Caribous on treadmills, and Alaskan oil

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Dr Simone Schleper is a postdoctoral researcher in the Moving Animal project, researching how the phenomenon of animal migration has been studied, understood, and managed, especially in cases of human-wildlife conflict. Her monograph Planning for the Planet appeared with Berghahn in 2019. What do caribous on treadmills have to do with Alaskan oil? Alaskan wildlife conservation research and oil development have a long and entangled history. It is a complex one, too, in which the oil industry has funded various types of ecological research and in which wildlife professionals have been both against and in favor of resource development in the Arctic. This blog explores the relationship between [Read more...]

Confessions of a fledgling historian…

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Preparing to enter “the archive” PhD candidate Dani Shanley examines the history of ideas surrounding responsible innovation in a global context. She blogs about her first encounters with archival research. This is her first blog on her research work. The problem with wanting to visit an archive is, you have to find one first. Not having been trained as a historian, I found this to be a total minefield at the start of my PhD. How on earth should I know where to look..? Is X number of boxes and X cubic feet worth travelling for..? How would I know if there would be anything there that would be relevant..? Needless to say I went down many rabbit holes and had many a sleepless night in [Read more...]

De onderschatting van mazelen vroeger en nu: de ziekte en de historische doodsoorzaak

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Geheel tegen de verwachtingen in zijn de mazelen weer teruggekeerd in het publieke debat. Bij bepaalde bevolkingsgroepen heerst de notie dat de mazelen een milde kinderziekte is, een natuurlijk fenomeen van de eerste kinderjaren. Het doorstaan van de ziekte valt daarmee te prefereren boven de gevaren die een mazelenvaccin met zich meebrengt en maakt de herd immunity-algehele immunisatie door 95% van de bevolking te vaccineren- van ondergeschikt belang. Historisch gezien heerste er eenzelfde notie, maar nieuw beschikbare historische data doen het vermoeden sterk groeien dat ook in vroegere tijden de dodelijkheid van de mazelen onderschat werd. Mayra Murkens onderzoekt als AIO de [Read more...]