Preparing for Spotted Wing Drosophila in the UK

Summary

This article provides accessible links and information on the fruit pest Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD, Drosophila suzukii) , brought together from a variety of sources. The information is current as of August 2012. This is still prior to the likely landfall of Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) in the UK. It includes Fera UK advice plus experiences of growers and researchers in the US and Europe where SWD is already present. This information should be of interest for professional fruit growers and for gardeners wanting to know more on how to detect the pest and manage it when it does arrive in the UK.

You can read and download the whole document as a PDF by clicking on the image below. Alternatively access the document for download from http://issuu.com/miltoncontact/docs/spotted-wing-drosophila-article or continue reading this article below

Open publication - Free publishing - More control

Introduction

I learnt of a crueller reality for fruit growers in the UK when the owner of one visited my Cambridge Open Studio photography exhibition in July 2012.  Fruit growers are looking out with dread for the first signs of the destructive fruit fly invader, Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD), in the UK.

First recorded in Japan in the early 1910s, Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) was detected in the US and southern Europe by 2008. By November 2011 a specimen was found in Ostend, Belgium, just a Channel hop away (1).

It is only a matter of time before Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) invades the UK. Currently  Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) is on the list of Notifiable Pests and Diseases set by Defra/Fera (2).

The bad news is countered by the upsurge on recent experience and publications in Europe and the USA. We can benefit from the experience gained by growers and researches who are already battling with Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD, Drosophila suzukii).

Damage caused by the Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD)

Within the first year of Spotted Wing Drosophila  reaching California, it caused $500 million actual loss due to pest damage. The effect was very variable, with some areas having little or no loss and others up to 80% crop loss (3). Details for individual crops over three US counties are given in (4).

Why Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) has such an impact

The reasons for the potentially severe effects and fast spread of Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) include

1. Wide host range
2. The ability to attack ripening fruit
3. Exponential reproduction within a growing season
4. Ability to reproduce at 10 deg C to 30 deg C
5. Ability to spread in commercial fruit transport and by flight (5).

1. Wide host range

Reported hosts are Rosaceae - Fragaria ananassa (strawberry), Rubus idaeus (raspberry), Rubus fruticosus,  Rubus laciniatus,  Rubus armeniacus and other  Rubus species and hybrids of the blackberry group, Rubus ursinus (marionberry),  Prunus avium (sweet cherry),  Prunus armeniaca (apricot),  Prunus persica (peach),  Prunus domestica  (plum),  Eriobotrya japonica  (loquat); Ericaceae -  Vaccinium species and hybrids of the blueberry group; Grossulariaceae – Ribes species including the cultivated currants; Moraceae - Ficus carica (fig), Morus spp. (mulberry); Rhamnaceae - Rhamnus alpina ssp. fallax, Rhamnus frangula (buckthorn); Cornaceae -  Cornus spp. (dogwood); Actinidiaceae -  Actinidia arguta (hardy kiwi); Ebenaceae - Diospyros kaki (persimmon); Myrtaceae -  Eugenia uniflora (Surinam cherry); Rutaceae - Murraya paniculata (orange jasmine); Myricaceae - Myrica rubra (Chinese bayberry); Caprifoliaceae - Lonicera spp. (honeysuckle); Elaeagnaceae -  Elaeagnus spp.; Adoxaceae - Sambucus nigra (black elder). Also included are Vitis vinifera (table and wine grapes) and Malus domestica (apple)(5)(6).

2. Ability to attack ripening fruit

Female Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) target ripening fruit. They have a serrated ovipositor (egg-laying tube) with which they cut through the fruit skin and lay eggs inside. This is different to the familiar fruit flies, where eggs are laid on the surface of ripe fruit and the hatched larvae can only enter through any existing break in the fruit skin that they find (5)(6).

3. Exponential reproduction in a growing season

One to three eggs are laid per fruit. On average 400 eggs are laid during a lifetime that may range from 10 to 59 days. The hatched larvae feed mainly within the safety of the fruit and pupate.  Adults can emerge from the fruit after a minimum of 8 days, depending on temperature. Up to 10 generations of Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) can be produced within a growing season (5)(6).

Each individual fruit can be infected by a number of different females, increasing the damage caused by the feeding larvae. Further causes of fruit damage are opportunistic infection by other fruit flies, fungi, yeasts and bacteria through the holes created (5)(6).

4. Wide temperature tolerance for breeding

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) is tolerant of a wide range of temperatures, reproducing between 10 deg C and 30 deg C. Adults are cold tolerant and it is believed that mated females overwinter (5). The UK is well within its comfortable reproductive temperature range.

5. Long distance spread in fruit and also by flight

Long distance spread is likely to be via larvae and pupae hidden within harvested fruit moving across borders. Tracking studies on the close relative Drosophila melanogaster in 1961 showed that fruit flies could also travel at least 4.4 miles upwind within 24h (7). Targeted flight towards a food source by Spotted Wing Drosophila is quoted at 150m, they can however fly as far as 10km (8).

The Strategy: Monitor, Identify Control

With such a combination of factors creating a high potential for damage, how do you respond and control Spotted Wing Drosophila should it appear in your region?

The UK Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera), under Defra, put together a fact-sheet  on Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) in 2010 (6) which included advice on potential control measures.
The pest has not entered the UK, so Fera also sent out a consultation invitation in January 2012 (11) requesting input on identifying the most appropriate response to SWD in the UK. Two options open for consideration were

• No statutory action, leave industry to manage
• Work in collaboration to limit spread, including limited statutory action when necessary

The document also outlines control options, indicating that an integrated approach will be needed (integrated pest management IPM).

The key message is to catch Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) as early as possible. The information sheet for Washington State wine grape growers gives the excellent mantra
Monitor, Identify, Control 
as an excellent memory aid (9).

Monitoring and identification can already be done by any grower in the UK with minimal effort.

Monitoring and Identifying Spotted Wing Drosophila

Fruit flies can be collected in 5% apple cider vinegar traps, also known as ACV traps (10)(11). These can easily be made economically from yoghurt pots or plastic bottles. Pierce the sides with holes a few millimetres wide or cover the opening with loose mesh cloth that will let fruit flies through. Add apple cider vinegar and a drop of detergent. Apple cider vinegar still appears to be the most effective attractant. The detergent serves to kill the flies. The pictures in the slideshow below show the results of an impromptu trial I conducted at home.


Traps should be set either as soon as temperatures exceed 10 degrees C or just before your crop is about to start ripening.

As a fruit grower, the simplest way to identify potential Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) from other fruit flies is – by the single wing spot on each of the wings. (The following photos are from specimens captured in Milton, Cambridgeshire, 2016)

Male SWD (Spotted Wing Drosophila, D. suzukii. showing wing spot. Photo Chris Thomas, miltoncontact

Female SWD (Spotted Wing Drosophila, D. suzukii. lacking wing spot but with serrated ovipositor.
Photo Chris Thomas, miltoncontact

Note: Only the males have the wing spots. As the sex ratio is lightly higher for females than males with this fruit fly early in the year, detecting males strongly suggests females are also present. Late Summer and Autumn, more males than females were found in traps in affected areas (12).

If you have access to a stereo-microscope, you can also search for females of SWD as they have a characteristic serrated (toothed) ovipositor (egg laying tube).

More pictures of male spotted wings and of female ovipositors to aid identification can be found in references (6)(8)(10). Holes in fruit created by egg-laying female Spotted Wing Drosophila are also another indicator of a potential problem.

Picture of D. suzukii by Wikimedia Commons contributor M Francisco

Control: Current Recommendations

The UK primary objectives (6, 10) are to:

1. Control the adult flies before they can lay eggs in the fruit and
2. Reduce fly populations available to re-infest later crops or carry over to the following year.

The following strategies can be used in an Integrated Pest Management for your crop if Spotted Wing Drosophila has been identified in your area.

Netting: 

Japanese research in 2007, quoted in (5), showed that netting of blueberry orchards with a 0.98 mm mesh net completely prevented blueberry damage by Spotted Wing Drosophila.
Since 85% of commercial soft fruit is grown in poly-tunnels in the UK, growers may be able to include the fine netting as part of their poly-tunnel design.

