From sand comes life: how mere sand can harbour biodiversity

On coastlines around the world, sand dunes, found in a range of environments from arctic tundra to tropical regions, that have been sculpted over many decades into a range of intricate shapes, can be found. However unlike many other environments such as forest and swampland, dunes tend to go unnoticed: thought of as nothing more than lifeless waste grounds with no real biological value. But this could not be further from the truth, as these pale coloured mounds of sediment can in fact provide the perfect conditions for a range of organisms to survive and thrive.

Sand dune formation is initiated when coastal rivers and ocean currents transport and deposit sediments (formed of eroded rock, shell fragments and a range of minerals such as silica), onto land surfaces in a mechanism known as longshore drift. Once deposited on to the land, sediments can dry out further away from the coastline, and be shifted by the wind into higher terrains, forming into different compositions as time goes by and creating a range of environments along the way that is of benefit to many organisms. These particular compositions occur in stages/successions, and we will start from the beginning; when the sand leaves the sea.

(1. Embryo dunes/ foredunes.

Embryo/fore dunes are the earliest formation of sand dune, and are created when sand that has recently been blown from the sea and now has been deposited as a layer onto the land very near to the coast, becomes inhabited with plant life. This is no ordinary plant life however, as due to the harsh conditions presented so near the ocean such as high salinity, and strong wind currents, the plant life in question must be capable of surviving in such surroundings. The organisms capable of such a feat includes the very common marram grass which you will have likely seen when visiting the beach yourself. These species have thick cuticles on their leaves that allows the conservation of moisture, and they also have far reaching roots to allow the collection of as much moisture and nutrients as possible from underground. When these plants arrive on these newly deposited layers of sand, their root systems stabilise the sediment and keep it cemented into a dune, rather than being constantly rearranged under the onslaught of the weather This plays a part in forming the strange shapes that characterise these natural environments.

(2. Dune slacks

Dune slacks are depressions that can form in a sand dune, and which collect more moisture than other areas because of the sediments closer proximity to water deposits underground. Due to this extra water content, a different range of organisms inhabits these specific parts of the dune. Organisms such as orchids, toads and strawberries can all be found here, capable of surviving in depressions of sand that they find beneficial due to the protection from wind abrasion, and the need to keep hydrated. As more plant life begins to form the further up the beach you travel, the more plant material is being laid down on the sediment whenever they die. This causes layers of detritus and soil to begin to form, which in turn allows more plant life to grow, and more animal life to appear in search of food and shelter, from lizards, to frogs and small mammals.

(3. Fixed/grey dunes

As times goes by, fixed dunes will form. These dunes are created when layers of soil have continued to be laid down over hundreds of years, and a healthy soil humus now exists: rich in nutrients and water content as well as beneficial microorganisms. This fixed dune environment, positioned the furthest away from the coast than the others, is the richest in life not only due to the fertile soils, but also because it is distant enough from the sea not to feel the full force of the wind and salinity. Fixed dunes not only have greater diversity in plant and animal life, but can even be healthy enough to enable to formation of forests and diverse grassland habitats.

As every coastal sand dune can be originated from the blowing of sediment from the sea, walking from the sea upland can show you the gradual development of the environment: providing you with a story of how small particles of eroded stone has lead to the slow accumulation of life over centuries, until rich bounties of biological wonders were enabled to form a certain distance away. So although to the untrained eye, sand dunes may appear barren and useless, this is in fact a gross misunderstanding, as sand dune are in fact ecological magnificent, and vital to thousands of organisms that inhabit the natural world.

-Thomas Glen

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The decreasing ozone layer: An environmental success story

The ozone layer (located 9-22 miles above the earths surface) is made up of a large concentration of 3 bonded oxygen atoms (O3), and was originally formed over 1 billion years ago when oxygen atoms (molecules consisting of 2 bonded oxygen atoms "O2"-of which we breathe) found high above the earths surface were split apart due to ultraviolet light  produced from the sun; and reconnected with other oxygen atoms into groups of 3 to form the ozone molecules that make up the layer.

 These ozone molecules are effective absorbers of ultraviolet radiation, which can cause cancer-forming mutations in living organisms, cataracts, crop damage as well as other serious problems, and therefore the layer acts as a much needed protective blanket around our planet. Which is why when scientists discovered that this protective blanket was under threat, it was very unwelcome news.

Holes:

In the 1920's, a man called Thomas Midgley invented CFC's (chloro-fluorocarbons), which is a chemical consisting of chlorine, fluoride and carbon. This chemical went on to be widely used in aerosol sprays, refrigerators, foams, and for cleaning electrical equipment, all over the world. However this chemical also had a huge impact on the planet in ways that were less useful, and more catastrophic. CFC's do not degrade quickly, and therefore were able to reach the stratosphere high above the earths surface and react with/damage the ozone layer. This damage occurred when the CFC chemical got broken apart by ultraviolet light, and went on to absorb oxygen atoms from the ozone layer, turning the sunlight-absorbing O3 molecular properties, into the much less effective O2 properties. This not only caused the ozone layer to degrade, creating holes in its structure, but it also allowed higher quantities of ultraviolet light to enter the planet. 

