Have you got a science breakthrough you could present in 3 minutes? This is your chance!

Photo Credits: Falling Walls Lab winner 2012, Thomas Rippel, copyright Falling Walls Lab

A.T. Kearney London invites students, scientists, and innovators to share their research and entrepreneurial ideas at the Falling Walls Lab in London on 20th September 2013. 

The Concept

The Falling Walls Lab offers young academics, professionals, and entrepreneurs a high profile platform to showcase their innovative research to a panel of luminaries from the worlds of academia, research, and business.

The winners of the London Lab will be offered the chance to take part in the final Falling Walls Lab in Berlin, where they will share their innovative ideas with 100 finalists from around the globe. Winners also receive a complimentary entrance to The Falling Walls Conference, the International Conference on Future Breakthroughs in Science and Society.

Last year’s keynote speakers included Chancellor Angela Merkel and other prestigious members.

The catch? You only have three minutes to pitch your idea to the panel - "Dragon’s Den"-style.

Background

The Falling Walls Lab was launched in 2011, a collaboration between The Falling Walls Foundation and A.T. Kearney, to give young scientists and professionals a global platform for their innovative ideas.

Following the successful kick-off in Berlin, the challenging, fast-paced format was expanded to a number of international cities in 2013.

Who Can Apply?

Master students or PhD candidates, young professionals, scientists, or entrepreneurs from all disciplines, under the age of 35, are invited to apply. The Lab is open for participants from all countries. Willing participants will apply their idea and if successful, present at the Falling Walls Lab in London. 

Prize

Being part of the London Lab gives you a high level networking platform, an opportunity to engage and exchange with key decision-makers and like-minded innovators, and a chance to represent your institution on a global stage.

The winners of the qualifying London Lab will be given the opportunity to present their research at the final Falling Walls Lab in Berlin where they will share their winning ideas with 100 finalists from all over the globe.

The prize includes a ticket for the Falling Walls Conference, the International Conference on Future Breakthroughs in Science and Society. Your travel and accommodation costs to Berlin from 8-9th November 2013 will be covered. 

When and where?

When
20 September 2013
Starts 1:30 p.m. 

Where
The Westbury Hotel
Bond Street, Mayfair
London 

Application Deadline
21 August 2013

Click here to apply

Synapse Issue 5

Synapse issue 5 is here! You can find print copies of the magazine all over The University of Bristol campus.

Cross-dressing in the Animal Kingdom

by Dan Titmuss

"How cross-dressing helps male members of the animal kingdom find that lucky lady"

Ok, sneaky mating sounds kind of wrong; I get that, but it really is the best way to describe some of the tactics found in the animal kingdom. Let’s say you are dancing over to a lovely lady in a bar, only to find she is boogying on down with a massive good looking male. How on earth is one meant to get through to the beautiful maiden? Perhaps take some pointers from the animal kingdom.

For example, if you were a scorpionfly (Hylobittacus apicalis), the only logical explanation would be to make yourself look like a female. Bizarre answer you say? Larger males of the species catch beetles and give them as gifts to females in return for sex; however, catching these bugs is quite hard, especially for the smaller members of the species, and their gifts are often taken by larger scorpionflies anyway. These weaker males masquerade as females in order to steal gifts to give to females, allowing them to mate without the tricky process of catching and keeping the bugs. 

Meanwhile, in South Australia, the giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) is trying a different tactic. Large males defend their chosen mate against other males, who also want to mate with her. This tactic would be a bad move for smaller males who can’t win a fight with males that are large and aggressive. The cuttlefish is famous for having an amazing ability to change colour by rapidly changing the physiology of specialized colour-changing cells in organs called chromatophores. This ‘chameleon-like’ ability can be used for social interaction, camouflage and to act as a warning to predators; however, the smaller males use this skill in a different way. Upon seeing a large male with a good-looking mate, they change the colour and texture of their skin to look like a female. The ‘in-drag’ male then swims up to the pair - its disguise allowing it to sneak past the larger male who presumably thinks himself lucky that he has two mates fighting over him - and mates with the female. This tactic is remarkably successful.