More frequent harvesting/crop hygiene 

More frequent harvesting of ripe fruit and removal of over-ripe, infected and leftover or spoilt fruit from the crop is important. It reduces the rate of fruit fly population growth during the growing season.

Spotted Wing Drosophila populations grow exponentially towards the end of Summer and into Autumn if unchecked. A larger surviving population of female fruit flies that can overwinter will create problems for you in the following year.

Some of the US advice is more controversial from an environmental perspective. The rationale proposed is that wild fruit and hedgerow plants will act as natural reservoirs of SWD and should therefore be removed close to agricultural areas (13)

Treatment of infected waste

Do not simply compost infected material as this does not kill larvae in the fruit and could actually make the situation worse. Fera mentions the use of deep burial (11). Solarization, insecticide treatment, disposal in closed containers, crushing, cold treatment, bagging and burial are all being investigated (6, 10, 14).

Bait traps

There are mixed messages about the effectiveness of bait traps for mass trapping of Spotted Wing Drosophila (mentioned in 11). The Penn State Extension quotes Japanese work where trapping with 60 to 100 vinegar traps per acre decreased SWD numbers (13).

Organic control 

As an organic grower you would already include the above control measures in your organic IPM. In addition, you may be able to use approved pesticides for organic growers.

Organic growers in Utah and the Pacific Northwest have used a rotation between Entrust, a spinosad pesticide and Pyganic, an organic pyrethrum insecticide (10, 15). Preliminary field trialling results with strawberries and caneberries using Entrust and Pyganic gave up to 5 days of Spotted Wing Drosophila control (16).

A Grower in the UK you need to check whether these organic pesticides can be used on your crops. We need more alternatives as a limited selection of approved pesticides will favour resistance developing.

Chemical control

Pesticides are applied as foliar sprays. The recommended timing is about two weeks before harvest, whilst the fruit is ripening. The aim is to try to kill the adults before they lay eggs. If your monitoring identifies high levels of Spotted Wing Drosophila, you can spray earlier.

Fera in the UK recommends using insecticides with generally lower human toxicity – such as spinosad, imidacloprid, acetamiprid and certain pyrethroids that have been shown to be effective. Obviously you will need to use the products registered for your individual crops (6).

The fast generation time of Spotted Wing Drosophila promotes the development of resistance if you use just one pesticide throughout a season.  Delay the onset of resistance by rotating different classes of insecticides during your season.

Detailed lists of pesticides permitted in the US and recommended for their crops are given in (5, 13, 15).  A comparison of insecticides looked at their impact on Spotted Wing Drosophila both in the laboratory and the field (17). Pyrethoids, organophosphates and spinosyns provided 5 to 15 days of residual control. In contrast, neonicotinoids were not so effective in killing adult flies and are currently not recommended.

IPM Area

Spotted Wing Drosophila can survive in wild fruits and travel large distances. Therefore integrated pest management needs to be applied to a wider area. This means taking in to account treatment in neighbouring crops and how to control SWD numbers in natural areas without detrimentally affecting pollinators and wildlife.

Future Control Options

The advance of Spotted Wing Drosophila in Europe and the US has generated a flurry of research into control measures (5, 18). Based on experience with close fruit fly relatives and other successful pest programs, a whole range of different options are in the pipeline.

Chemigation

Pesticide sprays may not penetrate  deep into the foliage.  The alternative could be application in a mist spray. In the US, trials were conducted on Blueberries using “chemigation”; they applied the pesticides with the cooling mists for the crop during the hottest part of the season. SWD mortality was well above 90%  with mists created using Netafilm micro-sprinklers (19).

Bait trapping

Fera and others mention the possibility of bait trapping (5, 6). Pesticides are added to bait that contains attractants. Feeding adults are then killed. Whilst baits for some fruit flies are known, the best bait for Spotted Wing Drosophila is still to be determined. Currently 5% apple cider vinegar still seems consistently effective as an attractant.

Parasitic wasps

Parasitic wasps have been used to control aphids in greenhouses and poly-tunnels. Naturally occurring parasitic wasps have either been hatched from Spotted Wing Drosophila pupae in the states (13, 20) or tested on SWD in Europe (21). In the latter, only parasitic wasps that attacked the pupae of Spotted Wing Drosophila could kill the pest, namely Trichopria cf drosophilae and P. vindemmieae. It appears that the larvae have some resistance to these wasps. Work is still continuing and the best control wasps then need to be multiplied to commercial levels.

Longer term options

Cini and coworkers wrote their review after the Trento international meeting on Spotted Wing Drosophila. This was attended by about 180 people (5) and also included ideas that would require more research and development.
Ideas being pursued are:

• Searching for more organic and chemical control agents. We need more control agents in the pipeline.  Resistance to existing agents will inevitably arise over time.
• Mating disruption using sterile male Spotted Wind Drosophila.
• Finding and producing Spotted Wing Drosophila pheromones (sex-attractants) that can be used in traps.
• Use of Drosophila specific DNA viruses.
• Exploiting the ability of  bacteria from the genus Wolbachia to infect more than half of living insect species. Wolbachia can cause male feminisation and even death.

One of the accelerating factors in any research into Spotted Wing Drosophila is its relative Drosophila melanogaster, This fruit fly has been the work horse of genetics research for over a century. D. melanogaster DNA has been sequenced for some time. On the 4th July 2012, the Fondazione Edmund Mach announced that they had sequenced the Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) genome (22). These factors raise the hope that findings from one model system can be rapidly transferred to Spotted Wing Drosophila.

Summary

This article was written before the likely landfall of Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD, D. suzukii) in the UK. It includes UK advice and also the experiences of growers and researchers in the US and Europe where SWD is already present.

Spotted Wing Drosophila is a notifiable pest. The article describes how to monitor for SWD using 5% apple cider vinegar traps and how to identify the male and female Spotted Wing Drosophila if caught.

Fera has issued a Plant Pest Factsheet for Spotted wing drosophila Drosophila suzukii (6) which is the official source of information on the pest and its control in the UK. There is currently a consultation on UK policy towards Spotted Wing Drosophila (11) which should provide further official guidance when published.

This article provides information both on the existing UK guidance and the wider experience of growers in the USA and Europe who are currently battling with Spotted Wing Drosophila. This report should therefore be of interest for professional fruit growers and for gardeners in the UK who expect the arrival of the pest and are looking for a wider overview.

About the Author

Chris Thomas, PhD, is a former scientist with 20 years of experience in plant molecular biology and plant pathology.

I am now director of  my own company, Milton Contact Ltd (www.miltoncontact.co.uk)  founded in 2004. The company is active in a totally different area – helping companies communicate with their clients in print, pictures and person. Within the UK this involves anything from photography, writing articles and through to editing, designing and publishing books for local authors. Internationally, I assist overseas companies interested in entering the UK market.

This article was an opportunity I could not miss. It was a pleasure to be able to combine:

• A continued interest in plant science and pathology 
• Communicating the information to an audience of farmers, growers and gardeners
• The ability to publish it and make it available to all.

My thanks to:

The fruit grower who came to my Cambridge Open Studios exhibition, saw the photo of a fruit fly head and first made me aware of the existence and risk of Spotted Wing Drosophila entering the UK
Thanks also to my neighbour Jo who had red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar and convenient plastic bottles on hand when she heard of my interest in setting up some fruit fly traps

Updates

• (UPDATE Jan 2013, SWD DETECTED IN KENT, 2012)
• (UPDATE JAN 2013 - Response to the Drosophila suzukii (the spotted wing drosophila) consultation: http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantHealth/pestsDiseases/documents/drosophilaConsultOutcome.pdf)
• (ADDED JAN 2013. Some sites recommend concentrated yeast extract and sugar solutions. I personally would not recommend using these for the following health and safety reason: Similar solutions are used for bacterial cultures, including fecal bacteria. Incidental contamination by animal or bird droppings, or flies that feed on droppings could result in a very high bacterial growth that may be detrimental to you. Also, it is very hard to see the SWD or any fruit flies in a fermented yeast soup!)
• UPDATE Jan 2013. SWD is now NOT notifiable to Fera, because of its biology and it being almost impossible to control at present. Please DO send samples of any trapped adult Drosophila flies to: Dr Michelle Fountain, East Malling Research, New Road, East Malling, Kent ME 19 6BJ.
• UPDATE Aug 2016. SWD is now an established pest in the UK.

