Presentation skills Giving lectures is a prominent aspect of working life for many academics, as the animal genetics archives here at Edinburgh University Library Special Collections show. Most of the collections of scientists’ personal …Continue reading →

Science: Media Friendly? TAGS: BBC | broadcast | debate | dolly the sheep | greenwood | media | press | public engagement | radio | scientists | social impact | television | waddington Nowadays we are more than accustomed to scientists appearing on television and radio to talk about their research or engage in debates about the social, political and ethical implications of …Continue reading →

Research and Refugees – Edinburgh genetics during the 1940s TAGS: 1940s | c.h. waddington | charlotte auerbach | chromosome theory | Edinburgh | f.a.e crew | festival of museums | fly room | george clayton | h.j. muller | home guard | inheritance | institute of animal genetics | j.m. robson | mendel | mustard gas | mutation | roslin | second world war | t.h. morgan Last Friday I delivered a talk on genetics in Edinburgh during the 1940s as part of the Scotland-wide Festival of Museums, for which Edinburgh University Library and Collections took the 1940s …Continue reading →

New Strides, Old Stripes: Zebras and the tsetse fly TAGS: east africa | Edinburgh | genetics | genome | genomics | hagenbeck | james cossar ewart | sequencing | trypanosomiasis | tsetse | zebra It was announced last week that scientists have deciphered the genetic code of the tsetse fly, which offers hope of eradicating one of Africa’s most deadly diseases. The fly, which …Continue reading →

‘Riding High on a Spiral’ This Friday 25 April is ‘DNA Day’, an international celebration of the day in 1953 when James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin and colleagues at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, …Continue reading →

Lab Books TAGS: a.n. whitehead | c.h. waddington | c.k. ogden | c.p.snow | dualism | I.A. Richards | institute of animal genetics | Literature | nature | two cultures | what scientists read I have recently been reading about the ‘What Scientists Read’ project, which aims to explore the influence of literature and the arts upon scientific thought and practice. The project has …Continue reading →

Picture Perfect! TAGS: drosophila | Edinburgh | genetics | institute of animal genetics | photographs | science | waddington Being lucky, as I am, to work with a wide variety of archival collections relating to the history of animal genetics in Edinburgh, it can be mightily difficult to select …Continue reading →

A Passage to India: J.B.S. Haldane and the Journal of Genetics The C.H. Waddington collection contains a folder of correspondence with J.B.S. Haldane, who died 50 years ago this year, concerning the Journal of Genetics. The correspondence, which covers 1956 to …Continue reading →

The Hen Who Made History…Nearly TAGS: alan greenwood | Edinburgh | egg laying | egg production | eggs | eglantine | genetics | institute of animal genetics | L1641 | poultry | poultry breeding | poultry research centre | world record Edinburgh holds a number of world records in genetics and animal breeding, which, considering its historic significance in the history of the science in Britain, is not all that surprising. …Continue reading →

Geoffrey Herbert Beale TAGS: Archives | epigenetics | genetics | geoffrey beale | john innes | malaria | medical research council | paramecium | plasmodium | russia Two weeks ago, when we posted about the Lysenko Controversy in Soviet Russia, mention was made of Geoffrey Beale’s interest in and knowledge of the Russian language and scientific history. …Continue reading →