The need to act:

Once the true effects of CFC's on the planet were discovered, a ban was put into action in 1978 in Norway, the USA, and Canada, on CFC containing aerosol sprays, although other parts of the world such as Europe did not follow their example straight away. After years of negotiations, and the creation of an international treaty that lead to a cap on the chemical at 1986 levels (Montreal protocol), an outright ban was put into place in 1995 for developed countries, and later on for undeveloped countries.

Years after the cap was put into place, it was discovered in 2003 that the degradation of the ozone layer was dramatically slowing down, and although the CFC's will continue to persist in the atmosphere for decades to come due to its slow break-down rate, scientists are now saying the ozone layer will recover to the much more protective, and structurally sound state it once was in the 1980's.

-Thomas Glen

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The deceptive evolutionary strategies of Wild Orchids

As you walk across a wild flower meadow or through pristine forest, the sight of an orchid, be it pink, speckled, green, or one of the other range of colours and designs these strange plants can appear in, will likely bring a smile to your face. But what you may not realise is how this family of plant shrewdly and cunningly manipulates members of the natural world to do its bidding.

No Nectar?

Nectar is a sweet, sugary substance that is produced in the flowers of many plants through the use of glands called nectaries. Nectar, unlike pollen, serves no purpose to the flower, other than as a way of attracting animals such as bats and bees towards them. As these animals feed on this rich source of nutrients, many inadvertently end up carrying the pollen that is also held by the flower, and after leaving and travelling to a different plant of the same species, allow it to be spread, and giving the plant the ability to reproduce and create more of its own kind. However unlike most plants, no orchid in existence produces nectar. Therefore rather than being able to partake in this mutualistic relationship with animals, many orchids resort to releasing pheromones that mimic the scent of nectar. This leads to insects and other organisms visiting the flower in search of food, and coming into contact and spreading the pollen they carry, while gaining little from their exertion of time and energy.

Sexy time? You wish

The necessity of food is what drives many creatures to be fooled by the sly tricks of orchids. However, sex is also a necessity, as animals are evolutionarily driven to mate and reproduce, and orchids have greatly used this to their advantage.
The Bee Orchid (right) has evolved to mimic the appearance and the scent of female bees of the genus Eucera. When males become attracted to the bee imposter, they attempt to mate with it and gain a pollen packet (sticky package of pollen that can attach to anything it touches). Once they move on, they become attracted to yet another bee orchid that they will attempt to mate with, bringing the pollen packet they are carrying into contact with it, and initiating reproduction between the flowers.

You go where I tell you to go

Another way Orchids manipulate mobile creatures is by controlling their movements once they land on their flowers. As you may have noticed, orchids tend to have strange physical shapes and internal compartments. This evolved as a way of leading bees, and other small creatures to the correct area of the flower, for them to be able to come into contact with pollen. For example, Lady Slipper orchids (left) are attractive to miner bees. If  a miner bee ever enters this species of orchid through the opening pictured, it can become trapped within an internal compartment unable to escape back through the way it came. That is only until it chooses a different direction, crawls through a narrow groove formed from a particular fused area of the flower, travels past the stigma, and makes contact with the pollen filled sacks, can it then find the exit and escape; now carrying a lot of flower DNA that needs to be spread far and wide.

Orchids are beautiful, mesmerising, and wonderful plants, and many people are dazzled when catching sight of them. But as is common in the natural world, the majority of biological organisms have lives that are far more exciting, thought provoking, erratic, and in this case manipulative, than may be originally believed.

-Thomas Glen

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A fascination with the superficial: Why aren't scientific careers greatly desired by most of todays youth?

I walk through my local newsagents, and leisurely scan the dozens of magazines laid out on a shelf in front of me. As I look, a range of different titles travel past my eye-line, and almost all seem to have identical content. "So and so has started dating so and so". "This actress has released a new set of makeup products". "Has so and so recently had breast surgery?" "Mr and Mrs whatever are naming their new born child so and so" (usually something unnecessary and ridiculous).

 As a fan of the fantastic "New Scientist magazine", I find it takes me quite a while to find the latest copy under the piles of glossy, frothy literature that offers information on celebrity gossip, fashion tips and shock horror stories; hardly information worth reading about. And yet here they are in their dozens, filling up the shelves of my local store, as well as hundreds of thousands of other stores all around the globe; any reading material of true worth being smothered and mostly overlooked.

This is one reason why I believe the majority of todays youth seem to have less interest in scientific subjects. The excessive flurry of useless, superficial and frankly shit information.

This flurry of shit does not end with reading material of course, as most will be aware of the many programmes on television that also provides this service. From "Keeping up with the Kardashians", Geordie, and Jersey Shore, "The only was is Essex", and anything including Katie Price, as well as many, many others fill the tv screens of millions and giving todays youth a clear message; menial subjects are important as hell. The specific makeup you wear is vital. The jacket worn by Beyonce looks so fantastic, you must get one. Unless you spend almost all of your time getting drunk and dancing, rather than reading the ancient and redundant construct known as a book, your life is of little value.


