planetarium she reaches across space to find my hand
by John Hawkhead
In the 2008 USA presidential election, Senator John McCain criticised the value (and cost) of planetariums, as being little more than “overhead projectors”.
Yet planetariums, as well as being a unique form of entertainment, are valuable science communication tools: interactive and immersive pedagogic instruments for astronomical education.
For example, research by Plummer (2008) suggests that attending a planetarium program increased understanding of celestial motion in students aged 6 to 8 years old. Planetariums are also especially valuable for those living in large towns and cities, where light-pollution prevents most stars from being visible.
To celebrate the value and power of planetariums, the second Sunday of every March is International Day of Planetariums.
‘Early elementary students’ development of astronomy concepts in the planetarium’, Journal of Research in Science Teaching: https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20280
Author bio:
John Hawkhead (@HawkheadJohn) has been writing haiku and illustrating for over 25 years. His work has been published all over the world and he has won a number of haiku competitions. John’s books of haiku and senryu, ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’, are now available from Alba Publishing (http://www.albapublishing.com/).Read more of John’s sciku here!
‘Planetarium’ was previously published in Poetry Pea – podcast (June 2022); Journal 2:22 (Sept 2022).
mother tongue day the students trying to script an alien language
by R. Suresh Babu
Kids should not ignore their mother tongue. If they do, they are going to lose connection with their tradition and environment. To make a country scientifically advanced, we need to learn and teach science in vernacular languages.
R. Suresh Babu is a graduate teacher of English and a teacher counsellor in a Government Residential School in India. He is an alumnus of the Regional Institute of Education, Mysuru in India. His works have been published in Cattails, Failed Haiku, Wales Haiku Journal, Akitsu, Presence, Under the Basho, Poetry Pea Journal and Podcast, The Asahi Shimbun, World Haiku Series, The Mamba, Kontinuum, Haikuniverse, Cold Moon Journal, Chrysanthemum, tsuri-dōrō and The Mainichi. He is a contributing writer to the anthology, We Will Not Be Silenced of the Indie Blu(e) Publishing. He has done the art works for the Haiku anthology Bull-Headed, edited by Corine Timmer. You can follow him on Twitter @sureshniranam
AI tinkering lab all the young student scientists perform a moonwalking jig
by R. Suresh Babu
My haiku are centered on my experiences as a teacher where I observe children’s behaviour in the classroom situations, science labs and the school campus.
Science is fun. Children do funny acts. This sciku is based on moonwalking in an AI Tinkering Lab when children try to match their dance steps with a steering robot.
R. Suresh Babu is a graduate teacher of English and a teacher counsellor in a Government Residential School in India. He is an alumnus of the Regional Institute of Education, Mysuru in India. His works have been published in Cattails, Failed Haiku, Wales Haiku Journal, Akitsu, Presence, Under the Basho, Poetry Pea Journal and Podcast, The Asahi Shimbun, World Haiku Series, The Mamba, Kontinuum, Haikuniverse, Cold Moon Journal, Chrysanthemum, tsuri-dōrō and The Mainichi. He is a contributing writer to the anthology, We Will Not Be Silenced of the Indie Blu(e) Publishing. He has done the art works for the Haiku anthology Bull-Headed, edited by Corine Timmer. You can follow him on Twitter @sureshniranam
With the release of his book Science Communication Through Poetry, Dr. Sam Illingworth, Associate Professor in Academic Practice at Edinburgh Napier University, presents a guide to all things science poetry. Read on for The Sciku Project’s review!
Reflections and wishes
I didn’t really know what I was doing when I started The Sciku Project. For most of my career I’d been the stereotypical scientist, focussing on the intricacies of my subject at the expense of other things. (I’ve mentioned before my frustration at a curtailed English literature and language education.) I was hooked on one form of poetry and I was passionate about using it to communicate science. But I was a bit clueless about how.
So I researched and read up and studied and learnt and designed and built and wrote and created until eventually, a little over 5 years ago, The Sciku Project was launched into the world.
At that point the real education began. Since then I’ve:
Read, written, edited, published and promoted hundreds of sciku.
