TheTHE SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY MAGAZINE ■ ISSN 0006-3347 ■ SOCIETYOFBIOLOGY.ORG VOL 60 NO 1 ■ FEB/MAR 2013 'People have cast me as a sort of snarling attack dog. Which I'm not' AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD WINNER BEST MAGAZINE DAWKINS DESIGN REPORTAGE OPINION BIOGRAPHY PARADISE LOST PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE WILLIAM ALFORD LLOYD Protecting wildlife Should there be more The man who brought in Mozambique scientist MPs? aquariums to Britain New from Garland Science The Molecules of Life by John Kuriyan, Boyana Konfoti and David Wemmer provides an integrated physical and biochemical foundation for undergraduate students majoring in biology of health sciences. The book integrates fundamental concepts in thermodynamics and kinetics with an introduction to biological mechanism at the level of molecular structure. 1,032pp • 900 illus • £53.00 • Pb: 978-0-8153-4188-8 www.garlandscience.com/tmol Introduction to Bioorganic Chemistry and Chemical Biology by David Van Vranken and Gregory A. Weiss is the first textbook to blend modern tools of organic chemistry with concepts of biology, physiology, and medicine. With a focus on human cell biology and a problems-driven approach, the text explains the combinatorial architecture of biooligomers (genes, DNA, RNA, proteins, glycans, lipids, and terpenes) as the molecular engine for life. 478pp • 603 illus • £48.00 Pb: 978-0-8153-4214-4 www.garlandscience.com/bioorganic-chembio Physical Biology of the Cell, Second Edition by Rob Philips, Jane Kondev, Julie Theriot and Hernan Garcia takes key cell biology experiments through a quantitative treatment to demonstrate how models can help refine our understanding and prediction of biological phenomena. Updated for the latest developments and now in full color, the second edition includes two new chapters on photosynthesis and pattern formation. 1,057pp • 742 illus • £53.00 • Pb: 978-0-8153-4450-6 www.garlandscience.com/pboc2 TheBiologist THE SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY MAGAZINE Volume 60 No 1 February/March 2013 Contents 28 16 24 IN THIS ISSUE 10 Science in parliament 22 Unhappy hunting ground News Should there be more scientists Wildlife security consultant Peter in parliament? Our panel Coals describes his experience 4 Society news of experts debates the pros battling poaching in Mozambique. 38 Member news and cons. 42 Branch events 24 Who was… William 44 Branch news 12 The right chemistry Alford Lloyd? Elizabeth Granger explains why Ray Ingle looks into the life of the collaboration between disciplines little-known entrepreneur who Regulars Cover photo: Richard has been key to her work on introduced public aquariums to Dawkins by Will Amlot 3 Nelson’s column motor proteins. the UK in the 19th century. 8 Policy update 15 Biofeedback 16 Richard Dawkins 28 Thinking big 22 32 Spotlight The evolutionary biologist talks Conservationist Dr Richard about his most important work, Campen explains how the 34 Reviews his career so far, and the future of Government’s latest conservation 47 Crossword human evolution. policy can work in practice. 48 Final Word Vol 60 No 1 / THE BIOLOGIST / 1 THE BIOLOGIST Vol 60 No 1 February/March 2013 Contacts Society of Biology Allan Jamieson BSc PhD CBiol FSB Charles Darwin House, 12 Roger Street, EDITORIAL STAFF Catherine Jopling BSc PhD MSB London WC1N 2JU Director of Membership, Marketing Susan Omar BSc PGCE CBiol MSB MRSPH FRGS Tel: 020 7685 2550 and Communications Leslie Rose BSc CBiol FSB FICR MAPM Fax: 020 3514 3204 Jon Kudlick [email protected] Editor www.societyofbiology.org Sue Nelson ADVISORY PANEL Managing Editor Ian Clarke, Horticulture Research International, UK Views expressed in this magazine are Tom Ireland MSB Clive Cornford, Unitec, Auckland, New Zealand not necessarily those of the Editorial [email protected] Board or the Society of Biology. Communications Assistant Sharon Grimster, BioPark, UK Karen Patel AMSB Marios Kyriazis, © 2013 Society of Biology [email protected] Biogerontologist and anti-ageing physician, UK (Registered charity no. 277981) call 0844 858 9316 For membership enquiries Alan Lansdown, Imperial College London, UK [email protected] The Society permits single copying call 020 7685 2556 Walter Leal Filho, For subscription enquiries Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany of individual articles for private study [email protected] or research, irrespective of where Don McManus, Bancroft Centre, Australia the copying is done. Multiple copying Peter Moore, King’s College London, UK of individual articles for teaching EDITORIAL BOARD Brian Osborne, Australia purposes is also permitted without J Ian Blenkharn MSB FRSPH John Scott, University of Leicester, UK specific permission. For copying or Phil Collier MSc PhD CBiol FSB FLS FHE reproduction or any other purpose, Robert Spooner-Hart, University of written permission must be sought from Cameron S Crook BSc MPhil CBiol MSB MIEEM FLS Western Sydney, Australia the Society. Exceptions to the above