TheTHE SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY MAGAZINE ■ ISSN 0006-3347Biologist ■ SOCIETYOFBIOLOGY.ORG VOL 61 NO 1 ■ FEB/MAR 2014 THE FUTURE OF FUEL Could biofuel from algae reduce our need for oil? URBAN ENVIRONMENT MICROBIOTA INTERVIEW DEEP ROOTS GUT INSTINCT AGE OF SUCCESS Saving trees during The body's bacteria and Linda Partridge on the urban development its impact on our health biology of ageing New from Garland Science EPIGENETICS Lyle Armstrong The concept of epigenetics has been about since the 1940s, but it is only in the last 10 years that research has shown just how wide-ranging its effects are. It is now a widely-used term, but there is still confusion surrounding what it actually is and does. Epigenetics is a new textbook that brings together the structure and machinery of epigenetic modification, how epigenetic modification controls cellular functions, and the evidence for the relationship between epigenetics and disease. It is a valuable source of information about all aspects of the subject for undergraduate students, graduate students, and professionals. Topics Include: • The two forms of epigenetic modification, DNA methylation Paperback • £45.00 and histone acetylation, and how they take place. 2013 * 978-0-8153-6511-2 • How epigenetics controls cell function, including cellular 300pp • 150 illus differentiation and the role of epigenetics in stem cells. • The role of epigenetics in disease, including cancer and mental health, where there is clear evidence of epigenetic Contents: involvement. Chapter 1. Introduction to the Study of EpigeneticsChapter 2. The Basis of the Transcription Process Chapter 3. DNA Packaging and Chromatin Architecture Chapter 4. Modifying the Structure of Chromatin Chapter 5. DNA Methylation Chapter 6. Post-Translational Modification of Histones Chapter 7. Histone Modification Machinery Chapter 8. Locus- Specific Control of Histone-Modifying Enzyme Action Chapter 9. Epigenetic Control of Cell-Specific Gene Expression Chapter 10. Epigenetic Control of the Mitotic Cell Cycle Chapter 11. The Epigenetic Basis of Gene Imprinting Chapter 12. Epigenetic Control of Cellular Differentiation Chapter 13. Reversibility of Epigenetic Modification Patterns Chapter 14. Epigenetic Predisposition to Disease and Imprinting-Based Disorders Chapter 15. Epigenetics of Memory, Neurodegeneration, and Mental Health Chapter 16. Epigenetics of Cancer www.garlandscience.com/epigenetics NEW EDITION NOW AVAILABLE Essential Cell Biology, 4th Edition Alberts, Bray, Hopkin, Johnson, Lewis, Raff, Roberts, Walter 978-0-8153-4454-4 • £105 • Hardback 978-0-8153-4455-1 • £53 • Paperback 865pp • 860 illus • November 2013 TheBiologist THE SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY MAGAZINE Volume 61 No 1 February/March 2014 Contents 20 24 28 12 16 IN THIS ISSUE 8 Opinion: Revolution 20 Algal biofuel – in bloom News ThTHE SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY MAGAZINEe ■ ISSN 0006-3347Biologist ■ SOCIETYOFBIOLOGY.ORG VOL 61 NO 1 ■ FEB/MAR 2014 on the reserves or dead in the water? 4 Society news Brian Moss argues that a An expert panel discusses 37 Members more radical approach to if biofuels from algae could conservation could help halt eventually replace oil. 40 Branches THE global warming. FUTURE OF FUEL 24 Force of nature Could biofuel from algae Regulars reduce our need for oil? Sue Nelson visits a centrifuge URBAN ENVIRONMENT MICROBIOTA INTERVIEW 12 Gut feeling DEEP ROOTS GUT INSTINCT AGE OF SUCCESS Saving trees during Th e body's bacteria and Linda Partridge on the urban development its impact on our health biology of ageing 3 Nelson’s column Lauren Hoskin looks at the to explore the physiological Cover photo: Lawrence 10 Policy update microbes living inside us. effects of G-force. Naylor/Science Photo Library 32 Spotlight 16 The root of the problem 28 Life goes on 34 Reviews Chris Baines explains how large Professor Dame Linda Partridge, 46 Museum piece tree roots are mapped and an expert on ageing, on staying 47 Crossword protected during building work. healthy for longer. 48 Final word Vol 61 No 1 / THE BIOLOGIST / 1 THE IOLOGI T o¡ ¢1 No 1 e r£¤r M¤r V F b y/ ch 2014 Contacts EDITORIAL STAFF EDITORIAL BOARD Society of Biology Charles Darwin House, Director of Membership, Marketing Susan Alexander BSc PGCE CBiol CSci MSB MRSPH FRGS 12 Roger Street, and Communications J Ian Blenkharn MSB FRSPH London WC1N 2JU Jon Kudlick MSB Tel: 020 7685 2550 Editor Phil Collier MSc PhD CBiol FSB FLS FHE Fax: 020 3514 3204 Sue Nelson Cameron S Crook BSc MPhil CBiol MSB MIEEM FLS [email protected] @ScienceNelson Rajith Dissanayake MSc PhD FZS AMSB www.societyofbiology.org Managing Editor Catherine Duigan BSc PhD FSB FLS Tom Ireland MSB Views expressed in this magazine are [email protected] John Heritage BA DPhil CBiol FSB not necessarily those of the Editorial @Tom_J_Ireland Sue Howarth BSc PhD CBiol FSB Board