Mine, Magnets and Microbes

With just a pair of wings and a brain were the size of a walnut, do you think you Me neither but, remarkably, migratory birds do just that. How? Using the Earth's magnetic field, a bit of quantum physics, and a clever little protein called cryptochrome. Tonight, I'll be giving a bird's-eye view of the emerging field known as Quantum Biology, and some insight into how our little feathered friends manage to high-tail it away from winter without getting lost in migration.

Attitudes towards mining are variable, and often projects face opposition. However, raw materials are required for most technology. With an increasing public awareness of global warming there is growing pressure to develop new green technologies. Green technologies contain a group of metals called rare earth elements (REE), which are found around volcanoes. The locations of REEs are well documented, however the systems and the processes that cause REE deposits to form are poorly understood. My aim is to make a model that allows exploration companies to find deposits of REEs.

Microorganisms are essential for the health of the Earth, however, we don’t know much about them. The oceans contain a diverse number of microorganisms which are responsible for half of the Earth’s oxygen and are essential in the marine food web. Complicated interactions determine their (and our) survival on Earth. Parasitism (where one organism lives off another) is common, but not well understood in microbes. We will explain how sampling marine environments allow us to better understand which the lives of parasites and their host microorganisms.