are Rajith Dissanayake MSc PhD FZS AMSB Kathleen Weathers, Institute of those institutions and non-publishing Catherine Duigan BSc PhD FSB FLS Ecosystem Studies, USA organisations that have an agreement or John Heritage BA DPhil CBiol FSB Steve Wilson, Pfizer Animal Health licence with the UK Copyright Licensing Agency or the US Copyright Clearance Sue Howarth BSc PhD CBiol FSB Centre. Access to the magazine is available online; please see the Society’s website for further details. ASTROBIOLOGYBEYOND MARS AND Exploratory robot Curiosity has been acquiring datat from the red plane since August. The Biologist is produced on behalf TheBiologist MISSION of the Society of Biology by MARS Think Publishing Ltd. TO explains Dr Louisa J Preston Researcher the latest thinking from the only field 124-128 Barlby Road of the life sciences yet to prove its subject matter exists: astrobiology in 1965 shattered these imaginings ef a lush Earth-like werld. Instead, we were London W10 6BL n Menday 6 August at faced with a recky place scarred by 6:31am GMT, a cheer impact craters, like the Meen. Oresenated areund the werld The first landers sent te Mars by as we teek a giant leap ferward in NASA drilled the message heme, with understanding whether there is life images ef a barren landscape, cevered www.thinkpublishing.co.uk A WINDOW elsewhere in the selar system. NASA’s in red dust and scattered recks. These car-sized, nuclear-pewered Mars landers, Viking 1 and 2, are the enly Science Laberatery rever, Curiesity, spacecraft ever sent te anether planet gracefully landed en the dusty specifically leeking fer signs ef alien Martian surface. Its primary missien life. They turned up ne cenclusive signs is te determine whether there are er ef bielegical activity and Mars became 020 8962 3020 have been habitable envirenments en the werld we think ef teday: a celd, the red planet. nearly airless planet, bembarded with Curiesity, a rebetic planetary hestile radiatien. geelegist, was sent te Gale Crater, a Hewever, ebservatiens ef ancient 154km-wide impact crater feund just river deltas by these landers led te the seuth ef Mars’ equater. Here, minerals theery that, altheugh petentially lifeless such as clays and sulphates were feund new, Mars was ence a land with flewing ON THE LIFE ferming layered recky eutcreps, er water and perhaps an ecean. Significant strata, at the base ef a 5km high ameunts ef water, as ice and within meuntain rising frem inside the crater. hydrated minerals, exist in the tep The slepes ef this meuntain are gentle surface layer; and, lecally, liquid water Design eneugh fer Curiesity te trundle its way emerges frem the greund and flews up ence its initial 98-week missien is briefly befere freezing er evaperating. cemplete. Tegether with infermatien This indicates that in the past, Mars gleaned frem the crater fleer and the had an envirenment reminiscent ef the basal layered depesits, it will enable Earth, and as such had cenditiens Astrobiology is all about scientists te learn abeut the cenducive te life. Scientists are Alistair McGown envirenmental cenditiens that have intrigued by the pessibility that life in the hunt, the discoveries, existed in the crater and whether these the ferm ef micrebes may have gained / 17 BIOLOGIST cenditiens weuld have faveured life. a held in ancient times en Mars, when it the dead 5 / THE Vol 59 No Ultimately, it can alse tell us whether was wetter and warmer, and petentially ends and the SCIENCES the erganic melecules essential ferMARINE life stillMAMMALS exists deep in the subsurface at challenge to SA. THAMES SURVEY NA are preserved here. undergreund springs er beneath imagine Production editor The questien ef whether there is life the ice caps. other forms en Mars, er indeed anywhere eutside of life Earth, is ene ef the last great wenders Neighbourhood watch MAHIEU NATHALIE ef humanity. Since the 1900s, pepular This search fer life, net selely fecused en the Zoological Society carries out an tasked with carrying out post mortems BIOGRAPHY In 2012, over 400 seals annual ‘moult count’, counting the on marine mammals stranded on the culture has spread the idea thatwere Mars spotted Mars, in the isThames the cernerstene ef a fast- Clare Harris was an inhabited planet, crisscressedestuary and offgrewing the Kent and and exciting field ef animals when they are out of the UK coast. These examinations provide by canals ef liquid water built byEssex an coasts, including these water, shedding their summer coats. invaluable information on causes of s a bi-monthly magazine grey seals at Leigh-on-Sea. This gives ZSL the best estimate of the death, disease, contaminants, CONCEPT RENDERING CREATED BY BY CREATED RENDERING CONCEPT advanced civilisatien. Mariner 4’s flyby total number of seals. reproductive patterns and diet. This No 5 The Biologist i / Vol 59 Using both boat and aerial surveys in provides useful baseline data to help BIOLOGIST 16 / THE 2012, over 400 seals were spotted on detect outbreaks of disease or unusual Sub editor sandbanks in the Thames estuary and increases in mortality.