Electrifying the country house: taking stories of innovation to new audiences

Could country house museums be indispensable sites for learning about both science as well as history? Given current logistical constraints, would it be worthwhile for school teachers to arrange student visits to such places to learn about STEM subjects? At first sight such epitomes of British heritage do not appear to offer much to such audiences. However, recent research shows that some country houses were once key sites of technological innovation, especially in the Victorian invention of electric lighting. Our collaborative work with staff at Cragside, Lotherton Hall and Standen demonstrates their capacity and enthusiasm to use such insights to present more STEM-related content to visitors within the context of their existing historical offers. Drawing on the results of an AHRC-funded impact and engagement project, we show how co-produced stories of household electrification can supply fresh inter-disciplinary ways of engaging STEM audiences with the historic country house

Giant protists (xenophyophores, Foraminifera) are exceptionally diverse in parts of the abyssal eastern Pacific licensed for polymetallic nodule exploration

Xenophyophores, giant, fragile, agglutinated foraminifera (protists), are major constituents of the abyssal megafauna in the equatorial Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a region where seabed mining of polymetallic nodules may occur in the future. As part of a baseline study of benthic communities we made extensive collections of xenophyophores in two areas (UK-1 and OMS) licensed for exploration by the International Seabed Authority. Based on test morphology, we distinguished 36 morphospecies (34 new to science) among 130 specimens. Twenty of these morphospecies yielded 184 DNA sequences, a 14-fold increase in genetic data for xenophyophores that confirms their high diversity in the eastern CCZ. A further 15 morphospecies (8 new to science) were recognised in samples from two other areas (APEI-6 and Russian exploration license area) within or adjacent to the CCZ. This large number of species confirms that the CCZ is a focal area for xenophyophore diversity. More broadly, it represents an unprecedented increase in the known global diversity of xenophyophores and suggests that many species remain undiscovered in the World's oceans. Xenophyophores are often sessile on nodules in the CCZ, making these delicate organisms particularly vulnerable to mining impacts. They can also play a crucial role in deep-sea ecosystems, providing habitat structures for meiofaunal and macrofaunal organisms and enhancing the organic content of sediments surrounding their tests. The loss of xenophyophores due to seabed mining may therefore have wider implications for the recovery of benthic communities following major human disturbances on the abyssal seafloor

Reduced admixture of North Atlantic Deep Water to the deep central South Pacific during the last two glacial periods

Key Points: • Little deep water circulation changes in the past 240,000 years in the central South Pacific • Reduced North Atlantic Deep Water admixture during glacials to the Southern Ocean • South Pacific lithogenic material mainly sourced from SE Australia and South New Zealand The South Pacific is a sensitive location for the variability of the global oceanic thermohaline circulation given that deep waters from the Atlantic Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and the Pacific basin are exchanged. Here we reconstruct the deep-water circulation of the central South Pacific for the last two glacial cycles (from 240,000 years ago to the Holocene) based on radiogenic neodymium (Nd) and lead (Pb) isotope records complemented by benthic stable carbon data obtained from two sediment cores located on the flanks of the East Pacific Rise. The records show small but consistent glacial/interglacial changes in all three isotopic systems with interglacial average values of -5.8 and 18.757 for εNd and 206Pb/204Pb, respectively, whereas glacial averages are -5.3 and 18.744. Comparison of this variability of Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) to previously published records along the pathway of the global thermohaline circulation is consistent with reduced admixture of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) to CDW during cold stages. The absolute values and amplitudes of the benthic δ13C variations are essentially indistinguishable from other records of the Southern Hemisphere and confirm that the low central South Pacific sedimentation rates did not result in a significant reduction of the amplitude of any of the measured proxies. In addition, the combined detrital Nd and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotope signatures imply that Australian and New Zealand dust has remained the principal contributor of lithogenic material to the central South Pacific

Investigation of Touch-Sensitive Responses by Hyphae of the Human Pathogenic Fungus Candida albicans

Candida albicans is a fungus that commonly infects the mucosal surface of humans. The hyphal growth form of this fungus may initiate the primary invasion of the host. Here we show that hyphae respond thigmotropically and morphologically to cues such as the presence of a surface, pores, grooves and ridges. Growth on some firm surfaces elicits a helical growth response. Hyphae follow grooves and ridges of inert substrates and penetrate pores of filtration membranes. Our in vitro experiments suggest that thigmotropism may enhance the ability of a hypha to invade epithelia of a host at sites of weakened integrity

Milionella subrotunda (Montague 1803), a miliolid foraminifer building large agglutinated tubes for a temporary epibenthic livestyle.

Live observations, cytological characteristics and biometrical measurements on Miliolinella subrotunda (Montagu, 1803) sampled from the northern and southern Atlantic Ocean are presented.M. subrotunda facultatively constructs a long, detritic tube lifting the test several millimeters above the sediment surface. A thickened conical base anchors the construction on the sediment surface and a long, flexible tube protrudes into the velocity profile of the bottom currents. The miliolid test is placed on top, surrounded by the uppermost part of the tube. This construction allows the organisms to feed in the particle stream above the sediment surface. In comparison to species living in and on the surface sediments,M. subrotunda apparently shows higher nutritional values in food ingested and larger amounts of reserve substances. Characteristics of the shape and structure that reduce drag on the tubes include a broadened conical base, a flexible tube, and a rounded top. From biometrical measurements it is concluded, that the tubes are constructed over a short period of their ontogeny

The PKC, HOG and Ca2+ signalling pathways co-ordinately regulate chitin synthesis in Candida albicans

Open Access via PMC2649417Peer reviewedPublisher PD

New observations on test architecture and construction of Jullienella foetida Schlumberger, 1890, the largest shallow-water agglutinated foraminifer in modern oceans

We present new observations on Jullienella foetida Schlumberger, 1890, a giant agglutinated foraminifer with a leaf- or fan-like test reaching a maximum dimension of 14 cm, that is common on some parts of the west African continental shelf. The test wall comprises a smooth, outer veneer of small (7.0 g wet weight m−2 for the seafloor biomass of J. foetida in areas where it is particularly abundant. The relatively restricted distribution of this species off the north-west African coast at depths above 100 m is probably related to the elevated, upwelling-related surface productivity along this margin, which provides enough food to sustain this high biomass. This remarkable species appears to play an important, perhaps keystone, role in benthic ecosystems where it is abundant, providing the only common hard substrate on which sessile organisms can settle