Two Jersey students win awards for natural history work

Two students studying for doctorates have been awarded grants for their natural history work.Societe Jersiaise has given the Nigel Queree Environment Award for 2025 to Joshua Smith for his project assessing grazing practices.The study group gave the Roderick Dobson Award to Rees Monet for his work aimed at improving the protection of coastal sharks and skates in the Channel Islands.The group said Nigel Queree had been one of Jersey's most prominent environmentalists and Roderick Dobson one of the island's most distinguished field naturalists.
Mr Smith is a PhD student at the Jersey International Centre for Advanced Studies. His project, 'Mow vs Moo', is aimed at comparing the success of different options of grass management in terms of biodiversity and carbon stocks.University of Exeter PhD student Mr Monet is tracking key species in his study, including the critically endangered Tope shark and three commercially important skate species.Societe Jersiaise said it continues to welcome applications for grants which are detailed on its website.

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Daily Mail​

an hour ago

• Daily Mail​

Going Nuclear by Tim Gregory: Want to save the planet? GO NUCLEAR

Going Nuclear: How The Atom Will Save The World by Tim Gregory (Bodley Head £25, 384pp) Tim Gregory works in what he calls 'one of the most chemically exotic square miles on the planet'. He is a scientist at the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield. So, it is no surprise that his new book offers a deeply researched and mostly persuasive argument in favour of nuclear power and its benefits. If we want to renounce fossil fuels and clean up our energy systems, 'splitting atoms of uranium inside nuclear reactors is our best bet at reaching net zero by 2050'. Yet, as he acknowledges, profound suspicion of the nuclear industry is rooted in the public mind. And, in what he sees as an ironic contradiction, those people who are most concerned about climate change are the very ones who are least supportive of nuclear power. This anxiety was not always so widespread. In the 1950s, nuclear power was often seen as the future we should happily embrace. In Britain, Calder Hall, the country's first atomic power station, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II 'with pride'. The town of Workington became one of the first in the world where people's washing machines, record players and other electrical appliances were driven by nuclear electricity. It was not only the Queen who was enthused by the then new technology. Gregory tells the oddly charming story of Muriel Howorth, who became a staunch advocate of nuclear power at the age of 62 after reading a book she'd borrowed from her local library. She went on to found the Ladies' Atomic Energy Club and to write a pantomime called Isotopia, which included characters such as Isotope, Neutron and Atom Man. In 1950, it was staged in London with members of the Ladies' Atomic Energy Club playing all the roles. She had hopes of a performance at the Albert Hall but, sadly, this was never to be. A 21st-century Muriel Howorth seems unlikely to emerge. Nuclear power has lost the glamour it may have possessed in the 1950s. It is more likely today to elicit alarm and anxiety. Gregory puts much of contemporary worry about the nuclear industry down to what he calls 'radiophobia' – an irrational fear of radiation. Popular culture has played its part in warping society's perception of the subject. The idea of atomic bombs has become entwined with our notions of the nuclear industry. Gregory endeavours to get beyond the mushroom clouds of our imagination. As he points out, all kinds of unexpected objects are radioactive to some extent. Potassium-40 emits beta and gamma radiation. Bananas and potatoes both contain potassium, so are therefore radioactive. 'Biology,' he notes, 'unfolds against a background of radioactivity.' All of us spend our lives 'bathed in radiation'. The only way we could avoid it would be by adopting a highly impractical programme of not eating, drinking or even breathing. 'You can't have radiation-free anything,' Gregory writes. 'Background radiation is about as ubiquitous and as harmless as it gets.' What about the dangers of nuclear waste and the difficulties of disposing of it? Gregory argues that these are greatly exaggerated. The paraphernalia in his lab – gloves, test-tubes, biros – is all classified as nuclear waste because it comes from Sellafield. Most of it is 'far less radioactive than a banana'. 'Low-level' nuclear waste accounts for just one per cent of the radioactivity in all nuclear waste but 87 per cent of its volume. The most dangerous type of 'high-level' waste, by contrast, represents 0.1 per cent of the total volume of nuclear waste but contains 95 per cent of its radioactivity. All the high-level waste from the past 70 years of the nuclear industry would fit inside a medium-sized concert hall. Figures such as these may well be reassuring, but Gregory is on less sure ground when he turns to the major disasters that have struck the industry over the decades. Again he turns to statistics to argue that we should not be over-anxious. 'Nuclear's safety record is blotted by a small number of rare, high-visibility events,' he acknowledges, but it's 'about as safe as wind and solar, and it's tens or hundreds times safer than fossil fuels'. Air pollution from the latter kills as many people every six hours, Gregory states, as nuclear power has ever done. He acknowledges the seriousness of Chernobyl, which he describes unequivocally as 'the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power', but he argues that we should not overestimate its long-term effects. The accident at Chernobyl happened because of a combination of factors – an unusual design of reactor, operators who broke the rules, Soviet-era corruption – that is extremely unlikely to occur again. He also uses an array of statistics and scientific studies to show fears of ongoing health risks are exaggerated. A study from 2019 found that cancer rates in regions of Ukraine close to Chernobyl were no higher than the national average. Not everyone will buy Gregory's take on Chernobyl, but he's more convincing on the 2011 Fukushima disaster, where an earthquake triggered a tsunami that caused three nuclear units to explode. Twenty thousand people died due to the natural disasters but only one person died as a result of the radiation, and a UN scientific committee found no evidence that the radiation caused an increase in any type of cancer. Arguments over the dangers of nuclear power will continue. What seems inarguable is its potential. There is, Gregory writes, 'as much nuclear energy in a gram of uranium as there is chemical energy in more than a tonne of coal'. If you powered a lightbulb with a gram of coal, it would give you 15 minutes of light; a gram of uranium would light up the bulb for 30 years. As he bluntly states, 'Net zero is impossible without nuclear power.' Renewables such as wind and solar have important roles to play but alone they cannot possibly satisfy a society that needs on-demand electricity. And the demand is growing. Europe today generates a fifth of its electricity from nuclear. It's the biggest source of emissions-free electricity, bigger than solar and wind combined. Gregory reports on what he calls 'the flatpack furniture of the nuclear world' – small modular reactors that take up the space of 5.5 football pitches. He envisages a future in which every large town will have one of these smaller reactors and there will be several in every major city worldwide. 'Nuclear,' he writes, 'will become routine.' Gregory is passionate in his belief that nuclear power will solve the world's energy problems. Not all readers will be so evangelical but his book presents a strong, carefully argued case for his ideas.

