Christmas vacation - Library arrangements

You may be aware that Birkbeck’s main Malet Street building will be completely closed over the Christmas period, from 16:00 on Thursday 21 December 2017 to Tuesday 2 January 2018 inclusive. 

This is to allow for essential maintenance work on the building’s electrical infrastructure. 

As a result there will be no access to the Library or any other part of the main building for students or staff. 

For full details of alternative arrangements, please see the opening hours information on the Library website. You will also find details of what's available while the library is closed for Christmas.

TB or not TB - A talk from Dr Sanjib Bhakta about his research in the Dept of Biological Sciences

In May 2017 Dr Sanjib Bhakta came to talk to Birkbeck Library about his research into antibiotic resistance, the title of his talk: Thinking beyond the obvious, TB or not TB? Tackling antimicrobial resistance in the superbug.
An accomplished and widely published scientist, Dr Bhakta's enthusiasm for this topic engaged a non-scientific audience, helping us understand complex scientific processes and leaving us with a good understanding of the basics of the research he has been involved with to date.   

To follow is a summary of what you can expect when you watch and listen to Dr Bhakta's talk:

• An overview of TB, how it works, what it does, how it infects and thrives in host cells, how it can be dormant and then wake up again, during which time it can become more virulent and resistant to antibiotics. 
  We learn how TB requires a cocktail of 4 drugs every day over a period of 6 months to combat it, that there are side effects and consequences of these drugs.
  Dr Bhakta talks about the complex structure of a TB cell in a clear and understandable way, explaining that the cell has a fatty acid layer which means that any standard antibiotic won't get through the cell wall. TB cells are continually evolving, through chemical and biological activity, making things even more difficult in antibiotic development, but this kind of research is helping to address these difficulties. 
• Focus of research: how Dr Bhakta and his team study from biologists point of view how these germs live in the host cell, the different physiological stages. This is linked with the existing understanding and knowledge of antibiotics, which in turn forms antibiotic development.
• We learn how antibiotics work, how they try to disrupt and shut down the different mechanisms of the bacterial cell. We start to gain an understanding of how the immune system and TB work and that in patients with HIV, TB is a high threat as the highly active antiretroviral treatment for HIV clash with the cocktail of drugs needed to be taken to stop the TB. So more research is needed to address this aspect of treatment.  There's a reality check in that, at the moment, no antibiotic that can eliminate dormant TB bacteria.
• Dr Bhakta gives an introduction to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), explaining how it develops 1) intrinsic 2) inherited
  We see a visual demonstration of a bacterial cell inside the host cell  to show how antibiotics work, adding to our understanding of how problematic this area is.
• The importance of the structure of the antibiotic, so that it can stop the function of the enzyme in the bacterial cell is explained as is the thousands of biochemical reactions - communications that are happening, the pathways created, for bacteria to keep going, stay alive and develop inside the host cell.
• We learn about the 5 key mechanisms contributing to antibiotic resistance that are being researched. The idea and exploration of targeting multiple enzymes, of limiting the pump mechanism of the bacterial cell which can pump out the antibiotic.
• We hear about how antimicrobial resistance in TB is being tackled with new drugs with novel mechanism(s) of action and how it will take many years to design and develop new classes of antibiotics for TB. A new antibiotic needs to act on a new molecule, different function of a cell, different mode of action. It's this kind of research that's contributing to figuring out how to do that.
• Plants as a major source of antibiotics, natural sources.
• Dr Bhakta is convincing in his assertion that science has to be collaborative, locally and globally. He describes the work that chemists, structural biologists  are doing  together to grow TB germs at different levels, nurturing them in some experiments and stressing them to see how they work. This along with using biology and chemistry together to discover molecules that then have novel anti-tubercular properties.
• We learn about the work in the labs using assays to help understand the function and working of enzymes and the SPOT culture growth inhibition methodology developed by Dr Bhakta and his colleagues.
• Other developments that have come from Dr Bhakta's research include a compound library from natural products and synthetic molecules - evaluation of novel chemical entities.
• There have also been interesting developments in connecting the research science to the end products with collaborations looking at how a molecule works in different areas and what happens when you bring all of that knowledge together. A discovery of a connection between painkillers and TB. The results of whole cell screening show that the painkiller carprofen is an effective TB killer! There's more research to be done to see how this can be developed in effectively treating TB. 

