The acid drops project: pollution monitoring by young people

The spectrum of research at the Field Studies Council spans generations of scientists, from fully qualified and experienced staff to quite young children engaged in serious environmental monitoring. Pollution monitoring networks run by young people have a proven history, starting in 1971 with the Advisory Centre for Education air and water surveys, up to the present day with the Watch/Field Studies Council acid rain projects. Each project has demonstrated how a well coordinated network of unqualified volunteers, using inexpensive kits and simple techniques, can produce data worthy of scientific attention.     

The FSG's land: managing a fieldwork resource

The Field Studies Council occupies land for at least three purposes. At all ten Field Centres the immediate surroundings contribute significantly to the ambience in which the visitor/staff community lives and works. Secondly, it is a great advantage for a Centre to have working land free from the encumbrances of regular negotiations with its owner; land which can be managed to suit the requirements of the teaching programme. At six of the Field Centres, the 'estate' is large enough to contribute to this purpose.
The third reason for occupying land is, perhaps, the most important. We ought to want to demonstrate that we can apply our ecological knowledge for its own practical end. We should be able to show how to manipulate succession, how to crop the stand, how to maintain the view, and how to recycle the energy and the materials. I would like to think that the holding of land (and water) and the demonstration of its sound management was part of the working ethic of the Field Studies Council. We need to manage a range of habitats, stands and communities, to maintain their qualities and to demonstrate that we care about and can care for each of them. All this presupposes that we develop or invest in the skills and background necessary for the process.
The land we manage tells its own story. If we manage it well it will increase our corporate and individual satisfactions. It could mean that we have within our ranks the new yeomen; with them we could lead the original yeoman into a new attitude and enterprise which will maintain, and may even enhance, the face of Britain when the odds might otherwise be against it.     

Beyond the classroom

After school, college or university, adult education in Britain continues in many spheres. The Field Studies Council provides opportunities for a wide scope of amateur and professional naturalists to learn about various aspects of ecology through first hand experience in the field with like-minded people. The FSC is internationally recognized as the pioneer in environmental education and is still at the forefront of ecological thought. Courses are run at a variety of levels on a wide range of subjects. Within our full programme, there should be something for all at home or overseas.     

Education and taxonomy: the role of the Field Studies Council and AIDGAP

The taxonomic disciplines, classification and identification, are fundamental to most biological sciences. Yet, taxonomic teaching and research have declined to a level where adequate support for the other sciences can no longer be sustained. New teaching initiatives are needed, combined with the provision of suitable resource materials and identification guides. Bodies such as the Field Studies Council and the Linnean Society have a tradition of publishing identification keys, but the experience of the AIDGAP project, first started in 1976, shows that considerable thought must be given to content and presentation. Testing prior to publication is vital.     

Degrees of field experience

Field Studies Council centres have much to offer staff and students in higher education, particularly as bases for field courses but also for research facilities. The centres provide combinations of local experience, available habitats, published background material, laboratory and library facilities allowing pursuit of 'Field Studies' in the widest interpretation.     

From chocolate mousse to acid drops: an introduction to FSG research

Research has always been one of the functions of the Field Studies Council. One facet of this is the great diversity of small projects which support educational courses at the Field Centres. There has also been the growth, from small beginnings in 1967, of the Oil Pollution Research Unit at Orielton. OPRU has operated internationally for many years and undertakes both basic research and contract work for industry and governments. A more recent development involving contract work is 'acid rain' monitoring. These industrial facets of FSC Research have useful educational spin-offs.     

Fieldwork in UK secondary schools: influences and provision

The paper describes a national survey of biology teachers visiting Field Studies Council (FSC) centres in England and Wales. It provides data on levels of biology fieldwork at ages 11–16 (Years 7–11), and factors affecting A-level biology fieldwork provision at ages 16–19 (Years 12 and 13). The results are compared with similar data from geography teachers. Clear differences are demonstrated: in levels of ower-secondary provision; in teachers' perception of factors affecting fieldwork provision; and in the periodicity and timing of fieldwork. Recommendations are made towards improving the status and level of provision of A-level biology fieldwork.     

An IgA-binding peptide derived from a streptococcal surface protein.

Surface proteins that bind to the Fc part of human IgA are expressed by many strains of Streptococcus pyogenes, a major human pathogen. Studies of these proteins have been complicated by their size and by their ability to bind human plasma proteins other than IgA. Here, we describe a synthetic 50-residue peptide, derived from streptococcal protein Sir22, that binds human IgA but not any of the other plasma proteins known to bind to Sir22. The peptide binds serum IgA and secretory IgA and binds IgA of both subclasses. Evidence is presented that the peptide folds correctly both in solution and when it is immobilized and that it readily renatures after denaturation. Together, these data indicate that the peptide corresponds to a protein domain that binds IgA with high specificity. This is the first report of an IgA-binding domain that retains its properties in isolated form.     

