Art and Science talk in Glasgow University

Two weeks ago I spent the whole weekend in Glasgow. During my stay in the city, I had the opportunity to attend a talk organized by Glasgow University Magazine, given by two award-winning science communicators Emily May Armstrong, who was doing her Ph.D. at Glasgow University, and Catarina Marques, who already has a Ph.D. 

The title of the talk was Art and Science: Dismantling the binary. The purpose of the talk was to dismantle the perceived binary that exists between art and science: people often tend two think that they are two fields completely unrelated to one another. These two have been depicted as opposing, and the belief that you have to either be good at or have to choose one or the other has persisted. What this event tried to demonstrate was that this is not true at all.

The speakers talked about how the art-science binary originated- science is empirical whereas art is often conceived as "free", or "no rules"- and then run through examples of art in science or science in art. For instance, most scientists, as a quick poll demonstrated, agree that they need to be creative at least sometimes in their work. In addition to this, scientists, especially biologists, need to draw continuously: Darwin drew almost every species he saw when he embarked on his expedition on the Beagle. 

On the other hand, science is very useful for artists. The speakers talked about strange pigments that could have pretty amazing finishes, such as a material that picks up 96% of light- so it's basically like the darkest black that's ever been made. Essentially, with chemistry and science in general, artists have very useful tools and inspiration for their work.

I found this talk very interesting and kind of suited for me since I am not only a scientist but an artist- I even considered doing my masters on Scientific Illustration- and have always suffered the science-art binary conflict first-hand. I think art and creativity, in general, are very important tools for scientists, and often underestimated and forgotten.

Insect Collection Manuel Ortego

During my Christmas Break in Spain, I got to visit the Insect Collection Manuel Ortego in Madrid. The collection consists of 22.404 insects, collected by Manuel Ortego Forniés (grandfather) between 1940 and 1989, Manuel Ortego Gamboa (father) between 1980 and 1990 and donated to the Madrid City Council by Manuel Ortego Navarro (grandson) in 2018. Mr. Ortego Forniés started collecting insects at the age of 10, and kept collecting insects as a hobby while he painted for a living. His son worked at the Natural Sciences museum and founded the Madrid Entomological Group.

The collection is formed by 186 entomological boxes, and 92% of the insects belong to the order coleoptera, 8% to lepidoptera and one only individual belongs to the order odonata. There is a total of 1218 genera, 3750 species, 66 coleoptera and 28 lepidoptera families.


It is stablished at the Casa de Campo's Lake, right next to the Interpretation and Education Centre. The entomological room where the collection is located possesses an entomological laboratory.



Between 2018 and 2019, the collection staff have been working on a data base to register all the information provided on the tags associated to the different insects (date and place of capture, common and scientific name of the species, identification number...)


Other projects are currently being carried out, such as the breeding and releasing of Graellsia isabellae, an endangered butterfly species. They also perform activities involved in the control and management of Pine processionary Thaumetopoea pityocampa, a species which happens to be highly damaging for other animal and plant organisms.

Graellsia isabellae

The visit was very instructive and it was amazing getting to see such a big entomological collection. I am aware not everyone appreciates insects, but I personally find them very interesting and even beautiful. Also, the projects the staff are involved in seem very important and I hope they perform them succesfully.

Internship with EGA Wildlife

A few months ago, I applied for an internship with a small company called EGA Wildlife. It is a small consultant located in the Spanish Pyrenees specialized in the study and monitoring of large wild mammals and in the management and conservation of protected areas.

The company is formed by professionals in Zoology and conservation biology. They perform different activities, specially population records of wild ungulates such as Wild Goat, Wild Boar, Roe Deer, Red Deer and Pyrenean Chamois; which they have tracked every year for the last 30 years or so. They use different tools: field work, Geographic Information Systems, ecological data analysis...

Pyrenean chamois (own picture, taken in the French Pyrenees)

The company started in 1992 with two members widely experienced in the field of biodiversity conservation. Most of the work is performed in the region of Aragón, but they also work in other Spanish regions and even other European countries. They work primarily for public administrations and collaborate with non-governmental organizations dedicated to biodiversity management and conservation.