What I enjoyed in Dr Bhakta's talk is the way that he made complex scientific research understandable and accessible to those of us that don't have an extensive science background. The way that he connects the research and discovery that's happening in the labs and how their research is impacting on real life is really inspiring. 
Dr Bhakta was able to summarise the key milestones in his research career to date, which demonstrates that this type of scientific research is very much an ongoing process and that there will always be new things to learn, different approaches to take and discoveries to made that are likely to have a direct impact on our health. 
It's great that his research informs teaching on the Bsc Biomedicine module Microbes and Antimicrobials and on Msc Microbiology and MRes module, Medical Bacteriology as Birkbeck students are learning from an active researcher, making their learning more dynamic and current. 

Watch, listen and learn from this talk yourself: Thinking beyond the obvious, TB or not TB? Tackling antimicrobial resistance in the superbug.

Learn more about Dr Bhakta's work and his author profile by watching this short screencast which shows an author search in Scopus which shows Dr Bhakta's published research outputs. 

#WorldMentalHealthDay

Today, Tuesday 10th October is #WorldMentalHealthDay, 

The theme of #WorldMentalHealthDay is Mental health in the workplace. According to the World Health Organisation, hundreds of millions of people globally are living with depression and/or anxiety disorder. 

According to The Independent, anxiety and depression in UK workers is up a third in four years, informed by research done by the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)

There are lots of research projects happening to help develop understanding of how our brains work, what affects our mental health and how we can stay physically as well as mentally healthy. The Wellcome Trust highlights 6 projects they fund to enhance mental health. 

You can see the research happening here at Birkbeck, in the Psychological Sciences around brain and cognitive development, cognitive modelling, perception, attention and emotion and child, family and health psychology. 

So do remember to take of your health and that, here at Birkbeck, the counselling and wellbeing team in Student Services are here to help. The bibliotherapy resources listed can be found in the Library so please do take a look and make use of them as and when you need to, as well as the other services available. 


  #WorldMentalHealthDay Tweets

Nobel Prizes in the Sciences 2017

It's an exciting time as the Nobel Prizes are announced for 2017, here's a summary of those awarded in the Sciences. 


The Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2017
This was awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson "for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution"

For an overview of the topic, it's worth having a read of ACS article Breaking the Crystal Ceiling: Cryo-electron microscopy goes high resolution.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 
This was divided, one half awarded to Rainer Weiss, the other half jointly to Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves". 

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2017
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2017 was awarded jointly to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young "for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm".



If you're inspired by these scientists and want to find more examples of their work, you can do an author search using a database like Scopus, as shown in this short screencast - do an author search in Scopus. 

From this search, you can see how many articles this author has published, who they have worked with, where they have published. You can also set up alerts to be notified when this author publishes a new article. Fancy. 

Who knows, one day you might be receiving the Nobel Prize for Chemistry one day!

Start of term library things - welcome to new and returning students and happy national poetry day!

Happy New Academic Year!

I hope summer has been a good one and that you're ready to start, or continue with your studies here at Birkbeck.

Here are some library things to help you get to grips with your studies in Science, whether you're a new or returning student. 

Orientation Day 
Ideal for new students. The Library features as part of Orientation Day this coming Saturday 30th September, with talks, an information stand and library tours and I'll be around so do come and talk to us. 

Library tours and workshops
Don't forget about the Library tours and workshops happening, they can be a really good way to get an idea of how you can make best use of the library and the resources.

Using the library
This section of the website gives you all the useful information about opening hours, how many items you can borrow, 

Subject guides

These guides aim to bring together the most relevant resources for your subject area.

• Biological Sciences
• Chemical Sciences
• Earth and Planetary Sciences

You can make an appointment with me, through your subject guide, about any aspect of making the best use of the Library. 

As it's National Poetry Day, I thought I'd leave you with a poem about using the library and making the most of having me (Emma Illingworth) as your Subject Librarian. 

Welcome to Birkbeck Library...

If you’re wondering what the library is about,

These things are for certain, so be in no doubt, 

That we are open 7 days a week,

Come and visit here or online, for the information you seek.

Your student ID is a wonderful thing,

It’ll get you in the library, no alarm will ring,

Your Birkbeck username and password are also key,

With them, all the electronic resources you’ll see.