A characteristic that most scientific appreciators portray is an awareness of the world around them, and what issues need to be addressed. A lover of physics is aware of the importance Space Exploration will bring to our understanding of the universe. A lover of genetics is aware of the future implications gene therapy will have in combatting disease caused by mutations in the DNA, and Zoology lovers are aware of how necessary the Amazon Rainforest is at staving off the threat of catastrophic climate change. A lover of shows such as Geordie Shore, and of superficial and irrelevant magazines, is aware of Iggy Azaleas nude pictures, or of Nikki Minaj's wardrobe do's and don't, leading to young people ignoring the threats science must address and the things it can achieve, and paying attention to the minor, and the meaningless, and the stupid.

It seems unlikely that scientists went into their profession to earn money. I mean, unless you are a tenured professor, or a successful scientific writer /communicator, the big bucks are going to be firmly out of your grasp. And in a society rife with celebrity gossip and the fashion obsessed, careers with the salaries scientific jobs pay are not going to be greatly desired by modern youth.

Out of the many existing reality programmes, many are based on the lives of the wealthy, portraying them sunbathing on the beaches of Spain, driving expensive cars, and having otherwise "wonderful" lives. And these youth, attracted to the ideas of being able to afford such extravagant commodities, will aim for careers that will hopefully make them as much money as possible. A mentality skewed towards items seems to have become of greater value to todays youth, over the much more selfless aim to improve and learn about the world around them. But then again the majority of the celebrity icons that surround us today rarely seem to show any form of altruism, so it is to be expected that their many fans develop similar characteristics.

Today there exist a wide array of science based documentaries appearing on our television screens. From Neil deGrasse Tyson's modern reboot of "Cosmos", to the awe-inspiring documentaries of Sir David Attenborough, a drop of knowledge can be found in the long stretching river of viscous ignorance. Social media pages such as "Scibabe", and "Tysonism" (two of my personal favourites), work to spread scientific information, while scrutinising the less refutable claims of others, allowing the young people brought up on the mainstream non-sensical to discover the wonders of knowledge and logical thinking. And magazines can be found in most stores that contain science-based articles (if you dig hard enough). Magazines such as "Scientific American" and "BBC Wildlife magazine". However in my opinion, this is not enough, and people must have scientific concepts, ideas and news laid out in front of them by the media in great force; much like the sexual exploits of Kim Kardashian seems to be laid out in front of our faces, although hopefully with less depressingly desperate, attention seeking visuals.

Our planet, with its ever increasing ideas, discoveries, and threats in dire need of confrontation, deserves to be inherited by humans beings that are intelligent enough, logical enough, and forward thinking enough, to allow scientific knowledge and innovation to increase and prosper for millennia to come. And by cultivating a scientific mindset in our youth, these future millenniums could be truly incredible.


-Thomas Glen
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Images: Not mine

The beauty of Science Books

There are a number of reasons why the majority of people read and appreciate novels. Novels can transport you to another world, maybe back in time, another planet, or even a whole new universe entirely. They can help you to take your mind off of you own problems by allowing you to delve into the trials of tribulations of a fictional characters. However, science books are not considered to have these same abilities.

The first science book I ever read (that wasn't a textbook) was "Evolution-What the fossils say and why it matters" by Donald R Prothero when I was 16. Before then, my reading list consisted mostly of novels from young adult writers such as Anthony Horowitz, Malorie Blackman and Charlie Higson. I decided to give this evolution-based book a try, as I was soon to be starting an animal biology based course at college, and I wanted to improve my knowledge on certain subjects. This book had no running storyline, no characters developments, and no sudden twists in the plot at the very end. But what it did have was truly fascinating information. It discussed prehistoric landscapes long gone such as the Cambrian explosion. It discussed the knowledge we have gained from studying rock formations, as well as the fossilised creatures that became trapped within them millions of years previous. It even introduced me to the debate between christians and evolutionists about the type of information should be taught in schools. I may not have been getting absorbed into the story of a fictional character, or creating mental images of facial features based on the descriptive abilities of the writer, but my view of the world was changing. I was finally discovering how humans were able to turn from single cell organisms, into the bipedal, cognitively capable primates we are today. All because of one science book.

Science books truly can educate you on the world around us. Certain books from great scientific minds such as Stephen J Gould, Steven Hawking and Carl Sagan, introduce us to concepts that will likely be brand new to the average laymen of science, such as speciation, gravitational lenses, and biostratigraphy. Older writers such as Charles Darwin teach us about the great scientific strides occurring in their time. Certain parts of their books may be obsolete and/or disproven nowadays, but they still allow us to discover how the scientific method was being practiced in another period of time; making us aware of the stepping stones achieved before our modern scientific intelligence was reached. 

