Saturday 23 November 2013

Getting your paper published and Editorial careers — at NATURE

This post covers the two main topics discussed by Dr Andrew Jermy, Senior Editor at Nature, during his talk entitled EDITORIAL CAREERS AND PUBLISHING AT NATURE.


PART 1: PUBLISHING AT NATURE

With acceptance rates of less than 10%, NATURE is a highly selective journal aiming to “publish the best work in the field”. 

Common misconceptions regarding publishing in this journal and why they are wrong:

Misconception: You have to know the editor.
Comment: After submission, the editors deal with every manuscript in the same way.

Misconception: You have to have a big name on the paper.
Comment: Their decisions are not based on the authors named on the paper.

Misconception: It is a lottery.
Comment: The editors spend a lot of time making sure their decisions are consistent and accurate, and discuss the manuscripts between them.

Misconception: The editorial process is a black box.
Comment: You can ask any questions about the process at any time and they will explain.


Thinking about submitting to Nature? Make sure you follow these guidelines: 
  
Plan your work carefully. Consider the scope of your project. Is your hypothesis truly novel and groundbreaking? Think about this at the very early stages!

Pick the journal carefully. Are similar papers in the journal? You don't want journals with studies that are very similar because they lose their novelty factor.

Be honest and assess where your advance fits into the field. Is it really groundbreaking or just important?

Do not submit prematurely. Consider how mature the study is before you submit.

Submit in format compatible with the journal.

Read guide to authors and comply with journal policies.

Ask if in doubt.

Write informative cover letter:
     State the background of the field of study
     State the key findings and why your study is important
     Suggested/excluded reviewers
     Avoid grandstanding and cliché
     Address to the editor or journal (not ‘Dear Sir’)

If you are not sure whether your work is Nature material, it is worth having a look at the “Pre-submission enquiry” where you only send the title, the abstract and a brief description of your manuscript. The main advantage is that decisions are made in one or two days, versus four to five days for a full manuscript.




If you have decided to submit, here are some tips on how to write your paper:

Make sure it is CLEARLY WRITTEN and describes what's in the study. Do not try to oversell the story, cover the novelty appropriately instead.

Get the title right: succinct, informative and tempting (no puns or questions). Andrew reads the title, if the title is interesting then he reads the abstract, if the abstract is interesting then he reads the paper.

The abstract needs to cover the background of the area, introduce the key findings and how they are changing the field.

In the introduction, the most important paragraph is the first one! Give the reader context to understand the significance of your work.

Use methods and supplementary information sections for details.

Devise figures to enhance story-telling.

Explain, don't hype, and avoid clichés (ultra, very, etc)

The conclusion should offer something NEW.

Ask a colleague from unrelated field to read your manuscript to see if you can get your message across.

Something worth remembering every time we submit is the role that both the editor and the referee play in assessing our manuscripts.

The role of the editor is to assess the following:

If the study is appropriate for the journal
The importance to the field and the wider audience
If the overall level of experimentation is appropriate to answer the questions
The depth of the study (size and scope)
The compliance with the editorial policies

The role of the referee is to look at:

The level of experimentation focusing in detail on each experiment
The quality of each piece of data presented



PART 2: EDITORIAL CAREERS AT NATURE

There are four main entry points for an editorial career at Nature:

1.         Copy Editor
2.         Journalist
3.         Commissioning Editor
4.         Manuscript Editor

Due to his experience, Andrew talked about the Commissioning and the Manuscript Editor roles.


Commissioning Editor

The commission is based on the interest and novelty of the topic. Sources for new ideas can come from:
Reading literature
Conferences/lab visits
Discussions with scientists and colleagues
General media

As a commissioning editor, you collaborate with the authors by helping them to improve their writing. You also discuss with them whether the figures in their manuscript are necessary and if they are conveying the right message.

Once it has passed through peer-review and the manuscript is ready to be published, you get to do some fun things like:
Work closely with the art editor to get consistent and high quality figures
Work on the journal covers, for example exciting 3D ones!

