Please Don't Tell me 'bout the News

We've been a bit lax with our blogging over the last couple of months, so following demands on twitter, here's a short post with the latest news.

The headline news has to be: 

SEX & BUGS & ROCK 'N ROLL in TREE

Of course, we don't mean the kind of tree with branches and leaves, but the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, where creative public engagement is featured in the latest Spotlight article. Hopefully, the article will motivate other researchers to do some fun public engagement activities!

The paper is already available as a preprint online here. The final version is scheduled to be published in February. It's behind a paywall but you can email us for a reprint.

In other news:

ROADIES' PRIZE DRAW

Spotted in Montmartre, Paris. Enter our prize-draw and
maybe you too can make it to France this year

If you're a BES member, you can win your registration to the 2014 Annual Meeting in Lille by entering our prize draw. 

In keeping with the spirit of things, every blog post title since February 2013 is also the title of a rock-, pop-, or folk song. To enter our prize draw, just list the titles of 10 blog posts with the corresponding bands. Full details on how to enter are available in the December issue of the fabulous BES Bulletin. 

Take a Bow

Big Biology Day at Stamford School last Saturday was a roaring success for all involved. We weren't entirely sure what to expect but when we got there we were amazed by the variety and quality of the stalls and activities. 

They've been swabbed!

Kids and adults alike queued up outside in the cold to get into Mike Leahy's fantastic Big Red Zoo Bus, and were then greeted with tea, coffee and a large table laden with cakes before they headed inside to test their sense of smell, make a DNA bracelet, dissect owl pellets, test how quickly their brains adapt...

Holly and Heather

We were kept really busy, despite the stiff competition, so we were glad to have help from two new roadies. The swabbing was very popular - even the mayor of Stamford wanted to try, so we can add a mayor's chain of office to our collection of microbial growth. The day's swab plates are on view here.

The Mayor and Mayoress of Stamford
test their sense of smell

It was really good to set up the 'Sex & Bugs' stall in a completely different setting and see how well it worked in a school (and without our trusty companions, The Bees). 

Swabbing the Mayor's chain of office

So our festival year 2013 ended as we unpacked the van (in the dark) for the last time. It has been a pretty amazing experience. 

This may have been our last event, but it won't be the last you hear from us!

Roadie for a day:
Dr Eichhorn gets into the poogame

Karen and Heather

School's Out

The Roadies are getting ready for the final Sex & Bugs & Rock 'n Roll event: Big Biology Day, taking place tomorrow at Stamford School in Lincolnshire.
This year, we've taken 'Sex & Bugs' to three music festivals, Imperial University and the Natural History Museum, so this a great opportunity for us to take our activities to another type of event.

The day has a really amazing line-up and we're looking forward to seeing the other stalls and contributors. We also have competition, as one of the participants is touting the infamous #poogame!

So if you're anywhere near Stamford, Lincs., drop by for a fascinating day! 
You can download the full programme here.

Summer's End

Now the festival summer is over, we've been taking a well-earned break. This is by no means the end - we already have lots of ideas for new activities and different events but before we start planning next steps, we'd like to take a moment to reflect on what we've done this summer. So here's 'Sex & Bugs & Rock 'n Roll' in numbers:

1 - great society to back the idea
2 - science events
3 - music festivals
7 - invitations unfortunately declined due to lack of time
12 - months from the first spark of an idea to choosing ideas for busks and activities.
10 - months to prepare from proposal to the first festival.
14 - days spent at festivals
19 - volunteers working at the festivals
~50 - bumble bees in a colony (approximately)
>5000 happy visitors to our stall!

Back in the Saddle

The 2013 festival season isn't over yet but we're already organising our return to the lovely Wychwood Festival for their 10th anniversary!

The dates are confirmed for 30th May - 1st June 2014 and early bird tickets have just gone on sale. 

We're all very excited to be going back and we're looking forward to developing new, fun ecology activities. So if you're looking for a mellow, family-friendly festival with clean loos, short queues, good music and loads of activities, come and join us on Cheltenham Racecourse!

Meet Me in the City

The 'Sex & Bugs' tent at INTECOL

The BES Roadies made a special appearance at INTECOL 2013 in London last week. 

One of the largest international gatherings of ecologists, the INTECOL Congress takes place every four years and was hosted by the British Ecological Society as part of the centenary celebrations this year.

Georgina Mace and Bill Sutherland
(outgoing & incoming BES presidents)
 identifying mushroom scents.

