Monthly Archives: April 2017

Quest for justice leads student to Law degree at Birkbeck

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Marie Hydara graduated with a LLB Law degree from Birkbeck on Thursday 27 April 2017

Marie with her daughter and mother

Marie with her daughter and mother

Although Law had always been a passion for Marie Hydara, who worked at the Supreme Court of the Gambia for two years after finishing school, it was a family tragedy which finally led her to enrol on a Certificate of Higher Education in Legal Methods at Birkbeck in 2011, aged 39, followed by a Law degree, starting in 2012.

Family tragedy

In 2004, Marie’s father (Deyda Hydara), a veteran Gambian journalist and fierce critic of the then dictator Jammeh (who was only ousted after he lost the election last December), was brutally killed.

Marie says: “Born and bred in Africa, I know how African leaders abuse and violate their people’s basic human rights and civil liberties to prolong their stay in office, but nothing could have prepared my family for what we went through after my dad’s cold and cowardly killing.

She goes on to explain: “My father ran his own local newspaper and was a reporter for Reporters without Borders and Agence France Press (AFP) for 30 years, and he used his paper as a tool for the voiceless and the oppressed. Only weeks prior to his death, along with fellow journalists, he had challenged a new media bill, which he believed was designed to ‘muzzle’ the press. He was threatened regularly, but he was determined to expose the regime’s abuse of human rights and continuous abuse of office. This generated him more enemies in the government and military.

“I was initially told about Birkbeck by a friend who worked in the day and went to classes in the evenings. I said I would think about it, but to be honest, at the time I was consumed with grief and frustration over the situation with our family’s quest for justice for dad, whose killers were known and still roamed the streets, without fear of ever getting caught. Eventually, I decided to transform all of my rage and frustration into something worthwhile – to learn what could be done – not only for my family, but for other families who would go through what we did.

“Apart from Birkbeck being a world-class institution, whose reputation precedes it, the hours were perfect for adults with a family or who worked during the day, and also had a passion to further their education. I believed that this was the perfect place for my quest.

“My passion was in Human Rights. I wasn’t seeking revenge for my father’s death, but a way to be able to work towards support for victims’ families, which I felt was lacking in our case. Other areas that interested me were Human Rights reforms, as I would argue there is the need for more robust reviews of the very mechanisms that have been put in place to address issues of extra judicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture in Africa. From a victim ‘s family perspective, I would argue that fact finding missions and even bilateral sanctions only “cushion up” dictators further. Hence I enjoyed any topics to do with freedoms and liberties. I was not disappointed when I got to the last year and studied International Human Rights and European Law, with lecturers and seminar tutors who were formidable and thorough. I also enjoyed lectures from politicians, barristers and judges, who shared a wealth of knowledge with us – the students. At Birkbeck, class seminars were enjoyable and at times topics provoked heated debates, where complex subjects became fascinating.”

Coping with an illness

“While studying at Birkbeck, I was diagnosed with Lupus, which left me with inflammation in my joints, making prolonged typing and writing difficult. Luckily by the end of the second year, I had received enormous help from the Disability Office whose advice was very useful, as was the equipment they helped me get to ease my pain and not exacerbate my condition further.”

Family affair

“Another challenging time at Birkbeck was while I had to help my eldest daughter to prepare for her GCSEs and A-levels, as well as do my own studying. When she successfully got into Sussex University in Brighton (doing a BA in Media and Literature), I was alone at home with her younger sister. The dropping off and picking up from school was difficult, and in the last few months of my degree my mum came over from Africa to help with caring for the little one while I was studying.”

The benefits of studying at Birkbeck

“Studying at Birkbeck has helped my personal development on so many different levels. I became more confident to be able to represent my family during press conferences, interviews, meeting with representatives and lawyers of Human Rights Organizations and journalism NGOs. I find myself more positive, self-reliant, full of integrity, enthusiasm and resilience to be able to help my family, and especially myself, in working towards closure.

“I have also improved my academic skills, where I was lacking in ways I never even realised. Some of this was done through a lot of workshops, seminars and lectures (outside study hours), which were extremely helpful. It is all down to collective efforts of dedicated lecturers who always go beyond the extra mile.”

Future plans

“My time at Birkbeck has helped me a great deal in cementing the course I want to pursue, and in fulfilling a lifelong passion. I believe, with Birkbeck’s help, I am prepared, able and willing to pursue a career in human rights in support of victims’ families, who have lost loved ones through extra judicial killings, torture and other human rights violations. My job prospects will be even greater when I complete my Masters, which I plan to study at Birkbeck, and my Legal Practice Course.

