tinyurl.com/Flare-Gas-Stats). This happens all around the globe in remote oil fields where capturing and transporting the gas would be uneconomical.

The Oxford University spinout company Oxford Catalysts, together with the microchannel reactor specialists Velocys Inc. has developed a microchannel reactor involving Fischer-Tropsch catalysis (see my earlier feature in Oxford Today) offering an economically attractive way of converting stranded gas into liquid fuel in situ, thus cutting down the flaring.

Velocys has announced this week that a joint demonstration testing agreement (JDTA) has been settled between Velocys, Inc., offshore facility developers, MODEC, the global engineering firm Toyo Engineering, and the Brazilian State oil company Petrobras to build and operate a microchannel GTL (Gas To Liquid) demonstration facility. The companies hope that this agreement will bring the prospect of routine offshore production of liquid fuel from stranded gas a step closer to reality.

The 5-10 barrel/day (bbl/d) demonstration facility will include a microchannel steam methane reformer (SMR) along with a microchannel Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactor. The demonstration plant, which is expected to be up and running by early 2011, will be constructed by Toyo Engineering with support from MODEC and installed at the Petrobas facility in Fortaleza, Brazil. The FT and SMR microchannel reactors will be fabricated by Kobe Steel Ltd.

Following successful demonstration, this technology is expected to be used by MODEC, Toyo and Velocys on the commercial floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs) used in the development of offshore oil and gas fields.

innovations by the isis

In the current issue of Oxford Today, there is my feature about technology transfer in Oxford, based on an interview with my former head of department, Graham Richards, and on the case study of Oxford Nanopore Technologies, a spin-out company from the chemistry department aiming to develop single molecule electronic genome sequencers.

Read my feature here (open access for all).

new spin on ESR

I have a feature article on ESR out in last week's edition of Chemistry & Industry (check out their new website!). While my previous effort on this field was focused on Oxford's research centre, CAESR, this one also covers ESR centres at Cornell and Zurich.

A new spin on ESR
Chemistry & Industry No 15, 10.8.2009, pp 21-23

While the Oxford piece is open access, the C&I one is premium content, I'm afraid. So you'd need to be a member of the SCI or have institutional access of some kind. Or find a hardcopy in your library. Or be very nice to me.

Abstract is free, though:
They may be investigating topics as diverse as bird migration or quantum information processing, protein structure and hydrogen storage materials, but what links the research of nearly a dozen groups across the science departments at the University of Oxford is electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. Until recently, this technique was the domain of a small circle of chemists specialising on electron spin, but the advent of user-friendly instrumentation and of interdisciplinary research centres has broadened the user base considerably.

spinning around

What's the connection between bird migration, hydrogen storage materials, membrane protein structure, and quantum computation? Well, all these, and seven other topics are investigated at Oxford University with the help of Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopy, thanks to the new(ish) interdisciplinary research centre CAESR. Read my feature in Oxford Today which should be freely accessible to all.

Also, a short piece on the bird migration research has appeared in German, in Chemie in unserer Zeit [PDF]

footprints in the forests

There is an Earthwatch event coming up tomorrow, with two lectures about

Forests and Climate Change

Dan Bebber, head of climate change research at Earthwatch Europe will talk about how forests (including the ones we consider pristine) are always linked to human activities, and how we must manage our relationship with forests to mitigate the effects of climate change. This talk is also related to my recent feature in Oxford Today about the European Climate Centre at Wytham Woods near Oxford.


Mika Peck from the University of Sussex at Brighton will present his conservation research in the cloud forests of northwestern Ecuador, an aerea of extremely high biodiversity, which is also highly sensitive to the impact of human activities. Like most Earthwatch projects, his work depends on volunteers. Anybody can join in and help conservation at the front line.