A hundred years of gemellology

Over the past hundred years, since Sir Francis Galton first pointed out its scientific value, the study of twins has considerably widened its scope and significance. Gemellology has come to represent an important branch of human genetics and to be applied to the most diverse fields of biomedical and behavioral research, besides obviously contributing to the study of the specific biological, medical, and psychological aspects of the twin condition. More recently, then, it has in turn originated a new branch of modern genetic research, chronogenetics. Finally, sponsored and coordinated by the Mendel Institute in Rome, an International Society for Twins Studies has developed.     

Formative fieldwork: the age of the sixth form course

Two hundred and fifty-eight thousand A-level students have attended one-week field courses at Field Studies Council Residential Centres during the past 30 years. Biology courses have had a strongly ecological basis throughout, with an emphasis on the study of the whole environment. Only in recent years have financial constraints forced the organization to restructure academically-desirable programmes in favour of overtly syllabus-orientated curricula. There have, however, been but trivial changes in the pattern of work. The emphasis of the field course is based firmly on the students' own field and laboratory observations. Staff are facilitators not dictators.     

Sirtuins: multifaceted drug targets

Sirtuin (Sir2) proteins being key regulators of numerous cellular processes have been, over the recent past, the subject of intense study. Sirs have been implicated in diverse physiological processes ranging from aging and cancer to neurological dysfunctions. Studies on Sir2s using tools of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry and structural biology have provided significant insight into the diverse functions of this class of deacetylases. This apart, medicinal chemistry approaches have enabled the discovery of modulators (both activators and inhibitors) of Sir2 activity of diverse chemical structures and properties. The availability of these small molecule modulators of Sir2 activity not only has pharmacological significance but also opens up the possibility of exploiting chemical genetic approaches in understanding the role of this multi-functional enzyme in cellular processes.     

The Sir4 C-terminal coiled coil is required for telomeric and mating type silencing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sir4p plays important roles in silent chromatin at telomeric and silent mating type loci. The C terminus of Sir4p (Sir4CT) is critical for its functions in vivo because over-expression or deletion of Sir4CT fragments disrupts normal telomeric structure and abolishes the telomere position effect. The 2.5A resolution X-ray crystal structure of an Sir4CT fragment (Sir4p 1217-1358) reveals a 72 residue homodimeric, parallel coiled coil, burying an extensive 3600A(2) of surface area. The crystal structure is consistent with results of protein cross-linking and analytical ultracentrifugation results demonstrating that Sir4CT exists as a dimer in solution. Disruption of the coiled coil in vivo by point mutagenesis results in total derepression of telomeric and HML silent mating marker genes, suggesting that coiled coil dimerization is essential for Sir4p-mediated silencing. In addition to the coiled coil dimerization interface (Sir4CC interface), a crystallographic interface between pairs of coiled coils is significantly hydrophobic and buries 1228A(2) of surface area (interface II). Remarkably, interface II mutants are deficient in telomeric silencing but not in mating type silencing in vivo. However, point mutants of interface II do not affect the oligomerization state of Sir4CT in solution. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that interface II mimics a protein interface between Sir4p and one of its protein partners that is essential for telomeric silencing but not mating type silencing.     

Ordered nucleation and spreading of silenced chromatin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, silencing at the HM loci depends on Sir proteins, which are structural components of silenced chromatin. To explore the structure and assembly of silenced chromatin, the associations of Sir proteins with sequences across the HMR locus were examined by chromatin immunoprecipitation. In wild-type cells, Sir2p, Sir3p, and Sir4p were spread throughout and coincident with the silenced region at HMR. Sir1p, in contrast, associated only with the HMR-E silencer, consistent with its role in establishment but not maintenance of silencing. Sir4p was required for the association of other Sir proteins with silencers. In contrast, in the absence of Sir2p or Sir3p, partial assemblies of Sir proteins could form at silencers, where Sir protein assembly began. Spreading across HMR required Sir2p and Sir3p, as well as the deacetylase activity of Sir2p. These data support a model for the spreading of silenced chromatin involving cycles of nucleosome deacetylation by Sir2p followed by recruitment of additional Sir2p, Sir3p, and Sir4p to the newly deacetylated nucleosome. This model suggests mechanisms for boundary formation, and for maintenance and inheritance of silenced chromatin. The principles are generalizable to other types of heritable chromatin states.