There are also modern writers who try their hardest to introduce subjects that may appear tedious to the masses. Writer and scientist Richard Forte has a number of books based around the subject of geology, which have gone on to become very successful; which is an impressive feat when you think about how little interest most people have in the study of rocks. There are also many books for children discussing dinosaurs, volcanoes, the planets in our solar system, as well as many other scientific subjects providing young minds with knowledge about the exciting world we inhabit. 

Science books are truly beautiful things that allow us access to detailed information on the world and the universe around us. They can also play a large part in creating great scientists of the future. When I walk into a water-stones book shop and visit the science section, the selection is awe-inspiring. In one area there may be a "DK illustrated encyclopaedia of the universe". In another there may be "Biophilia" by E.O Wilson. in another there may be "Ocean of life by Callum Roberts". Many scientists don't just want to learn about our world, but they want to get others to learn about the world as well. Which is why there exist thousands of science books, as well as many more being published as we speak; all available for the public (usually for a reasonable price). They have written these books hopefully not just to make money, but to inspire the scientists of tomorrow, and create a more scientifically literate society. 

One of the most threatening issues with our modern society is ignorance. Ignorance has caused hundreds of thousands of people to turn against vaccinations, to disagree with evolution, and to not take climate change as seriously as it needs to be taken. This, on many occasions life threatening, ignorance is dangerous and needs to be overcome; and science books can play a major part in doing this. They are sources of information on any scientific subject you can think of, some written in detail for the experts, and others written more simply for the laymen. But they will only be of use if people actually take the time to pick them up and give them a read.

I am a zoology student, studying at Roehampton University in London. I have always been a lover of the natural world, but this love escalated rapidly when I discovered the books of Richard Dawkins. His books were so in-depth, yet written clearly so that I was able to understand. They introduced me to natural phenomena that my teachers had failed to provide for me; evolution and genetics in particular. But they didn't just fill my head with information, they improved my view of the world I live in. They revealed it to be more exciting, more important, as well as insanely unusual. They also made me love Zoology more than I believed I could.

 Science books can open our eyes, eyes once blinded by the menial and the unimportant, to a world of beauty and intricacy. And if more people took the time to read them, they will pave the way to a more intelligent, logical and exceptional world.

-Thomas Glen

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How does wildlife colonise barren land?

To the left is a rich and vibrant unofficial nature reserve that contains a wide range of animals from Butterflies, beetles, mice, dragonflies, foxes and moths, as well as plants such as ragwort, buddliea, cow parsley and daisies. However not too long ago, this area of land contained nothing more than rubble from the previous demolition of a building. And yet, it has somehow developed into this  wildlife rich haven. But how exactly does the incredible colonisation of barren land occur?

Before rough terrain can be hospitable to the majority of animal life (apart from lizards and other reptiles and small mammals that can use the nooks and crannies of rock piles to hide from predators), plants must first colonise the land.  The seeds of plants can be transported to these terrains mainly through the wind, or by animals that have either carried them in their fur or that have eaten them; depositing the seeds in their droppings. However the first plant colonisers of rough terrain like this one will mainly consist of grasses, mosses, wildflowers such as Ragwort (left), nettles and other weeds etc as they have evolved to absorb nutrients out of mostly nutrient deficient environments. Due to the force of the weather, other plants that require more hospitable environments with higher levels of nutrient content can also survive, as strong wind and rain can cause rocks to erode, leading to the formation of soils that contain the nutrients formally trapped in the rock. The leaves of the first plant colonisers can also improve the soil, as any leaves that fall will decompose, releasing their nutrients into it.

Once a range of plant life has established itself on an area of land, insect life such as bee's, hover-flies, beetles etc can feed on the nectar and pollen that these plants produce, as well as on the leaves during their larval stages. These insects will help the plants to reproduce by transporting pollen, creating more plant life for the site in the future. Small insects such as springtails, ants and mites, as well as crustaceans such as woodlice and millipedes can also improve the health of the environment by breaking apart decaying plant life, allowing it to be released back into the environment.

Due to the now growing population of insects, birds and insectivorous mammals and reptiles will become attracted to the area as it contains the small creatures they feed on. Small organisms are also prey animals for birds of prey such as sparrow hawks and falcons, as well as larger mammals such as foxes which will also become attracted to the site.

On building sites like the one pictured, the land itself can be very rough and uneven. This is good news for aquatic life as when it rains, pools of water are likely to form. Small pools of water can attract marine insects such as mosquitos and dragonflies that produce aquatic offspring. They can also attract amphibians such as newts and frogs.



So the next time you walk past a building site, or an abandoned area of land, do not refer to it as a waste land. To the natural world, there is no such thing.

-Thomas Glen

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Photos: Thomas Glen

Why do people believe in bullshit?