They have produced over 100 scientific reports, some of which are listed here:

Long term monitoring of wild ungulates in Aragon, Spain: https://www.researchgate.net/project/Long-term-monitoring-of-wild-ungulates-in-Aragon-Spain

Can roe deer hunting be selective? A case study from the Pyrenees: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338565606_Can_roe_deer_hunting_be_selective_A_case_study_from_the_Pyrenees

ESTIMATING IBERIAN WILD GOAT ABUNDANCE IN A LARGE RUGGED FOREST HABITAT: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337439519_ESTIMATING_IBERIAN_WILD_GOAT_ABUNDANCE_IN_A_LARGE_RUGGED_FOREST_HABITAT_Estimacion_de_la_abundancia_de_la_cabra_montes_en_un_habitat_forestal_de_montana_de_gran_superficie

Population estimates of forest ungulates in the Señorío de Bértiz Natural Park: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333618502_Population_esti-mates_of_forest_ungulates_in_the_Senorio_de_Bertiz_Natural_Park

EGA Wildlife website: http://www.egawildlife.com/

In December I sent my CV in order to apply for the internship, which I was really interested in, since it is very related to my Zoology course and to what I want to orientate my career to. They seemed particularly interested in my Zoology degree, which I had to describe in detail.

During Christmas break, I got to visit to their office in Saragossa, Spain, where I had a job interview, as well as they explained to me what my role in the company would be during the internship (September to December): I would join them for the field work–this means waking up at 4AM sometimes!–, collect data an analyze it, as well as attending various biodiversity congresses all around Spain. Sometimes they get miscellaneous work, such as measuring ungulate skulls or dissecting wild boar corpses, which I will have to make as well. They decided they will accept my application so that I would start my internship in September.

To sum up, this internship is a great opportunity to start implementing everything I've learnt during my course after I graduate. I'm really excited since it is exactly what I was looking for, and the location –the Pyrenees, in my home country– is stunning. I have really high expectations for this opportunity and I truly hope to learn a lot.

Trip to Chester Zoo- with "behind the scenes" ethical review session

On Thursday 30th of January, we went to Chester Zoo as part of our Animal Ethics and Welfare module. The aim of the trip to such a prestigious zoo was not just to see the animals, as you would expect for a trip aimed at Zoology students; but to show us the other side of zoos: all the role they play in animal conservation projects, education, research, and, of course, entertainment. 

We arrived at the zoo by 11 AM. Until 1:30 PM we were allowed to roam around the zoo and see all the animals we wanted to–at least as many as we could, since Chester Zoo is considerably big!

The first animals you can see when you enter the zoo are the Asian elephants. They are right at the entrance, in a big shelter. We were lucky to see two elephant babies playing together.

One of the Asian elephants.

Then we headed the butterfly house, enjoying the view of some other exotic animals on the way. It was really humid inside, so my camera lenses, however, I managed to take some pictures with my phone. The butterflies were incredibly varied in colours and shapes, likely original from tropical places. Some of them even perched on us!

Butterfly

Afterwards, we went to the lions, sleeping. I managed to take some good photos of them.

Lions sleeping.

Bat house.

We could see many more animals, such as red pandas, dik-diks, malayan bears, binturongs, white rhinoceros, chimpancees, painted wolves, babirusas, jaguars, the tiger, a handful of monkeys and a spectrum of different bird species... I specially enjoyed the bat house, where you get to enter the building where the bats live and see them closely. Of course, it's very dark in there.

 

At 1:30 PM, we all regrouped and assisted to the talk given by two members of the zoo staff. The first bit of the talk was dedicated to teach us the role of modern zoos: they split their aims in conservation, education, research and entertainment. The guy who gave the talk insisted that the entertainment bit was really important since zoos need to earn money somehow. Zoos are regulated and supported by associations such as WAZA (World Association of Zoos and Aquariums). Some of the topics they deal with are the human-wildlife conflict, sustainable development, visitor and community engagement, wildlife wealth and welfare... They also perform biodiversity surveys and conservation breeding. Some ethical questions were debated about animals in captivity and similar issues.