“Birkbeck is the place where the impossible becomes possible. The College is the best at working with students to prepare them for a successful future. Overall it is the best place for adult higher education, where the younger students are welcome as well. In short, Birkbeck is for anyone with a drive and passion to achieve their ambition. If they either work in the day or have a young family and struggle with childcare, then Birkbeck is the place to be, for they provide students with the support they need to achieve their goals.”

Making connections

“I have had the pleasure of meeting and knowing wonderful people – lecturers whose tenacity for teaching is rarely found; their dedication I found intriguing; the support provided for the students is like no other. I was blessed enough to meet colleagues who have become great mates after working together as teams for group work or on projects and despite our different backgrounds and shortcomings we developed strong ties and made great friends and have stayed in touch after university.”

Science Week 2017: fungi in heritage buildings

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Dr Clare Sanson, Senior Associate Lecturer in Biological Sciences, writes on Sophie Downes’ talk on fungi and conservation in heritage buildings.mushroom-2198010_1920The Department of Biological Sciences’ contributions to Birkbeck Science Week 2017 focused on ‘Microbes in the Real World’. Apart from that over-arching theme, however, the two sessions could hardly have been more different. The Week kicked off with a lecture by PhD candidate Sophie Downes on the interactions between fungi and heritage buildings. As far as I am aware, Sophie is the first Birkbeck student to have given a Science Week lecture; she spoke with confidence and clarity, and held her audience well.

Nicholas Keep, Executive Dean of the School of Science at Birkbeck, introduced Sophie as a graduate of the University of Lincoln who had worked in textile conservation before moving to Birkbeck to study for a doctorate in Jane Nicklin’s mycology lab. She began her lecture by explaining the context of her research: her job had been based in a large Elizabethan house that had problems with pests and condensation, particularly in the show rooms. The need to find out how best to preserve and repair organic material in buildings like this one led directly to her PhD studies.

In the UK we have a huge number of historic buildings, many of which are popular tourist attractions and play an important role in the local economy, particularly in rural areas. A large number of these are maintained by the National Trust or English Heritage, and many are open to the public for the majority of the year. The thousands of visitors drifting through properties will affect the number and types of micro-organisms, particularly fungi, found there. Sophie’s project included a year-long survey, starting in the autumn of 2013, of fungi found in 20 historic buildings in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These included cottages and wartime tunnels as well as the more usual castles and mansions, so the survey could be expected to provide a snapshot of fungi and fungal damage in a wide range of historic properties in the UK.

When we think of fungi, we tend to think of so-called ‘macro’ fungi: this category includes the mushrooms we eat and poisonous toadstools, but also dry rot. Micro-fungi are harder to spot, but they are at least as pervasive and colonise an enormous range of organic matter, producing spores. For example, they are responsible for the blue colouration often found on stale bread and preserves. Micro-fungi will colonise almost any organic object that they find in their way, which, in the context of a historic building, might include wood, tapestry, leather book bindings and silk wall hangings. Sophie used air sampling and sterile swabs to obtain representative fungal samples from one outdoor and four indoor locations at each building and recorded the position of and features in each room or area selected, with its temperature and relative humidity.

Sophie landed up with a total of 4,000 samples to analyse, which, given her limited time, was too many for wholescale sequencing. She started by separating these according to colour and morphology and then selected representative samples for DNA extraction and ‘barcode screening’, and fewer for DNA sequencing.  A total of 158 different fungal species from 77 genera were identified, with the most abundant genera being Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Penicillium. Some of the organisms found in smaller quantities, including fungal plant pathogens probably from the outside air and bacteria, were shed from visitors’ skin scales. Both the number of colony forming units and the diversity of fungal species recorded increased during the summer months.

Resident fungi can carry a small risk to human visitors to the buildings and perhaps a slightly higher risk to curators, given their higher exposure times. Fortunately, only a small fraction of the fungi identified were ‘nasty’ human pathogens, and all but one of these were classified in the lowest-risk group, Category 2. A larger number were recognised as of potential risk to particularly vulnerable individuals with damaged immune systems, and more still are only hazardous to the external environment.

The temperature, the height of the building, the type of room and amount of furnishings were found to be the most important factors in determining the extent of fungal growth within buildings and if high colony forming units would be observed, and the three most common fungal species in both the air and the swab samples – Penicillium brevicompactum, Cladosporium cladosporioides and Aspergillus versicolor – have frequently been reported in organic material in historical collections worldwide.