Times

3 hours ago

• Times

I have motor neurone disease — and the fund to find a breakthrough

Tris Dyson knew something was wrong in June 2022 when he could not move his left thumb. Six months later, aged just 44 and with a baby daughter, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). The muscles in his body were dying and he would, sooner or later, lose the ability to walk, speak and breathe. 'I was newly engaged. I'd bought a house. Things were going quite well. So to be told the party's over was not brilliant,' recalls Dyson. Today he considers himself 'one of the lucky unlucky ones' as his physical decline is 'relatively slow'. Having being told he had four years to live, Dyson said he is in 'pretty good shape', and thinks the doctor's prediction was wrong. Since his diagnosis, Dyson, now 46, has focused his energies on his day job, which just happens to be organising multimillion-pound prizes for scientific breakthroughs. He is managing director of the Longitude Prize, which was established in 2014 as modern-day version of the original Longitude Prize of 1714. The original prize sought reliable ways of measuring longitude at sea, and it took nearly 50 years to be solved. The modern-day version has run two awards so far: the first, in 2014, to tackle antimicrobial resistance, and the second, launched in 2022, seeks treatments for Alzheimer's. Now, the next prize will target MND; specifically amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common type, which is the one that Dyson suffers from. On Wednesday, Dyson's organisation, Challenge Works, a subsidiary of Nesta, the UK scientific foundation, will launch a £7.5 million Longitude Prize to find a treatment for ALS. For the next five months, Dyson will seek applications from medical researchers and AI experts all over the world before drawing up a shortlist of 20 teams. These will be whittled down in stages, with tranches of money doled out at each step. 'Prizes are very good when you've got a problem and you don't know where the solutions are going to come from,' Dyson says. 'You award on the basis of success.' The winning team will receive £1 million at the end of the challenge. Dyson hopes other investors or private companies will support the prize over time, offering computational power, for example, to run AI calculations. After that, the aim would be for a big pharmaceutical company to take the research and develop a drug: 'We need to feed them with high-potential, credible targets.' Pharma companies would have 'a huge market, potentially', he says. MND is not as rare as you may think. 'About one in 300 people will get it,' Dyson says. 'It's absolutely extraordinary. But often it appears when somebody is very old and it's part of the end-of-life process.' The Motor Neurone Disease Association estimates that it affects up to 5,000 adults in the UK at any one time. • MND sufferer records voice bank so she can swear at her husband MND is characterised by a breakdown in communication between nerve cells called motor neurones and the body's muscles, with the muscles weakening and wasting away, leading to paralysis. The progress of the disease varies from person to person, with only very limited treatments available and no cure. It is more likely to affect people aged over 50. There is no clear cause for MND, although genetic and environmental factors are thought to play a part. About one in ten people may have a family history which makes them more prone to the disease. Dyson believes there now is an opportune moment to tackle MND because of leaps in our understanding of genomics, and the rise of AI, which can sift through big data to find targets for drugs. Until now, he says, research has been limited and diagnosis is still pretty much the same as it was 100 years ago. 'What's happened in the last 15 years is the basic level of science has gone from being very little to a strong basic level of understanding,' Dyson says. 'The other thing that's happened is a huge amount of patient data has been collected, which we're making available through this prize.' Most of the money that has gone into studying MND has come from donations of patients' families, he adds, and cases such as that of the rugby league player Rob Burrow have raised its profile. Burrow and his former team-mate helped raise £6.8 million for a MND centre, which will open later this year in Leeds. 'It takes your independence away,' explains Dyson. 'It takes your dignity away. Some people manage to rise above it. Rob Burrow is a good example. It's still an unbelievably horrendous thing. And then you ask what treatments are available. There aren't any, which is an unbelievable thing to be told in this day and age.' Solving MND is not where Dyson expected his career to take him. He is not a scientist or medic by training; he studied Geography at UCL, where I first encountered him as an undergraduate, hanging around the ground floor of Ramsay Hall, a hall of residence in Fitzrovia whose main claim to fame is that the band Coldplay met there. After we graduated, I would see Dyson at various parties over the years. One early initiative was running a local currency scheme in Wales; another involved setting up a 'time credits' scheme across the UK that offered rewards to people who volunteered within a community. 'There was no plan,' Dyson says, looking back on his career, which brought him to Nesta in 2012. He has not, thankfully, lost his sense of humour, and talks calmly about the challenges ahead. 'I've got weakness in my arms. I might struggle to pick that up,' he says, reaching out to lift a jug of water —which he does, successfully. 'I'm OK walking. I have some problems typing.' He has not yet moved out of his home in Greenwich, southeast London, which has four flights of stairs, because he does not want to 'inconvenience' his partner, Jenny, and their daughter, now three. 'I'm putting money aside for my family. More than I would otherwise.' The unspoken question, of course, is whether Dyson will live to see the fruits of the prize he has founded. How does he look to the future? 'I'm not thinking too much about that,' he says. 'I think Stephen Hawking was like this. He just ignored it.' Hawking was diagnosed at 21 and died at the age of 76. What does he want people to know about MND, and his prize fund? Dyson pauses. 'We have to bring the timeframe of a treatment forward with this prize. I want people to believe it's solvable, and I think that's true.'