You also get to develop your scientific writing (writing editorials and highlight new stories) and to participate in special projects, for example social media.

As with all jobs, there are also some dull tasks like proof reading and web checking.


Manuscript Editor

The bulk of the task in this job is to assess manuscripts.

On average you get 10 new manuscripts every week! Andrew spends 20 to 25 hours per week reading new manuscripts. He takes about 2 to 2.5 hours to read one, to look at the literature and to assess it.

Other tasks are meeting with other editors to discuss what's happening in the other areas of the company and manage the peer-review process.


Pros of the job:                                                    

Intellectual stimulation                                        
Dynamic and informal job                                   
Good career prospects                                      
Job security                                                        
Connected with numerous fields                         
Forefront of current research                                           
Popularity                                                           
Family-friendly                                                     
Travel to conferences                                              


Cons of the job:

Heavy and constant work load
Tight deadlines
Unpopularity
Occasional confrontation
Salary: entry level position more or less equivalent to a post-doc's salary and senior level position equivalent to a lecturer's salary
Some tasks can be quite mundane
Travel to conferences


Getting a job in editorial:
 
Jobs are normally advertised in scientific press (naturejobs.com).

Short term contracts like maternity leave are a great way to get into the company. Then you know the job and show that you can do it well.


 “Name recognition” is important to get you to the shortlist. For example, if you have met one of the editors at a conference you can then e-mail him/her and ask about questions regarding the job, etc. 

Saturday 26 October 2013

Women to the top

Dame Professor Athene Donald from the Cavendish lab in Cambridge came to Birmingham Uni to talk about “Facilitating women’s progression to the top”.


Our University is promoting a cultural change in its organisation, where mainly white men are found in leading roles. This problem affects everyone, not just women. So I was not surprised to find a packed lecture theatre with both women and men.


I thought successful people always had logical careers; I was amazed to hear that Athene kept switching fields and did not have a career plan! She said “successful people don’t always know exactly what they want to do” and encouraged us to try different things if we feel inclined.


Being the first female lecturer in her department, she gave us tips based on her experience. I am not sure whether they were aimed at the women in the audience, but I think men will also find them incredibly useful.


  • A successful career means you are constantly doing new things. Try to pick up new skills when the opportunity arrives.



  • You will never get anywhere if you say “Oh, I can’t do that”. Accept the new challenges and find ways of coping with them.



  • Develop self-confidence to take risks.



  • You should not be frightened to ask for advice and/or help. Remember, this is NOT a sign of weakness.



  • Self-promotion is not something women excel at. We must learn to put ourselves forward.



  • Learn how to say “NO” if you have work overload.



  • Not only men but also women put women down. We all must try to change this unconscious bias and stereotyping.



  • Give good career advice earlier on to future generations.



  • The University could help by implementing new policies and actions. For example, open new roles like “Gender Equality Champions” (Athene is one of them at her University!).


I found the talk invigorating. I hope that our University's leaders take her advice. But of course, to make a real difference we also have to do our bit and work towards the changes in ourselves.

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Research - Impact on Society

The College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham organised the “IMPACT FROM RESEARCH” event.

Impact is the contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy.

There were two parallel sessions: Impact on Society and Impact on the Economy. I attended the first one and hope these notes can be of help to other researchers.

Impact on Society session

1- The local government perspective

Catherine Mangan from the Institute of Local Government Studies compared Research to the novel ‘Ulysses’: You know you have to read it but there’s no time to get round to it.

She described three basic points that researchers should be aware of when submitting their research output to the government:

*Accessibility
People who work in government are extremely busy; they don’t have time to read things. You must be aware of that. Think of how you can make the writing more approachable. For example, try to write no more than one side of A4, use eye-catching phrases and direct messages.
Another important point is that Academics are always missing in government discussions, so try to engage in the same networks where the government is involved.