Some stag beetles (family Lucanidae) employ similar tactics. Some of the male stag beetles are born to look like female beetles, often producing pheromones to convince other males that they are fit, female mates. There have even been some reports of these beetles actually mating with other males in order to get the rival’s ‘seed’ out of the way, leaving the sneaky beetles to mate with prospective females.

But it’s not all about sex is it? Can’t we just have a cuddle at night to keep warm? Of course we can. In Canada, garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) hibernate over winter. According to zoologist Robert Mason, “they’re cold to the bone” when they emerge in spring. What is the answer to getting warm? Some males actually pretend to be females so that males come to warm them up over the first few days after awakening from hibernation. I think I might give some of this a go!

*Cross-dressing in the Animal Kingdom appeared in Issue 1 of Synapse

Diamond Origins

As you pass a jewellery store in town you may notice the large number of diamonds displayed in the shop window ready to grab the attention of the numerous loved up couples. Recently in Geneva a colourless, pear-shaped, 101 carat diamond sold for a world record auction price of $26.7 million. This is just over £17million. So what makes diamonds so special? Diamonds consist of a lattice of carbon atoms and it requires large amounts of pressure and extremely high temperatures to transform carbon into diamond. This high pressure and heat can be found in the Earth’s mantle where diamonds are formed. So how do we manage to get our hands on them? Well, diamonds are brought to the surface of Earth by powerful magma eruptions. These are found by mining in the form of rough crystallised stones and then need to be cut to make jewels. Rough diamonds are cleaved, sawed, cut and polished to form the diamonds we see in shop windows. The price is determined by the cut, clarity, weight (carat) and colour. Clever marketing is then what helps make these gems so desirable. So what is so special about diamonds? Well it is a tiny bit of sparkle formed under the surface of the Earth which undergoes a long journey to get under the surface of our hearts.

Diamonds found on the Earth's surface will have come from the mantle or outer space!

Weird and Wonderful: Hidden Horrors

Check out these awesome images of tiny creatures under the microscope.

----- Hydrothermal worm -----

----- Maggot -----

----- Swollen tick -----

----- Wasp -----

----- Caterpillar -----

Synapse Issue 4

Synapse issue 4 is here! You can find print copies of the magazine all over The University of Bristol campus.

Triassic Marine Reptiles

Check out this video about the types of reptiles that were found in Triassic seas over 200-250 million years ago. In today's seas reptiles are relatively rare but you can still find marine iguanas, turtles and sea snakes.

Synapse science news #15

Too busy to keep track of all the science news during the week? Don’t fear Synapse is here. Check out this week's news.

The Fatter the Better: what it takes to be a polar bear - As sea ice is lost from their habitat polar bears are having to rely on their fats reserves because they can no longer hunt seals, based on 10 years of data from an article recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. 

Our next icy target - After the rovers success on mars the next target is being eyed up: Jupiter's icy moon Europa. It is thought there could be an underground ocean with the potential for life. However landing could be lethal with Jagged blades of ice potentially covering the equatorial area of Europa. Read more here.

One Giant Happy Squid Family - These huge cephalopods that live in the deep ocean were thought to be from 8 different species, but results from DNA sequencing form 43 samples indicates they are all one species. Find out more.

What does your phone activity say about you? - Mine probably very little - but apparently it is the new way to catch gangs in Italy. New technology called LogAnalysis makes it easy to visual the activity, and helped show how there was a flurry of activity amongst gang members before a crime but crucially none during. More information.

New publication from UoB includes how plants tell chloroplasts the time of day. Click here.

Crocodile Dundee would not be best pleased an alligator received a prosthetic tail this week. Find out more.

Mary Melville and Louisa Cockbill

Brain Awareness Week

by Julie Lee

From the 11th to the 18th of March, At-Bristol held its annual 'Brilliant Brains Week'. The event is supported by Bristol Neuroscience, and is helped along by volunteers from a variety of backgrounds: undergraduates, postgraduates, neuroscientists, psychologists, and so on. Over 50 volunteer experts take part from around Bristol, including from University of Bristol, University of the West of England, and local NHS hospitals. At-Bristol's event is part of The Dana Foundation's 'Brain Awareness Week' (BAW). BAW is a global event which celebrates the brain through week-long public awareness events for families, schools, expanded to over 2800 partners in 82 countries.