Be it a journal article, film or a book you’re looking for,

Come along to the Library, it won’t be a chore,

There is space to study individually or as a group,

What’s your research topic? The biopsychology of a dance troupe?!

School of Science students, remember you have me,

To help you use the library, whatever your topic might be,

Grab your subject bookmark for shelfmarks to make a good start,

Make use of your online subject guide, it will play its part…

...To help you make sense of all the resources there are,

Use all of these things and you’re bound to go far.

Don’t forget you can also photocopy print and scan,

When you’ve visited us once, hopefully you’ll be a fan,

For we want to help you achieve and succeed,

So make use of the library; research, write and read. 

Brain: a journal of neurology - the app

There is an app for the journal Brain. Birkbeck Library subscribes to this journal which you can access through the elibrary using your Birkbeck username and password. 
You can download and use the app for free from the App Store or Google Play to:

• Download articles and issues
• Read issues by swiping through articles

• Use the in-app search feature

• Add notes to your articles

• Bookmark your favourite articles

More information can be found at the Brain app page from Oxford Academic.

JoVE: Film your Research contest

JoVE creates and publishes videos that increase productivity in scientific research and learning. We subscribe to various sections of it that you can access through Birkbeck's elibrary.  

JoVE are holding a 'Film your Research' contest in an effort to get scientists connected with

the concept of “visual science” by making a 2-minute video featuring yourself or a lab member performing a scientific experiment/technique in the lab or in the field. There are four cash prizes available. 

All applicants must currently be pursuing scientific research in an academic institution and fit the following criteria:

• Undergraduate student pursuing scientific research
• Graduate student (M.S./Ph.D.) pursuing scientific research
• Post-doctoral researcher
• Scientist who has received his/her highest degree within the last ten years and currently pursuing research (e.g. research professors, research associates, lab managers, etc.)

For more information and to apply visit the JoVE 'Film your Research' contest.

Event: What does it mean to decolonise Science?

Birkbeck's Centre for Transformative Practice in Learning and Teaching has organised an

event with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (University of Washington) as the main speaker. The topic being presented is: What does it mean to decolonise Science? 

The event is free and is happening on Friday 5th May, 15:00-17:00 at Birkbeck in room MAL 416. Please register to attend the lecture. 

 

A perspective on science communication...

In his article, Scientists, Stop Thinking Explaining Science Will Fix Things,

Tim Requarth suggests that Scientists need to take a different approach to communicating the findings of their research in order for the public to understand and engage with it in a meaningful way. 

If you're studying a science then it might be an interesting read for you, encouraging you to consider how you communicate the key findings of your research and how you might do that more effectively, depending on your purpose and desired outcome. Do you want simply to inform? Entertain? Inspire? Change minds? All of those things?

Requarth, T. (2017) Scientists, Stop Thinking Explaining Science Will Fix Things.Slate. Accessed: 27/04/2017.

Science week study tip 5: Read, read, read!

As the events of Science week come to an end, I'll leave you with one final study tip and that is to read. Read and read well. 

Critical reading is an essential part of your study. You need to read the books, articles, blogs recommended by your lecturers to get a good understanding of your subject and to be able to engage in discussion as well as complete your assignments. If you have the time, go beyond the recommended reading to explore more. Your lecturers will always have more reading that they can suggest on a given topic. 

The amount of reading required for your course may feel overwhelming at times, so make the most of the resources available to help you manage your reading and do it more efficiently, such as the Birkbeck Learning Skills module and the Study Skills Resources in Birkbeck Library. The Open University also have a section about Critical Reading Techniques that you may find useful. 

Reading for your course will help you progress in your studies. Reading more widely will help you in pretty much any other aspect of your life. 

The Counselling Service at Birkbeck has put together a list of recommended reading addressing many different aspects of life in their Bibliotherapy section.

The Times Higher Education asked students for their reading recommendations, so take a look and see if there's anything there that will broaden your world and inspire. 

Remember that through the Library you have access to books, articles, programmes on such a wide variety of subjects. If you're interested in reading beyond your subject area, then the Library subject guides are a good place to start to learn about where to find information on different subject areas. 

Happy Reading! 

Science week study tip 4: creating search alerts

Science week study tip 4 is just one way that you can make those databases work for you by creating search alerts. You're busy people with full lives, so anything that can save you a bit of time must be a good thing. 