*Applicability
The government will always question: Is this going to save us money? Bearing this in mind, consider what your research is going to help with, understanding the drives and motivations.
It is also very important to make an effort to recognise the diversity of local councils: Your case study will be welcomed as long as it is relevant to the needs of the different councils.

*Audience
Research is written by Academics to impress other Academics! Academic language can be bewildering for people with no science backgrounds. So change your style and think about the audience. Aim at them. Your audience can range from policymakers and practitioners, to directors and chief executives.
Catherine remarked that is also good to attend the meetings where directors go, you get the chance to interact with them and know more about their interests.

And remember that Research has value to what the government does!



2- Routes to social impact

David Evans from the College of Social Sciences had a very useful slide showing three stages of impact: before, during and after the research project.

*Before
What you can do before getting funded and during the proposal stage is to engage with potential stakeholders and recruit an advisory board.

*During
Dissemination is the key point in this stage. You can write about your research in websites or blogs. You can use social media like twitter or other media outreach. It is also advisable to publish opinion pieces in The Huffington Post or The Washington Post.

*After
Podcasts are extremely useful to reach “time poor” participants. (I am thinking here about what Catherine told us, that the government people never have time to read). You can use videos to upload to websites, organise stakeholder workshops and write one-page summaries for press and policymakers. You can even make “glossy reports” in form of leaflets and leave them on strategic places, like waiting rooms at surgeries. Two areas that are sometimes forgotten are the research-led teaching and the capacity building (training participants like students or research fellows).

Remember that impact is not the same as dissemination. Impact generation starts during the proposal stage and evolves throughout the project. Impact should be embedded in the project; it is not something that you get at the end.


3- Case studies

To end the session three case studies were presented to give us examples of research that has had social impact. Click on the links to find more information about them.

Impact on public health
Research project “Adoption and maintenance of active lifestyles in hard to reach communities” led by Prof Janice Thompson.

Impact on connecting with communities
Research project “Connected communities” led by Dr SteveHewitt.

Impact on social enterprises
Research project “Empowering coaching” led by Prof Joan Duda.

Thursday 12 September 2013

Challenging Dementia

The University of Birmingham’s summer school took place last week. This year’s topic was Dementia. I had the opportunity to attend the opening talk “WHY IS THERE NO TREATMENT FOR DEMENTIA YET?” by Dr. Zsuzsanna Nagy.

Believe it or not, dementia is a disease that was described more than 100 years ago. In 1907 Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist, characterised the brain features related to Early Onset Dementia. He found bundles of proteins described as plaques and tangles in the brain of one of his patients. Amazingly enough, the staining method that he used, is the same they use today in clinical neuropathology.

Since then, scientists have been trying to know what causes dementia and how it develops in order to find a therapy. At the same time, they have been attempting to develop clinical diagnostic tools that allow the identification of the disease. Unfortunately, both the therapies and the diagnostic tools have yet to be found.

What we know today is that dementia has many risk factors. For example: vascular disease, vitamin deficiency, high blood levels of a protein called homocysteine, menopause, head injury and even low education. However, the main risk factor is AGE.

We also know what it looks like. The brain becomes atrophic. In other words, it shrinks! At the microscopic level, this shrinkage is associated with the plaques and tangles described by Alzheimer. What we have then is a bunch of neurons that cannot talk to each other because their connections are blocked by the plaques.  To make matters worse, these two features (plaques and tangles) don’t affect the same region of the brain.

Now here comes the scariest stuff. The pathology starts when you are in your 30s! At around 60 you show symptoms of what is known as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), or mild memory loss. And later in life, when the patients are diagnosed there’s nothing left to save. Sadly, it is not possible to detect it early enough. Imaging techniques like MRI, allow us to see the brain shrinkage but until it is too late.