References

1. European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation, EPPO Archives (2011). http://archives.eppo.int/EPPOReporting/2011/Rse-1110.pdf
2. Notifiable Pests and Diseases set by Defra/Fera 2010  – see http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/publications/plantPestDiseaseFactsheets.cfm 
3. Drosophila suzukii 2012, Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_suzukii#Economic_Impact
4. Bolda, M. P., Goodhue, R. E., and Zalom, F. G. (2009?), Spotted Wing Drosophila: Potential Economic Impact of a Newly Established Pest. Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics  -  University of California.  http://giannini.ucop.edu/media/are-update/files/articles/v13n3_2.pdf
5. Cini, A., Ioriatti, C. & Anfora, G. (2012), A review of the invasion of Drosophila suzukii in Europe and a draft research agenda for integrated pest management. Bulletin of Insectology 65 (1): 149-160, 2012. http://www.bulletinofinsectology.org/pdfarticles/vol65-2012-149-160cini.pdf
6. Anderson, H., Collins, D. and Cannon, R. (2010), Spotted wing drosophila Drosophila suzukii. The Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) Plant Pest Factsheet, Crown copyright 2010 http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/publications/documents/factsheets/drosophilaSuzukii.pdf
7. Yerington, A. P.  & Warner, R. M.  1961, Flight Distances of Drosophila Determined with Radioactive Phosphorus. Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 54, Number 3, June 1961 , pp. 425-428(4). http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/esa/jee/1961/00000054/00000003/art00010
8. Draft pest risk analysis report for Drosophila suzukii, October 2010.  Biosecurity Australia. http://www.daff.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/1825497/pra-report-drosophila-final.pdf
9. “Spotted Wing Drosophila: What Washington State wine grape growers need to know”. http://www.goodfruit.com/Wine_Grape_SWD_Bulletin_v1_02.pdf
10. Utah Pests Fact Sheet. Spotted Wing Drosophila 2010 http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/ENT-140-10.pdf
11. Letter: Consultation on policy against Drosophila suzukii, 06/01/12, Fera http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantHealth/pestsDiseases/documents/drosophilaConsultLetter.pdf
12. Biology and Management of Spotted Wing Drosophila on Small and Stone Fruits: Year 2 Reporting Cycle. SWD Research Review Summer 2012. USDA-NIFA-SCRI Funded Project 2010-61181-21167. http://horticulture.oregonstate.edu/system/files/SWD_ResearchReviewYear%202_7.16.12.pdf
13. Spotted Wing Drosophila Management, June 22, 2012. Penn State Extension of the Penn State University College of Agricultural Sciences. http://extension.psu.edu/fruit-times/news/2012/spotted-wing-drosophila-management 
14. Walsh, D.B., Bolda, M.P.,  Goodhue, R.E.,  Dreves, A.J.,  Lee, J.,  Bruck, D.J.,  Walton, V.M.,  O’Neal, S.D. and Zalom F.G. 2011. Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae): invasive pest of ripening soft fruit expanding its geographic range and damage potential. J. Integ. Pest Mngmt. 2(1): 2011; DOI: 10.1603/IPM10010. http://esa.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/esa/jipm/2011/00000002/00000001/art00003
15. Isaacs, R., Tritten, B., Van Timmeren, S., Wise, J., Garcia-Salazar, C. and Longstroth, M. 2011, Spotted Wing Drosophila Management Recommendations for Michigan Raspberry and Blackberry Growers, Updated  August 2011. http://www.ipm.msu.edu/SWD/ManagementRecommendations-RaspberryBlackberryAug2011.pdf
16. Bolda, M. July 2010. Results of Trial Testing the Efficacy of Several Organically Registered Pesticides for Control of Spotted Wing Drosophila in Raspberry. http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=3086
17.  Bruck, D.J., Bolda, M., Tanigoshi, L., Klick, J.,Kleiber, J., DeFrancesco, J., Gerdeman, B., Spitler, H. 2011. Laboratory and field comparisons of insecticides to reduce infestation of Drosophila suzukii in berry crops. Pest Manag Sci. 2011 Nov;67(11):1375-85. doi: 10.1002/ps.2242. Epub 2011 Jul 28. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21800409
18. Biology and Management of Spotted Wing Drosophila on Small and Stone Fruits: Year 2 Reporting Cycle. SWD Research Review Summer 2012. USDA-NIFA-SCRI Funded Project 2010-61181-21167. http://horticulture.oregonstate.edu/system/files/SWD_ResearchReviewYear%202_7.16.12.pdf
19.  David Eddy, July 2012, Blueberry Mistigation For SWD Control: Applying pesticides through cooling misters pays off. Growing Produce. http://www.growingproduce.com/article/29035/blueberry-mistigation-for-swd-control
20. Brown, P. H., Mid-Columbia Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Oregon State University, Hood River, OR Shearer, P. W. OR Miller, J. C. OR Howard MA. Nov 2011, The discovery and rearing of a parasitoid (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) associated with spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii, in Oregon and British Columbia. Entomology Society of America, ESA Annual Meetings Online Program. http://esa.confex.com/esa/2011/webprogram/Paper59733.html
21. Chaberta, S., Allemanda, R., Poyeta, M., Eslin, P. and Gilberta, P.  2012. Ability of European parasitoids (Hymenoptera) to control a new invasive Asiatic pest, Drosophila suzukii. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocontrol.2012.05.005
22. News July 2012, Drosophila suzukii's genome sequenced. Fondazione Edmund Mach http://www.investintrentino.it/News/Drosophila-suzukii-s-genome-sequenced.
23. (UPDATE JAN 2013 - Response to the Drosophila suzukii (the spotted wing drosophila) consultation:  http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantHealth/pestsDiseases/documents/drosophilaConsultOutcome.pdf)

Our visit to Samuel Pepys’ house in Brampton

Up, though not so early this Friday as I did the last, for which I am sorry, and though late am resolved to get up betimes before the season of rising be quite past.


To St Ives to fit myself for discourse in the Taproom. Mightily amused by the dismay of my friends who did rise early only to find the Coffee House shut at the appointed hour due to the tardy arrival of the servant who received a derisory booing by both guests and the kitchen.

By and by by Omnibus  to Hinchingbrooke Hospital and so to Brampton, and anon called into the house of the late lamented Mr Pepys, there to meet my Huntingdonshire friends to bear me company for a tour.

Staid in the house a good while listening to the most informed Mrs Curtis on the diverse altercations in Mr Pepys’ life as recounted in his diary and the historie of the building to the present day.

Thence to the most pleasant garden where Mr Foster and his wife entertained us with coffee and tea.

By and by we tooke leave and parted to our various coaches. Mr Wishart agreed to accompany me back towards Hinchingbrooke park where we dined on iced cream and chocolate and found it most refreshing.

Came to look for my omnibus and found it late and so continued our discourse until it arrived and so home for supper.

The disenfranchising nature of the internet in society - a Rant

This morning has left me angry. Frustrated and angry. Not for myself but for those who are discriminated against and made to feel it is their fault when they battle with the internet.

It all started with the simple task of topping up a mobile broadband account, continued to a farce with attempting online payment and ended with an unsatisfactory solution.

I had set up a pay as you go mobile broadband account with a major UK player for a friend of mine. It is a straightforward system that has worked happily for over a year. Up to today, I had made payments with my friend re-paying me retrospectively.

However, people do prefer to be independent and we decided that she would learn how to top up the mobile broadband herself. After all, it should be straightforward, we thought.

An hour later we had devised a three page (!) set of instructions. At last, we reached the final payment page. Hurrah! We thought. But no, doom was at hand.

Having cleared the hurdles of name, address, bank card details etcetera, it came to the complete payment button. Up popped the card verification window. Authorisation failed.

A further hour was spent in telephone calls to the card provider. Everything was apparently rectified in that time. So back to payment attempt 2 - and 3 - and 4. Payment still failed.

We reverted to the old pattern of my paying - and were done within 10 minutes

By this time my friend, an intelligent, self sufficient professional woman with a lot of experience and knowledge, was left feeling as if she was inadequate and unable to control her own destiny. It makes me angry that she is the one who feels the blame - not the convoluted, user unfriendly internet systems which had entangled her.

