SEB Bulletin July 2005 - In This Issue
No Scientist is an Island
People are pairing up like never before … Long gone are the days of the lone scientist or even the lone lab group beavering away in university departments and research institutes all over the land. Networks of communication and collaboration have been springing up at a local, national and international level like never before. It's not only a better way of working it's the very essence of science in the 21st century. Forming partnerships is fundamental to the success of funding proposals and ultimately to the output of research work in these days of high tech practices and streamlined resources. It may interest you, therefore, that the SEB is planning to develop a collaboration area on its website to enable members to look for suitable partners for future joint research ventures. And, of course, there will be plenty of networking opportunities provided at our forthcoming Plant Frontier Symposium (page 24) and Annual Main Meeting (page 12 - 13) next year.
In this new era of technology transfer and outreach into the community there are many other new and growing partnerships forming. It's very telling that the Biosciences Federation should choose as its first symposium, Bioscience and Business - commercialising your research (page 10). This well-attended meeting is reported on by Jane Taylor who relays the importance of scientists collaborating with the finance industry in order to take their ideas and innovations to the market place - a relatively new concept for the average scientist, requiring a steep and energetic learning curve.
Meanwhile, in Southampton, Phil Newland organised a local meeting of university-based neuroscience researchers and hospital clinicians so that they could exchange information and ideas in order to work together in the future to make the most of their research (page 8 - 9). He created a forum to bring these different groups together to develop new areas of research and to discuss what is required if clinically related problems are to be tackled in the laboratory, and if laboratory based research is translated into clinical practice.
An altogether different type of partnership is also reported on in this issue, which reaches out to another area of the community. The Royal Society is now into its fourth year of a 5-year initiative to pair a Member of Parliament with a local scientist (page 11). This two-way partnership aims to build bridges between parliamentarians and research scientists in the UK so that they can gain more insight into each other's work. We report on the experiences of two scientists who spent a week in Westminster - a real eyeopener for them both. You may also be interested to know that the SEB continues to be active in responding to key government consultations, which affect future science policy - we will be contributing to the Biosciences Federation's Science Priorities (2005 - 2009) document to be published next year.
Finally, the SEB continues to offer materials and advice to those involved in teaching. Our regular teaching and learning article has been written by Laura Blackburn, a postgraduate student from Cambridge, who responded to a recent call for volunteers to write for the bulletin. She provides an interesting and useful overview of new and exciting research work with nitric oxide emanating from the recent SEB symposium meeting in Naples (page 14 - 15). Our HORIZONS profile (page 23) also provides an update on training for would-be Biology teachers - complete with a new hand-holding exercise for those put off by the prospect of tackling physics!
Sarah Blackford
Editor