What is that bone?

So, posts are like buses - nothing for over two years, and then two turn up on the same day!

I wanted to tell you about a course we have running at the Lancashire Forensic Science Academy. 

This half term, on 26th October 2022, we are running our famous 'What is that bone?' course. It is aimed at young people (from 12 years up), and is a fun and interactive workshop about animal and human skeletons. If you have ever been out walking and found a bone or two, and thought to yourself, 'What is that bone?', then this is the course for you! It will help you to distinguish between animal and human bone, and to identify some of the most common British animals that you might encounter when out walking. You'll also get to hear about how the ability to determine whether a bone is human or animal can help forensic investigations, and hear about real cases where this has been done by forensic anthropologists. All this, with a chance to learn from real-life experts, gain hands-on experience, and lunch and refreshments are included! In addition, it all takes place in our exclusive facility on the Lancashire Constabulary Head Quarters site just outside Preston. You can book your place here. Please let me know if you have any questions about it. 

Hello there, strangers!

I can't believe how long it has been since my last post - about two and half years!! Well, suffice to say, a lot has changed since then! I have moved across the Penines, from Yorkshire to Lancashire, to join the University of Central Lancashire as Professor of Forensic Science, and Manager of the Lancashire Forensic Science Academy (LFSA). I joined in January 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, so I am no longer a newbie, but all I can say is that I have been very impressed with UCLan so far. Everyone is very friendly, dedicated to their job, knowledgeable, and supportive of forensic taphonomy. I feel that I have finally found 'my people'. I hope that this feeling lasts. 

On a more personal note, my husband and I have now moved to Lancashire, and have found a nice house out in the countryside. It is a bit of commute into Preston, but we are loving the scenery, how welcoming our village has been, and the variety of walks that we can go on in the vicinity. And we have a new addition to our family - a Bernese/Retriever cross called Tobermory. He loves the countryside walks and the proximity to the seaside. 

So, I will endeavour to write more frequently, and tell you what I'm up to at UCLan and the LFSA. More posts to come!

Contingency planning for Coronavirus: article

Well, I don’t know about you, but I have never experienced this type of situation before. Government restrictions, national lock-down, police outside ready to stop you if you go out..it is like something out of a dystopian movie. All the worry about vulnerable family members and friends, elderly neighbours, the state of the NHS, just adds to the general feeling of disquiet. 

Last year, my colleague Dr Julia Meaton and I supervised MSc research by Helen-Marie Kruger about the preparedness of local authorities for dealing with a flu pandemic. Of course, since then, the coronavirus situation has developed, and suddenly, our research takes on a new morbid significance. We modeled what would happen with a 50% clinical attack rate and a 1% and 2.5% death rate. Currently, the clinical attack rate of COVID-19 is thought to be about 60-80% and the mortality rate hovers around 1%.

We conducted interviews with employees of a Local Authority, including a senior emergency planning manager, a mortuary manager, a registrar and a bereavement services manager, and we modeled death rates using the UK Government Cabinet Office’s National Planning Assumptions Assessment Tool. In our paper, available here, we discuss how many excess deaths there would be over  15 week period, and as the pandemic reaches its peak, and the strain that would put on the funeral, crematoria and bereavement services. Our findings suggest that although business continuity plans are in place, it is highly likely that these services will be overwhelmed, even in the case of the lower mortality rate.

If you have questions about the paper or our research, please contact me or Dr Meaton.

If you can, please stay indoors to stop the spread of the virus and help our NHS save lives.
Thank you to all the fantastic NHS staff working so hard at this difficult time. 

Copyright infringement!

It has come to my attention that a website called swganth.org is using my name, credentials and images, and claiming to have been created by me. It has nothing to do with me and was not created by me. The gallery is full of pictures of me, the website is using others' images without permission, and is pretending to be associated with me. I have sent them a 'cease and desist' email, and contacted the hosting company and the domain registrar to ask them to take it down. I first noticed it in April 2019, and asked them to remove it then - it was for a short time, but it is now back up. I just wanted to make it public that this site has nothing to do with me! If you have any idea who might be involved with it, or behind the website, and know how to get in touch with them, please let me know.