The vast majority of people can go into a shop and pay by cash or card. The vast majority of people can go into a bank and receive assistance. The vast majority do not have the same experience on the internet. Yes, many do but you have to be quite internet literate if you want to shop and pay online. 

Think back to the first time you tried paying for something on the internet - the accounts you had to set up, verifications by e-mail, getting your payment cards verified. Now it all seems to work smoothly for you - but at the start it did not appear so simple.

And woe betide you if things go wrong! Many companies have poor and often hidden customer support, never mind the often impossibility of talking to someone you can understand. Remember that surge of trepidation when dealing with questionnaires or pressure from official organisations to do everything online; Where errors  can send you on a time-wasting merry-go-round - with the additional threat of loss of benefits or legal action due to non-compliance.

This disenfranches those in our society with fear of technology, those unfamiliar with it due to age, those who face additional hurdles due to hearing or sight impairment. People who have been included and independent previously suddenly find themselves forced into greater dependency on those more comfortable with online systems.

I am also angry because it has created a new type of discrimination - between those comfortable with technology and striving to adopt ever more - and those who do not. Look out for the gentle ribbing, the one-upmanship, the downright glee when someone can delight at the discomfort of those battling with technology.

There are trends in the internet towards greater simplification and accessibility. After all, businesses and organisations do want to maximise the number of users and customers. However, we still have a long way to go.

You DO have a right to be angry. Be proactive, let businesses and organisations know that they could do better. That way we can all work our way back to a more inclusive society.

Cambridge Open Studios Milton 2012

Two weekends of welcoming visitors to my Cambridge Open Studio 2012 passed in a mixture of quiet hours and sudden rushes. New work hung framed on one of the two exhibition walls and there was also a collection of mounted work to see.



The work looks at both familiar and unfamiliar subjects in a new light - close up and under the microscope. The photos display a range of illumination techniques.

• Top lighting is where natural or photo lights are shore onto the subject as in conventional photography
• Transmitted light is where the light shines through from behind the subject - similar to photographing stained glass
• Darkfield illumination is where light is shone from an angle at a transparent object, making it glow against a dark background
• Polarisation uses transmitted light with a polarising filter between the light and the sample and a second filter between the sample and the camera. The background is black with the filters at 90 degrees to each other and samples display a spectrum of colours depending on their thickness and composition
• Polarisaton with wave attenuation. This is the same as simple polarisation with the addition of a  sheet of plastic between the first polarisation filter and the sample. Rotation of the plastic sheet and the polarisation filters can give different colour backgrounds.
• Phase A. This is a type of illumination called phase contrast. it makes thin samples with only slight differences in contrast stand out more as bright lines against a darker background.

The aim is to use the skills to bring out the unusual and aesthetic in a particular object.

There were two other enjoyable factors during the exhibition. 

First, I was able to extend my portrait practice of parents with sons or daughters - you can see the results at https://picasaweb.google.com/107595387761034666575/COSPortraits2012.

Second, I always have a stereomicroscope on hand for people to look through. Gems on jewellery are a favourite, however, this year I found living gems in the form of the relatively new resident to the UK, the iridescent purple and bronze leaf beetle Chysolina americana - look at them in video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nR0Evyc7hc&feature=g-upl.

Thank you to all my visitors and the interesting conversations that we had.

Seven tips for scientists talking to a wider audience

There was a palpable charge in the air at today's meeting of the Huntingdonshire Business Network!  A clash of two cultures – science and complementary medicine threatened to arise when the validity of one was queried by the other.

As a professional scientist now active in a totally unrelated business world, this reminded me of my rapid adaptation from talking to non-scientists before and after the transition.

Hence my personal seven tips for scientists talking to a wider audience.

Before that, I would like to describe the realities of the world beyond the safety of a science or technical environment

The majority of the population do not understand science & technology.

In the UK have the proportion of our workforce working in science and engineering is about 35% according to figures in 2010. Gender bias and self selection at an early age sadly mean that only 5%  of the science and engineering workforce are women (“Statistics: Women and men in science, engineering and technology. The UK statistics guide 2010” ). So two thirds of your audience is likely to have only a very limited knowledge of your area of expertise from the start. The remainder are likely to equally ignorant of your specialism.

Most people do not think like a scientist.

Science uses evidence based research with a unique twist: You (and your competition) use reproducible experiments to test any hypothesis in your field of interest. In my experience, this has two consequences. 1. If someone makes a statement – I immediately look for a counterargument to test its validity and 2. If sufficient evidence against my hypotheses is presented, I will accept that a change of ideas is needed – even if grudgingly!

The rest of the world does not necessarily think the same way. Ideas are sometimes readily accepted if they fit within a world view and facts might be ignored if they do not suit. This is the main stumbling block for scientists trying to communicate outside of their field. Presenting ideas or evidence in a scientific way does not necessarily result in people accepting them.

Science is seen as just one of many world views

The practical aspects of science and technology mean that people trust their car's engineering and their conventional medicine of their GPs and hospitals. They might also have a belief in one or more gods, astrology, The Only Way is Essex, personality tests and business management systems. They will be influenced by culture and preconceptions about gender and race. What's more, they can even hold  several totally contradictory views simultaneously.

Even scientists are not immune from this. The mathematical giant Newton's other interest was alchemy. Conan Doyle believed in the incisive rationality that lead to Sherlock Holmes and forensic science – and in fairies. Whilst non-religion and atheism are especially prevalent amongst scientists,  estimates suggest between 30% to 50% believe in God or gods.

So, faced with a potential audience that does not understand science, has its own often contradictory world views and may not be predisposed to change them. How DO you address them in a way that will be heard?

Seven tips for scientists talking to wider audiences:

1. Accept that people may have different world views. You do not have to agree or condone their views. In most instances you can just respect that they have them.
2. Make clear that your views are expressed within a science or technical framework. “This is my background and the way I approach the subject” is a good way to make it easier for an audience to listen more receptively.
3. Do not aim to prove the other party wrong. This is the fastest way to put up barriers. Avoid words such as “but”, “however”, “nevertheless”. They immediately raise resistance. You can disagree or agree to disagree. Phrases like “my personal view” or “the view of … is” allow you to reiterate what your position is without being confrontational.
4. KISS (Keep it simple, stupid). Try to have a clear simple, message or point. Assume no prior knowledge by the audience right from the start. The ideal is where your audience can leave with a clear memory of your key message.
5. Use positive language where possible. True passion and excitement will keep your audience engaged. Remember that whenever you talk as a scientist to non-scientists, you are an ambassador for science. 
6. Make sure you know your facts and know your limits. Both generally earn respect from an audience.
7. Be true to your values. Points 1 to 6 are all about accommodating and adapting to your audience. This does not mean that you cannot draw a line where there is an obvious conflict with your own values. 

Returning to the frisson at the Huntingdonshire Business Meeting – how did the situation pan out there today?

It immediately became apparent that we had as many different world views as people in the room – with all joining in the lively conversation. Some were more sympathetic to the  alternative healing cause, others leant towards science. God and spirituality were thrown in the mix as well as pragmatism - “how you get there is less important than that it produces the desired result”.

The overall tenor of the meeting was however to find a conciliatory solution.  In the end we acknowledged that we all had different views. Situation defused, we went on to a gentler, more entertaining second half of the meeting, with more insight about our friends and business colleagues.

Optical illusion with reflections at Milton Country Park

The video below is a simple demonstration of an optical illusion that is only partly shattered when additional information is added.



Optical illusions are caused by the fact that we see as much with our brains as with our eyes. What we expect to see is hard wired both biologically and by experience. In the above videos we can accept that we are looking at a reflection and yet is can also appear to be the right way up most of the time because that is how we generally view scenes.

Now have a look at the three images below:

Normal view (well, as normal as can be!)

Upside Down view

The actual image used for the upside down view (Eyes and mouth had been rotated through 180 degrees)

The first and second photos look (relatively) normal and recognisably me. However, the second picture is not the first one turned upside down. The third picture is the one actually used to create the inverted second photo. The gross distortion in photo three was created by cutting out the eyes and mouth in a photo editor and turning them upside down (I also flipped the mouth horizontally to make it fit better). You  can see this most clearly if you look at the lips in photos one and two.