What have been the main scientific discoveries so far? Something scientists did was to identify metabolic abnormalities. For example, they found that dementia affected pathways that used the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. After this finding, drugs called anticholinesterases, that enhanced cholinergic activity, were broadly used. Some examples are Tacrine and Aricept. Sadly, they only treated the symptoms and provided temporary improvement.

Later on, a protein called amyloid was found to be the main component of the plaques. Scientists focused their efforts to the discovery of drugs that stopped the amyloid from depositing. Unfortunately, these drugs did not help and caused a lot of harm. There are also in vitro and in vivo models that have been used in the lab to find therapies for dementia. Today they are considered inadequate, because they were developed based on the amyloid theory.


Dementia clinical trials need very large numbers of patients,and  almost one third of them withdraw because of the complex protocols. In addition, due to their condition, some of the patients cannot even give informed consent. The VITACOG has been the first and only successful phase II trial. The results showed an improvement in cognition and a slower shrinkage of the brain. The main drawback was that the patients were in the MCI phase. Remember that dementia patients are too late to treat! 

Today, more than 800,000 patients in Britain need therapy for dementia and the numbers are expected to rise. Since there is not a current treatment for this condition, the present solutions are to reduce risks (by trying to prevent it) and to use a symptomatic treatment (anticholinesterases). Health carers need to educate people and encourage them to stay healthy. For example, by eating better, exercising, and checking cholesterol and homocysteine blood levels regularly. There are also community clubs like “The Healthy Living Club” in Lambeth where dementia sufferers can go and meet people with the same condition, practise crafts and exercise their memories. The government has also implemented “The National Dementia Strategy” to improve dementia services like awareness and higher quality of care.

It is a complex picture: There is no way to diagnose it early and there is no therapy for it. What should scientists do? Should they work to find a cure when patients are diagnosed too late and the treatment would be useless? Should they work to find a diagnostic tool when there is no treatment yet? What about both?

Monday 19 August 2013

Saving the manatee



Dr John Reynolds from the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida has recently come to the University of Birmingham to talk about marine mammal conservation. As I am a researcher whose area has nothing to do with conservation, I was interested in attending and learn some more. Here I have written some of the highlights from the talk. I hope you find them as interesting as I did and help spread the word.

The talk was focused on sirenians like the manatee.
It started with striking data from different organisations such as the Pew Oceans Commission, the Marine Mammal Commission (MMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Some examples:


  • 2.5% of species of marine mammals have become extinct in the last 60 years.
  • While some species have shown recoveries (North Pacific grey whale) others are in critical condition, for example vaquita, Mediterranean monk seals and the AT1 pod of killer whales in Alaska which haven’t reproduced successfully since 1987. 
  • The baiji disappeared in 2007.
  • Five taxa have less than 400 individuals remaining.
  • The West African manatee is the most prone to extinction.
And the most striking of all:

  • ONE THIRD of the species worldwide (not only marine mammals) are threatened with extinction!
So why is conservation so difficult? Why haven’t we been able to control the survival of critical species? Some of us might wonder whether it is lack of information. "No, what is lacking is the political will to take the information we have and convert it into strategies”, Dr Reynolds remarked. Undoubtedly conservation requires good science. So it is down to us scientists to communicate our research so that it appeals to decision-makers, and speaks to human values. We also have to think how our science can be used to find solutions. This means that rather than aimlessly generate data, our research must have a purpose.


There are basically two approaches to conservation. It can be accomplished from the bottom-up. For example, if we work with the communities to change their values and perceptions. And it can also take place form the top-down through policy and regulation. However, the second approach cannot always be successful without the implementation of the first one. 

Enabling tools, like research and community partnerships, seem to be the key to success. To illustrate this point, Dr Reynolds told us the following story:

Communities in the Colombian Amazon used to hunt for manatee as it was part of their diet. As with other groups around the world, hunters went for females with a calf. They knew that the biologists and conservationists would immediately come down to rescue the orphan baby and pay them money for it. However, in this one occasion the conservationists never showed up. The villagers were stuck with a baby manatee. Eventually everyone became attached to it, even the hunters. When it grew up to an adult size, conservationists came down to take it back to the river. They put a radio tag on it and amazingly enough, the hunters were the ones demanding to go out and monitor its whereabouts! People in the community realised how special manatees are, they stopped eating them and even talked the neighbouring villages into not hunting them anymore.