Researched the advantages of using poetry for science communication (instead of only instinctively believing that it is beneficial).
Learnt how to effectively use social media and how to promote the site (even if I’m still a bit rubbish!).
Developed workshops and discovered approaches that get people excited and participating (as well as things that don’t!).
Explored, practiced and taught haiku structure and form beyond the three core traditions (17 syllables, cutting word and seasonal reference).
Discovered how to read and enjoy other forms of poetry, and seen first-hand how poetry of all forms can be effective at communicating science.
And that’s just the tip of the educational iceberg! I’ve come a long way and am proud of what I’ve learnt and achieved (whilst being the first to admit I could and should do and learn more).
I wonder how much further along would I be if I’d had Sam Illingworth’s latest book Science Communication Through Poetry to read back when The Sciku Project was nothing but an idea in my head?
Science Communication Through Poetry
Three things you should know before I go any further: (i) A copy of Science Communication Through Poetry was kindly provided by the publisher Springer Nature; (ii) I’ve worked with Sam a few times over the years, as a reviewer for Consilience (the science poetry journal that he founded) and on a workshop and poetry competition I organised in 2021; and (iii) The Sciku Project is referenced in the book itself, as is my 2017 Science article about the site’s inception.
With those disclaimers in mind, here’s what I think of Sam’s latest book:
Science Communication Through Poetry is the book I wish I’d had before I started The Sciku Project.
I’m not exaggerating. In Science Communication Through Poetry Sam lays out all of those things I’ve learned in my years of running The Sciku Project, and so much more to boot.
A bit of Fry and Learning
Science Communication Through Poetry is split into three broad sections. The first third of the book covers the what, why, where and how of science poetry: the benefits of writing science poetry, how to find and read poetry, how to write your own science poetry and how to share your poetry. (If I’d has this 5 years ago things would have been a lot easier!)
Dr. Sam Illingworth, Associate Professor in Academic Practice at Edinburgh Napier University, UK (source).
Poetry can be intimidating for the beginner. I’ve recently read Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled. It’s undeniably excellent and beautifully written, but it’s also heavy going if you aren’t already invested in understanding the underlying structures of a great many forms of poetry.
Wisely Sam avoids going into too much detail. Meters, feet and iambs are all very briefly introduced in the context of a few example forms of poetry without scaring the newcomer away. For someone just starting out on their poetry journey it’s perfect, enough to engage and interest without overwhelming. The Ode Less Travelled is suggested as further reading and I wish I’d read Science Communication Through Poetry first before diving headfirst in Fry’s poetry bible.
“Poetry is truth dwelling in beauty”
Robert Gilfillan’s statement about poetry and truth strikes at the heart of one of the fundamental roles of poetry: to convey knowledge and truth. Plato said something similar (“Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history”), as did the French priest and poet Joseph Roux (“Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes”).
But if poetry can illuminate truths, then can we use poetry to ask questions of scientific discourse and of science itself?
It’s this question that the middle portion of the book seeks to answer. The chapters cover two research methods using science poetry: Poetic Content Analysis (“analysing poetry written about a specific topic or theme”) and Poetic Transcription (“creating poetry from other qualitative data” such as interviews or survey responses).
The front cover of Issue 1 of Consilience, the science poetry and science art journal that Sam Illingworth founded in 2020 (source).
This was completely new for me. I’ve never used poetry as more than just a communication tool (and for my own pleasure!) but Sam shows why and how you can use poetry as a research method to “interrogate both science and scientific discourse”. I found it absolutely fascinating. Sam walks the reader through the steps, providing a worked through example of each research method.
After reading these chapters I want to try the research methods out myself and feel like, with the book alongside me at each stage of the way, I could actually do so. It’s an impressive achievement given I’ve only ever used quantitative statistics. (I’m a Generalized Linear Model fanboy, yet here I am excited by the prospect of trying qualitative analysis!)
It’s an example of the importance and power of taking an interdisciplinary approach, the core argument that lies behind everything the book advocates.
Don’t forget the biscuits!