When the third image is inverted, the eyes and the mouth are actually the right way up. Our brain interprets the second photo and we are fooled into seeing an apparently normal upside down face.

If you are able to edit photos, have some fun with your friends by trying out the face inversion with eyes and mouth.

If you would like your ideas or business communicated effectively, get in touch with me, chris@miltoncontact.com.

Benefits of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation support for UK nitrogen fixation GM research.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focuses on improving people’s health in the developing world. They want to give them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. Their interest in nitrogen fixation is a continuation of  the 2009 Bill Gates “Calls for United Action to Support World’s Poorest Farmers”. It complements their program N2Africa – putting nitrogen fixation to work for smallholders in Africa.

Support for the work in Professor Oldroyd's John Innes Centre (JIC) laboratory may lead to GM maize for the developing world that can fix its own nitrogen. It is a long term goal.

We need nitrogen to exist

Without nitrogen your body would have no muscles. Without nitrogen you could not grow or have children. Without nitrogen, you would simply not exist. Nitrogen is one of the four most important elements in the human body, fundamental to your body's proteins and your very DNA. 

Ultimately, our body's nitrogen comes from food plants, even if via grass to beefsteak or milk. Plants in turn take their nitrogen through their roots. Most plants get their nitrogen either from natural or man made fertilizer present or applied to the soil. The nitrogen we remove in the plants we harvest, eat or use as feedstock has to be re-placed in the soil for next year's harvest.

Where nitrogen fertilizer comes from

Past quick-fix solutions have been to import someone else’s organic waste, mined guano (bird-droppings) or to use chemical fertilizer and add them to the soil. The methods work but are expensive  in production and transport. There is also the risk of the real long term damage to the environment if overused.

From Wikipedia

The more friendly alternative has been to use the apparent magic of beans and other legumes. Legumes include peas, beans and clover for example. Legumes are key crops used to restore nitrogen fertility to the soil as part of crop rotation. They achieve this with the help of specific bacteria that can take nitrogen gas from the atmosphere around us. The bacteria change the gas into forms of nitrogen that the plants can use. This process is known as nitrogen fixation.

Nitrogen Fixation, the basics

Photo Jeremy Kemp, fromWikipedia

Legumes welcome bacteria from a family called Rhizobium into special bumpy root structures known as root nodules. The bacteria are effectively given safe board and lodgings and fed with plant sugar. The Rhizobium bacteria in turn convert nitrogen taken from the air into nitrates which the plants can use.


Those glib three sentences describing nitrogen fixation hide a tremendous complexity. How do the bacteria and plant roots communicate with each other to let only the right bacteria in? How does the  plant create a root nodule for the bacteria? An interlinked web of genes, switches, hormones, signals and chemistry needs to be understood.

The nitrogen fixation research to be funded

There is a already a large body of knowledge gained worldwide on how the nitrogen fixation relationship works. The team at the John Innes Centre  (JIC) under Professor Giles Oldroyd is homing in on two key steps in the formation of a nitrogen fixating nodule. 

1. The early stages of growth  by cell division in the root.  The first stirrings of nodule creation.
2. The formation of special tubes in the early root nodules called infection threads. The infection threads control how the bacteria enter into the developing nodule without harming the plant.

Barrel clover by Ninjatacoshell, Wikipedia

Using a model system

The simpler you can make a situation, the easier it is to discover the important things. As their model plant, Professor Oldroyd's lab (and others) will be using Barrel Clover, also known by the Latin name of Medicago truncatula.  It is a small plant, easy to grow and it reproduces within 3 months. The plant has a simpler genome than other legumes. Most important - it forms nitrogen fixation nodules.

Transferring nitrogen fixation to other model plants

The next question will be – can we help other plants than legumes form nitrogen fixing nodules? Giving other plant species the ability to obtain their own nitrogen without the use of applied fertilizers has long been a dream for agronomists.

Maize, Wikipedia

Genes very similar to those used in forming nodules are already present in all green plants. Scientists think legumes adapted these common genes to create nitrogen fixation nodules about 58 million years ago. Developing new nitrogen fixing crop plants therefore looks feasible in principle.

Maize is an obvious choice to see if nitrogen fixation nodules can form in other plants. Maize is not just a globally important crop plant. Maize genetics has been studied and unravelled by scientists for nearly a century.

Unfortunately, you can only get up to two generations of maize to grow in a year. Therefore related work will also be done on the grass Green Foxtail, Setaria viridis. This can reproduce much faster in the lab and greenhouse.

Why use GM?

Genetic modification (GM) has grown into a major, vital research tool in biology. Its history goes back to the early beginnings, forty or more years ago. 

Most of GM work is now routine.  Genes from a source are cloned into bacteria in the lab. This allows you to determine the information encoded in the DNA that makes up the genes. The entire genomes of many organisms, including humans, have been determined.

Defined genes are then been put back into model organisms in the lab. This is done in areas from human medicine to agriculture to better understand how the genes work. Again this has created a vast bank of knowledge – and we are still only looking at the tip of the iceberg. GM bacteria, yeasts, plants and animals from worms to sheep are now commonplace in research. The UK is a leader in plant science.

For many in the UK and Europe, the controversial aspect of GM is its application in crop plants.

The first GM plants were created in the early 1980s. Transgenic crops appeared in the 1990s. Now over 400 million hectares of GM plants are grown worldwide in 29 countries. Fifty percent of transgenic crops are grown in developing countries.

In the UK and most of Europe, few transgenic crops are grown due to active resistance. The exception is Spain where 50% of maize is now GM. Criticism has shifted away from safety and focussed on the commercial nature of GM for large companies.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports nitrogen fixation research worldwide. Producing nitrogen fixing GM maize is just one of a wider variety of options. The focus is on people and not on the profit of giant corporations.

Summary:

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports Nitrogen Fixation research. The work at the JIC laboratory of Professor Oldroyd is part of a wider international program.

The first benefit is the wealth of knowledge to be gained about how nitrogen fixation nodules are formed and work. Better understanding will be of real use for farmers and plant breeders of important conventional legume crops, from clover to beans and peas.

The second benefit is the ever closer prospect of transferring nitrogen fixation ability to other crop plants like maize. This would dramatically reduce the need for applied fertilizer for farmers worldwide.

The third and very real benefit is the approach of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation focuses in the developing world on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.

Try Smartphone macro-photography for great results

Smartphones have increasingly good cameras these days. Even I, a die-hard SLR photographer have been won over to using them for some subjects. In fact, when it comes to close-up or macro-photography, they are an excellent tool.  I explain why smartphones are good for macro-photography, their main limitation and also give simple directions for taking close-ups. Have a look at the slide-show below featuring mainly flowers from Colbrook Nurseries, between Teversham and Fulbourn in Cambridgeshire, UK.





Since many of us have our smartphones with us most of the time, they are a valuable portable camera immediately at hand when an opportunity arises. Shopping in Garden Centres is not my prime interest. However, when we arrived at Colbrook Nurseries, the riot of colours and patterns turned a potential chore into a little photographic excursion. Thank you to the nurseries for giving me permission to photograph there!

It is the small but high quality lens that becomes an asset for close-up photography with your smartphone. Usually in macro-photography, the area in focus is limited to a narrow depth of field.  The small lenses of smartphones have the beneficial effect of a greater depth of field – more of your subject is in focus. Your depth of field can be increased further using the zoom function.

Smartphones are also easier to manipulate close to your subject than a heavy SLR (single lens reflex) camera. The bright displays also let you readily gauge your composition.

The disadvantage of the small lens is that it captures less light. Photos become washed out when photgraphing in dim light conditions indoors for example. Look more closely at your photos taken with your smartphone, comparing those on a bright day to those taken, say, at an evening party.

How to take your smartphone macro-photographs.

• Choose a bright day and subjects outside so that they are well lit
• Switch on your smartphone camera and hold it close to a variety of nearby objects
• Find something that looks interesting on the display
• Move the camera back a bit
• Use the zoom to get close again for the same picture
• Have a main point of interest at about 1/3 from the edge of your picture rather than having it slap bang in the centre
• Tap your smartphone touch-screen to focus on your point of interest
• Take the picture
• Take several shots so you can choose the best later

Have fun taking your own close-ups with your smartphone and feel free to send me a link to your online album :-)

Helping you communicate in print, pictures and person.

