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News for alumni

Dear ,

Welcome to the first newsletter of the new decade. We hope this might provide some light reading as you come to grips with the ever-changing landscape of coronavirus. We had hoped to introduce you to our new administrator, Louise Balshaw, via a Q&A but she is currently busy working full-time making sure members of the Department are able to adapt to home working.

Coronavirus means that, unfortunately, we will not be able to run our annual alumni field trip this year in May, along with other events organised by the Department, including the Student Conference on Conservation Science and Earth Optimism.

In this issue, we showcase the recent research of three graduate students and a recent Part II student, illustrating the new talent that we continue to foster in the Department.

Please note also that we have been renewing and extending our Support Zoology pages on the Departmental Website, providing you with all sorts of temptations for giving to us.

Please note two alumni events for your diaries which are still in the pipeline:

Zoology Alumni & Friends Day on Saturday 5 September 2020
University Alumni Festival on 25–27 September 2020

We hope that you remain safe and well over the coming months.

William

Director of Alumni Relations, Department of Zoology

Two members of staff become Deputy Heads of the School of Biological Sciences

Two members of the Department have recently been elevated to prominent positions within the School of Biological Sciences. Dr Tim Weil (right), Senior Lecturer in Cell Biology, will become the Deputy Head of School for Undergraduate Study and Dr Matthias Landgraf (left), Reader in Developmental Neurobiology, will become the Deputy Head of School for Post-Graduate Strategy. Tim and Matthias have been doing similar jobs in the Department with great success.

These are two out of three totally new Deputy Head positions. They will assist the Head of School, Professor Anna Philpott, an alumna of the Department (PhD 1988-1991), in developing a strategic vision for the School for the next 5 years and beyond. Anna was supervised by Professor Ron Laskey and she is now a leading expert in the biological basis of cancer.

Research on coronavirus by members of the Department

Terry Jones and PhD student Barbara Muehlemann, both from Professor Derek Smith's Centre for Pathogen Evolution, have been working at the Charité Hospital in Berlin at the forefront of efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak. They are authors on upcoming publications regarding virus epidemiology and shedding, and were part of the team that put together the first virus sequence from the ongoing outbreak in Italy.

Recent research

Watching videos enables birds to avoid disgusting food without actually eating it

Prey animals often advertise their distastefulness by being conspicuously marked, but naïve predators usually have to find this out the hard way – by snacking on some toxic prey. However, research (lead author: PhD student Liisa Hämäläinen) showed that, by watching videos of each other eating, blue tits and great tits can learn to avoid distasteful conspicuously marked food without actually eating any of it.

Suction cups that work on wet, rough and dirty surfaces

The larvae of the net-winged midges (Blepharoceridae) can move around at ease on rough, dirty rocks in torrential rivers by using super-strong suction organs. Using powerful modern imaging techniques, a team, including PhD student Victor Kang and led by Walter Federle, has revealed the internal 3D structure of these cups and provided insights into how they work so reliably. Where biology leads, engineering might follow, leading to the design of suction cups for use in medicine, surgery and industry.

Making alarm calls that are rapid, reliable, and on-message

Alarm calls need to convey information rapidly but also with enough detail to elicit a sensible response. In a new paper, Jessica McLachlan a recent PhD in the Department, and Robert Magrath (PhD 1984–1989) at ANU, Canberra, report how New Holland Honeyeaters solve these conflicting requirements. They showed that the first note in an alarm call produces an immediate rapid response, with a higher pitch indicating greater danger, and that the number of notes in the rest of the call carries information about whether to stay hidden for longer.

A general model for the patterning of joints in the digits of tetrapods

Recent Part II Zoology student, Jake Cornwall Scoones (2019) has recently published the results from his Part II project in the journal Development. The paper presents a theoretical model for how the location, number and orientation of joints within the digits of the tetrapod limb might be controlled. The model is shown to be of very general applicability.

Read the article

Obituary

Sir Michael Berridge. Credit Babraham Institute

Sir Michael Berridge FRS (1938–2020)

We are very sad to report the death of Sir Michael Berridge (Mike) on 12 February 2020. Sir Michael is best known for his demonstration that IP3 was a universal second messenger, a discovery that was truly groundbreaking.

He did his PhD under Sir Vincent Wigglesworth in Zoology (1965). He later returned (1969) to the Department as a member of the AFRC Unit of Invertebrate Chemistry and Physiology.

Mike continued his work on calcium signalling in the Zoology Department until 1990 when he relocated to the Babraham Institute. We have lost a brilliant and inspirational research scientist.

Celebrating Tony Whitten (1953–2017)

You are invited to an event to celebrate the legacy of Tony Whitten, world-renowned and inspirational conservationist and ecologist, which we hope will take place on the afternoon of Saturday 4 July in the Department.

The event is free and open to all. It will begin at 2.30pm, with contributions from graduate students and staff members who are supported by donations given in honour of Tony, followed by tea, and then a discussion of Tony’s contribution to ecology and conservation in Asia and how this might be built on in the coming years.

Further details will be available in the next newsletter.

Sir Clive Forster-Cooper (1880–1947): hands-on first Director of the Museum of Zoology

Sir Clive Forster-Cooper was a hugely important figure in the 20th-century history of the Museum: an eclectic, effective reformer who was the first to be styled as the Museum’s Director.

He was clearly a man of parts: he could produce two totally different blackboard drawings simultaneously, using his right and left hands independently; he was able to take command of a ship on a major scientific expedition whilst still an undergraduate; he was fluent in Arabic; and he unearthed the remains of the largest known land mammal.

Save the dates

Saturday 5 September 2020

Zoology Alumni Day - come back to the Department for a tour of some labs, the museum and a lecture or two, perhaps arrange to meet up with some old friends.

Saturday 28 September 2020

University Alumni Festival - we will be taking part in the 30th anniversary of this weekend.

Further details of both these events will be in the next newsletter.

Our campaign for the University and Colleges of Cambridge is raising funds to attract the brightest minds, create the finest facilities and give the freedom to create more world-changing ideas. To do this, we need your help.

Department of Zoology

Call: +44 (0)1223 336600
Email: alumni@zoo.cam.ac.uk

Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom

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