A Trip To Oxford University by Emily Lauterpacht

On Wednesday, 11^th February, a group of pupils and teachers from Rugby School travelled to Oxford to visit the famous university’s Natural History Museum. I have reviewed our day out for the school science magazine. 

We arrived in Oxford just before lunch time, so after a brief lunch break we headed to Oxford University's Natural History Museum. We were ushered into a large lecture theatre, hidden away upstairs, by one of the museum's education officers, who spoke to us about the theory of evolution. During this talk, we learnt that Charles Darwin’s favourite animal was the barnacle and were allowed to pass round various taxidermy animals. However, my personal highlight was when a tank of Madagascar hissing cockroaches where pulled out from behind the desk, and we were then offered the opportunity to hold them. The squeals of excitement from some only added to the comedy of the looks of pure disgust on the faces of others. Unfortunately, all too soon, it was time to return Jemima (the name that a few of us had given to our cockroach). After more information on the topics relevant to our AS course,  we were taken upstairs to a long, narrow room, which housed thousands of invertebrates in wooden cabinets. This room was the location of the “Great Debate”, in 1860. This event saw a clash between Thomas Henry Huxley, a great believer in the concept of evolution, and Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford and an absolute creationist. You can read more about the "Great Debate" here. 

We were then given time to wander around the museum, with a booklet, to help us relate our trip to the relevant parts of our AS course. Along with the invertebrates that we had seen upstairs, the museum is home to thousands of other creatures. The biggest of these welcomes you as you first enter the museum; “Stan” is the cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, and is a massive 12m long. The museum also houses many other skeletons, including a polar bear, a horse, an ostrich and various other dinosaurs. As well as skeletons, the museum has various animals which have been stuffed, such as a penguin, a koala and a dodo.

Following our trip to the museum, one of the teachers had organised for us to visit biological sciences department at Oxford University. Professor Martin Speight, one of the professors of zoology there, spoke to us about the “value added” areas at Oxford University, such as Wytham Wood and their Botanic garden. We were then told about the modules that made up the biological sciences course, and some of the different research and the trips involved, including one to Borneo to study rainforest ecology. He finished his talk by discussing about the application process. We were then given a tour of the zoology department, where we were shown various labs and some other facilities that they have there. 

Here is a link to the museum's website.

Here is a link to Prof. Speight's website.

Here is a link to Wytham Wood's website.

Here is a link to their Botanic Garden website.

Emily Lauterpacht

Articles from the past few days by Emily Lauterpacht

While these stories may not have been the most pressing issues in the news over the past few days, they are stories that I have enjoyed and found interesting. I have explained a little about them, and added links to more information on them. These articles all have a water theme to them. 

We often forget how vast the oceans are - did you know they make up 99% of the planet's living space? We often therefore fail to realize how much more there is left to explore under the sea. This article tells about how many of the 225000 known species that are found in the ocean are under threat.

The website "Views of the World" uses distorted maps to present data relating to various articles. I came across this article when looking at webpages relating to my first blog post. It looks at the ocean chlorophyll levels and how levels increase near land. 

We are currently studying biodiversity in my biology lessons, and I found this article about the beavers in the UK, when doing some extra research on the topic. Here is Devon Wildlife Trust's website, which explains more about them, including recent news, and other information. 

Finally, here is a short clip from National Geographic's website to brighten your day. 

Emily Lauterpacht

Articles from the past few days by Emily Lauterpacht

While these stories may not have been the most pressing issues in the news over the past few days, they are stories that I have enjoyed and found interesting. I have explained a little about them, and added links to more information on them. 

Scientists have unearthed a lower jaw bone and 5 teeth belonging to what they think is one of the very first humans. The fossil was found on a hillside in Ethiopia, and is the oldest remains ever found belonging to the genus Homo. You can read more about it here. 

An image of a weasel riding a woodpecker whilst in flight has been circulating the internet over the last few days. However, there is much debate over the authenticity of it. National Geographic have looked at the likelihood of this photo being real here. 

Emily Lauterpacht

Chlorophyll, The Heart of Natural Solar Power by Emily Lauterpacht

This is a slightly adapted version of an article that I wrote for the school science magazine last year. It is titled "Chlorophyll, The Heart of Natural Solar Power".

The word chlorophyll derives from Greek; chloros, meaning green and phyllon, meaning leaf. It is the pigment in leaves that makes them green. Its main purpose is to act as a catalyst in photosynthesis, the reaction that turns water and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen using energy from the sun. Chlorophyll was first isolated by Joseph Bienaimé Caventou and Pierre Joseph Pelletier in 1817. It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and magnesium in different proportions, depending on the type of chlorophyll. There are two main types of chlorophyll, type a and type b. They are very similar, but a variation in a side chain of the molecule, normally represented by an R in any diagrams, allows them to “tune” into slightly different parts of the visible light spectrum (the R group of chlorophyll a is CH₃, and of chlorophyll b is CHO).  The main function of the chlorophyll found in leaves is to absorb sunlight, at an efficiency of about 1-2%. This energy is then transferred to a chlorophyll molecule. This absorbed energy excites an electron in the chlorophyll to a higher energy state, meaning it is more easily transferred to carbon dioxide. The electron that the chlorophyll loses is replaced by one from water. Over twenty steps then occur without chlorophyll, called dark reactions, before the glucose is produced. Interestingly, a type of green sea slug, Elysia chlorotica, has evolved so that it uses the chlorophyll it eats from algae to perform photosynthesis itself. This is the only animal known to perform this process, called kleptoplasty. The earth absorbs roughly 89 petawatts (1 petawatt = 1 x 1015watt) of energy from the Sun per year. Humans meanwhile only use about 0.016 petawatts a year, and so if we could find an economical way of harnessing just 0.02% of the energy from the sun, we would have a “free”, green energy source, easily able to cope with the growing energy demands of humans. Solar panels are often used now to generate electricity, but since they do not work at night, they prove problematic. Scientists are also working to increase their efficiency from the ~15% that it is now. Finding a way to mimic photosynthesis would mean that we could start to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, instead of adding to them, which is a concern for many scientists around the globe. In recent years, leading scientists have developed ways of making fuel directly from sunlight, but this has involved very expensive catalysts, such as platinum, and the cells used have been nowhere near robust enough to be used outside in unpredictable weather conditions all year round. Professor Daniel Nocera and his colleagues have been perfecting using other catalysts, such as cobalt based compounds and a nickel-molybdenum-zinc alloy, to use the sun’s energy to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be used as a fuel, and although this would not remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, it wouldn’t create more either. You can find a video Professor Nocera’s cells working here. These new cells are cheaper as the catalysts are very abundant on earth, and the cells can be formed by self-assembly, so are easy to manufacture. They are also more durable and the hope is that it will soon be possible to economically produce large quantities. 

The BBC program Horizons reported on Dr Nocera's artificial leaves in 2013, and can be watched here.  

Emily Lauterpacht