Gorongosa’s landscape of fear
Rewilding is currently a hot topic in conservation in the UK. Rewilding seeks to return landscapes to a state where ecological processes function with little intervention from humans. The dream …
Course: The Biology of Bugs, Brains, and Beasts
Biology toolbox: what is an ecosystem?
1.4 million wildebeest migrate around Serengeti, searching for food, nutrients and water. As they move, they eat grass in one place, accumulate nutrients, and then excrete the waste. Since the …
Landscape ecology
Ecologists use a diverse range of techniques to understand the processes driving the movement of, and interactions between, organisms in ecosystems. Here we look at an African ecosystem to learn …
Activity: Learning Pi by association
Can you memorise the digits of (pi) (Pi)? The mathematical constant (pi) (Pi) represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter and we encounter it in various equations …
Biology toolbox: how do we know the hippocampus is the hub of learning?
Hippocampus: the learning hub Learning is the process by which we acquire knowledge about the world around us and memory is the process by which we encode and store learned …
Do you remember when…?
Ever wondered why you can forget a name but not how to ride a bike? In this section, Dr. Sangeeta Chawla will explore different types of memory and explain how …
Biology toolbox: how do we know synapses are plastic?
Plastic brains = plastic synapses Hebb’s theory and the discovery of plasticity The concept that the firing of neurons by strong stimuli can change the efficiency of neuronal connections was …
Turn up the volume!
How does the brain encode information? What is the basis for learning and memory? In this section, Dr. Gareth Evans will explore these questions at the level of the synapse. …
Biology toolbox: how do we know neurotransmitter is in packets?
The observation of neurons as individual entities with junctions (or “synapses”) raised the question: How do neurons communicate? As early as the 1870s Emil du Bois-Reymond proposed chemical communication through …
Mind the gap
Brain function relies on accurate communication between neurons. In this section Dr. Gareth Evans and Dr. Antje Kuhrs will consider the specialised machinery and sequence of events that neurons use …
Activity: how big is your brain?
If a neuron was the size of a grain of sugar… The purpose of this activity is to get a perspective on the complexity and scale of the brain. You …
Biology toolbox: how do we know the structure of the brain?
Structure of the brain To understand the function of the brain we need to understand how the brain is organised and how the different brain areas are interconnected. Early scientists …
What’s your favourite brain region?
The brain is reassuringly complicated; how are the billions of neurons organised? In this section Dr. Sangeeta Chawla and Dr. Gareth Evans will zoom into the brain and explore its …
Making products with microbes
In this article we will look at two examples of where microbes can be used to make useful products: the biofuel ethanol and an antibiotic. Why do microbes make ethanol? …
Breaking things down and building them up
Thousands of reactions are constantly occurring in your cells, driving the processes necessary for life and enabling you to be You. The sum total of these enzymatic reactions (read more …