This is a wonderful example of how we can promote a change in human values within the communities for the benefit of conservation.


In summary, if you want to be A GOOD CONSERVATIONIST you need to:

  • Be proactive to address the future challenges.
  • Be creative and imaginative.
  • Address human values and behaviours.
  • Have the guts to stand up for what’s important.
  • Seek solutions rather than more information.
  • Create interdisciplinary teams including population ecologists, community ecologists, assistance ecologists, chemists, social scientists, economists and ethicists.
To finish this post, here is the TAKE-HOME MESSAGE from Dr Reynolds: “If marine mammals are to be conserved, we need to recognise the current obstacles to conservation and have the social will to change”

I think this can definitely be applied to conservation of all species, not just marine mammals. What do you think?

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Long live the orange!

One of the things I noticed during my trip to Andalusia was the incredible amount of orange trees. They were everywhere, from the Cathedral in Seville with its famous Patio de los Naranjos (orange tree courtyard) to the breathtaking Alhambra gardens in Granada. I thought Spain would be one of the main orange-producers in the world. I was wrong. The top countries that produce oranges are the USA and Brazil.


I count myself among the people who love orange juice. So I wanted to find out more about the properties of oranges. My scientific literature search was not very productive. Most of the studies have been done on general fruit juice intake. Only very few are specific for orange juice. Being the most popular fruit juice in the USA, orange juice is one of the richest in nutrients such as vitamins C and B6, magnesium and potassium.

One of the most striking benefits of drinking 100% orange juice is that it helps to reduce the levels of lipids in our blood. For example, people who suffer from hypercholesterolaemia (high cholesterol levels in the blood) could benefit from increasing their orange juice intake. It also helps to decrease the risk of obesity and hypertension, consequently protecting our cardiovascular system.

I even found an article on the analysis of the orange draft genome! Having scientists studying the genome of this fruit shows how important oranges have become. They analysed the genome of the Valencia sweet orange, which is one of the most cultivated worldwide and used for orange juice production. They suggested that sweet oranges originated from a backcross hybrid between pummelos and mandarins. This means that first we had a cross between a pummelo and a mandarin, the resulting hybrid was then crossed again with another mandarin, giving rise to our sweet orange. The scientists also identified one of the key proteins that make oranges accumulate high levels of vitamin C. This study provides a valuable tool for the future of orange breeding and genetic improvement.


Talking about genetic improvement, this article – A Race to Save the Orange by Altering Its DNA – in The New York Times is quite striking. It talks about a disease that is threatening orange crops all over the world, in particular, the big ones in Florida who produce most of the orange juice consumed in the USA. The disease called citrus greening is deadly to all citrus including oranges, and cannot be fought by traditional methods like chopping down trees or using pesticides. The last hope for the growers is genetic modification. The project is still ongoing. I’m looking forward to see the results. Will we eventually have citrus greening-resistant orange trees? Personally, I’d like to keep enjoying a glass of orange juice in years to come. 

References:




Sunday 21 July 2013

Science in Southern Spain

This summer I went to the Spanish southern region of Andalusia. I visited the most popular tourist attractions which were as impressive as I had expected. However, I came back home with something else to share, two places that sadly are not listed as a MUST in the travel guides. In this post I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Casa de la Ciencia” in the beautiful city of Seville had two great exhibitions. Aimed to increase awareness of biodiversity conservation, they focused on the invertebrates and cetaceans found in the region.


