ChallenGen at the Pint of Science festival in Blanes

by Xavier Turon

The Pint of Science festival aims to deliver interesting talks on the latest science research in an accessible format to the public – mainly across bars and pubs (preferably with a pint of beer in hands). It is an International festival being held annually over three days at the same time in hundreds of cities across the world. Blanes, the host city of the CEAB, has participated for the first time in this year’s Pint of Science festival. The scientists of the CEAB gave nine talks three evenings (15-17 May 2017).

Xavier Turon participated in the first day of the festival, presenting the opening talk at a nice bar (Casal la Cooperativa) on the topic: Biodiversity 2.0: genetics and computers to study the living organisms. Needless to say, his talk capitalized on results obtained during the ChallenGen project, particularly those related to biodiversity assessment via metabarcoding.

It was an enjoyable and challenging experience to try to explain in lay terms some complex analysis we do in our research. The audience was very interested and asked many questions after the talk.

ChallenGen Project and CEAB at the XIV Firamar

by Maria Casso

Last weekend, the 20th-21st July, the Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB - CSIC) participated at the XIV Firamar of Sant Pol de Mar. The Firamar is a fair of artisans and activities related to the sea, like many research projects developed at the CEAB. Our ChallenGen Project, which is developed partially at the CEAB, got involved in the event.

As a member of the ChallenGen Project and the CEAB, I stayed in our stand at the fair during Saturday afternoon, explaining the work researchers conduct at the CEAB about invasive species, climate change, conservation, ecology and biodiversity. It was really nice to see how interested are many people on our job!

The stand of the CEAB at the Firamar, with some visitors during Saturday afternoon. Children could paint their own real balloon fish!

ChallenGen project and UB at the III Posidonia Summer Festival in Colera

by Carles Carreras

The conference about how molecular tools can be used to study our marine neighbours.

The last 9th of August we participated at the III Posidonia Summer Festival in the beautiful town of Colera. This annual event, organised by the town council and the Som-hi Association, aims to approach people to the sea by organising a large variety of talks and activities, like scientific snorkel, marine biodiversity family workshops or a marine renewable energies conference.

In this context we had the opportunity to explain the ChallenGen Project to local villagers and tourists by describing them several examples of how molecular tools can be used to study our marine neighbours. The talk took place at the Colera Trull, an ancient olive oil cellar, and people from all ages had the opportunity to became scientists for an hour by investigating with genetic markers the life of some of the animals of the Mediterranean sea. We thus discovered how littoral fishes structure their populations and adapt to local environment conditions, or how marine turtles migrate and reproduce, among others interesting examples. The talk was followed by an intense debate were we could answer everybody’s questions including the importance to study and conserve our marine biodiversity.

Starfish telomeres on a radio interview

by Alex Garcia

The starfish Coscinasterias tenuispina has the ability to reproduce sexually and asexually by fission, and many populations are even maintained by only asexual reproduction. One of our issues was to investigate if asexual populations can be maintained indefinitely. Our findings revealed that the starfish elongates their telomeres after fission, regenerating their DNA. Telomeres are repetitive sequences at the caps of chromosomes and are correlated with the age of individuals, therefore, in some point of view; the starfish have a mechanism to rejuvenate themselves.

Different media has been interested in this finding after its publication in Heredity. Among them, the radio program “Al otro lado del espejo” in which I participated last week.

Video contest winners!

by Maria Casso

Last week, on December 17th, was the award ceremony of the I Video Contest Comas i Solà organised by the UB. I participated in this contest with a video about my research.

There were three categories: "the best video", "the most watched video on youtube", "the most original video". I am very proud to say that my video resulted to be the winner in the category "most original video"! During the ceremony, we could saw the three videos.

Thanks to the UB Divulga for organising the contest. I hope next year it will be more participants and even more quality. I think it is a nice way to divulge science and research!

Seminar: DNA Metabarcoding

by Maria Casso

Yesterday, Xavier Turon and Owen Wangensteen participated at the seminar "DNA Metabarcoding", organised by the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio). DNA metabarcoding is a method to assess biodiversity which combines DNA based identification and next generation sequencing, and it can have several applications. The aim of the seminar was to show the potencial and limitations of the method.

The first lecture was Xavier's and it was an introduction about the impediments of taxonomy and how can metabarcoding methods contribute to assess biodiversity. After him, Owen talked about the specific case of metabarcoding of hard bottom marine communities. He also explained the few but critical stages of the pipeline were there isn't a consensus among scientists. It is really awesome to watch live how a new method is developing and be part of it.

The seminar took place at the School of Biology (UB). Many researchers and students attended, and some interesting questions came out. It was dense but also clarifying and motivating.

Lectures at the Course “New Technologies applied to the control and monitoring of invasive species”

by Xavier Turon

In October, 19 to 23, the National Parks Autonomous Agency (OAPN) organised a course on new technologies applied to the study of invasive species in Vigo (Galicia). This course was attended by staff, technicians, and rangers of the National Parks in Spain.

I was invited to give a lecture about “Genetic tools and invasive species”. It was an enjoyable experience, with interested audience that posed clever questions... and of course it was an occasion to enjoy good shellfish “mariscada” typical of Galicia’s gastronomy.

The Cíes Islands, part of the National Park of the Atlantic Islands in whose facilities the course was given. The ChallenGen project, in collaboration with the Metabarpark project, has been working on the benthic communities of these Islands.

Video: Alien Species VS. Genomics

by Maria Casso

The University of Barcelona (UB) organises for the first time a short film contest that allows researchers describing the scientific studies they develop to the general public.

I decided to participate in this contest as I'm a PhD student at the UB.

You can watch it here.

I hope you like it!

After Pints and Science

Yesterday, the Cara B was full! Many different people came and some did interesting questions. The afternoon was funny, educative and inspiring.

...And the speakers had a beer for free thanks to the Pint of Science Festival Team!

ChallenGen at Pint of Science!

Pint of Science Festival arrives in Barcelona from 18th to 20th May. Xavier Turon and Maria Casso will participate in this edition for the first time speaking about diversity and climate change with a beer in their hand. These are main subjects of the ChallenGen Project and we are pleased to present it and share our knowledge to the general public. Thanks a lot to the Pint of Science Barcelona Organization for inviting us to participate in this event! We will be at Cara B bar on Monday 18th, from 8pm. Everybody will be more than welcomed!