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TheTHE SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY MAGAZINE ■ ISSN 0006-3347Biologist ■ SOCIETYOFBIOLOGY.ORG VOL 61 NO 5 ■ OCT/NOV 2014 SPIN DOCTORS Using spider silk’s incredible properties in medicine INTERVIEW RESEARCH ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR SIR MARK WALPORT IT ALL ADDS UP BAT HUNTERS The Government’s chief Replacing experiments The unlikely prey of scientific adviser with maths seed-eating birds NEW FOURTH EDITION THE IMMUNE SYSTEM PETER PARHAM The Immune System, Fourth Edition emphasizes the human immune system and presents immunological concepts in a coherent, concise, and contemporary account of how the immune system works. Written for undergraduate, medical, veterinary, dental, and pharmacy students, it makes generous use of medical examples to illustrate points. This classroom-proven textbook offers clear writing, full-color illustrations, and section and chapter summaries that make the book accessible and easily understandable to students. The Fourth Edition is a major revision that brings the content up-to-date and improves clarity. Based on user feedback, there is now increased continuity and connectivity between chapters. NEW IN THE FOURTH EDITION • Increased coverage of innate immunity, now in two chapters. • New chapter dedicated to mucosal immunology. • Immunological memory and vaccination combined in Chapter 11, including new approaches to vaccination. • Chapter 12 is dedicated to lymphocytes that contribute to innate and adaptive immunity. • Parasite immunology is covered for the first time, integrated with allergy in Chapter 14. • Appreciation of the active interaction between the immune system and commensal organisms involving co-development and co-evolution. • New marginal icons indicate topics which correlate to Case Studies in Immunology, Sixth Edition by Geha and Notarangelo. October 2014 • 552pp • 480 illus • £53.00 978-0-8153-4527-5 For more information, please contact garlanduk@tandf.co.uk TheTHE SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY MAGAZINE ■ ISSN 0006-3347Biologist ■ SOCIETYOFBIOLOGY.ORG VOL 61 NO 5 ■ OCT/NOV 2014 SPIN DOCTORS Using spider silk’s incredible properties in medicine INTERVIEW RESEARCH ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR SIR MARK WALPORT IT ALL ADDS UP BAT HUNTERS The Government’s chief Replacing experiments When seed-eating birds Contents scientific adviser with maths turn carnivorous Volume 61 No 5 October/November 2014 IN THIS ISSUE 8 Opinion: Out in the open Ian Bushfimld calls for global action to mnsurm all clinical trials arm publishmd. 12 9 Opinion: Fit for print? Morm high-profilm rmtractions mman pmmr rmvimw has to changm, say Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky. 12 The silk route Dum to its incrmdiblm propmrtims, spidmr silk could soon bm usmd in mmdicinm, writms David Butlmr. 16 Interview: Sir Mark Walport Tom Irmland talks transparmncy with Govmrnmmnt chimf scimntific advismr Sir Mark Walport. 20 The hunger games Sam Hardman mxplorms thm 20 26 normally smmd-mating birds that dmvmlopmd a tastm for bats. 24 Biology Week 2014 Find out what’s going on and whmrm in our annual cmlmbration of thm lifm scimncms. 26 Winning formulae Mathmmatical modmls arm rmducing thm nmmd for traditional mxpmrimmnts, says Dr Sara Jabbari. News 4 Society news 35 Members 40 Branches 24 Regulars 3 Nelson’s column 10 Policy update 29 Biofeedback 30 Spotlight 32 Reviews 38 BioPic 46 Museum piece 47 Crossword 48 Final word Vol 61 No 5 / THE BIOLOGIST / 1 Contacts Society of Biology Volume 61 No 5 October/November 2014 Charles Darwin House, 12 Roger Street, London WC1N 2JU Tel: 020 7685 2550 EDITORIAL STAFF EDITORIAL BOARD Fax: 020 3514 3204 info@societyofbiology.org www.societyofbiology.org Director of Membership, Marketing Susan Alexander BSc PGCE CBiol CSci MSB MRSPH FRGS and Communications J Ian Blenkharn MSB FRSPH Views expressed in this magazine are not Jon Kudlick MSB Phil Collier MSc PhD CBiol FSB FLS FHE necessarily those of the Editorial Board or Editor the Society of Biology. Sue Nelson Cameron S Crook BSc MPhil CBiol MSB MIEEM FLS @ScienceNelson Rajith Dissanayake MSc PhD FZS AMSB © 2014 Society of Biology Managing Editor Catherine Duigan BSc PhD FSB FLS (Registered charity no. 277981) Tom Ireland MSB John Heritage BA DPhil CBiol FSB tomireland@societyofbiology.org The Society permits single copying of @Tom_J_Ireland Sue Howarth BSc PhD CBiol FSB individual articles for private study or Communications and Events Officer Allan Jamieson BSc PhD CBiol FSB research, irrespective of where the copying Karen Patel MSB is done. Multiple copying of individual articles Catherine Jopling BSc PhD MSB karenpatel@societyofbiology.org for teaching purposes is also permitted Leslie Rose BSc CBiol FSB FICR without specific permission. For copying For membership enquiries call 01233 504804 or reproduction for any other