Its now becoming more and more of a rarity that I am able to leave my house without some form of mind-numbing drivel presenting itself to me in one form or another. I walk through my local high street past a Chinese medicine store (pictured to the left) that claims it has an effective cure for baldness, something  that the international medical community has been kept in the dark about apparently. I go on Facebook and see endless streams of Facebook pages claiming that vaccinations were created by (seemingly) satan himself. Even friends of mine or other students at my university surprise me with tales of ghost sightings, psychic dreams, possessions by the devil during church services, and the "facts" behind astrology. And whenever I come across these claims I always think one thing. What drivel. What pure, meaningless drivel.  I even once opened a Jamaican newspaper known as The Gleaner that had an article about crystals as a method of fortune telling, explained in a positive light as if it were true. But what causes people to believe such things? I mean there is no evidence that the position of the planets has any effect on our lives in any way, and yet almost every newspaper I have come across throughout my life has had a horoscope page with some vague hokum about the planets alignment foretelling our daily lives. Well in my opinion it comes down to 3 main reasons. 

1. The popularity of pseudoscience-based social media pages:

Facebook as well as other social media sites contains a ridiculous number of pages with ever increasing fan bases, that of which post many claims rarely backed up with any reliable evidence.

 For example, pages such as Food Babe and Dr Oz have hundreds of thousands of followers, all of these followers being able to see the many outlandish ideas posted by these pages. Ideas that are mostly made up of evidence lacking conjecture. And because of the number of fans these pages have accumulated due to the attractive images used, and the wide use of health-based terminology such as "cleanse", "toxin", as well as complicated chemical formulae that the common person will not be able to understand or be able to verify as true, any information posted is spread across the globe turning ridiculous, biased, and mostly falsifiable information into common knowledge among the masses.

 2. The lack of scientific mind sets:

As a zoology student, I have had the scientific method drilled into my head (figuratively of course-calm down conspiracy nuts) and will now rarely take any information I discover at face value, unless it is accompanied by substantial evidence to back it up. However not everyone has had a scientific background, and do not require as much evidence before making a decision. For example, say a person discovers he/she has cancer and has to go through intense chemotherapy to cure it. Chemotherapy can cause nausea, intense pain as well as a range of other incredibly uncomfortable symptoms, but someone with a scientific mind set realises it is the best treatment method due to the meticulous peer reviewed research that has lead to its creation. However, someone without a scientific mind set may not realise that chemotherapy is the best choice of treatment and may wish to avoid the dire side affects that come with it, choosing to look for much more pleasant alternative medicines; medicines that have not been studied, tested and peer reviewed by the scientific community. Scenarios similar to this one have caused many, including Apple CEO Steve Jobs, to die unnecessarily when scientifically tested treatments were available. 

If someone does not feel the need, or naturally does't even consider the idea, to study science-based evidence before making a decision, they are likely to become victims of the misinformation that runs rife in our society. 

3. The prolific human characteristic to believe the most exciting and unbelievable explanation:

Conspiracy theorists and their outlandish theories fill our media from time to time. Whether they be discussing how the moon landing was faked, how the blowing up of the twin towers was actually orchestrated by the american government, or that aeroplanes give off mind altering chemical trails while in flight, there will always be many who believe them with a passion. And that is because people want to believe things. 

People want to believe that aliens have visited our planet because it would be freaking awesome if it were true. They want to believe their parents are sitting in heaven, rather than rotting in the ground because it makes them feel better, and they want to believe that unlike the many ordinary and dull members of the human race, they themselves have psychic abilities and are therefore unique in some way. When it comes to intense belief, scientific reason is ignored by billions all over the world because scientific inquiry can discover evidence proving their core beliefs to be absolutely meaningless. Completely wrong. And this does not sit well with people. Just look at every religion in existence. There is no evidence for any of them, and yet look how many there are, and how many followers they have.

Evidence-lacking drivel presently fills our society more than ever, and I'd say the only way of combatting it is by increasing scientific thinking. Horoscopes should be removed from newspapers, and it should be more greatly explained to people why they have no validity whatsoever. No magazine or tv show should ever be allowed to release information that they claim to be true, that can be proven to be false in any way. And religious ideology should be kept as far apart from science as possible (In what way is teaching Noah's Ark in science class useful to anyone). If everyones first thought when being told an unbelievable piece of information was "What evidence is there to back up this claim",our world would be a much more logical and straight thinking place. Maybe then pseudoscience would disappear, less people would die from deadly illnesses after using useless treatments, new age healing would go the way of the dodo, and my university friend would stop trying to convince me that she saw the ghost of a long dead woman standing in her bedroom.

-Thomas Glen

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Sexton Beetles-The undertakers of the insect world

When you think of an undertaker, you probably think of a pale, middle aged man with bags under his eyes, who wears black clothes and has a number of selfies on his phone that he has taken with his dead colleagues (or maybe that last ones just me). However, I bet you’ve never considered that undertakers exist in the insect world.

The Sexton or Burying beetle (pictured) has the strange behavior of burying animal corpses it finds such as of shrews, rats and birds. 