I saw incredible preserved specimens of corals, sponges, butterflies, beetles, spiders, etc. Some of them representative of the most threatened species in the area. There were also real cetacean skeletons of species like the common and bottlenose dolphin, and the pilot and humpback whale. Life-sized resin replicas hanging from the ceiling were a great complement for the display.


In the stunning city of Granada, “Parque de las Ciencias” was hosting a fantastic show: Puppets, 30 years of Etcétera. Different types of puppets were on display, from the classic hand puppets to the ones “inhabited” by the puppeteer.


The most impressive ones were the giant marionettes. They can be up to 8.5 metres high and their arms weigh about 40 kg each! On average, seven puppeteers are needed to move them when they are standing. You have to be really skilled to manipulate such heavy puppets. Physics to the rescue! Giant marionettes are moved by the use of pulleys where you have to take into account the weight of the thing you want to lift, for example an arm, a hand, or the entire body of the marionette.


I certainly recommend going to these places if you are on holiday in Spain. They are full of surprises; how would you like to strike up a conversation with Charles Darwin? 

Sunday 9 June 2013

Do not turn your back on journalism

I recently attended a talk for postdocs and early career researchers at the University of Birmingham entitled “The Media: Friend or Foe? Or the job for me…?” The speaker was BBC Midlands Today reporter Joan Cummins.


Joan’s talk “Rough Guide to Journalism” began with a brief story of how she became a journalist. Joan started by volunteering for her local evening newspaper and then for an independent radio station. Her first task was to sit in the corner of the room and “observe”. She did nothing else but that for a while! I am sure everyone in the audience, like me, thought that it must have been really boring. But Joan expressed the contrary. She said it had been fascinating to see how journalists worked. They had to update the information EVERY HOUR and efficiently use the phone to find the stories (remember there was no internet at the time!). That’s when she realised journalism was the job for her. She graduated in communication studies and since then has been working as a reporter for radio and television.

Next, Joan gave us advice on the use of social media. She uses Facebook as a tool to find people who are related to the tasks she has been assigned, or just to look for stories. As for Twitter, she suggested not to trust everything we read and check the information somewhere else. “Be careful what you share on social media”, she said, “It will be found”.

She then explained a bit about the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) code of conduct, a series of guidelines that every journalist has to stick to. And also in her particular case, about the BBC values, stressing that “the public has got to trust the media” and “everyone needs to be treated with respect”.

We also learned how hectic the work of a journalist is. For example, the average news report is about 10 minutes for an interview, which then has to be translated for a general audience to understand. She made emphasis on that point, saying that the KEY in journalism is to be able to translate the information down. She compared herself to a sponge, “I soak stuff up and squirt it back out in an understandable way”. Her suggestion was to make the information as short and tight as possible. But being a journalist also has its perks, “You get to see things and places that the general public do not” and “your interpersonal skills rocket!”


Her final advice for anyone interested in journalism was to “keep an open mind” and to remember that “everyone has a story”.

Someone in the audience asked about opportunities for scientists that would like to become journalists. She suggested a journalism qualification, for example a one-year postgraduate course, because you have to qualify as a journalist first. “You need this qualification because it is very important to KNOW the law”.

As a final note I will quote one of her most striking phrases. I believe it was meant for all of us, whether we are thinking about leaving Academia or continuing to work at the bench: “DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK ON JOURNALISM”.

Sunday 2 June 2013

Meet Polly

Last week I went to the Thinktank to see the exhibition of The Pirates. I had watched the film (The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists) but seeing the models and sets was impressive. You can actually step into that miniature magical world. I would like to dedicate this post to one of the characters who I believe will draw everyone’s attention. Her name is Polly.

Pirates are always represented with a parrot on their shoulders. Polly sits on the captain’s shoulder; she is basically his pet. The thing is Polly is not a parrot, but a dodo! I looked for literature on the dodo (Raphus cucullatus) to find out why it became extinct, where it lived, what it looked like, etc. I did not find many papers but the few I managed to read were full of interesting facts I would like to share.

