UCC scientists tag jellyfish for first time

Irish researchers have managed to successfully track five Lion’s Mane Jellyfish!

“As it had never been done before, attaching a tag to a Lion’s Mane was an extremely difficult and dangerous task. Eventually we found some way of attaching the tag to the underside of the jellyfish in amongst the hundreds of meter long tentacles”, explained Dr Tom Doyle, Coastal Marine Resources Centre, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork (UCC).

Dr Doyle is a member of a group of researchers involved in The EcoJel Project - a four year project funded by the European Union Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Ireland Wales Programme 2007-2013 - Interreg 4A. EcoJel is a collaboration between University College Cork and Swansea University (Wales) and aims to assess the opportunities and detrimental impacts of jellyfish in the Irish Sea.

During the last few weeks, the researchers have been investigating the behaviour of the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish in Dublin Bay by attaching tags to their underside. Tracking these jellyfish is one of the only ways we can learn how much time they spend at the surface and whether or not they are residents or just passing through. These questions are important to answer as many bathers and open water swimmers in the Dublin area have been badly stung during the last few years and more recently in the last few weeks. Indeed, a bad encounter with a Lion’s Mane may result in severe pain for 5 or 6 hours, weeping skin and back spasms.

With the help/support of Ocean Divers in Dun Laoghaire, the researchers have now followed five individuals for up to eight hours. All individuals were tagged near the famous Forty Foot bathing spot and depending on the tide (ebb or flow), the jellyfish either went north or south along the coast. One jellyfish hugged the coastline from the Forty Foot to Bullock Harbour and along to Sorrento Point never moving more than 20 metres from shore. Another jellyfish went past the entrance to Dun Laoghaire Harbour and on towards Seapoint before heading south again with the ebbing tide.

“This is a great success as only three weeks ago we had no idea of where they went and how they behaved. We now know that they these jellyfish are residents, moving about with the ebb and flow of the tide. As the jellyfish are now beginning to wash up in large numbers (they are dying off) we have stopped tagging until early next year,” said Dr Doyle.

This story originally appeared at UCC.ie
Visit www.jellyfish.ie for more.

The results are in: Spider vs Conker myth debunked

One of the first blog posts I ever posted on here was about a challenge set by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) to discover the truth about that old wives' tale that spiders are repelled by horse chestnuts.

Now, Year 5 and 6 pupils at Roselyon School in Cornwall have won the challenge and demonstrated conclusively that the theory is false and they've bagged a £300 prize into the bargain.

RSC spokesman Jon Edwards said: "When we consulted a spider expert at the Natural History Museum he was highly sceptical about the spider theory. We even tried it ourselves but couldn't reach a scientific conclusion. The Roselyon entry stood out from the crowd because of the balanced, scientific methods and well designed experiments. They should be proud of their fair mindedness, scientific rigour and logical thinking."

Andrew Ferguson, science teacher at the school, said: "Many people are scared of spiders - but our children are not among them and were not worried abut handling them. The children are thrilled that their efforts have won this prize. Apart from being good fun, the project provided an invaluable learning experience. Many people are terrified of spiders, but one other thing our video also demonstrated is that Roselyon children are not among them."

A video detailing the work of the school on the project can be viewed below.

Does gender bias affect physics teaching?

According to a recent US study, students think males are more knowledgeable than females when it comes to teaching physics.

Amy Bug, a (female) physicist at Swarthmore College, and her team trained four actors (two male and two female) to give a 10-minute, scripted physics lecture which was filmed. 126 real physics students were then shown a lecture by one of the four actors and their opinions surveyed.

On average, the male 'lecturers' received higher scores then the females. While female students gave slightly higher scores to female 'lecturers' male students rated male 'lecturers' vastly better.

When the students were asked if the 'lecturer' had a "solid grasp of the material", if they were knowledgeable, or good with equipment, there was a distinct gender bias with both male and female students rating the male 'lecturers' more highly.

However, when asked whether the 'lecturer' "teaches in a way that rally helps students learn", is well organised or interacts well with students, there was evidence of a distinct own-gender bias, with females rating female 'lecturers' most highly and males preferring male 'lecturers.

A note of caution is required here though: How do we know that the bias shown is not a result of the relative skills of the actors to play the part of a physics teacher?

You can view a report on the study here.

 Scientific American look at this study in their 60-Second Science podcast.

The Big One!

This is the 100th post on the Communicate Science blog. From some rather shaky beginnings back in September 2009, we've finally made this minor milestone!

Back at the start of May, I did a highlights post for articles published before that date. You can check it out here.

As I've reached post 100, it seems appropriate to dig out (what I think are) the best of the posts since May. If you're new to the blog (or not so new) you might enjoy having a look back.

If you're not already doing it, you should follow Communicate Science on Twitter for the latest news and articles. You can also subscribe to the blog by using the gadget to the right.