The final third of the book is about how poetry can be used as a way of creating dialogue between scientists and non-scientists, through collaboration and workshops. There’s lots of very practical advice and suggestions, as well as worked through examples which provide a fantastic framework for those getting started.
I really admire Sam’s six-point manifesto for collaboration:
Begin at the start.
Grant agency.
Reward involvement
Be humble
Encourage evolution.
Listen.
The manifesto nicely complements Sam’s advice on not leaving participants or facilitators of workshops in a HUFF: be Humble, be Unaesthetic, be Flexible, be Fair. These stood out for me as great examples of the ethos that runs through the book. It’s clear Sam is passionate about his subject and that he cares deeply about sharing his enthusiasm with others, engaging and enabling them to experience that joy.
I also like how practical some of the advice is. This sentence on p145 genuinely made me chuckle:
“I also had to remember to bring the notebooks and biscuits to each session, both of which were critical for effective delivery of the workshops.”
We’re all human and sometimes the smallest things, such as bringing along biscuits to a workshop, can make all the difference in how an audience engages and participates. The advice Sam gives, from the big picture to the minor details, speak of his depth of experience and practical knowledge of engaging scientists and non-scientists with science and poetry.
This experience shines through in the many examples of fabulous things Sam’s done with science poetry, but I never felt that it comes across as bragging. Every stated achievement is balanced by an admittance of some other failure or area where something could have been improved. It comes back to the constant of his manifesto and HUFF: be humble.
Conclusions
Communicating science through the medium of poetry is still a relatively new practice. Sam Illingworth shows just how impactful it can be, leading the charge for this interdisciplinary approach. I believe Science Communication Through Poetry is a fantastic resource for both the novice and experienced science poet and communicator.
It’s accessible, engaging and constantly interesting, encouraging the reader to have a go themselves. Dotted throughout the book are exercises you can try out for yourself. I found the ones I tried thoroughly enjoyable. They pushed me to try forms of poetry beyond my normal comfort zone and to seriously consider ways in which I can take everything I’ve been doing with The Sciku Project to the next level.
I wish I’d had Science Communication Through Poetry to refer to over the last 5 years, I’d have returned to it again and again for advice and inspiration.
I’m very glad to have it for the next 5 years and beyond.
Watercolour feast Self-contained ecosystem Suddenly too hot
Recently I decided to combine two of my passions – science communication through the medium of haiku and writing about board games – to create a collection of board game haiku. The haiku that leads this article is taken from that collection and is about a board game called Evolution: Climate, designed by Dominic Crapuchettes, Dmitry Knorre and Sergey Machin. As the title suggests, the game focuses on the theory of evolution and the impacts of climate on species survival.
In the game each player controls a number of species (generally 1-3) and ‘evolves’ those species to meet the needs of the game environment based on the current climate, the availability of food, and the other species competing for that food. The player whose various species have eaten the most food over the course of the game wins.
What makes Evolution: Climate interesting as a game are the various traits your species can evolve and the way they all interact. Some are straightforward: ‘Foraging’ lets a species take an extra food token from the central supply; ‘Long Neck’ allows a species to access the food supply first; ‘Heavy Fur’ and ‘Mud Wallowing’ enable a species to survive cooler or hotter temperatures.
Other traits are more complex, allowing players to create intelligent symbionts that feed and protect one another. Oh yes, I said protect. The game includes carnivorous, defensive and scavenging traits that turn a mild herbivorous experience into an arms race where species can, and will, go extinct due to hunger or predation.
Evolution: Climate published by North Star Games (image source).
Whilst this all sounds like it might be complicated, it’s surprisingly streamlined and approachable, in part because of the science it’s based on. The concept of evolution and the survival of the fittest are such well-known ideas that most people are able to grasp the game without too much trouble. But, famous though it is, the theory of evolution is also one of the most misunderstood concepts in science and researchers can spend a lot of time trying to make their subject clear for the general public.
So is Evolution: Climate science communication? Can board games even be forms of science communication?
Science communication takes place for a variety of reasons. We can benefit from an improved understanding of our existence – scientific knowledge can help us navigate an increasingly complex and technological world. Science communication can influence political decision making (for example around policy issues of health care or animal welfare) and plays a key role when it comes to popular misconceptions about cutting-edge science (think of the refuted idea that the MMR vaccine causes autism).