The second bit of the talk was given by a member of the zoo staff whose role at the zoo was involved in animal welfare. Here we learned about the different laws that regulate zoos and aquariums and how these don't allow animals living in inappropriate places.

The visit, overall, was very instructive and entertaining. It was a great opportunity to visit such a great zoo which I hadn't visited before and to learn different viewpoints regarding the ethics of modern zoos from a zoo staff's perspective.

For more information about Chester Zoo: https://www.chesterzoo.org/

Primatology Fieldwork: Trentham Monkey Forest

On the 21st of October, we went on a field trip for our Primatology module to the Trentham Monkey Forest. The Monkey Forest is home to 140 free-ranging Barbary macaques, endangered monkeys that originate from the Atlas mountains in Morocco.
Trentham Monkey Forest is one of the three parks in Europe dedicated to the conservation of Barbary Macaques.

The bus left at 7:30 AM and arrived at the enclosure by 10:00 AM. As we arrived, a member of the staff told us some information about the monkeys that they have and the biology of the Barbary macaques. The monkeys are divided in two groups of approximately 70 monkeys each, called the “French” monkeys and the “German” monkeys, since some of them come from the monkey forest in France and others come from the forest in Germany, respectively. The monkeys are provisioned with food, but they also forage for natural foods in the forest. 

Two monkeys grooming each other

We were separated in groups of three and we were allowed to stay three hours with the monkeys and complete our task. The task consisted on picking a monkey and observing it for one hour, using focal animal sampling and taking notes of its activity on the sheets that were given to us. During that hour, each member of the group had a specific job:

Observer 1 had to record what the monkey was doing at one-minute intervals. Each specific activity had a “code”: for example, the action “walk” was “W”, and so on. This is the task that was assigned to me.

Observer 2 focused on all instances of social interactions such as aggression, sexual interactions, etc.

Observer 3 did an instantaneous recording of spatial associations at 5min intervals: the nearest adult neighbour (sex and distance) and number of adults within 2 metres.

The monkey we picked was a large adult male, which at first the only thing he seemed to do was  to eat. For the first half hour my sheet was full of "Fs" for “feeding”. Then a female pointlessly tried to mate with him, but he did not seem interested. He spent the rest of the time sleeping on top of a tree.

Our monkey performing his two favourite activities: eating and sleeping.

The trip, overall, was very enjoyable; having the chance to see the monkeys that closely and observing their behaviour in detail was really worth it. I can truly say I enjoyed this trip and that I would really appreciate attending to more field trips like this one in my course.

For further information on the Trentham Monkey Forest, visit their website: https://monkey-forest.com/

Seminar: Evaluating Greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement relating to timber in construction in the UK

Dr Morwenna Spear gave a talk about greenhouse gas emissions related to timber construction in the UK.

First, she talked about the recent importance of climate change and how it is key for the issue the seminar was about. Dr. Spear pointed out that timber can be thought of as biomass as well as a structuring material. Then she talked about the “Wood in Construction Report”, which had four co-authors: professor Callum Hill, Dr. Andrew Norton, Professor Colin Price and Dr. Graham Ormondroyd; of which two had already been at Bangor University.

We saw a graph showing the progress achieved in reducing greenhouse gas emissions during the past years, which was considerable, especially regarding industry and power sectors. Another graph showed the carbon emissions in the built environment from 1990 and how they had been reduced until the present days, including how they are expected to be reduced until 2050. The reduction seems to be considerably significant.

 

So, what’s the purpose of forestry in the UK?

The demand for timber is set to increase. Timber production involves a sustainable production and renewable material, as it has an excellent carbon profile (i.e. potential for a low embodied carbon material: it takes less energy than some other competitive products; and high sequestered carbon content, keeps carbon out of the atmosphere)

Also, there is a demand for renewable biomass for energy and recyclable materials in a circular economy. Furthermore, the wood-based panels demand is gradually increasing with time.