A mere 18 hours after the end of Green Man Festival in Wales, the stall was set up on the main 'boulevard' in the enormous Excel Exhibition and Convention Centre in Docklands, East London. Our signature blue flowery tent was somewhat dwarfed by the sheer size of the building (which has 100,000 m2 of floor space and two DLR stops) but still attracted a lot of attention.

BES presidents play the poogame.
A picture speaks 1000 words
- even when it's out of focus.

The bees are taking a well-earned break in Frazer's garden and we had swapped the usual displays on pollinators and microbes for posters describing our activities, introducing the team, and showing the amount of work involved in making 'Sex & Bugs & Rock 'n Roll' such as success. 

We also handed out some of our giveaways to conference delegates but as we've now had over 5000 visitors, we've already run out of stickers! And we're still looking forward to Butserfest on 14th September.

On Wednesday we welcomed special guest and science busker par excellence David Price from Science Made Simple and invaded the Wednesday poster session with the 'poogame' and 'magic mushrooms' to demonstrate science busking. BES presidents Georgina Mace (2012-2013) and Bill Sutherland (2013-2014) joined in the fun and tested their years of ecological knowledge with the 'magical world of mushroom scents' and 'whose poos?'.

Why peat is so important

David brought along a really fantastic busk, which drew quite a crowd. His busk not only demonstrated the importance of peat, but also showed that with creativity and showmanship, you can transform just about any research topic into a fun activity. The film crew at INTECOL filmed the show, so hopefully we'll be able to post that soon.

David's peat busk draws a crowd

With a special mention at the British Ecological Society's Annual General Meeting and a warm reception by delegates from all over the world, I think we can be fairly sure we've not only demonstrated to festival-goers that ecology can be fascinating and fun - but also shown researchers that outreach work can be really enjoyable too! 

Demonstrating plant-soil
interactions in peatlands

BES Roadies at INTECOL were: Frazer Bird, Emma Sayer, Hannah Griffiths, Will Gosling, Sarah Pierce, Tom Walker, Matt Heard, Thea Powell.

Green is the Colour

Catherine and Iain setting up in the rain

For us, Green Man Festival with the BES roadies kicked off in true style – a morning car journey in a VW polo packed so full with kit we didn’t have room to swing a bumblebee, let alone a cat. However this all added to the fun of the voyage, and as we approached the Green Man festival in the picturesque Brecon Beacons, we knew that an awesome weekend of science engaging, socialising and scattered showers was just on the horizon.

Beautiful green surroundings for
the stall

The team set up our stall in Einstein’s Garden, an area of the festival set aside for  imaginative, creative and informative stalls and showpieces, so the Sex & Bugs & Rock ‘n Roll team were right at home. After a slow start, news spread of our bee colony, kit swabbing and poo games and we were swamped with revellers, all keen to find out more about our science.

As the festival progressed, not only did a steady flow of the people from all age groups come and see us, but it became apparent that we were getting many return visits from our ‘regulars’ too. These ‘regulars’ were mainly bug-hunting extraordinaire kids, who probably spent more of their weekend catching insects for our stall ID than time spent with their families or listening to the music acts. After routine trips into the wilderness, the regular crowd returned with specimens of pond skaters, stag beetles, garden tiger moth caterpillars, bush crickets and countless other fascinating creatures.

Kate, Caitlin and Hannah -
with signed roadies shirt

Other highlights included swabbing the Green Man for microbial life,  dressing up as a giant cockroach only to be attacked by 5-year olds wielding toy swords, and stalking writer Caitlin Moran in order to get a signed T-shirt.

Tom's cockroach suit proved to be
immensely popular

The highlight of the weekend was the Saturday night, when all nine of the roadie team raved it up at the ‘Denture Disco’ – a DJ booth located in a large mock-up open mouth, pounding out tunes in the middle of a field until the early hours. It was immense, and a great way to let our hair down after engaging with what seemed like the entire festival population in the previous days.

Swabbing the Green Man

All in all, being part of the BES roadies was such a great opportunity for PhD students like us to get out there and start engaging with the public about issues that really matter to us. Finally, the ultimate highlight of the weekend was when one member of the team got asked “Is it wrong that I find you weirdly attractive when you talk about poo?” Timeless.

Post by 

Iain Gould and Catherine Baxendale

The Green Man Team from left to right
Back: Iain, Will, the bees, Catherine, Holly, Tom
Front: Helen, Leanne, Kate, Hannah