Lavender

Here in the south of France there's loads of lavender, and it's got many uses. The name probably comes from the Latin "to wash" (lavare) but might have its origins elsewhere...

If it's not grown decoratively, it is usually used for production of essential oils - lavender essential oil has found its way into much modern quackery:
- calming rub
- stops runny noses
- burns
- cuts and bruises
- ear pain
- monthly cramps
- anti-stress
All of the above can be magically treated by lavender. The oils do have some antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties, but it's perhaps safest to use lavender in cooking - it's often included in "herbes de Provence". Bees use the flowers to make some very nice honey too, and if you get up close to lavender in the summer you'll find it alive with insects:

And there's money to be made in selling it - a large bunch will cost nearly $500, or in the old days you could get 50 free haircuts. Flower power.

Life in the south of France

At last a return to what might be more regular updates. At least until things start to get very busy again.

So what is it?
Suggestions so far include "Beetleus farageibona" and "Rattus titanicexitus" though neither of these seem likely...
Any ideas?

Video recommendation

I am half-way through the excellent Crash Course Biology from Godfathers of YouTube Hank and John Green. It is entertaining, well-informed and snappily presented in twelve-minute chunks. At forty episodes that's still nearly eight hours of watching but I recommend it for our PAL and TAL as it is exactly at A-level. For International GCSE it may be a bit much, but some of the inheritance videos are bang on. Enjoy!

Welcome back!

It feels good to be back at school - but I would say that because I chose to be a teacher!

PAL and I met yesterday which is always enjoyable as I get to see who chose to continue this wonderful subject - after they weren't being forced to any more! And many did - a record number of people returning to do A-level. In the absence of Pronote this week I thought I would note down what we talked about, for benefit of students and parents...

Pearson Edexcel Advanced GCE in Biology B

A-levels are changing, beginning this year, and biology is in the first batch to be updated. We are sticking with exam board Pearson Edexcel who offer two flavours of their new biology specification, of which we have chosen the snappily-titled, 'B'. There is a nice, graphical overview here.

Textbooks

We are not insisting you buy the official course book but would like you to buy one or two biology textbooks writing at A-level. Find one with a writing style that appeals to you, get to know how to use an index quickly, and cross-reference your learning. Such skills will prepare you well for university.

We also recommend subscribing to New Scientist, visiting the wonderful Natural History Museum regularly, and if you would like Biological Sciences Review delivered to you please get in touch with Mr Tweddle. These publications are all available in the school library.

Enjoy your first term!

'Switch to renewable energy' poster

It's that time of year when we have covered all we need for exams and I spend a lot of time discussing climate change - a subject that features in all four sciences and one in which I have a personal interest.

This poster was inspired by results of a physics task - to create a poster encouraging use of renewable energy, showing knowledge of energy sources, types, transfers and efficiency. Alex and Violante came up with a juxtaposition that I really liked, so I made it in Photoshop:

TAL Biology field trip to Denmark

The TAL Biology and Geography students went to Fanø in Denmark in March to carry out the coursework part of the A2 syllabus.

After landing in Billund (home of Legoland, which sadly we didn’t have time to visit), a short journey by taxi took us to the ferry port for a 10 minute trip to the island of Fanø. Here we were met by the Danish teachers that help us with the field trip, and they cooked up a large meal for everyone once we’d settled in to the apartments.

During the following days the students carried out their coursework on a variety of topics – lichen coverage on bunker walls, anthill frequency on salt marshes and heather distribution in relation to soil pH were some of the investigations carried out. The students were very hard-working – many of them worked late into the night on soil testing! The final evening was the now famous quiz night, where the students were given a series of questions by Jeppe, our Danish guide, about their time on Fanø. The winners got a packet of flødeboller, and the chance to laugh at the team that answered the question “how many times a day is the Wadden Sea flooded?” with “every 10 minutes”, as they ate their prize.

We returned by taxi to Billund, arriving back in London late in the evening, tired but happy at another successful trip. Many thanks to Mrs De Silva for coming along and providing support to everyone!

The photos are from Charlotte - thank you!

Rubisco

Ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (rubisco): where would we be without this protein?

It does look like a large tangle of spaghetti hiding 8 French flags, but it's also essential in the Calvin-Benson cycle.

Plants fix carbon dioxide (from the air usually) by attaching it to a 5-carbon molecule called ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (thankfully abbreviated to RuBP). The 1-carbon CO2 and the 5-carbon RuBP forms two molecules of the 3-carbon molecule 3-phosphoglyceric acid (3-PGA). This is the first stage of the previously mentioned Calvin-Benson cycle. The 3-PGA goes on to be made into all the things a plant needs.

So what has all this got to do with the big ball of green pasta?

Rubisco is the enzyme that catalyses the combination of RuBP and CO2. No rubisco, no photosynthetic products, and so no life as we know it on planet Earth.

However, this isn't its only claim to fame; it's also the most abundant protein on the planet. In the average plant leaf, the chloroplasts (where all the above reactions take place) contain about half of the total protein content of the leaf. And about half of the protein content of a chloroplast is rubisco! This means that about a quarter of the protein in a leaf is rubisco.

Leaves form an essential part of the diets of animals (including us), and protein from the leaves is digested to amino acids, so animal proteins can be made. And guess which protein supplied you with a very large proportion of your building blocks...?