Daily Mail​

6 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

King Charles pays tribute to 'resilience' of antarctic research scientists

The king has recorded a personal message for Antarctic researchers as the southern hemisphere marks the shortest day of the year. While the UK enjoys its longest day of sunlight on Saturday, British scientists at the South Pole experience 24 hours of darkness. In a morale-raising message recorded for the BBC World Service's midwinter broadcast, Charles praised the researchers' 'critically important' work as well as their 'resilience and commitment' to their jobs. 'With the sun shying away from your horizon today, I particularly wanted to send my warmest good wishes to all of those serving at British Antarctic research stations this midwinter's say and, above all, to express the greatest admiration for the critically important work you do.' He then went onto talk a little about the researchers' work. The king continued: 'The scientific research that the British Antarctic Survey undertakes, alongside teams from across the world, is today more vital than ever, telling us stories of the past, the present and possible futures. 'Each observation, measurement and calculation you undertake adds to the world's understanding of the Earth's fragile systems and the role humanity plays, as we struggle to live in harmony with nature. 'I very much appreciate the resilience and commitment to duty you all demonstrate so effectively, and which embody the pioneering spirit that has characterised British polar exploration for generations. 'On the 70th anniversary of this midwinter broadcast, I send countless special thoughts for your celebrations today.' It comes a month after the King, a longtime environmental advocate, urged people to help save the planet during a charity fundraiser. He told the crowd: 'Collaboration is far better than conflict.' The monarch said the charity's work comes at a time when efforts are under way to 'develop an even greater ability to manage the human and animal conflict'. Charles said: 'If we're going to rescue this poor planet (from) continuing degradation, and restore some degree of harmony to the proceedings, we must also understand that whatever we take and exploit from nature. 'We need to give something back in return to enable nature to sustain us.' The BBC World Service's midwinter broadcast is part of a day of celebrations for personnel at British Antarctic Survey stations. These personnel are based at at Rothera, Bird Island, and South Georgia, and they join colleagues at other international bases across the continent to mark the day. Alongside the King's message, the programme consists of music requests and messages from home to those at BAS research stations. They traditionally feast, exchange presents, and watch the classic 1982 horror film The Thing, set in the Antarctic. This year midwinter coincides with sweltering weather back on British soil. This means the UK is preparing for thunderstorms which are set to mix with continued high temperatures on Saturday. These temperatures could reach all the way up to 34C in some areas. A yellow thunderstorm weather warning covering all of northern England, from Nottingham up to above Newcastle, will come into force from 3pm and last until 4am on Sunday. The Met Office warned the most intense storms could produce 'frequent lightning, large hail and gusty winds', along with a chance of flooding. Parts of eastern England could also see temperatures peak high enough to eclipse the 32.2C seen on Thursday and become the hottest day of the year so far.