Morwenna explained that as buildings become more energy efficient, the importance of the energy and carbon associated with construction materials will become more prominent, therefore there is an increased importance in designing efficiently with the materials resources, as well as an increased consideration of embodied carbon or global warming potential (GWP) of buildings at build stage.

But, what is the embodied carbon? Embodied carbon is the CO₂ burden associated with the production processes. For wood, this could include forest activities, extraction and transport, etc.

A model was developed for annual housebuilding to investigate global warming potential (GWP) of new build, assumed approx. 190,000 dwellings per year, assuming 28% of dwellings were timber-framed. I didn’t pick up this part very well since it was about topics which seemed unfamiliar to me, but what  I understood is that the reinforced concrete had the most embodied carbon, however, bricks and other material types also had a certain quantity of it.

All scenarios with increased use of timber led to a reduction in the embodied carbon compared to those with no growth in timber. They also stored a greater volume of sequestered carbon within the built environment than the no growth case.

Accounting for demolition timber apparently had only a small impact on the volume of stored sequestered carbon in the built environment. This was due to the number of new houses built being significantly larger than the number of demolitions.

Some things to point out–housebuilding is a relatively minor component of construction in greenhouse gas emissions–non-residential structures also require action.

The conclusions of the talk were:

·The use of mass timber building systems can both reduce embodied carbon and increase the stored sequestered CO₂.

·Material choice can be related to global warming potential using Environmental Product Declarations

·Details such as cladding materials, roof covering, etc, can alter embodied carbon of buildings

·Timber framed systems offer an increase in quantity of stored carbon and a reduction in embodied carbon.

Personally, this talk did not particularly catch my attention since is not exactly related to my course–I am a Zoology student. However, it gave me some information I did not know beforehand on carbon emissions and industry which I might find useful.

Workshop 1: Job interviews

For our Science and Employability module we attended a workshop that consisted of two parts: for the first part, a hypothetic scenario was set where our group was a victim of a plane crash in the middle of a snowy forest and we had fifteen minutes to decide which ten items to pick from a list of  various items from inside the plane that would help us survive in the woods before the plane burst into flames; so that afterwards we debated our decisions. But on this entry I will focus on the second part of the workshop.

For the latter we simulated a job interview and each one of the members in our group assumed a role, which we rotated in shifts: the candidate (the person who was going to be interviewed), a note taker who did not make questions but took notes on what the candidate was saying, a supervisor who made sure that the interview would last five minutes (no more, no less) and three interviewers. In our case, since our group only consisted of five members, the supervisor also made questions.

After the candidate was interviewed, the note taker gave some feedback, mostly positive but also constructive; and afterwards the remaining members of the group made some contributions to the feedback the note taker had done.

Personally, I think it was quite a remarkable change from working as a group to dividing ourselves in different roles, especially when you were the one to be interviewed you felt so much pressure and responsibility. However, I don’t think interviewing the other members of the group was difficult or awkward, the questions were quite short, basic and concrete, and not particularly uncomfortable.

I found some difficulty at giving feedback when I assumed the role of note taker. I feel like the other members of the group assumed the role very easily and naturally, however, my feedback was pretty poor and general.

Since I was the first candidate, I was quite nervous and whereas the other members were being interviewed I kept thinking of more things I could have said in my interview, and questions I would have liked to answer. For example, the very first question I answered got me unprepared and I completely blanked. A few minutes later I thought of many possible answers, but I guess that is some preparation for future real job interviews.

While watching other candidates, I didn’t feel like I was a rival or competing with them at all: we were all in the same boat, but I guess in a real job interview the situation would have completely different…

To sum up, I thought it was a very useful workshop, and also pretty entertaining; which changed my perception towards job interviews and the reaction I thought I would have when the moment of my first interview arrived (even if it was not real!).