 HIGHLIGHTS

At the end of May, the results of our Science Photo Competition were announced. View the winners.

May was also the month when Craig Venter announced his lab had created a "synthetic" microbe. We looked at the story and the media reaction here.

In June, Anti-GM campaigners were told that they can't have it both ways in this post on GM potato trials.

We also launched our occasional series on Culture & Science with a poem by the Irish poet Paula Meehan. Read it here.

A European poll found that 55% of the public wanted scientists to communicate more. The results of the survey were discussed here in an article which also appeared on guardian.co.uk science blog.

I've had some excellent feedback on the article about the noted Irish artist, writer and naturalist Robert Gibbings. If you missed it, you can read the article in full here.

Plenty of feedback too on this guest post of the FrogBlog which dealt with biology at leaving cert level.

That's just a handful of the articles since May. Feel free to browse throught the rest.

If you enjoy an article, or if you think an article is totally off the point, feel free to contact me. We love feedback here at Communicate Science!

Footprints prove reptiles were first to conquer dry land

The tracks were left by reptiles living 500 kilometres
from the nearest seashore

Reptile footprints which are 318 million years old have given scientists a new insight into the evolution of life on land.


The footprints were discovered in rock slabs broken away from sea cliffs at the Bay of Fundy in New Brinswick, Canada prove that reptiles were the first vertrebates (animals with a backbone) to leave the swampy coasts and make their homes on dry land.

The footprints were discovered by Howard Falcon-Lang of University of London during a trek along the coast in 2008.

"It's a very significant event in the history of life," Falcon-Lang said in an interview.

"About 400 million years ago, animals with backbones started to come on land, but these were frog-like creatures. And amphibians such as frogs have to return to the water in order to breed. They lay soft eggs that very easily dry out."

But Falcon-Lang said when the reptiles came along, they laid eggs with hard shells that they could lay on land, and could therefore start moving away from the shore.

The scientist said that he had actually been looking for something when he tripped over, scrapped his knee and came face-to-face with the small footprints (about 4 cm long) which were likely made by a reptile approximately 20 cm long and resembling a gecko.

"It really is that extraordinary," Falcon-Lang said. "You're capturing an event that probably just took a few minutes."

Communicate Science @ Science.ie

My recent guest blog on Frogblog.ie has been picked up as news piece by Science.ie - a website produced by Discover Science and Engineering (DSE).

DSE aim to increase the numbers of students studying Engineering and Science; to promote a positive attitute towards careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to foster a greater understanding of science and its value to Irish society.

You can read the Science.ie article here.

You can read the original guest post on the Frog Blog here.

Sudden Oak Death: An impending threat?

Sudden Oak Death is caused by a fungal-like pathogen called Phytophthora ramorum and has hit the headlines again recently when the disease spread across the Bristol Channel to South Wales.

First found in Britain in 2002 (where it was infecting Viburnum tinus in a garden centre), it has been causing problems in the US since the mid-nineties.

In 2000, researchers at the University of California identified the cause of dying oak trees in many parts of the state to be a previously unknown species of Phytophthora. Another Phytophthora species, P. infestans, causes late blight in potatoes- a topic we have covered previously on this blog.

Alternative hosts for P. ramorum include rhododendron, viburnum, bay laurel, douglas fir, redwoods, yew, horse chestnut, beech.

The conclusive link between the pathogen and sidden oak death was not made until work published in 2002 (Phytophthora ramorum as the cause of extensive mortality of Quercus spp. and Lithocarpus densiflora in California. D.M. Rizzo, M. Garbelotto, J.M. Davidson, G.W. Slaughter, and S.T. Koike.Plant Disease 86: 205-214. 2002).

By 2005, the pathogen had been found in Northern Ireland.

However, despite the problem in Europe and North America arising around the same time, research has shown that the mating-type from the American isolates (called A2 type) are different to those found in Europe (A1 type). This indicates that the pathogen did not come from North America to Europe or vice-versa. It is thought to have originated in an as-yet unidentified third country.

The pathogen can cause cankers of the bark or can cuase damage to the leaves. Depending on the host plant, differing symptoms are visible.

The pathogen may reproduce by sexual or asexual means. To reproduce sexually, both the A1 and A2 mating types (i.e. the European and American types) need to be present together and, apart from a single exception) this has not been the case up until now. Hence, the spread of the pathogen is generally via the production of asexual spores (called zoospores) which are spread by rain and wind.

In order to eradicate the pathogen in California, authorites cut and burn infected trees along with all other host plants within 100 feet. Controlling the spread of infected (or potentially-infected plant material) is crucial.

Control of the disease in Ireland is governed by European phytosanitary legislation and despite it being found on rhododendron and viburnum species in parts of the country, it has yet to be found on trees. With trees now infected Wales, how long until it spreads across the Irish Sea?

Spread of P. ramorum in Europe (2006)