Welcome to the Department of Biological Sciences

Welcome to the Biological Sciences Applicant Activity Hub!

Our whole department is looking forward to getting to know you. We’ve put together some activities and videos for you to access prior to joining us.

Try this

Join our online course

Understanding Biological Energy

Get an introduction to energy and explore how humans and other living things obtain and use their biological energy sources.

Interesting resources

Brushing up your field techniques

A great guide on how to brush up on your field techniques in your garden or outside space. You don’t need any state-of-the-art equipment – just enthusiasm!

Immunology and infection

Dr Walter Lucchesi welcomes you all while he explains the content of his course on Immunology and Infection. This second-year course is student centred and is based on active learning; with every lecture followed by the analysis of clinical case studies and relative assessment. You will learn to integrate complex material and to focus on processes rather than facts.

Rocket Science

A recent research paper by Professor Gerhard Leubner and Dr Jake Chandler from the Department of Biological Sciences shows that seeds can grow in space. Check out this interview featuring Tim Peake and Royal Holloway's Dr Jake Chandler to find out more.

Surgical infections

Dr James McEvoy’s presentation looks at infectious disease through the lens of surgical infections. It describes the history of the problem, our modern success in reducing it, and the problems posed by antibiotic resistance. It ends with some questions for you to go away and think about.

For further reading, the video links well with our paper Titanium Kirschner Wires Resist Biofilms Better Than Stainless Steel and Hydroxyapatite-coated Wires: An In Vitro Study.

Recommended apps to develop your fieldwork skills:

Treezilla ( https://treezilla.org )

Forest Scanner (https://forest-scanner.com)

BirdNet (bird identification by their song),

Mammal mapper

Spotlight on science

Watch our Spotlight on Science series

Our academics have created short films based on their research:
When is memory of value in animals?

You think you're stressed? Try being a plant!

The secret life of your colourful aquarium fishes

Manipulation of RNA splicing to correct disease mutations

Birds blind to the danger of windfarms: How green is green energy?

Read on

We asked our academics to recommend some of their favourite books for you to consider reading before joining us in September:

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi (chemistry)
Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner (genetics of circadian rhythms)
Power, Sex, Suicide by Nick Lane (mitochondria, biochemistry)
Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne (evolution)
Dr Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation: Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex by Olivia Judson (animal reproduction)
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (natural selection)
A Brief History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson. (evolution)
Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm by Isabella Tree (conservation)
30-Second Zoology: The 50 most fundamental categories and concepts from the study of animal life by Mark Fellowes (zoology)