Brain Awareness Week with volunteers from @Bristol

'Brilliant Brains Week' at At-Bristol is geared for older children, with three main 'activity stations' for children to experience throughout the week. Visitors have the opportunity to make a neurone out of pipe cleaners, try the 'Stroop' interference task (timed!), and draw sections of the brain on swimming caps to take home. In addition, on some days there is a 'Live Science' lab with a dissected pig's brain, which visitors are allowed to look at and even touch. Some tiny visitors were so enthusiastic about the real pig's brain that they poked it out of shape. All in the name of science! There are some 'passive' brain-related exhibits, such as a 'Neurobot' that lights up at a handshake and pulls back at a thumb pinch. Visitors can guess at the size of various mammal brains using play-doh, then weigh the 'brains' to test their predictions. Finally, there are some models of brains around the museum floor, as well as a real human brain in a case.

The children, even the young ones, were interested in learning about the three-pound lump inside their heads. Some of them had a surprising amount of knowledge already about the lobes in the brain. Whatever their initial knowledge base, every child, some holding pipe cleaner neurones, walked away having learned something new about the brain. All in all, a successful mission.

STUDENT INSPIRATION AWARD: EMILY MILODOWSKI

Bristol University student Emily Milodowski with Dr Elaine Ostrander and Dr Gus Aguirre

On Saturday 9th March, the founder of Metro Bank, Vernon Hill and his wife Shirley presented the International Canine Health Awards, the largest veterinary awards in Europe, to three deserving individuals at a ceremony held at this year's Crufts Dog Show. These awards were launched last year to recognize and reward innovative researchers, veterinary scientists and students who are making an impact on the health and wellbeing of dogs, and transforming our understanding of human diseases.  Dr.Elaine Ostrander, Dr.Gus Aguirre and a student, Emily Milodowski, who were nominated by their peers and contemporaries, were presented with prizes to a combined value of £60,000 for their pioneering work in veterinary sciences. Bristol University student Emily Milodowski , has been chosen as the winner of the Student Inspiration Award.The awards were judged by a panel of representatives from the veterinary profession and the world of scientific research.

Emily's major interests at the moment are canine gastroenterology as well as bacteria and important changing features of bacteria such as the development of antibiotic resistance. Her research first started with a Summer Research Scholarship from the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) looking at bacterial involvement in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in dogs - the role of bacteria has previously been disputed in this disease, with many believing that IBD results from activation of the immune response in the gut for unknown reasons and that the bacteria (if involved at all) might then take advantage of damage that is there already. Her findings suggest that there was an association between Campylobacter and diagnosis of inflammation, and hopefully this will be researched further. This work on the prevalence and distribution of this bacteria, in the canine intestine, has led to Emily being awarded the £10,000 prize to fund her future work.

Emily became very interested in how bacteria interact with the immune system of dogs, and how certain bacteria can cause disease in some dogs, while other dogs that are exposed remain apparently perfectly healthy. This led on to Emily looking at wounds and wound infections, because chronic wounds and infections are currently a very topical area of research where it is possible to analyse interaction between the bacteria and canine host. It is increasingly apparent from the emergence of antibacterial resistance in human medicine that clinicians need to start targeting which patients are likely to need antibiotic treatment, and which patients will be fine. It is also important to identify features of bacteria which are important in these interactions and which may be suitable candidates for using in the development of antibacterial vaccines. While antibiotic resistance does not occur to the same extent in veterinary medicine as it does in the human field, it is a very interesting and important field to begin to advance, and to continue to encourage the responsible use of antibacterials in veterinary practice before resistance problems emerge. 

