Major NERC Award

Dr. Falko Drijfhout, Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, together with Professor Roger Butlin and Dr. Stephen Martin from Sheffield University, has been awarded £810,763 by NERC for a three year project entitled "Source and maintenance of recognition cues in ants societies". Of this award, £328,161 is awarded to Keele.

Ants are among the most dominant animals in the world and employ particularly rich forms of chemical communication since they are social, living in colonies containing tens to millions of individuals. Despite their importance as both beneficial and pest species, there is little knowledge about the recognition signals they employ.

In this project the genetic and environmental forces that underpin the maintenance of variation in ant recognition signals will be investigated. To achieve this, behavioural, biochemical, genetic and theoretical studies on the ant Formica exsecta and several of its close relatives will be conducted. One of the key studies performed at Keele is a biochemical investigation to track the production, transportation and eventual secretion of the key cuticular hydrocarbons in F. exsecta. This will allow them to understand how and where an individual odour develops.

This week:

Future Vision Award from The MRC For Keele Researcher

Jane On Target For European Gold At Bowhunter Championships

Music by the Astronomer William Herschel and His Musical Contemporaries

Major NERC Award

Latin and Paleography Summer School