When an animal dies, its pungent aroma can be sensed by these beetles due to chemoreceptors they have in their large antenna, and a single decaying animal can attract many of these beetles to the same corpse. This can lead to a number of beetles fighting one another over this valuable food source (males fighting males and females fighting females) until one couple remains afterwards who then goes on to mate. 

However if a male finds a food source with no female, he can release a pheromone to attract one, and a lone female may be able to raise a family on this food source with the use of sperm she may have stored from previous matings.

After a male and a female find each other on a corpse, the new couple will begin digging a hole underneath to bury it. As they do this, they remove all of the fur and cover the animal in  anti bacterial and anti fungal secretions, as well as other substances. This not only slows the decay rate of the corpse, but it also decreases the pungent smell of the corpse so as not to attract hungry animals, as well as rival Sexton beetles towards it. 

Sexton beetles also cleanse the animal corpse further due to small mites that they carry upon them wherever they go. When a Sexton beetles finds a corpse, these mites feed on the eggs and larvae of other insects that may be found on it already, making it more sterile which is what the adult beetles want. As the mites are able to feed, and the beetle has a more sterile corpse, this beetle/mite relationship is beneficial to both parties.

But why do Sexton Beetles go through all of this hard labour? Well it is all done for the reason life on earth does anything at all. For the purpose of reproduction.

The female will then go on to lay her eggs on the soil around the corpse. Once the eggs have hatched, the larvae will move into the corpse and make complete use of the huge, protective long-lasting food source, compliments of their loving parents. Although the parents have created this haven for their offspring, they will spend time digesting and regurgitating food for them. 

After a few days the larvae will leave the corpse and enter the soil where they go on to pupate, and change from their larval form into full grown adult beetles.

-Thomas Glen

How are new species created?

Our planet is smothered with unique life forms, made up of an estimated 8 million species. But what processes cause new species to develop creating the wide array of organisms we can see today. Well there are two main mechanisms that allow speciation (creation of new species) to occur.





Allopatric Speciation:

Allopatric Speciation occurs when geographical barriers cause groups of the same species to become separated. Once separated these groups survive in differing environments, evolve and adapt to their surroundings, their genes change due to mutation, gene flow and genetic drift etc, and become genetically different to the original population enough to be classed as separate species.

To give an example, imagine a population of deer survive on a wide-stretching area of land, but due to geographical changes a river forms in between the area of land, causing one group of deer to be isolated from the other members of the population. This separated population is now subjected to natural selection in its own environment, random genetic mutations that constantly occur, while being unable to swap genes with their original population as they could before. This leads to them becoming more varied than the old population, and if at some point the river barrier were to disappear and allow them to have contact with their old species, they may be too genetically different to be able to reproduce and create viable offspring, making them a new species.

Sympatric Speciation:

Sympatric Speciation, unlike with Allopatric Speciation, can occur within populations without the need of geographical barriers to isolate populations.
For Sympatric Speciation to occur, separate ecological niches must usually develop first. An ecological niche is an organisms interactions with its biotic and abiotic environment, and by changing or developing a variation in its ecological niche relative to the other members of its species, sympatric speciation can happen.

For example, say there is a population of small birds that only feed on a berry from one species of plant. Then due to a random mutation in one birds DNA, it decides to start feeding on a different berry from another species of plant. If this new plant is of benefit to the bird it will survive, and it will produce offspring that also have the trait causing them to feed from a different food source. As this lineage evolves to survive on this new food source .i.e. develops a bill shape to improve feeding, digestion changes to accommodate the new foods source etc, a new species could slowly evolve through the generations that is unable to mate with the original species.

-Thomas Glen

Images: Thomas Glen

Why should people accept evolution as fact?

As a zoology student and a lover of the Natural World, I have always had a huge interest in evolution. The fact that every organism on Planet Earth has been moulded by its environment and the other living organisms around it, and how  random changes that occur in the DNA can give certain organisms a higher chance of survival over others, allowing its particular traits to carry on into future generations, which has lead to the rich diversity of life we see today, continues to blow me away. But what blows me away even more than this is the fact that millions of people all over the world still disregard evolution as a lie. A hoax. Something easily falsifiable, and nothing more than just a theory; a statement that makes no logical sense in the scientific community. 

Obviously religion is a major factor in whether you accept evolution or not. As someone who is not at all religious, I tend to look at life as an accidental occurrence. That of which has formed due to Planet Earth having had the correct conditions in terms of temperature, atmosphere, and other abiotic factors to allow certain chemical processes to happen, leading to the development of reproductive life as time progressed. 

However for the majority of christians for example, who believe that every living creature on Earth was designed in its existing form today by an omnipotent God, my views must sound ridiculous and blasphemous. These conflicting views have and continue to create difficult questions, one of the most arduos being "What viewpoint should be taught in science class?". A question that has turned scientists, theists, as well as the general public against each other many times. 

Many scientists have even made it one of their life goals to get more people to accept the theory of evolution. Famous zoologist and iconic atheist Richard Dawkins has written many books discussing the evidence proving evolution to be fact, and to this day gives public talks and appears on TV discussing the subject.