Emily's recent project on wound infections was part of her intercalated degree in Cellular and Molecular Medicine - for which she was awarded a Scholarship by the Wellcome Trust. The award is called the 2012 Intercalated Award from the Wellcome Trust Clinical Veterinary Research Training Programme. This project entailed looking for differences in bacteria isolated from wound infections and those carried by normal, healthy dogs. Differences in the genes that each bacteria have are compared and by finding out which genes are most common in bacteria that cause disease, it is hopefully possible to identify risk factors which can then be used to identify those dogs that are more likely to develop wound infections after surgery, simply by looking at the bacteria that they carry on their skin. 

Emily's fund will allow her to take this research further and look at how long after surgery these "dangerous" bacteria begin to colonise the surgical wound site. This might help us to see when it is best to use antibiotics in treating infections. Further to this, Emily wants to look at whether certain bacteria are able to interfere with and prevent normal wound healing, which would cause wounds to breakdown and persist as chronic wounds. Chronic wounds are difficult to manage and treat and represent serious health and welfare issues to dogs. 

The research will also look at how different dogs have different responses to the same bacteria in wounds, and similarly if you look back at IBD, there are certain breed predispositions to IBD, for example the German Shepherd, or Shar-pei. Research may include the effects of different diets. Future work may also start to look at identifying ' at risk ' breeds, possible breed predispositions to infection in general, because the function and control of the immune system is determined , in part, by genetic factors ,this may consequently further improve the way that veterinary clinicians can appropriately and effectively implement the best treatments. This research can also be extrapolated to human health, given how closely we interact with dogs, we are exposed to the bacteria that dogs carry and vice versa. Considering the problem of antibiotic resistance in human medicine, any research into improving approach to treatment of bacterial infections, including possible vaccine ideas, is likely to be helpful in some way.

by Stephanie Presdee

Many congratulations to Emily from the Synapse team.

Weird and Wonderful: The Immortal Jellyfish

Chris Turner

You’re growing old, fragile and, perhaps worst of all, wrinkly. If only you could go back to being a baby, and grow up all over again. This might sound like a curious fantasy but for one member of the animal kingdom it’s just part of life.

Turritopsis nutricula is the Immortal Jellyfish. As a member of the Hydrozoa class, it has two stages within its life cycle: the polypois and medusoid stages. In polyp form these jellyfish are grouped together in colonies, with several polyps connected in a tree-like manner by a series of tubes called hydrocauli. These polyps are little more than mouths, terrifying mouths covered in vicious, stinging tentacles. It’s certainly comforting to know they’re less than one millimetre tall. The medusa stage is the larger, sexually mature form sizing up to a slightly underwhelming 4.5 mm. It’s a more conventional jellyfish shape with around 100 stinging tentacles trailing below a bright red stomach.

Unlike all other Hydrozoans, the transformation from polyp to medusa isn’t a one way street for Turritapsis. When conditions are unfavourable the jellyfish is able to use cells from certain tissues to revert back, with its bell and tentacles deteriorating in exchange for hydrocauli. This ability to reverse metamorphose means that the jellyfish is biologically immortal. With this extraordinary trait it isn’t much of a surprise to hear that this species is quickly spreading across the oceans. According to Dr Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute we’re seeing ‘a worldwide silent invasion’. Let’s hope they don’t get much bigger.

Did you know Synapse featured The Immortal Jellyfish in issue 3 of our print magazine? It made it onto the front cover!

A Nation of Fat Ducks

Toby Benham

Feeding bread to ducks is the equivalent of giving them junk food. Scientists have warned that one of Britain’s favourite pastimes is making ducks fat. Feeding bread to ducks is a source of carbohydrate with little other nutritional value. Although this is ok in moderation, ducks can face copious amounts of bread thrown at them at certain times of year. They tend to seek out this easy food source meaning that ducklings lose the training to forage for food. This leaves them hungry when they are not hand fed. Other problems include becoming more susceptible to predation as too much starch leads to the animal becoming bloated and lethargic – a prime target. They can also suffer from diseases originating from mouldy bread or the increase in faeces associated with over eating. Suggestions on what ducks should instead be fed include: corn, barley, grain and duck feed pellets. So, next time you decide to go to feed the ducks, leave the stale bread at home and grab a handful of grain instead!