Some of the many traits you can give your species in Evolution: Climate (image: A.Holmes).
Better public awareness of science can also lead to greater numbers of students choosing to continue down STEM career paths, leading to global economic benefits and further advancements in every aspect of our lives. There are other economic considerations too. Research is often funded through taxpayers’ money. Morally, it’s important that scientists share their findings, justifying how the funding was used and what the results were (this also means that, for researchers, effective science communication can be a route to accessing further funding).
What’s interesting about science communication is how it’s changed over time. The traditional concept is largely one-way: an expert telling non-experts something about their subject. But as the limitations of this approach have become more apparent there has been a movement towards two-way communication.
Dr Sam Illingworth, Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at The University of Western Australia and co-director of the Manchester Game Studies Network, has one of the clearest definitions of science communication: “communication between scientists and non-scientific publics”. Note that communication is with not directed at, and the term ‘public’ includes a whole range of people with very different experiences, educations, interests and needs. It’s why science communicators are continually exploring different mediums for communication, including board games.
Board Games as ‘Accidental Education’
Educational board games are not new. In 1903, Elizabeth Magie created The Landlord’s Game, which served to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land ownership in the hands of a privileged few. Today, the game is known as Monopoly. Similarly, The Game of Life dates back to 1860 with the release of The Checkered Game of Life by Milton Bradley, who designed the game to have a moral message (that people should be continually vigilant against the vices of humanity and the world).
The Checkered Game of Life, complete with spaces such as ‘Gambling to Ruin’, ‘Perseverance to Success’ and ‘Suicide’ (image source).
Following a crash in popularity in the 1990s, board games have seen an enormous resurgence over the past decade, with the industry predicted to be worth an estimated $12 billion by 2023. The reasons are many – improved game designs, increased production quality, the need for human interaction and social bonding, a rejection of screens and the digital, not to mention a global pandemic that has resulted in millions of people staying at home and looking for new ways to be entertained.
With the tabletop resurgence has come a whole raft of new games designed to educate as well as entertain. Some use STEM-concepts and history as a background against which to design a game. Looney Labs have a range of science-themed editions of their hugely successful card game Fluxx, a game that has you playing cards that change the rules and even how you win as you go along. It’s silly, quick and easy but designer Andy Looney worked with scientists to ensure that the Anatomy, Astronomy, Chemistry, Math(s) and Nature versions of Fluxx contain a wealth of accurate information about their subjects. These games present scientific concepts without asking the players to necessarily engage with them, operating a form of information osmosis without getting in the way of the fun.
Chemistry Fluxx, published by Looney Labs, is an elemental card game informed by science (image source).
Chemistry Fluxx and its siblings are just one of a variety of games that use scientific ideas as a background for exciting gameplay. One such game is 2019’s critically acclaimed Wingspan, in which players try to place birds into their natural habitats in optimal combinations, with the game’s cards crammed full of information about the different species of birds. Wingspan’s designer, Elizabeth Hargrave, calls these types of games “accidentally educational” – games that teach the players about their subject without appearing to be instructive. Keeping to the natural world, Hargrave’s follow up, Mariposas, has players guiding monarch butterflies in their annual migration around North America. Other games that use STEM-ideas include:
Photosynthesis – a game of cultivating trees to convert the most sunlight into energy.
CO2 Second Chance – a cooperative game where players represent energy companies trying to keep carbon dioxide levels down around the globe.
Terraforming Mars – a game that has players juggling oxygen levels, temperature and the creation of habitats in preparation for the colonisation of Mars.
Wingspan, published by Stonemaier Games, includes cards for 170 unique birds, with each card presenting information about the habitats, anatomy, behaviour and range of the species (image source).
Board Games as Science Communication
Whilst some games use science as a background, others are designed from the ground up to educate. Genius Games specialises in such games, although the term ‘educational game’ tends to be avoided as it conjures up ideas of dull games that preach but don’t entertain. John Coveyou, a former chemistry and physics teacher, set up Genius Games to create “great games designed accurately around hard science concepts”. Coveyou has designed games that have players activating organelles inside a human cell (Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game), collecting elements from the periodic table (Periodic: A Game of the Elements), and building atoms using quarks, photons, protons, neutrons and electrons (Subatomic: An Atom Building Game).