Search alerts are a great way of keeping up to date with new articles in your research area. Once you've got a search that gives you the most relevant results, create a search alert and you'll be notified when new articles that match your search criteria are added to the database. 

The following screencasts show you how it's done in a selection of the databases you have access to through the Library and also through Google Scholar.

Create a search alert - Scopus

Create a search alert - EBSCO databases (eg. PsycInfo, PsycArticles, Academic Search Complete)

Create a search alert - Google Scholar

Remember you can see which databases are the most useful for your subject area via your Subject Guide:

• Biological Sciences
• Earth and Planetary Sciences

Science week study tip 3: study skills support on Moodle

Welcome to Science week study tip number 3. It's short and sweet today; just to draw your attention to the amazing amount of quality resources on developing your learning skills while you're studying here at Birkbeck. 

The Birkbeck Learning Skills and the Library and Information Skills sections on Moodle bring together a great range of resources to help you with different aspects of studying; time management, planning your search for information, how to summarise, paraphrase, quote correctly, managing and using information and much more. 

This short screencast shows you how to get to them and gives and overview of what's in them.

Science week study tip 2: finding books on a topic

It's time for Science week study tip 2. Today we're looking at how to find books on a subject that you're interested in. 

Let's say that you went along to the film screening of Resistance and the panel discussion on Tackling antibiotic resistance and the rise of superbugs and you want to find out more about these topics. A good place to start would be the Library catalogue. The following short screencast shows how you can search the Library catalogue to find books on your topic of interest. 

We've put together a list of titles of interest based on the topics being discussed during Science week, so take a look:

• Biological Sciences
• Earth and Planetary Sciences
• Psychological Sciences

Science week study tip 1: Be organised

Throughout Science Week we'll be posting a study tip each day. 
We're starting with being organised.



Study tip 1 on Biteable.

Visit your subject guide for suggestions of study skills resources that could help you be more organised with your study and assignments:

• Biological sciences, 
• Earth and Planetary sciences, 
• Psychological sciences  

Science Week is here!

From Monday 3 April to Thursday 6 April 2017 Birkbeck's School of Science has a programme of free events. 



Learn about the latest research in the Biological, Psychological and Earth and Planetary sciences. 





As well as going along to the events, you can follow what's happening and be involved, tweet your questions and comments on twitter using #BBKScienceWeek to @BirkbeckScience








Keep an eye out on the book display in the Library for titles relating to the lectures and check out your library subject guides for more information on books relating to the lectures available in the Library. 

Wellcome Open Research

Wellcome Open Research is an Open Science platform: all articles are published open access; the publishing and peer-review processes are fully transparent; and authors are asked to include detailed descriptions of methods and to provide full and easy access to source data underlying the results to improve reproducibility.

Wellcome Open Research provides all Wellcome researchers with a place to rapidly publish any results they think are worth sharing. All articles benefit from immediate publication, transparent refereeing and the inclusion of all source data.

How do you use the Library?

Now the library has some new group study space we’re interested in what else you’d like to see happening. 

Observations of how people use the Library will take place during March. In addition you can tell us how you use the Library, and what you think about it.

Here’s how you can join in; 

• Take us on a tour of the Library and get a £20 book voucher.
  – book a time to take us on a tour of the library
  
• Draw us your map of the Library and get a £10 book voucher.
  – book a time to draw us a map of your version of the Library
  
• Talk to us about your Library experiences at a focus group and get tea, cake and a £20 book voucher.
  – sign up to receive more information

Please download the flyer for more information about the research, if you have any questions please contact the Library Help Desk.

We are able to carry out this research project thanks to the Birkbeck Alumni Fund.

There's a march for Science...

Twitter tells me that there is a March for Science happening across the USA and the world at some point soon. You can find out more at their blog, Facebook , Twitter #ScienceMarch
You can even have a go at knitting a brain hat from @StudioKnitSF to show support, thanks for sharing @JohnDupuis The UK has a presence too if you're keen to be involved @ScienceMarchUK 

Top Ten Trends Driving Science from ACS Axial

The American Chemical Society (ACS) Axial team has written a report: Top Ten Trends Driving Science which is an introduction to 10 of the biggest ideas affecting scientists today. Have a read and see if you agree with them...