• Question: what is the latest discovery in ecoligy

    Asked by jumpy759 to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 17 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      There are new things being discovered literally every day.

      The one that made me laugh recently was a study on chimps that showed how inventive they could be when trying to get a peanut from a container. I won’t spoil the surprise but you can watch the video – the chimp is very clever but quite gross: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13560247

      In terms of my own research, one of the most recent novel areas to study in ecology is the use of mathematics and computer simulations to study problems that would simply be impossible in the lab or in the real world.

    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 11 Jun 2011:

      Like Edward said, there are new discoveries every day!

      Scientists made an amazing discovery in South Africa recently when they found some worms that live deeper in the Earth’s crust – over a kilometre down – than any other multicellular animal! The worms can survive super hot temperatures and low oxygen and they feed on bacteria. If life can survive at such a great depth here, then there’s nothing preventing it from surviving underground on other planets – like Mars!

      Closer to home, my friend Shaun discovered that schools of fish swim as though they are cyclists! It was published in the Guardian on Wednesday if you’re interested: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jun/08/fish-swim-riding-bicycles He found that the position of a fish in a school depends on how fit the fish is. The fittest fish swim at the front and get the pick of the best food. The other, less fit fish trail behind and eat low quality food but swim in the ‘slipstream’ created by the fish at the front. The slipstream reduces the drag for the fish at the back and means they can swim with less effort and so use up less energy. It’s the same idea as cyclists in a race, who huddle together and reduce drag.

    • Photo: Jessica Chu

      Jessica Chu answered on 11 Jun 2011:

      There are some pretty cool answers here already.

      I would like to add something that really wowed me too-
      For 20 years, Dr. Anthony Atala’s work have been on tissue regeneration technology (repair and replacement of specific group of cells in our body). He made a kidney using a 3D printer on stage infront of an audience!!!

      Check it out : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RMx31GnNXY&playnext=1&list=PL8257EB7790480161

    • Photo: Christine Switzer

      Christine Switzer answered on 12 Jun 2011:

      I don’t actually work in ecology directly, though I work with some ecologists. There are new discoveries every day. From today’s BBC News science headlines, these are some new discoveries that impact my field of contaminants in the environment:

      Possible drought in parts of England: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13722013
      Drug from frog skin for cancer treatment: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-13676752
      New elements in the periodic table: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13699575

      Drought in the south of England may mean that water recycling may be necessary there. Recycled water may have more contaminants in it like medicines or products that we use every day. I am studying ways of removing these contaminants.

      The possible cancer drug that comes from a frog protein sounds very promising to me. Drugs that come from natural sources may degrade more easily in the environment. Drugs that come from a heavily synthetic (man made) process may degrade more slowly. This possible new drug sounds like it could have a lot less effects on the environment than other drugs.

      New elements on the periodic table are found every few years as scientists try new things and make new discoveries. I have no idea how these new elements may affect the work that I do, but I am excited that they might.

    • Photo: Nicolas Biber

      Nicolas Biber answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      There is no right answer to this question, that’s why I have put it off for so long. They really discover so many things every day, if I stated the latest discovery I came across, it would already be outdated. So many people work in ecology worldwide, and each of them makes tiny or big discoveries every day.
      Admittedly I am not really up to date either, I haven’t gotten around to do much reading lately :S

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