But why should more people accept evolution? Why not let atheists and agnostics believe it, and leave everyone who doesn't believe it alone? Well in my opinion this would be detrimental because of  how much evidence there is for evolution by natural selection, and how illogical it is not to agree with this evidence. 

The rich fossil record which not only shows an increasing in complexity of many lineages, while also linking ancient organisms with their living counterparts, is evidence enough as it is. But along with the genetic evidence, the ability to view evolution occurring in fast-producing organisms, atavistic mutations and much more, it is irrefutable. 

And when people teach others that evolution is a lie, they are teaching them to ignore substantial evidence because they counteract their own beliefs, which is not a useful characteristic if we want a forward thinking, and intelligent society. Also, all of biology from its rich diversity to the physical and behavioural traits that make up this living world, is explained by evolution and nothing else. And by teaching people that evolution is false, adequately studying the biological world becomes impossible.

The question highlighted above "What viewpoint should be taught in science class?" has and continues to cause debate as well as outrage. Outrage for the religious when children are taught that we evolved from ancient life forms and are closely related to Chimpanzees, and outrage for atheists when Adam and Eve is taught as the origin of life. To conclude I would like to say that creationist views should never be taught in science class for three main reasons. 

Firstly, creationist texts from the bible to the qu'ran lack scientific evidence (regardless of what Ken Ham spews), so do not belong in a science class. 

Secondly, due to the many religions that exist today, how can one religion take precedence in the classroom over all of the hundreds of others. 

And thirdly, science-based topics such as evolution, as well as the big bang theory exist because they have scientific backing, and teaching people, be they children or adult, to take subjects with scientific evidence more seriously than others is vital to improving our society.

-Thomas Glen 

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Why do Song Birds sing? And why do they do it so early in the Morning?

Song birds constantly lift our spirits with their quaint, erratic and most of all beautiful trilling music that is commonly heard very early in the morning at dawn. But why do Song Birds sing at all, and why do many choose such early periods in the day? 

One of the main reasons Birds sing is because it acts as a signal telling rival Birds to keep away from their territory (the louder it is, the better as this reveals to the rival the health and strength of the Bird making the sound). This is because other Birds encroaching on their breeding areas and nest site could have dire consequences for the Birds chances of procreation.

Males (and occasionally females in certain species) will usually sing as a way of attracting females for mating, the song continually evolving over the generations (through experience, not inheritance) to be more intricate and complex as a way of out-competing other males for the females attention. Females are evolutionarily wired to be attracted to the loudness and intricacy of Bird song as it shows them that the male creating it must be physically healthy with good genes which are ideal traits for possible offspring.

So Bird song is a vital skill that enables Birds to avoid competition and to attract mates, but why do it so early?
Well there are a number of theories that try and explain this behaviour, but there are two that seem to have the most backing by scientists in this field.

Dawn Chorus Theory 1: Early in the morning, there isn't enough light to forage for food adequately, so it is a great period to spend singing.

Dawn Chorus Theory 2: At this period there is less noise from most other animals which are asleep at the time, meaning Bird song is more likely to be heard by other Birds making it an appropriate time for this task.

-Thomas Glen

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The importance of gardens in Conservation

Last year David Attenborough came up with what is considered a radical approach in wildlife conservation.

He claimed that at the moment, due to mass logging, plastic ocean pollution and climate change, as well as many other threats affecting the Natural World, nature reserves and parks are not enough to allow wildlife to survive and flourish in healthy populations. 
He went on to say that the best (and possibly only) way to protect wild animals is to allow wildlife to flourish within our own towns and cities. Greater amounts of plant life should be allowed to grow in urban environments, roadside verges should be used as areas for wildlife, and gardens should also used as areas where wild plant life and animals can live.

I completely agree with this, as us humans have destroyed gigantic swathes of wild land for our own selfish use, and it is only fair to now share our developed world with the wildlife whose lives we have made more difficult. However although I feel that turning most if not all of the urban cities and towns all over the world into more natural environments is a must, it is a project that requires a great amount of time, effort and government funding, so is probably unlikely to happen anytime soon. Especially considering how little attention conservation seems to gain by acting politicians anyway.

But gardens are owned by normal people, who have complete control on how their gardens are looked after and designed.

Which is why I implore you to make your garden as wildlife friendly as possible. Plant a wide array of wild flowers to attract Bees, Beetles and other pollinators that will get fed by the flowers and aid in the plants own reproduction. Put out a Bird feeder or ten (making sure to change the food regularly), as well as a bird bath. Create log piles to provide food and shelter for invertebrates and small mammals. Even a small window box outside your window containing wild flowers can be of great use to a range of wildlife if you live in a apartment without a garden.

Millions of people all over the world have gardens, and if most of these were to transformed into environments healthy enough to act as homes for wildlife, it would make one hell of a difference to the natural world.