The very simple introduction to creating your website

The very simple introduction to creating your website is particularly suitable if you are:

• Someone who has not yet used the internet and now needs to have a website 
• A basic internet user who wants to have your own website
• A member of an organisation without a website who needs to explain the basic concepts to others

Whilst 85% of the UK's accessed the internet last year (2011), the level of skill varies from very basic user to highly competent. Eight million adults in the UK have still never used the internet. If you feel unsettled or unsure of your use of the internet – you are not alone :-)

A website is a collection of linked pages on the web. For example the BBC has a website, www.bbc.co.uk that contains individual pages on the programs, news and sport covered by the BBC.

You need five things to create your own website:

• Access to the internet
• An address – called a “domain name”
• A place to hold your website – known as “hosting”
• A way to build your website
• Information to put on your  website

I will assume you can access the internet and consider the other four points in a bit more detail.

The analogy is of you finding a suitable address (domain name), with a nice plot of land (your hosting) on which to build your house (website) to move your personal effects into (your web content).

Domain Name – your address on the internet

Just as the place where you live or work or meet has its own unique address, a website on the internet must have a unique address – your domain name. Examples are www.bbc.co.uk or www.google.com. Domain names are available for sale on the internet. A mysite.co.uk domain will typically cost about £3 to £5 a year. A mysite.com site may cost about £20 a year. My own website is www.miltoncontact.co.uk and I also own www.miltoncontact.com.

Hosting – your plot of internet space

At your address, you need to have space to build your website. This is provided by companies that “host” your site, like landlords or owners of a plot of land. Some hosting companies provide a minimum of space free. In this case, you may have to accept their advertising on your site in return or their giving you a domain name that they own and that is linked to them. This article, for example, is on my free blog hosted by Google's Blogger, it has “blogspot” in its address. Most companies provide you with paid for hosting which you can link to your own domain name.

Building your website

Now that you have your address and plot on the internet, the domain name and hosting, you can begin to build your website. At one end of the scale hosting companies offer simple free website templates that you can use. At the other end of the scale you can employ a website designer to make a large and flexible website for you for thousands of pounds.

You can learn to build your own from scratch. A good alternative is to use the free Wordpress program to build your site. Wordpress is open-source and maintained by a community of selfless individuals. Designing and building your own site requires time and commitment but is not as hard as it may sound.

Adding content to your site

This is the most important part, filling the space of your new website with words, pictures, videos and sound. Surprisingly, this is the part that many companies find difficult to do.

However, if you have a passion, an interest, a cause, a desire to communicate with others – then this is the part which you will find the easiest. You need to add new content on a regular basis to your website so that it looks alive.

Conclusion

So, I hope that I have shown that creating your own website is a bit like building your own house; you find a suitable address (domain name) with a plot of land (your hosting) on which to build your house (the website). You then move in and gradually fill it with your personal items (your website content).

This article gives you the big picture.  Of course there is the nitty-gritty of how to do these things. Hopefully you will feel more confident about finding out – or finding a key individual who can help you with building your site. Good Luck! :-)

If you are a small charitable or social or interest organisation in Cambridgeshire who would like some help along the way, please get in touch with me, chris@miltoncontact.com. 

Ely history group looking to the future with your help

A volunteer run picture archive preserves a vital part of Ely's heritage and history. Browsing through the collection, there are reminders of people, their lives and buildings, I was particularly struck by the unusual double chapel in Ely Cemetery, completed by local builder Richard Freeman in 1856 and the absolutely breathtaking photograph of the rood screen, one of Sir Ninian Comper's early works, at St. Peter's Church Broad St. Ely.

1854 to 1856 - The Cemetery Chapel, Ely.Built by local builder Richard Freeman in 1855/6.One half for C of E. the other for non conformists. Courtesy of Ely group of CCAN

1888 to 1898 - The rood screen, one of Sir Ninian Comper's early works, at St. Peter's Church Broad St. Ely, courtesy of the Ely Group CCAN

The Ely group of CCAN (the Cambridge Community Archive Network) has worked hard to archive the pictures collated online. Today, I was invited to their meeting as part of their look to the future work of the group.

We discussed a whole range of issues. The overriding message that emerged was the need for a new level of engagement with the wider community. How do you attract the interest of the young people to the history around them? How can you become an even better source that people will increasingly look to for news and information on the hidden or newly discovered heritage around them?

Recording the voice of local residents, shop owners and people associated with the City of Ely is already underway. Living on the crest of today, even living memory shines a light on a dramatically different world decades ago and beyond. Being able to hear the direct testimony in local voices will  be a great step forward.

In our digital age, adding written words to the existing and new images in the form of testimony, records and memories in one resource is still the most powerful tool online. People search for information using text and still mainly find their information in the written word.

Help is needed with the digging for information and writing about the great and small people and events around the City of Ely – and with preserving the information.

I found a stark example of the fact that history still has relevance to today when wandering around Ely Museum, after the meeting had taken place in one of the rooms there. The museum is located in the old gaol and had a frozen display of prisoners awaiting trial, deportation and execution upstairs. The shocking treatment of one prisoner in the late 1800s caused visiting magistrates to raise the question of inhumane treatment – a topic that is current today with the debate swirling around the legality of deporting Abu Qatada to a country where he might be tortured.

Members of the Ely group of CCAN at Ely Museum

The Ely group of CCAN pictured above is a dedicated team that would welcome help and involvement from others in Ely in preserving the city's history; whether young or old, whether making a small or major contribution in interest and time.

Why wait until YOU are history? Get involved now! Contact Chairman Peter Kerswell, Tel: 01353 666655, Email: elyarchive@hotmail.com 

The unique historic New Bridges linking St Ives and Hemingford

Walk across the mediaeval bridge from the aptly named Bridge Street in St Ives, Cambridgeshire and you come to a lesser known but equally important monument, the New Bridges, London Road, Hemingford Grey.

I was on my way to the A14 coffee morning in the Taproom at St Ives today (http://www.nutcrackerdigitalproductions.co.uk/a14-coffee-morning/). Considering the torrential rain overnight, it was with some apprehension that I left the car in the Dolphin Hotel car park, after all, it does flood very nicely. However, I was reassured by the workmen repairing the brickwork of some of the 55 arches that make up the New Bridges. Naturally curious, I went over for a chat and was prompted to do a bit more internet research back home.

New Bridges, London Road, St Ives to Hemingford showing arches prior to repair work in June 2012

Constructed in 1822 within 23 weeks using 250000 bricks, even Thomas Telford considered the New Bridges an important structure when he visited in 1826 during his review of the turnpike trusts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnpike_trust) of Britain. At 700 feet/213m  it is “a unique causeway in the UK in that it is the longest road causeway with the greatest number of continuous brick arches” (English Heritage. More information at http://goo.gl/AUPlO).

New Bridges is a Grade II listed monument, yet the repairs are surprisingly superficial and decorative as the underlying arches are still relatively sound. The original brick was local yellow gault brick and it is being replaced with new yellow bricks. As they are as unweathered, they do contrast quite strongly with the old at the moment.

New Bridges, London Road, St Ives to Hemingford showing arches after repair work in June 2012

Apparently, according to the builders on site, the foundations of the causeway are built on wood.  This reminded me of the old Aberystwyth – Lampeter Railway which was built on a whole year's supply of wool fleeces where it traversed Tregaron Bog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Davies_(industrialist)).

The greater hazard to the bridge is probably the bumper to bumper car parking along almost its entire length along the East side. The practically constant asymmetrical load of 30+ tons appears to be visibly causing the bridge to sink more on the east side than the West (http://goo.gl/XWhjx – looking South).

If you look more closely along the length of the bridge, closer to the far end of the Dolphin Hotel car park, you can see that the arches there are different (http://www.stives-town.info/album/detail.asp?GetAPicID=154). This is where the St Ives to Huntingdon stretch of the Railway used to cross the bridge after 1847 – with a level crossing!

