• Question: have you been any were in the world? do you any pets ? what do you do an why ? is there funny storys about you work ??

    Asked by izzy123 to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 20 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I’ve been travelling quite a lot – sometimes for my work, other times for holidays. In Europe I’ve been to France, Spain, Germany, Norway, Sweden (they love crayfish there), Greece, Cyprus, The Netherlands and Ireland. Further afield, I’ve been to Trinidad and Tobago, Egypt (just for a day!), the US (Florida) and Thailand. I’m hoping to go to South America next year.

      I don’t have any pets 🙁 I live in a flat and I’m not allowed! I used to have hamsters and guinea pigs when I was living at home.

      What do I do… I am a PhD student, which means i’m doing 3 years of research on one topic in particular – my topic is crayfish, especially non-native species that have been introduced to the UK. Why do I do it? I’m studying non-native crayfish because we’re worried about what impact these animals will have on our native plants and animals. Other non-native disaster stories include the grey squirrel (which is threatening our native red squirrel) and the introduction of cane toads to Australia (which were put there to eat a pest beetle species… but didnt! they’re everywhere now, causing problems).

      There are lots of funny stories! I’ve posted some of them here: /ecologyj11-zone/2011/06/what-is-the-funniest-practical-you-have-done-and-whyhow-much-did-to-revise-to-get-this-far

    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Lots of questions there izzy!

      1. I have travelled a bit around Europe for science meetings and for holidays. I like mountain climbing so have been to the Alps and Pyrenees a few times. I have also been to Morrocco but not any further than that. I don’t like flying so it is difficult to get anywhere outside Europe by train! I’d love to go to New Zealand or South America if I had the chance though.

      2. I have lots of pets – I have 2 cats, 2 goldfish (fantails) and 4 chickens who lay eggs for us to eat. We also have a wildlife pond in our garden that has loads of frogs and newts living in it!

      3. I use maths and computer simulations to study ecology. I look at things like how groups of animals move around and interact with each other. The computer simulations I do lead to predictions about the real world that we then test with real experiments. We are doing some experiments with coral reef fish (Nemo!) and plankton at the moment. We have also done some work on how human crowds behave.

      4. I have a few funny stories but one of the best ones I saw was from a group who my friend knows. They won the ‘Ig-Nobel’ award for their work on farting fish! Apparently herrings use farts as a way of communicating when there is danger! It sounds very silly but there was a serious point to the work as it helps us to understand how and why these fish behave in the way they do.
      http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040927/full/news040927-19.html

    • Photo: Jessica Chu

      Jessica Chu answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Hi izzy123,

      I have been to a few places in Asia: Hong Kong (lived there for quite a few years), China, Inner Mongolia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan.
      I have only been to a few european countries like Italy, Spain, France, Iceland, Holland and Germany.
      I have been around the west coast of America – to the National Parks and was in Iowa for 2 months.

      I used to have a guinea pig and some fish! But that was years ago and they have passed away now! But I think I will get a dog when I am a bit older 🙂

      My research is to see if any of the Malaysian rainforest plants that I have selected can become a possible treatment for cancer.

      There are a few funny stuff but I think this guy, Professor Poliakoff is pretty funny and eccentric! On his birthday – he got a periodic table etched on to a strand of his hair:

    • Photo: Nicolas Biber

      Nicolas Biber answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      I have traveled a bit, in Europe I’ve been to Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Lichtenstein, Ireland, Spain (from where I went to Morocco for one day) and the UK. I grew up in Switzerland, so that’s home :), and we go on holiday in France quite often. I went on a field trip to the Maldives during my undergrad, and I did an internship in Ghana. I’ve been on vacations in Australia, Tasmania and Canada. I did the fieldwork for my masters in Benin. Most recently I went to a conference in the US (Hawaii) and I stopped in Colorado on the way back. At my place here in the UK, we’re not really allowed pets, but my housemate has adopted three fish, currently I’m looking after them. Back in Switzerland we have guinea pigs and a dog 🙂
      I am doing research on environmental pollution by plastic, because I know that plastic is a pollutant that will never disappear, and this upsets me. So I have decided to find out as much as I can about this problem, so we can get closer to doing something about it. I just realised that I cannot think of any funny stories about my work, which is really sad 🙁

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