Thanatos

Happy 2020 to all my readers! I am so sorry for the radio silence that has lasted over a year!
I have some exciting news to tell you about. I am very pleased to be involved in a artistic collaboration, funded by the British Arts Council, called Thanatos. It is a collaboration between the very talented artist Eric Fong, and innovative perfumer Euan McCall. Thanatos is a multi-sensory installation which builds on some of the research into the #scentofdeath that I have been involved in. A few years ago, my colleague Gareth Parkes and I supervised PhD research by Lorna Irish, looking into the gases (or volatile organic compounds) that are given off as a body decomposes, to see if the changes in those gases could be used to determine post-mortem interval, and/or could be used to more specifically train Victim Remains detection dogs. We published an article about our research in Science and Justice last year.

The art installation is focused on the presentation of the perfume Thanatos, which is inspired by this research and the sights and smells of human decomposition. The exhibition is travelling around the country, and over the next few months, will be in Leicester at the Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre, at the Old Operating Theatre in London, and at Teesside University. There will be lectures, panel discussions and workshops associated with the installation. I hope to see you there!

Science at the House of Lords

Just before Christmas, I was excited to get an invitation to an afternoon tea at the House of Lords. This was a special invitation-only event to celebrate 30 years of Media Fellowships. These are competitive  fellowships where scientists get to immerse themselves in the fast-paced and often cut-throat world of journalism. They are organised by the British Science Association. Every year, the BSA supports up to ten scientists at different stages of their careers to spend two to six weeks working full time in a media outlet such as The Guardian, Nature, the BBC (either TV or Radio) or New Scientist. They are mentored by journalists and editors at the media outlet, and encouraged to create media outputs (articles, programmes, blog posts, online posts etc) about a wide variety of science topics. The aim is to break down barriers between scientists and the press or media, and to encourage scientists to readily talk and write about their science, as the more science can be shared with the public, the better. The scheme has been running since 1987, and has led to thousands of creative and engaging scientific outputs, whether broadcast, in print or online.

As you may know, I was lucky enough to win one of these Media Fellowships in 2014, and I spent an enlightening month working for New Scientist. During my time there, I learned how to write pithy and exciting articles, and interviewed other scientists about their work. It was extremely interesting, especially to break out of my sometimes insular discipline and learn about many other areas of science. I wrote about toxic algal blooms in America, the glue used on the Terracotta Army, and how cold potatoes can be used to prevent cancer. I also got to write a double page spread about my own area of research, although it concentrated on the work of other scientists in the discipline: Death: the great bacterial takeover. You can read more about my experience from my posts at the time here and here. I would be lying if I didn't say the experience was tough, but it was immensely rewarding, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone.

And so, one of the unexpected perks of the Fellowship, was a rather fancy afternoon tea at the House of Lords. It was a classy occasion, made even better by the chance to meet up again with other Fellows from my cohort - Aditee Mitra in particular - and to meet Fellows from other years and swap experiences and anecdotes. We also heard from Lord David Willetts, and previous and current Media Fellows Ruth McKernan, Helen Czerski, and Rebecca Dewey, who each gave impassioned speeches about how the media should engage with scientists and vice versa. 

Even if there hadn't been the opportunity to go to the House of Lords (which has a lovely shop, by the way), I would wholeheartedly recommend applying for a Media Fellowship, if you're a scientist with even a slight interest in public engagement or science communication. The experience you'll get cannot be gained in academia, or anywhere else for that matter, and is invaluable for improving all types of writing, whether it be in scientific journals, blogs or grant applications. 

Aditee and me outside the House of Lords 

Twenty First Century Women

Last month I was interviewed by Cambridge 105 Radio for their show about Twenty First Century Women. They interviewed my sister, Naomi Davies about her genealogy business and watercolour paintings and then me about the campaign to establish a Human Taphonomy Facility (or 'Body Farm') in the UK. If you're interested, you can hear the podcast here.