A chance conversation and you discover another facet of our regions history!

Like help with writing your article? Contact Chris

The transit of Venus seen from the SDO, Mona Loa and Queensland over the internet

An event equally momentous to the Queens Diamond Jubilee, the transit of Venus grabbed my attention.

Britain’s location and the threat of clouds meant that I was unlikely to see the last few minutes of the transit of venus at 5am or so on the 6th of June. However, having a long standing interest in solar activity via the SOHO and SDO solar observation satellites, I thought these would present a good opportunity to watch the transit from space.

Surprisingly, the older SOHO satellite, although placed at the L1 Lagrange point directly between the Sun and Earth, would not see Venus transit across the sun. The reason being that the SOHO satellite is placed about 1.5 million kilometres closer to the sun and the angle of view is sufficiently different.

Fortunately, the SDO satellite is in a geosynchronous orbit around the Earth, a mere 36,000 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean just off the coasts of Peru and Mexico. It was expected to see the transit much as we would from Earth. The SDO also had a special Venus transit page at http://venustransit.gsfc.nasa.gov/data and therefore was worth watching.

There were two other opportunities to view the event live over the internet. NASA Edge promised to bring a live stream from the telescopes on the peaks of Mona Loa in Hawaii at http://www.ustream.tv/nasaedge. Across the Pacific, the University of Quennsland was also coordinating live coverage from Australian telescopes – at http://www.uq.edu.au/transit-of-venus/.

The transit was supposed to start with first contact with the disc of the sun (as seen from Earth) at 23:16 BST from Australia and about 23:09 from Mona Loa in Hawaii.

I had all three sites up and by 22:25 BST. Venus could be seen approaching the sun via through the SDO when viewed using very short ultraviolet light. These wavelengths shows the corona or outer atmosphere of the sun and are not as bright as the photosphere - the bright yellow sun surface we usually see. Flicking between channels, the Mona Loa broadcast started at 10:45 and the Australians  also went live.

Just before first contact, when Venus just appears to touch the edge of the sun, the Hawaiian telescope went off line briefly! Having access to several different observation sites paid off.  I observed first contact via the SDO at about 23:07:45 BST, followed later by the Australian telescopes. Eventually, the Americans did come back online.

You can see the images I downloaded at the time from the SDO page, every couple of minutes or so.
They show Venus and the sun's edge highly magnified as the planet approaches and then begins to move across the sun. These are followed by pictures of the entire sun about halfway through the transit.

I deliberately downloaded images on the 6th (the following day) to show Venus against the sun as seen at different wavelengths.Each successive image looks deeper into the sun. We start at the Corona, where flares are visible and move into the chromosphere, where you can see convection cells. Then we reach the low temperature, quiet zone of the sun. Finally, we arrive at the final layer which is the one we usually see with our naked (but protected!) eyes, the photosphere.

A particular lovely feature is that Venus crosses the sun close to a region of sunspots and high solar activity. We are currently in the peak period of the sun's activity in its 11 year cycle and sunspots are a regular feature on the sun's surface.

The next transit of Venus across the sun is expected on the 10th December, 2117 so I was very happy to have lived at the right time in our history to see this momentous event.

Viewing the transit of Venus would not have been possible in this way if information from NASA, the SDO, the University of Queensland and access to the internet were not made publicly available. This event demonstrated to me, why open access to technology and information is important.

If you would like help with writing your news, get in touch with Chris at chris@miltoncontact.com

Cleaning windows gets hi-tech

A chance remark about the self cleaning glass in the roof of St Pancras station during the visit to London on Wednesday (see article on Aurasma visit) came back to me. I was chatting to Jamie Bartlett of My Little Cleaning Company, who takes on the window cleaning side of the business.

It turns out that self cleaning glass exists in several forms – it still does need the occasional clean but not as frequently as normal glass. A bit of internet research this evening revealed the principles.

I was already familiar with one form of treatment, silanisation, which makes glass non-stick and therefore water and dirt repellent. This was in the days when we made our own DNA sequencing gels in the lab (nowadays things are very different! See article on DNA sequencing). This method can be used to coat windows and even car windscreens.

The glass used for St Pancras is the opposite, it is water loving. An ultra-thin layer of titanium oxide is bonded with the glass surface during manufacture using a patented process. Small particles of organic dirt initially bind to the glass. Natural UV light and a catalytic action of the coating break down the organic dirt. Mineral dirt still sticks – until it rains. When rain hits the glass it spreads over it due to the water loving nature of the glass. The excess water then flows down the glass, taking the remaining dirt with it, off the glass.

Yet at some point, the windows will still need to be cleaned, even if at a much lower frequency per year – preferably by an equally hi-tech window cleaner.

What surprised me further was that Jamie uses the purest water possible, and no detergents, to clean the glass. In his van, the water for washing is first filtered, passed over activated charcoal, pushed though a reverse osmosis column and then de-ionised – very pure water indeed. When used with soft mono-filament brushes, the dirt is removed and the window rinsed, it can be left to dry without leaving any trace.

Furthermore, by using carbon fibre poles, it is possible to clean windows to a height of up to 20m, safely from the ground! No ladders or scaffolding required. This is crucial as ladder based accidents are serious – often fatal or debilitating – and are subject to financial penalties for both the window cleaner and the client.

All this technology is a far cry from the conventional image of window cleaners and I left the conversation with Jamie suitably impressed and better informed.

Jamie Bartlett of My Little Cleaning Company is based in the beautiful market town of St Ives, Cambridgeshire. Visit http://www.mylittlecleaningcompany.co.uk for more information.

The dramatic effect of projecting patterns onto a model

Projection onto a body or face for photography has been something I've been wanting to do since having the idea last year.

The trip by the Milton Photographic Club to Marty Rayner's “The Works Studio” near Croxton offered a great opportunity to give this a try. A particular help was the professionalism of the model Amber Tutton who was there for us that evening; she took to the idea with enthusiasm.

I selected a range of images taken through the microscope. They have relatively simple patterns and a limited colour range and were used in a slide show. The projector at the studio was available and was placed about two to three meters from the model.

A major worry was the intensity of the projector light as it appeared as a brilliant and constant point source of light . Placing myself in the full glare of the projector on its normal setting made my eyes stream. We therefore reduced the brightness considerably.

The reduced light meant that we were using exposures of between 1/10s to 1/4s at ISO400 or about 1/40s to 1/25s on ISO1600. A tripod was essential. Amber was also brilliant at moving into a pose and then freezing briefly for the shot. Nevertheless, of the total of 171 pictures a large number were blurred.

Where the photography worked, the results were fascinating. On the one hand, Amber's face and body moulded the projected patterns as I had hoped. The contrast was the effect of pattern variation in breaking up the face and creating unusual effects. A critical feature was to ensure that the eyes remained recognisable as they provide the visual cue for the viewer's eye and brain to seek out the rest of the structure.

Another useful prop was the mirror placed behind the projector, so that Amber could see the result of a pose and the impact of a pattern on her face and body, bringing out her creative streak through feedback.

This was successful beyond my expectations. The projected patterns could enhance, obscure or break up features. Colour also impacted – just look at the bruise like effect around the mouth and eye with the Arachnoidiscus image.

One of more of the images will be making their way into my Cambridge Open Studios exhibition on the second and third weekends this July!

Aurasma visit for Augmented Reality

Would you like your brochure or banner to come alive like the animated newspapers, paintings and posters in the Harry Potter films? It is a prospect that has generated a flurry of interest at the Huntingdonshire Business Network, ever since Mervyn Foster demonstrated the effect first to networkers using a £10 note and the Aurasma Lite app on his mobile phone.

Since then, I have delved deeper and begun to successfully create not only my own “Auras” as these animations are called, but several for HBNers. As with any new idea, more questions are generated than answered at first, so I organised the HBN outing to visit Aurasma’s offices in London. Our delegation comprised:

• Dr Chris Thomas (Milton Contact Ltd) - creative visual applications & international business support
• Gareth Howell (Business Continuity) – Strategic Company & Project Planning
• Mervyn Foster (HBN Chairperson, Nordic Walking Cambridgeshire) – Business networking
• Richard Wishart (Delivery Management) – International postal and logistic tracking technologies

Our host at Aurasma was Jake Grave, Sales & Marketing. The genteel surroundings of the offices in St James’ Square provided a counterpoint to the deceptively simple, visual technology of Aurasma’s Auras.