The exact date the dodo became extinct is controversial because the documentation had to rely on stories from explorers and sailors, which were not accurate or not at all true. A study published in 2003 using statistical algorithms predicts the extinction date as 1690. However, other publications refer to 1662 as the date of the last sighting.

Apart from arguments about dates, there’s also disagreement on the possible causes that drove the dodo to extinction. There are different theories. For example, the arrival of the sailors and their animals (mainly rats and pigs) to the island of Mauritius destroying the dodo’s habitat, the sailors’ over-consumption of dodo meat, or even a natural disaster like a tropical cyclone.

The anatomy of the dodo has also been speculated over the years, mainly based on old sketches and descriptions from sailors. There are sketches of thin dodos (the one from Van Neck’s lost journal that was copied by C. Clusius in 1605) and fat dodos (the one painted by the artist A. Van de Venne in 1626).

In 2006, Rijsdijk and Bunnik from The Netherlands discovered lots of dodo bones at the Mare aux Songes in Mauritius. They literally found a treasure because not only were dodo bones dug up, but also material from the time before humans arrived in that area. Great hopes were and are still expected from the information coming out of this big excavation.

For example, a team in France studied the body mass of the dodo by analysing the length of bones like femur and tibiotarsus. Previous teams that used different methods had estimated it to be between 10.6 to 21.1 kg. The new estimate mass is 10.2 kg, comparable to that of a big wild turkey. Seems that dodos were rather thin birds! 

And last year, scientists from the USA, UK and The Netherlands (including Rijsdijk) analysed the material from the excavation and described possible scenarios for the dodo’s extinction. These included death by thirst, death by water intoxication and death by miring (being trapped in peat terrain). The authors considered the last one to be the most likely scenario based on the characteristics of the soil and the fossil deposits. They proposed that a drought might have forced the dodos and other animals to a specific mire rich in water (the Mare aux Songes) where they were eventually trapped. More studies will undoubtedly follow; we might get to know more about the dodo’s diet, anatomy and even the size of their eggs!

Even with all this scientific evidence, nothing stops us from imagining a dodo the way we want. Personally I love the small, fat, cute Polly. It would be great to sit her on my lap and have her sleeping in a basket! How do you imagine your dodo?

References:
All photos were taken at The Pirates exhibition (Thinktank museum)

Tuesday 14 May 2013

The magical flower of the dead

Finally spring has arrived in England! It is great when you start seeing daffodil patches here and there growing despite the snow. I thought something about flowers for this post would be nice, but not just any flowers. I am going to be biased once more and choose a typical Mexican flower.

For those who have been to Mexico for the “Day of the Dead” this will probably sound familiar. Cempasúchil (Tagetes erecta), also known as the Aztec marigold, is used to decorate the “ofrendas” on this unusual day. Ofrendas are offerings that Mexicans make to remember their relatives or friends that have passed away. They consist of the favourite dishes and drinks that the dead person used to love. Some people even believe that the spirits come down to taste them! You can also see these flowers decorating the graveyards and all around the market places. They do make “Day of the Dead” colourful and special.

Mexico’s history of the use of therapeutic plants goes way back. There are a few narratives from the Spanish conquistadores and their people with records of the plants used by civilizations like the Aztec or the Maya. One of the most popular ones is “The History of the Things of New Spain” written by a friar called Bernardino de Sahagún.

 

According to recent surveys, more than 90% of Mexicans use remedies based in plants for their ailments, and on top of that, more than 40% of physicians have also prescribed them. Recently, a Mexican team quantified and published the results of their interviews on the use of medicinal plants in the region known as “Huasteca Potosina”. This area was chosen because is home to a Maya-descendant indigenous group that mostly uses medicinal plants not only for healing, but also for magical and religious purposes. The interview questions included the common and local names of the plants, their uses, the parts of the plant used and methods of preparation.