-Thomas Glen

The strange story of the exploding toads

In 2005 in Hamburg-Germany, strange tales of exploding toads were being reported. Local people were claiming that thousands of toads around a certain pond were violently bursting, their entrails being thrown metres into the air in the process.
This news spread worldwide, and people all over the world were completely mystified as to why this was happening. Some claimed it was some sort of fungal disease affecting the amphibians, others claimed it was too ridiculous to be true and must be some sort of hoax. However this story was far from false, as was discovered by scientist Franz Mutschumann who decided to investigate this phenomenon.

Franz visited the site where the exploding toads had been discovered and collected their carcasses, and what he noticed after studying the bodies, was that every single one that had exploded was missing its liver. He also noticed that there was a small hole on the back of the frogs, which appeared to have been made by a bird.

It turned out that the exploding toads was the work of Crows. These birds had discovered the nutrient rich organs found within the toads, and would peck through their soft bodies and remove and eat the livers, leaving the rest of the body intact. The natural defence mechanism of these toads is to inflate their bodies with air to look more intimidating when threatened, but due to a lack of liver and the huge hole that now existed in their bodies, as they filled with air their lungs and blood vessels would rupture, causing them to explode.

This explains why the toads had been exploding, but why were the crows only removing the liver, and not eating any other part of the body. Well the skin of these toads is highly toxic, and the liver is the only part of the amphibians that are good for the crows to eat. Somehow these highly intelligent birds worked out that by pecking through the skin and taking one part of the toad, they were able to eat without a risk of ingesting deadly toxins.

-Thomas Glen

Why fund Space Exploration?

 Our Planet, although beautiful and awe-inspiring is not exactly lacking in problems. From mass-starvation and genocide, to ocean acidification and loss of rainforest, we humans have our work cut out as we attempt to combat and eradicate the devastating obstacles that stand in the way of a perfect Planet Earth. And yet, with all these issues that greatly need addressing in the form of time, energy and money, billions of Dollars are spent on NASA as well as other space exploration programs. 

To many this seems unfair. Why potter about in Space collecting rock samples from distant worlds when there are people here combating life-threatening illnesses and living in fear of militant terrorists that require our attention? For this reason and more, many are against Space Exploration, however space programs are of greater benefit to us than you may think.

Future catastrophe:

Space is an incredibly dangerous place, and it is likely one day our Planet will be on the receiving end of devastation from solar flares, large asteroid impacts and many other threats.
Space Exploration improves our knowledge of these and other dangerous phenomena and allows greater monitoring of the Universe, giving us a chance to avoid them in the Future. 

NASA is also aiding in combating the current threat of Climate change through its Earth Science division by monitoring fluctuations in temperatures, ozone depletion as well as other planetary changes with the use of satellites to improve our knowledge on climate change, which will hopefully allow us be ready for its future effects.


Development of Technology:

While developing ways to study the universe and allow humans to survive in space, a great deal of technology has been produced. Technology that was later used in other ways that has been of great benefit to the human race.

For example, NASA developed digital image processing technology to allow more detailed images of the moon’s surface to be developed. This technology was later used to create MRI scanners that allow detailed images of the inside of our bodies to be produced which has saved many lives.

Water filters were produced by NASA to keep water as clean as possible for people staying in Shuttles and Space stations which has become invaluable for protecting people from toxic substances that may be in water supplies.

Other inventions produced from technologies intended for Space exploration include memory foam mattresses, ear thermometers, cordless tools, adjustable smoke detectors, freeze-dried food and scratch-resistant lenses. 

Exploration: 

Human beings have always been very unique and intelligent creatures. Unlike most other forms of biological life we have a strong sense of morality, and we have become intelligent enough to no longer rely on pure instinct alone to live our lives.

We are also incredibly curious, which is why Space Exploration brings so much excitement to millions of scientists as well as the average person. The thought of traveling through space, exploring alien planets and answering unknown questions such as: Why are we here? What other lands exist in the Universe? And What other life forms have developed since the dawn of the Universe? Brings hope and inspiration to many. 

Science continues to answer amazing questions on the World around us, but we are still painfully ignorant on the vast and complicated universe we find ourselves in. We must continue to search and study to not only improve our knowledge of the Universe, but to give us an aim in life. 

Inspiration:

As god awful TV shows such as Geordie Shore, Keeping up with the Kardashians and Big Brother continue to be made, and pop stars continue to be shockingly bad influences, today’s youth is going to continue becoming more superficial and less intelligent.

Space exploration is one of the few scientific projects that gains wide media coverage and is even capable of knocking Miley Cyrus’s nude pics off of the front page of newspapers. This is why it must continue. 

If space shuttles continue being built, Astronauts continue being interviewed on TV, and robots and satellites continue being sent to the furthest reaches of the Solar System, more and more young people will continue being inspired to take up science as a career and to choose physics, biology, mathematics, Astronomy or geology over less academic and intelligent subjects.

As technology advances and knowledge increases, we need a population of people who are able to understand it and that means producing smart, passionate and logical young people.

-Thomas Glen