purpose, membership@societyofbiology.org written permission must be sought from For subscription enquiries call 020 7685 2556 the Society. Exceptions to the above are tomireland@societyofbiology.org those institutions and non-publishing organisations that have an agreement or licence with the UK Copyright Licensing TWITTER FACEBOOK BLOG Agency or the US Copyright Clearance @Society_Biology www.facebook.com/ societyofbiologyblog.org Center. Access to the magazine is available online; please see the societyofbiology Society’s website for further details. The Biologist is produced on behalf PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH CANNABIS of the Society of Biology by Think Publishing Ltd. specially bred cannabis plants, is 124-128 Barlby Road he infamous propaganda film entering clinical trials as a potential , released in Reefer Madness treatment for schizophrenia. T 1936, showed young students Much of CBD’s disappearance TheBiologist trying cannabis and promptly from illicit cannabis is due to a descending into madness. Seventy dramatic recent upsurge in the London W10 6BL years later, an increasing number popularity of potent, locally grown of scientific studies indeed link herbal cannabis (often called skunk), cannabis use to psychiatric 1. at the expense of imported resin disorders, especially in the young, the United (hash). Until 2000, illicit resin In its World Drug Report accounted for about 70% of seized www.thinkpublishing.co.uk Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UK cannabis. By 2008, this fell to Herbal emphasised the global nature of this 15%. Skunk and resin are typically problem in a detailed chapter 2. produced from a differing balance ‘Cannabis: why we should care’ of cannabis chemotypes – that is, The finger of blame pointed to chemically different genotypes. increasing potency of black market Two allelic genes are thought 020 8962 3020 material. In contrast to the cannabis to control the biosynthesis of both A WINDOW of 1936, modern cannabis typically THC and CBD. Because these genes remedy contains much more of the plant’s are co-dominant, their chemical psychoactive compound traits do not adhere to Mendelian Cannabis has a damaging effect tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but Laws of inheritance (segregating it also has reduced levels of a non- in a classic 3:1 ratio). Instead, on mental health when used long psychoactive, anti-psychotic homozygous progeny are either term, but one of its compounds ingredient, cannabidiol (CBD). The THC-dominant or CBD-dominant, latter is now showing therapeutic while heterozygous progeny more3. is showing promise in the potential for the treatment of several evenly produce both molecules Design serious illnesses. CBD, purified from treatment of schizophrenia, ON THE LIFE , reports Dr David Potter Alistair McGown © BI R APHY SIR N OH ENNE T SCIENCES AW ES Production editor Sian Campbell odern agriculture – an industry that last year M produced 20.7 million tonnes of wheat and barley in the ! "# The Biologist, UK alone – would not be possible Sub editor without the innovation and scientific genius of people like Sir John Bennet xawes. His experiments at what is now Rothamsted Research investigated the effects of different covers the full richness and diversity of fertilisers on the yields of various Kirsty Fortune crops. Some of his experiments, THE BIOLOGIST known as the Classical Experiments, Vol 61 No 4 / are still running to this day, providing Anti-psychotics derived inspiration and valuable data from cannabis are for biologists. Publisher biology. Science is brought to life with entering clinical trials xawes was born 200 years ago this year on Rothamsted Estate, which he woud later inherit. xawes had a privileged childhood and education, attending Eton College and Brasenose College, Oxford. While John Innes stimulating and authoritative features, at Oxford, Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny, then professor of botany, planted an intellectual seed that would later grow into xawes’ passion for agricultural enterprise and john.innes@thinkpublishing.co.uk while topical pieces discuss science innovation. Daubeny’s own experiments in plant nutrition, in which he compared continuously grown crops against crops grown in rotation, were an early forerunner to xawes’ own experiments at policy, new developments or controversial Rothamsted several decades later. xawes left Oxford before taking his degree, and with only a little knowledge of chemistry and agriculture. Soon after returning Non-member rates: £120.00 home, he converted one of the issues. Aimed at biologists everywhere, its bedrooms at Rothamsted Manor into a laboratory, where he taught himself chemistry. This culminated Samples from the The Classical Experiments in him developing a method for Broadbalk VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS UNIT, ROTHAMSTED RESEARCH The large scale production