I am pleased to announce that I have won the ‘open’ category for Young Science Communicator of 2018 with NRF-SAASTA! My entry below, named “Finding fish“, illustrates our environmental DNA research through cartoon! This exciting work is being carried out in the von der Heyden lab at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, in collaboration with the Molecular Ecology…
Tag: Travel
Our South African eDNA research begins
Fish and other aquatic animals shed DNA into the surrounding water. This means that seawater is filled with the DNA of the animals living there, and this is known as environmental DNA (eDNA). Scientists have used environmental DNA to study a range of animals, from earlier eDNA studies in 2008 (e.g. on the invasive American Bullfrog),…
Celebrating #worldelephantday
It’s world elephant day today, and I’ve just returned from Tsavo East national park, Kenya. This park is home to the largest group of elephants in Kenya, with over 12,500 individuals, representing around one third of all elephants in the country. It was breathtaking to see these animals. We saw them at the watering hole,…
How does mangrove carbon offset work?
I’ve worked with some exciting initiatives, and the community-based project Mikoko Pamoja takes the hat for one of the most forward-thinking of them all. It’s a mangrove carbon offset project that’s giving back to the people. In this article, I’ll show you how mangrove carbon offsetting works, starting with the basics of why mangroves are…
Chapati the cat
Today we did do work (I promise!), but we also found an abandoned cat. We fed it milk and it escalated, and it is now named chapati…!
ZoologyMolly 