Is extinction really forever?

mammoth-skeleton_Wilhelm-Tilesius

Robert Gooding-Townsend, Science in Society co-editor Can biotechnology bring back extinct species? If it can, should it? In her new book Rise of the Necrofauna, Britt Wray chronicles the nascent movement to bring back extinct species. She calls these resurrected creatures “necrofauna”, conjuring images of undead mammoths, passenger pigeons, and more. As compelling as the […]

Continue reading


Saving the planet one species at a time

by Jennifer Poirier, New Science Communicator Guest Blogger Save the oceans. Save the rainforest. Save the planet. These are all incredible, daunting, pursuit-worthy goals, but to a student in Nova Scotia, these problems seem very distant. Although we ultimately all feel the effects of environmental issues, it’s easy to distance ourselves from large, looming disasters […]

Continue reading


Beyond the numbers: What goes into estimating bird populations?

By Auriel Fournier, Mathematics and Statistics Editor   Auriel Fournier with the first Sora of the 2014 field season. (Photo credit: Auriel Fournier)   Ecology often comes down to counting something and using those counts to answer a question. We count birds, we count offspring, we count individuals with diseases, and we count the parasites […]

Continue reading


Arctic Breeding Common Eiders and the Students that Study Them

eider duck

Guest post by Rolanda Steenweg, PhD candidate, Dalhousie University & Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) member Celebrating Polar Week: March 14-20, 2016 A new field season On little East Bay Island, off Southampton Island, Nunavut, biologists slumber in their cool, grey cabin. Surrounded by ice, they anticipate the spring arrival of their study […]

Continue reading