I've heard rehearsals of both talks and they are both fascinating. The real event will be on tomorrow,

Thursday 26th March, 7pm-8.30pm at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR

Numbers are limited so call +44 (0)1865 318856 or email events@earthwatch.org.uk today to avoid disappointment!

woods and trees

Earthwatch has set up 5 "Regional Climate Centres" to study the effects of climate change on local biotopes in north and south america, europe, india and china, in corporate partnership with the bank HSBC. It just happens that the European centre is based at Wytham Woods, a patch of woodland owned by the University of Oxford and used for research, so I dropped by for a visit and wrote a feature for Oxford Today which is out tomorrow:

Seeing the trees for the woods
Oxford Today 21, No 2 (Hilary 2009), 17-19.

Erratum: In the box "Ancient woodland with a modern focus", on page 18, the reference to a forthcoming book by Chris Perrins and Peter Savill has erroneously been converted into a byline. Just to clarify that these two are not responsible for this box, it's entirely mine.

catalysing a greener future

Earlier this year, fellow science writer Nina Morgan organised a very interesting visit to the Oxford spinout company Oxford Catalysts, which is developing clever solutions for all kinds of problems, from the production of second-generation biofuels down to the removal of chewing gum from pavements.*

My impressions are now online in the latest edition of Oxford Today.

______
* read the box "steaming ahead" to find out how catalysts can help with the chewing gum problem!

down by the riverside

... there are lots of swans, of course. In the latest edition of Oxford's alumni magazine Oxford Today, I have a feature on the ancient tradition of Swan Upping (where head counts and ownership of swans on the Thames is established), and how it links to modern concerns from lead pollution through to bird flu.

Read my story here.

autism on the brain

Last weekend, I visited the new MEG centre here, which opened last year and aims to study brain function in people with autism. MEG stands for magnetoencephalography, and the idea is that you pick up the very weak magnetic fields that arise from the currents flowing in the brain when you're thinking. Unlike EEG (electroencephalography) you don't have to have electrodes stuck to your skin (although researchers stick a few "signposts" to the subject's head), and unlike MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) you don't have to lie inside a tube and suffer excruciating noise.

In MEG, the subject sits on a comfortable chair (my son tried it and seemed to like it!) with their head under what looks like a ginormous hair drier (although I am told it was a bit more expensive than a hair drier). Part of the special appeal to use this technique in autism, of course, is that it can be used with subjects who would not tolerate the "side effects" of either EEG or MRI. Thus, the building had to be designed to be both magnetic-studies-friendly (restricting the use of metal and the placing of electric cables!) and autism-friendly, which seems to have worked out well, as my son seemed to like the environment.

The research is led by Professor Anthony Bailey, who came to Oxford 3 years ago and did similar research in collaboration with an MEG facility in Finland before. I wrote a feature about his work for Oxford Today, which is here.


Further pieces on autism:

Gross M: Current Biology 12, No 2, R42
Battling through autism confusion
(about the 2001 MRC report)

Gross M: Current Biology 12, No 20, R679
Pursuing the puzzle of autism
A photographic exhibition at the Wellcome Trust for Autism Awareness Year highlights the continuing scientific uncertainty.

Update 2024: I have now fixed the Current Biology links, but I'm afraid the OXford Today story is no longer online as far as I'm aware.

spiders on the web

I have a piece on spider silk in the current issue of Oxford Today (OU's alumni magazine), together with a box on the centenary of our engineering department. Both pieces have (finally) appeared here (free access for all).

Further information:

Oxford Silk Group

Engineering Science Centenary

going nuts

Recently I mentioned the science writer colleague who tried to run a bank. To continue the informal series "crazy career moves":

Earlier this year I interviewed Powderject cofounder Brian Bellhouse for a feature in Oxford Today about Biomedical Engineering. He mentioned his company co-founder and son in law, Paul Drayson, telling me in an amused tone that Paul, now Lord Drayson, left the Biotech revolution in order to buy battleships and aircraft carriers for the government. And I thought that was crazy.

Yesterday, Drayson was reported to have resigned from his government post in order to develop his motor racing career and try to win the 24 hours of Le Mans. Oh, and he wants to do that using biofuel, too. Here's his resignation letter and the report in the Guardian, and the relevant wikipedia page.

Now that leaves me feeling really frustrated and way too normal. But then again it is easier to go nuts when you have a nice fortune to fall back on ...