These are games that dive deep into the science of their themes but never neglect the point that board games are meant to be fun. You don’t need to know anything about the science behind the games in advance of playing but may find you know a little more at the end of the game. Intentionally educational without requiring players to do any of the pedagogical heavy lifting.
Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game, published by Genius Games, takes place within a human cell and has players activating organelles to collect resources such as carbohydrates and ATP in order to build enzymes, hormones, and hormone receptors (image source).
Nerd Words: Science!, another game from Genius Games, asks a little more from it’s players. Participants are divided into 2-3 teams, with a player tasked with giving one-word clues and the teams trying to work out the scientific term the clues are about. For instance, the term might be photosynthesis and clues could be sunlight, plants or oxygen. Whilst many of the games I’ve covered don’t require any prior knowledge of the subject, in Nerd Words: Science! players need to have some understanding of the scientific terms in order to creatively think of and interpret the single-word clues.
Taking an even more proactive approach to educational board games, some designers are using funds to boost charitable work or inspire players to make a change in their lives. Endangeredhas players trying to convince UN Ambassadors to save vulnerable species (tigers and sea otters in the base game) whilst simultaneously trying to keep those species surviving long enough to be saved. The team behind Endangered worked with the Centre for Biological Diversity during the development of the game, created a ‘tip jar’ that allowed backers on Kickstarter to donate to the Centre, and have worked to get copies of the game sent to schools, libraries, museums, zoos, and aquariums.
Similarly, Carbon City Zero is a game created by researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University and specifically designed to get the players “talking about cleaning up our energy system”. The game is a race to create a carbon neutral city and involves concepts such as fuel poverty, green mortgages, public awareness and governmental lobbying. The team (which includes Dr Sam Illingworth, of the nice science communication definition) has worked hard to ensure that the production of Carbon City Zero doesn’t have a negative impact on the environment either – it’s “fully reusable, replayable and recyclable”.
Carbon City Zero published by Possible (formerly 10:10 Climate Action), has players trying to create a carbon neutral city (image source).
Profits from Carbon City Zero are being used to produce additional copies of the game to distribute to schools and community organisations across the UK, free of charge. The second, updated edition, Carbon City Zero: World Edition, is (at the time of writing) live on Kickstarter and you can check out a great overview by the always excellent Dr Michael Heron (Senior Lecturer in Interaction Design in Games and Graphics at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) on his website Meeple Like Us.
Finding the Evidence
But are any of these games actually doing what their designers intended? Are these board games effectively communicating science? Well, away from the anecdotal there are an increasing number of studies emerging that look at how board games can affect knowledge, communication and behaviour. For instance, Fjællingsdal & Klöckner (2020) have shown how games such as Catan: Oil Springs, Evolution: Climate, Global Warming, and Keep Cool can be used to generate environmental awareness:
“Being able to visualize and experience environmental issues within the safe confines of the game is a unique way to immerse learners into the subject of environmental literacy, and might even represent a possible solution to the problem of environmental issues being perceived as non-salient.”
Catan’s availability and approachability make it a good framework for science communication. Whilst it wasn’t created as a tool for education, the Catan: Oil Springs scenario has been shown to “influence people’s awareness about sustainability issues and affect people’s behaviour regarding sustainability issues” (Chappin, Bijvoet & Oei, 2017). A later study specifically designed an additional scenario (Catan: Global Warming) and found that the game resulted in “dialogue around global warming both at and away from the table” (Illingworth & Wake, 2019).
Catan, published by Catan Studio, is one of the most popular board games ever created and involves players settling the island of Catan, trading resources such as wheat and wood to build roads, settlements and cities (image source).
Whilst it is still a burgeoning research area, it’s clear that tabletop games can and are being used as effective tools for science communication, helping to create meaningful two-way dialogues between scientists and non-scientific publics, making science “more accessible, and more informed, by the many publics that exist in our society”. No area of science seems to be off limits, from the microscopic Subatomic to the interstellar scale of Planetarium, which has players creating planets in the embryonic universe.