The technology is deceptively simple in principle, requiring four things:

1. A trigger image that will be present in print form
2. An overlay. This is a video is designed fit over part or all of the trigger image
3. A smart phone. Currently i-phones and Android based phones can be used, though the latter appear to have more limited functionality.
4. The Aurasma Lite app, available from www.aurasma.com, iphone and play store

The designer uses Aurasma hosted software to link the trigger image with the overlay video to create an Aura. Auras are managed in “channels”.

The user downloads the Aurasma Lite app onto their smartphone. Once the app is opened, the user can immediately use the smartphone to view so-called “Super Auras”. Super Auras are demonstration projects, often with large organisations – such as Top Gear magazine and several bank notes. You can test the Aurasma Lite using images at  http://www.aurasma.com/auras

Note: some of these will only work in certain countries – so look out for your country’s flag in the corner of each image. This is what happens on my phone – see video at top of page.

Currently Aurasma decides which Auras will be Super Auras.

For most other Auras, the user will need to search for and subscribe to (free) a channel containing Auras from a particular source. For example, I created the channels Milton Contact, HBN Huntingdonshire Business Network and Delivery Management. You can try out some of the images here (stop the slideshow at a convenient image:



Smartphone users can themselves generate Auras on their phones. These can be shared by sending friends a link. Mervyn was the first to generate an Aura in this way at HBN.

We had wide ranging discussions with Jake, about Aurasma’s strategy, what sort of marketing models and applications that we could envisage and how HBN and Aurasma could help each other. The ability to generate your own app incorporating Aurasma function and/or skinning the app (branding it as your own) gave us moe food for thought.

We left Aurasma brimming with ideas. To round off the day, three of us continued to the Natural History Museum to visit the “Animal Inside Out” exhibition.

Perhaps ironic that we had gone from looking at taking static images and bringing them to life – to go to an exhibition where formerly living organisms had been transformed into static (but equally wonderful) exhibits. We should state that no creature was deliberately harmed for the process.

If you want to know more about HBN and how we are looking at taking Auras further, come and join us. If you would like help in the creation of your own company or personal Aura – get in touch with me, Chris.

Looking back on Ecobuild 2012

This year’s visit to Ecobuild in March on behalf of Tollé Green Architecture extended to two days due to the size of the exhibition and the interesting talks and seminars. A few personal impressions and images above follow.

The dramatic increase in popularity of Ecobuild 2012 was immediately apparent in the increasing crush on the Light Dockland’s Railway leading to Excel, where the event was taking place. Now the largest “green” exhibition in the world, Ecobuild 2012 filled both the exhibition halls of the venue.

Ecobuild has matured over the years with larger international companies like Balfour Beatty and Schueko featuring as well as the venerable BRE. Renewable systems such as photovoltaics were very well represented. Water management was particularly relevant as the current drought is still extant despite the heavy rainfall. LED energy efficient lighting is also coming of age with larger LEDs offering alternatives to using groups or strips of smaller LEDs behind diffusers.

Energy management in domestic and commercial properties appears to be entering a second generation phase. The obvious choices of double glazing, better roof insulation and cavity wall filling are now well into maturity and acceptance in the UK. The the next big challenge will be the “Hard to treat” properties. The majority comprise solid wall buildings from some of the oldest housing stock, where external or internal insulation is the only solution.

More intelligent energy management both in construction, in day to day use and during the lifetime of the building was another item of future importance. Useful piece of information gained – the average pupil generates 65W energy just by sitting in a classroom!

Green roofing caught my attention for two reasons. First was the rationale for its use. I had originally thought that green roofing provided additional insulation, but apparently wet soil negates the beneficial effect of any additional layers on a roof. The true benefit lies in the provision of replacement or additional green environments or niches that would otherwise have been lost under the footprint of the building. Second was the sophistication of the layering and patterning of subsoil drainage onto which the green roofs were established.

Following on from the Exhibition there are three threads that I have been more aware of:

1. More sophisticated green solutions are available in a mature market
2. Looking out for the impact of the Green Deal over the coming year
3. The increasing use of BIM (Buildings Information Modelling) in building construction and lifetime management.

Tollé Green Architecture is interested in ethical and environmentally responsible UK partners for construction, housing projects and retrofitting. Contact Chris.

Baked Altenburger Ziegenkäse

Andreas Ebert, a friend and business colleague from Germany sent me this recipe to translate and we thought we could share this further.

Ingredients:

• 250g Altenburger Ziegenkäse (you can use Camembert if pushed)
• 1 peeled garlic clove
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh Thyme
• Honey (ca. 25g)
• 1 small baguette
• Coarse sea-salt

Preparation
Preheat oven to 200°C. Remove the Altenburger Ziegenkäse from the packaging and place in the centre of an A4 sized sheet of aluminium foil. Wrap the aluminium foil around the Altenburger Ziegenkäse to create a small bowl that supports the cheese in the oven. Place the foil bowl with the Altenburger Ziegenäse on a baking tray and then put in the centre of the preheated oven to bake for 5-7 minutes. Whilst the Altenburger Ziegenkäse is baking, peel the garlic clove, wash with the thyme and chop finely.

Cut the cheese surface crosswise and fold the corners outwards.

Place the chopped garlic and thyme on the cheese surface and sprinkle with the coarse sea-salt. Place back in the oven and bake for a further 8-10 minutes. When the surface of the cheese turns slightly brown, remove the cheese from the oven and place on a plate. Add some white bread and honey to the plate and enjoy.

Bon appètit!

For more information about Altenburger Ziegenkäse, contact Andreas Ebert
Feinkäserei Zimmermann GmbH
Karl-Marx-Straße 90  
04808 Falkenhain (Sachsen)        
Telephone:  +49 3 42 62 47 10                
www.kaese-zimmermann.de

Follow on tips from HBN Social Networking Workshop

The key elements introduced by Richard Wishart (Delivery Management) and myself at the HBN Social Networking Workshop last Friday included Richard Wishart giving a demonstration of using a preprepared blog article involving:

• Preparing a shortlink to the blog using goo.gl
• Broadcasting the shortlink to the blog on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Creating a discussion on in a Group on LinkedIn referring to the blog article

I showed my main routes  for information flow in social media via the illustration above.  They are:

• Incorporating photographs and videos into my blog articles where possible
• I have three different blogs for different interest areas (general, QR Codes, German business)
• The article is then broadcast mainly via Twitter
• Selective articles are passed on to LinkedIn, e-mail newsletters or Facebook

How you use social media to spread the word of interesting content will be your personal choice. Things to avoid are:

• Just advertising yourself
• Saturating the SAME content over ALL your social media

The practical part of the workshop involved:

• Each member of the audience finding Richard's blog, tweet or LinkedIn post
• Liking, retweeting or forwarding the item through their social media

In the discussion following the workshop, the key elements for using Social Networking effectively were:

• Being aware that social networking is tightly linked to you as an individual
• Broadcast selectively to your different interest groups
• Your contacts retweeting or forwarding your news
• Being Social – retweeting or forwarding useful information and conversations from your contacts to others
• Measuring the impact of your social networking.

Following on after the workshop, here are some further tips in brief on linking a blog post with other social media

• Use the blog software to automatically place a new post on a social medium of your choice
• Incorporate like icons and/or social media icons that allow visitors to post your item on their social media with the click of a button
• Link your blog to an automated e-newsletter.

For example, Ann Hawkins uses the plugin Livefyre on blog comments. People who comment are thn notified by e-mail of new comments since theirs, enabling a forum like discussion. Ann is also trialling s2Member to allow people join her group.

I have opt-in mailing systems that will send e-mails of the newest blog posts to subscribers. The blog's URL is collected by an online service called Feedburner. This gives me an RSS feed for the blog which I can link into my mailing system, Aweber.

To follow other peoples blogs at one single location, I used Google Reader, sadly this does not exist any more. However there are other RSS readers available and thank you to Community Manager Tom Howard for giving the recommendation https://blogging.im/rssreaders in September 2018.

What solutions can you recommend?