The results of the survey showed that a total of 73 species of plants in that area alone were used to treat up to 52 different illnesses! The Aztec marigold came up as one of the most versatile plants: the Huasteco community uses the flowers as an oral infusion to treat all kinds of maladies like flu, fever, body pain, rash, diarrhoea, sore throat, stomach ache, heart attack and arthritis. It is also “magically” used as a cure for the evil eye!

I went searching for information on what makes this flower so powerful. I must admit that there aren’t many articles out there but the few I found described its antioxidant and analgesic properties. The flowers are rich in carotenoids, lutein in particular, which is the main reason for their antioxidant activity. But one article specifically caught my attention. It describes the possible use of this flower as an anti-wrinkle treatment! The study was carried out to find the scientific evidence behind the traditional use of these flowers in treating burns, ulcers and even eczema. They found that the marigold extract inhibited the activity of enzymes responsible for skin aging (hyaluronidase and elastase) just like the oleanolic acid used in skin care cosmetics. There are still more constituents in these flowers that have yet to be studied. I am looking forward to what will come next!

Medicinal plants are used worldwide and it would be great to read more stories about the applications of typical plants in different countries.






Monday 22 April 2013

Caught up in a twister: how stress keeps blowing away our health

“I’ve a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.” Those were Dorothy's words when she found herself in The Wonderful Land of Oz, leaving behind her quiet life at the farm. Meeting a talking scarecrow, a tin man and a cowardly lion was only the beginning, little did she know about the perils, stress and obstacles lurking around the corner, not to mention a horrible wicked witch!

Having lived in Mexico City for almost all my life, I have noticed and experienced being in an endless journey on the yellow brick road. Like Dorothy, city people come across stressful situations as part of their everyday routines. From a busy schedule, or running here and there, to getting caught in traffic jams. Stress is one of the main problems we are facing in our lives today. Complaints of colitis, headaches, insomnia and constant bad moods are only the tip of the iceberg. 

Findings from researchers around the world highlight the role that stress and poor diet among other elements, play on a variety of diseases ranging from obesity, type 2 diabetes, to even breast and prostate cancer. They show how these factors can boost intracellular oestrogen production to highly detrimental levels. Oestrogen imbalance not only increases body fat but also the risk of endometrial and breast cancer.

Other publications demonstrate how in animals and humans stress promotes the secretion of cortisol which increases central body fat. Obesity can be a risk factor for afflictions such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease. For example, Elissa S. Epel and her group at the University of California studied the physiological effects of stress in a group of healthy premenopausal women. They divided the group in two categories: women with high levels of central body fat and women with low levels. Both groups were subjected to several sessions of stress over a period of four days. The results showed that women who had more central body fat secreted a significantly higher amount of cortisol, meaning that they were more susceptible to stress, compared to women with less body fat. To make it simpler, if we get anxious and tense we tend to increase our carbohydrate consumption, our body fat increases and eventually we find ourselves at risk. 

But is there anything that we could do to help ourselves and reduce our anxiety? Research by K.E. Innes and her collaborators investigated the effects of meditation on stress, sleep, mood, memory and blood pressure in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease sufferers and their caregivers. The programme consisted of 11 minutes of meditation twice a day for a period of eight weeks and the outcomes were impressive. The meditation scheme improved not only the physical condition of all the participants but also their mental health. This is one of the many studies that emphasise the benefits relaxation can bring to everybody whether healthy or not.
 
It has always been easier to understand why food choices can affect our health, but it is more difficult to realise how stress, an invisible and impalpable factor can cause such drastic changes in our well-being. Such findings are a wake-up call for everyone to get the best out of life, and to make an effort to incorporate activities outside work as part of our daily routines. As scientists and medical practitioners it should be our duty to highlight the benefits of relaxation and make sure our patients and the people around us are doing their best to fight this modern disease.

By learning how to cope with day-to-day tribulations we could all be as lucky as Dorothy; she eventually managed to get back home. So let's try to find our own magic ruby slippers and click stress away!