Survival of the Fittest
By far the most popular area of science for board games, though, is biology, and specifically evolution. In the last decade the tabletop hobby has seen simple games that take Darwin’s theory as a rough theme for a fun experience (Darwinning! andDarwin’s Choice) to the complex Dominant Species that recreates the struggle for existence between taxa as the last ice age was just starting.
Dominant Species, published by GMT Games, is one of the many board games that use the ‘survival of the fittest’ theme (image source).
Board games have also delved into the history of the scientific study of evolution. Players can retrace Darwin’s famous voyage in On The Origin of Species, discovering new species and the links between them. Those more interested in genetics can temporarily inhabit Gregor Mendel’s shoes and get into the nitty gritty of pea plant cross-breeding with the fascinating Genotype: A Mendelian Genetics Game(a game that genuinely features Punnett Squares as a central mechanism).
On the Origin of Species, published by Genius Games, has players re-enacting Darwin’s famous voyage on the HMS Beagle through the Galapagos Islands, examining the local flora and fauna and making connections between them (image source).
So let’s come back to Evolution: Climate, the precursor of which, Evolution, was purposefully designed by Russian biologist Dmitry Knorre to “demonstrate evolutionary principles to his students”. Is Evolution: Climate an effective tool for science communication? What does it actually teach us about the theory of evolution? This last point is an important question because the concept of players overseeing the game and choosing traits for species so that they’ll survive carries with it the dangerous whiff of intelligent design.
Whilst I have a Masters and a PhD in Evolutionary Biology, all those really signify is having had some luck, persistence and time in my twenties. Let us instead turn to someone far wiser than I – Stuart West, Professor of Evolution at the University of Oxford. In his review of Evolution published in Nature West said that the game “features sophisticated biology…captures key aspects of the evolutionary process and would work as a teaching aid for ages ten and up”, and could “help older students tackle specific topics, such as evolutionary arms races”. In fact, West was so enamoured with the original Evolution that he’s listed as a scientific advisor in the credits of Evolution: Climate, along with paleoclimatologist Dr Giles Young, health data scientist Dr Joanne Demmler, and artist and scientist Catherine Hamilton, who was also responsible for the gorgeous artwork of the game.
I agree with West. Quite apart from being beautiful to look at and great fun to play, Evolution: Climate does an effective job at communicating an idea about evolution that is surprisingly difficult to understand. With up to 6 players and potentially 20 species, the nuances of how different species interact and react to one another comes through as one of the strongest elements of the game. The species created and their specialised traits depend upon all the other species currently in play and the climate at the time. Individual players can set up chains of their own species that act as self-contained ecosystems, a delicate arrangement that can be utterly disrupted by the arrival of a large predator from across the table.
The original game of Evolution, published by North Star Games- much the same as Evolution: Climate but without the effect of a changing climate (image source).
What Evolution: Climate provides is less an idea of genetic inheritance and change through random mutation, and more the external forces that shape which traits persist and which die out. It’s an aspect of the subject that’s frequently misunderstood; it’s hard to comprehend the sheer number of factors that affect a species’ survival over extended periods of time. Evolution: Climate does a fantastic job of simulating this, whilst providing an entertaining and, at times, ruthlessly competitive game.
Yes, as players you get to choose the traits that appear and influence the climate within the game – the determined could latch onto the idea of divine guidance and claim intelligent design. But that trace of pseudoscience is onlythere if you’ve never played the game, never experienced the shifting environment as species appear and disappear and the climate fluctuates. After your first game of Evolution: Climate you’ll realise that evolution isn’t just about the traits that appear but how those traits cause their species to thrive in their habitat… or not. Your understanding of this aspect of evolution is fundamentally changed through the simulated microworld that the players create and influence.
I think that nicely answers the question of board games being effective science communication tools.
