October blogs digest: antimicrobial resistance, healthy eating, an open access quiz, and more

Not had a chance to read all our posts this month? Here’s a roundup of what you’ve missed…

What do you know about antimicrobial resistance?

For Biology Week this month we looked at current (and future) crises to which biology may have the answer to overcome them. We dedicated each weekday of Biology Week to different crises, and these were; antimicrobial resistance, climate change, cancer, ageing population and epidemics. Why not see how much you know about antimicrobial resistance by taking our quiz. Some of the answers might surprise you, so whether you’re an expert or need a bit more practice, don’t forget to share your score!

Does your food affect your mood?

The benefits of a healthy balanced diet on physical health are well established. But does diet affect your mental health? In the past ten years research on the effect of diet and nutrition on mental health has skyrocketed, with mounting evidence indicating that diet and nutrition are as important to psychiatry as they are to cardiology. Anna Clark discussed the association between fruit and vegetable consumption and reduced psychological distress in this blog.

Test your open access knowledge

Open Access Week also took place in October. Since its inception fifteen years ago, open access as a publishing model has steadily increased, particularly in the STM publishing world. But what does it actually mean to publish research this way? Find out how much you know in this quiz with fifteen questions for fifteen years of open access. Whether you ace it or not, we hope you’ll learn a lot from it, so don’t forget to share it with friends or colleagues and spread the open access knowledge.

From beluga whales to collecting dust from space

sidekick belugaDo beluga whales give themselves names? Research recently published in Zoological Letters investigated the individuality in contact calls of belugas. Looking at five belugas in captivity and how they communicate, co-author of the work, Yuka Mishima, revealed more about their findings in this blog.

6326877778_5d527c3d00_oStarting your PhD and finding your feet: At the beginning of a new chapter in your life, starting a PhD can be daunting. You’ve got your undergraduate degree, and maybe even a Masters, but how does this step up differ? Find out more and get some great advice from someone who’s been there.

tweet-chat-blog-imageEvolving service user involvement – next step, academic publishing: Service user involvement in research is now a well-accepted concept with a key emphasis in the community on how we can improve our methods and evidence base. Here, Peter Beresford discussed how service user involvement in research has evolved.

Horsehair_Worm_14629048952Environmental Change Could be Manipulating the Manipulators: Parasitic manipulators have very demonstrable impacts on the structures of ecosystems but we often don’t consider how a changing environment will manipulate such manipulators themselves. PhD candidate Bradley Van Paridon explained this further.

TCS-Logo-V-RGBThink. Check. Submit. A helpful checklist for researchers: Little guidance exists when it comes to choosing a journal to publish in. With the huge growth in the volume of research output over recent years, a new campaign hopes to provide this missing guidance. Ruth Francis described this further here.

flu croppedFive facts about flu: Following the publication of a study in BMC Medicine investigating vaccination strategies to prevent the spread of flu, co-author Marc Baguelin, a mathematical modeler of the influenza virus, put together five facts about flu for you, just in time for the flu season!

TcjA1UDzDhN3u40OfnQ3ZgtuyS-dmq7m7Q0MD6XyjOgAn elephant never forgets, but do they ever stop growing? Ever wondered if an elephant continues to grow throughout its whole life? Maybe this is how they grow to be so big. BMC Evolutionary Biology published work investigating exactly this, and the authors told us all about it in this blog.

Blood collection tubesWhat impact does open access have on healthcare? Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) help people worldwide, delivering emergency medical aid to those affected by conflict, epidemics or disasters. Kim West, from MSF, discussed open access and its benefits for global health research.

Untitled design(11)Collecting dust from the International Space Station: an author Q+A: Where there are people, there are bacteria, even in space! Microbiome published research on the microbiomes of dust particles collected from the International Space Station. But what can we learn from this? Co-author Kasthuri Venkateswaran from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory revealed more.

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