Browsing Life sciences by Types
Now showing items 1-8 of 8
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Bees, wasps, flowers and other biological records from Hartslock Nature Reserve, Berkshire UK: records made 2015-2016Abstract: A list of records of bees, wasps, and the flowers they visit and other biological records recorded during 2015-2016 from Hartslock Nature Reserve, Berkshire UK and vicinity. Collections were made in order to provide fresh material for DNA sequencing for a national DNA barcode database of British Bees (Tang et al., 2017). Voucher specimens are preserved in the collection of the Natural HIstory Museum London. Hartslock is a Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) managed by the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT).
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Bye-bye dark sky: is light pollution costing us more than just the night-time?Humans, birds and several other animals are finding it increasingly challenging to experience night-time uninterrupted by artificial light, while some creatures are handling the change better than others. Hein van Grouw, Senior Curator of Birds, and UK Biodiversity Training Manager Steph West reveal the impacts of light pollution on British wildlife and a few tips for reclaiming your slice of the night sky.
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A Guide to Reproducible Code in Ecology and EvolutionThe way we do science is changing — data are getting bigger, analyses are getting more complex, and governments, funding agencies and the scientific method itself demand more transparency and accountability in research. One way to deal with these changes is to make our research more reproducible, especially our code. Although most of us now write code to perform our analyses, it is often not very reproducible. We have all come back to a piece of work we have not looked at for a while and had no idea what our code was doing or which of the many "final_ analysis" scripts truly was the final analysis! Unfortunately, the number of tools for reproducibility and all the jargon can leave new users feeling overwhelmed, with no idea how to start making their code more reproducible. So, we have put together this guide to help. A Guide to Reproducible Code covers all the basic tools and information you will need to start making your code more reproducible. We focus on R and Python, but many of the tips apply to any programming language. Anna Krystalli introduces some ways to organise files on your computer and to document your workflows. Laura Graham writes about how to make your code more reproducible and readable. François Michonneau explains how to write reproducible reports. Tamora James breaks down the basics of version control. Finally, Mike Croucher describes how to archive your code. We have also included a selection of helpful tips from other scientists. True reproducibility is really hard. But do not let this put you off. We would not expect anyone to follow all of the advice in this booklet at once. Instead, challenge yourself to add one more aspect to each of your projects. Remember, partially reproducible research is much better than completely non-reproducible research.
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NHM Science and Society Blog. New plans for the Museum's green spaces: connecting people and natureA little over a month ago, the Museum applied for planning permission to continue with an ambitious transformation of its outdoor spaces. Drs John Tweddle, Paul Kenrick and Sandy Knapp of the Museum’s Science Group provide the background to the project and clarify its impact on the Wildlife Garden.
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Oldfield Thomas: In His Own Words.Compilation of a series of non-academic articles written by Oldfield Thomas for the public press.
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Using the “Natural History Large Hadron Collider” to tell us about plant diversityA study published today in BMC Biology uses the RAINBIO dataset, a database of herbarium specimens, to analyze African plant diversity. In this blog we invited Sandra Knapp, a plant taxonomist at the Natural History Museum in London, to talk about the study and the importance of herbaria, which she regards as the “CERN of natural history”.