Original Research:
Illingworth (2020) Creative communication – using poetry and games to generate dialogue between scientists and nonscientists. https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.13891
Fjællingsdal & Klöckner (2020) Green Across the Board: Board Games as Tools for Dialogue and Simplified Environmental Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878120925133
Chappin, Bijvoet & Oei (2017) Teaching sustainability to a broad audience through an entertainment game – The effect of Catan: Oil Springs. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.069
The Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) is a classic example of evolution in action, yet in recent years Darwin’s Finches seem to have eclipsed the Peppered Moth as the textbook example of natural selection.
This sciku, written by Professor Matthew J. James, celebrates the Peppered Moth as an example of rapid natural selection and asks where the dark moths are going, Quo vadis in Latin meaning “Where are you going?”. The question refers to both the population change in moth colouration from dark to light and also implies a nostalgic deeper meaning asking where the Peppered Moth explanation of natural selection has gone in light of the present-day dominance of Darwin’s Finches.
The wild-type Peppered Moth has light wing patterns that act as effective camouflage against its common environmental background. Industrial smog from 19th century coal burning in the United Kingdom resulted in the trees upon which they rested becoming blackened by soot, making the moths stand out. As a result the population of light-winged moths plummeted due to increased predation, however numbers of the melanic mutant form (black in colour) of the species rose – this process has been termed Industrial Melanism. As the Industrial Revolution waned and levels of pollution decreased, numbers of the light-winged form of the moth rose once again. Cook & Saccheri (2013) present an interesting review of the Peppered Moth as a natural selection case study.
Professor Matthew J. James is Chair in the Department of Geology at Sonoma State University, California. His recent book, Collecting Evolution, examines a scientific collecting expedition to the Galapagos Islands in 1905-06 that resulted in the concept of Darwin’s Finches being developed by David Lack in his 1947 book by that same name.
Chester Zoo (www.chesterzoo.org) is a registered conservation and education charity that supports projects around the world and closer to home in Cheshire. Welcoming 1.9 million visitors a year, it is the most visited zoo in the UK; home to over 15,000 animals and more than 500 different species, many of which are endangered in the wild.
Chester Zoo has continued with the ‘always building’ philosophy of our founder, George Mottershead, who created the UK’s first zoo without bars and focused on animal wellbeing and conservation. In 2015 Chester Zoo opened Islands which was the largest zoological development in the UK to date. The Islands expedition is an immersive experience, taking visitors through six South East Asian islands to discover the incredible wildlife native to those areas and highlight the conservation issues that the zoo staff are working hard to address.
Modern day zoo research encompasses many aspects of biological and social sciences with the overall aim to address challenges faced in the natural world. Chester Zoo not only supports conservation research both in- and ex-situ but leads on important projects both in the UK and across the globe to improve the management of animals and plants, influence sustainability of wild populations and inspire others to Act for Wildlife.
Lisa Holmes is the Behaviour and Welfare Scientist within the Applied Science team at Chester Zoo. Her role involves working closely with the animal curators and keepers to provide evidence-based recommendations to enhance animal wellbeing and help to inform enclosure design. Lisa supervises postgraduate and sandwich placement students who help to gather key data for a wide range of species. Lisa’s research team are currently working on a long-term project assessing the response of species which have moved into the new Islands habitats.
Learning about science can frequently be confusing and evolution is one of the most misunderstood topics in biology. Often in science different topics overlap and knowledge of one area can help understanding of another.
Mead et al (2017) investigated the order in which genetics and evolution are taught to 14-16 year old students. If genetics was taught first then students gained a greater understanding of both evolution and genetics – a simple, free and minimally disruptive alteration to education that has a major positive effect on student learning.
However, whilst teaching genetics first improved student understanding of evolution, the teaching order itself had no effect on student acceptance of the theory of evolution. Instead it seems that authority figures like parents, teachers, religious leaders and the popular media are more influential with whether students accept the theory of evolution or not.
A questionnaire of consumers in Hungary found that almost 60% of respondents were aware of eating insects as an alternative to meat, however high food neophobia is still a barrier for actually consuming insects. Men were more likely to consider trying insects than women, but a ‘willingness to eat insect-based food products could be increased by giving more information to consumers’. Gere et al, 2017.
