Science teaching; Climate action; Natural History; Photography; Videography; LEGO®; Board games; Daily STEM & Parenting. Occasional whimsy 🙃
Cambridgeshire
Joined February 2011
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head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
Great news! @BBCFOUR4 will be marking Bill Oddie's unique wildlife TV career on the evening of Sunday 16th August: starting at 7pm with The Best of Bill Oddie Goes Wild, followed by Birding with Bill Oddie: Bill’s Beginnings, and finally Bill Oddie’s Top Ten Birds. Please RT!
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
Thank you for your service @Pxfarms - we really appreciate being able to watch our food being grown!
youtu.be/HzWn2s0SwKo?feature…
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
🚨 BREAKTHROUGH: World’s First Vaccine Targeting the Entire SARS Coronavirus Family Begins Human Testing
Imagine a vaccine that doesn’t just fight COVID but every SARS-related virus, including ones still hiding in bats, waiting to jump.
That’s GBP511. And it just started human trials in Australia.🧵
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
Distribution map of 3,300 oaks in England with a girth greater than 6 metres
The UK has more ancient oaks than all other EU countries combined
There are around 170 million oaks with almost 1 million in London alone
Map: Justin Moat, GIS Unit, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Thank you for your service @Pxfarms - we really appreciate being able to watch our food being grown!
youtu.be/HzWn2s0SwKo?feature…
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
An infestation of caterpillars can make an oak tree postpone when it opens its leaves next year by three days, wrong-footing the insects when they attack again newscientist.com/article/252…
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
A single 400-year-old ancient oak produces 234,000 litres of oxygen a year while soaking up carbon dioxide, and can support more than 2,000 species of bird, insect, fungus, and lichen.
📍my favourite oak #lakedistrict
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
Red squirrels 'close to extinction' in England @BBCNews
Hard to believe that our beloved red squirrel is close to extinction and could disappear in 25yrs!
It isn't enough that they "cling on" to life across Cumbria, Northumberland and North Pennines
We have a duty to our children to save and nurture fellow species
#WakeUpWorld
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjwp…
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
Of the hundreds of types of amino acids found on Earth, it’s a mystery why life settled on 20 as the building blocks for all its proteins. Although certain species can use more—some microbes employ up to 22—no one’s ever found one using fewer.
But now scientists are closer to creating such an organism, after partially eliminating one of the 20 amino acids from the bacterium Escherichia coli.
The research used #AI to propose alternatives to the amino acid isoleucine in dozens of proteins making up bacterial ribosomes—the protein factories of the cell.
The findings offer a glimpse into how earlier, simpler life forms might have lived and suggest new ways to synthesize proteins with bespoke functions in medicine and biotechnology.
Learn more: scim.ag/49f1U9h
ALT AI helps create bacterium that’s partially missing a universal amino acid
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
Secret of hedgehog hearing discovered at far beyond human range bbc.in/4cG8kRE
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
For the first time, researchers have simulated nearly every chemical reaction in a living bacterial cell
go.nature.com/46UnkYp
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
From octopuses to snails, the complicated molluscan family tree has been mapped in unprecedented detail, researchers reported last year in Science.
Learn more: scim.ag/3LfmvBF #ScienceMagArchives
From octopuses to snails, the complicated molluscan family tree has been mapped in unprecedented detail, researchers reported last year in Science.
Learn more: scim.ag/3LfmvBF #ScienceMagArchives
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
Keystone species
Sustainability
Conservation
World’s largest krill harvester at centre of row over ‘blue tick’ sustainability label | Marine life | The Guardian share.google/kN6SXhT5ZQmUvSf…
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
#green #greenparenting #funwritings
Big Change Begins With Little Readers Kids who understand the Earth grow into adults who care for it. Start today with an eco-friendly children’s book, free.
Get Your Copy
funwritings.gumroad.com/l/ch…
@leysbiotutor @GraceKennedyGrp @LilHandsPH
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
The #NobelPrize-winning invention ECG – a milestone in heart diagnosis – is a technique that records the small electric waves being generated during heart activity. Image: From the 19th century, front view of the heart.
#ValentinesDay
ALT From the 19th century, a drawing of the front view of the heart
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
Lab leaks are extremely common, but usually benign.
Last month, I went to a conference in the UK. I was talking to some plant biologists who work with Arabidopsis thaliana, a weed in the mustard family. Arabidopsis seeds are tiny, like grains of pollen, and they stick to clothing. These seeds are often engineered with GFP, for example, such that they fluoresce green. And, being so small, they inevitably get carried (accidentally) outside the lab.
One plant biologist told me that that their lab group goes outside and picks all the Arabidopsis plants they can find in the areas around campus each year. They then bring these plants back into the laboratory and sequence them.
Last year, half of these "wild" plants had GFP.
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
Some of the "aesthetic" nest boxes you can buy actually put birds at risk.
for national nest box week I’m showing you some boxes to avoid and the red flags to look out for.
Let’s keep our feathered neighbours safe this nesting season! ✨
Softwood nest box
#NationalNestBoxWeek
head-in-the-clouds.bsky.social retweeted
Some of the "aesthetic" nest boxes you can buy actually put birds at risk.
for national nest box week I’m showing you some boxes to avoid and the red flags to look out for.
Let’s keep our feathered neighbors safe this nesting season! ✨
#NationalNestBoxWeek #GardenWildlife