or the Society of Biology. Communications Assistant Allan Jamieson BSc PhD CBiol FSB Karen Patel AMSB © 2014 Society of Biology Catherine Jopling BSc PhD MSB [email protected] (Registered charity no. 277981) Leslie Rose BSc CBiol FSB FICR MAPM For membership enquiries call 0844 858 9316 [email protected] The Society permits single copying of individual articles for private study For subscription enquiries call 020 7685 2556 or research, irrespective of where [email protected] the copying is done. Multiple copying of individual articles for teaching purposes is also permitted without TWITTER FACEBOOK BLOG specific permission. For copying or @Society_Biology www.facebook.com/ societyofbiologyblog.org reproduction for any other purpose, societyofbiology written permission must be sought from the Society. Exceptions to the above are those institutions and non-publishing organisations that have an agreement or licence with the UK Copyright Licensing IEW INTERV RANCIS PROFESSOR JANE F Agency or the US Copyright Clearance Professor Francis among emperor penguins in the TheBiologist Antarctic BREAKING Center. Access to the magazine is THE ICE available online; please see the Society’s Tom Ireland meets the new director of the British Antarctic Survey, Professor Jane Francis website for further details. it’s actually quite warm. You can just n October Professor Jane sit and watch an amazingly serene Francis took over as director and tranquil landscape, with the A WINDOW of the British Antarctic Survey, sunlight glinting off icebergs and the I an organisation which has led the odd bird call. Then you don’t want to UK’s exploration and research in be anywhere else in the world. The Biologist is produced on behalf the region for more than 60 years. As a palaeobotanist and geologist, Any hairy experiences? Professor Francis’ research uses We take first aid and health and fossilised vegetation to understand safety very seriously so I’ve not how the Earth’s climate has changed really had any close calls. The throughout history. scariest experience was when I of the Society of Biology by was working on Svalbard (Norway) A large part of your academic work a few years ago and a polar bear has involved looking for fossils in came quite close to our camp. In the both the Arctic and Antarctic. end he fell asleep in a gully for ON THE LIFE Presumably you enjoy working in a few hours in front of our camp Think Publishing Ltd. polar environments? and then left, but you do have to I absolutely do. I’ve done about be very careful. 10 seasons in Antarctica and six field trips to the Arctic, and they How did you get into polar-based are fantastic places to work. It’s research in the first place? amazing to go somewhere that is so As a geologist I started working on 124-128 Barlby Road remote and cold and find a leaf that fossil plants for my PhD and did a shows the climate was once almost project on the rocks of the Jurassic tropical there. coast in Dorset. I started working Whenever you set up camp in the there on fossil trees, leaves and field – a huge operation that can pollen and reconstructing ancient take a day or two – there’s always a forests. Then, while working in London W10 6BL SCIENCES moment when the helicopter or ship central Australia, I had an invitation leaves, when you realise it’s very from the Canadian Geological quiet, and you’re just a small group Survey to go and see these amazing molecular biology of people alone in a very isolated fossil forests they’d discovered DNa’s atomic structure place for a couple of months. up in the high Arctic. They were www.thinkpublishing.co.uk It’s generally a very beautiful spectacularly preserved – they and extremely humbling place – hadn’t been petrified and turned the climate can be pretty fierce to stone like you’d usually find. and you’re just a tiny speck in this You could saw open the wood and awesome landscape. But I’ve been in it would burn; you could pick the the Arctic peninsula when the sun leaves up and they’d trickle through 020 8962 3020 The Biologist is a bi-monthly magazine is shining, and when the wind drops / 29 Vol 60 No 6 / THE BIOLOGIST (published six times a year) that covers the THE TWISTS / Vol 60 No 6 full richness and diversity of biology. 28 / THE BIOLOGIST AND TURNS Design OF DN The ability to look at the structureA of DNA at the Alistair McGown Science is brought to life with stimulating atomic level has been key to understanding this miraculous molecule, as scientist and illustrator and authoritative features, while topical David Goodsell discovers Production editor n 1953, Watson and Crick presented their model for the I DNA double helix, revealing the way genetic information is held in a cell. In the years since, DNA has Clare Harris pieces discuss science policy, new proven to be a lively molecule that is looped, unwound, copied, repaired, edited, chemically modified, and more recently, engineered.