Fungi damage textiles and other organic materials by secreting enzymes that break down polymers, forming secondary metabolic products that cause further degradation. This process has important effects on the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the materials. Sophie described how she had evaluated each of these, starting with the effect of fungal growth on the physical properties of cotton. Cladosporium infestation is known to cotton fibres, causing an unattractive colour change that cannot be removed by cleaning. She incubated new cotton strips with several fungal species and monitored them for 12 weeks using a technique known as colorimetry. Each fungus caused a gradual colour change, with Cladosporium causing by far the darkest stains. She also reconstructed images of fungi colonising woven cotton fibres in 3D with confocal fluorescence scanning microscopy.

Most fungi have long, filamentous structures called hyphae that secrete enzymes at their tips as they grow. These enzymes break down large and small organic molecules into nutrients; it is the breakdown of large molecules – polymers such as collagen, cellulose, fibroin and keratin – that cause chemical damage to heritage materials. Chitin and keratin are among the most complex organic substrates that fungi can digest and require several enzymes to break them down. Nevertheless, the three commonest species of fungi all managed to reduce the protein content of protein-containing fibres significantly, with Penicillium causing particularly serious damage to collagen. Fungal digestion also changed the local structure of protein fibres. And one net result of this chemical degradation is a change in the mechanical properties of the materials; for example, fungal infestation tends to cause silk to become more brittle.

But what are the implications of these results for the conservation of objects in historic buildings? All the test were conducted on modern materials, and aged ones, which are already worn, are bound to be more vulnerable. Sophie ended a fascinating talk by suggesting that this research will help to inform conservation protocols for the handling, treatment and risk factors involved with fungal contamination of historic collections.

Science Week 2017: understanding climate change

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This blog was written by Giulia Magnarini, Birkbeck graduate in Planetary Sciences with Astronomy and PhD candidate in Earth Sciences at UCL.scienceweekclimatechange850x450‘To understand current climate changes, we need to understand past events. However, using our existing climate model is really difficult.’ This is how Professor Andrew Carter began his talk on Earth’s long-term climate. Professor Carter’s research focuses on studying Antarctica in terms of climate changes.

Despite some persistent denial, evidence for an increasingly warm climate is clear. To provide a visual idea of the impact that the total melt of ice in Antarctica could have, Professor Carter asked the audience to imagine Big Ben under water up to the clock. Thames barriers would be ineffective and it is increasingly obvious how important research on climate change to tackle its consequential threats is.

Geological evidence for the first appearance of the ice sheet in Antarctica resides in sediments that date from 33 million years ago. The question is: why did Antarctica freeze over? Two hypotheses are proposed. The first one involved plate tectonics; as Antarctica separated from Australia and South America (circa 50 million years ago), ocean circulation changed and the strong Antarctic Circumpolar Current emerged, causing thermal isolation of the continent.

The second one takes reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide into account. Historic data collected for ice volume, deep sea temperature and sea level all follow the same trend of the reconstructed amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

However, there are problems with both hypotheses. For instance, at the moment of the break, Antarctica was in a northern position and, although carbon dioxide was lower, overall temperature was warmer.

There are many difficulties in modelling over geological time. Nowadays, different models running for Antarctica show completely different results. Improving the quality of data is crucial because uncertainties are very high. On this point, Professor Carter has been conducting what is called ‘provenance analysis.’ This involves studying sand grains to locate their sources to better constrain past tectonic events and past environmental conditions. The grains that Professor Carter studies have typical shape due to ice erosion. Detrital zircons (very resistant minerals) are used to conduct U-Pb geochronological assessments to reconstruct the age distribution of the sediments. These ages are then compared with rocks from different areas for which age is known.

Oceanic drilling programs have been conducted within the ‘Iceberg Alley’. This is an area where icebergs are transported by currents and during the journey they deposit sediments. Results from sediment cores have shown that the grains come from other areas, meaning that they had been transported by icebergs, therefore implying that ice was already present on the continent at that time.

This new set of information can help improving tectonic models related to the opening of oceanic passages. Sampling the ‘Shag Rocks’, which are the only exposed part of the continental block within the Iceberg Alley, would be of benefit for this. Unfortunately, due to strong currents, this can be very difficult and dangerous.

Professor Carter concluded by pointing out the importance of better understanding the geology of this area because it was here that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current originated. This in turn had a significant implication on the global cooling of the planet. In fact, its influence reaches up to the northern hemisphere.

Therefore, more geological data can greatly improve the quality of climatic models. Better and more reliable climatic models will be fundamental to help future governments make important decisions.

Science Week 2017: geoengineering, climate change and evolution

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This blog was written by Giulia Magnarini, Birkbeck graduate in Planetary Sciences with Astronomy and PhD candidate in Earth Sciences at UCL.geoengineeringmethods-climatecentral1-2To our knowledge, Earth is the only planet where life has developed. Life appeared very soon after the formation of our planet about 4.5 billion years ago, and continues to survive.

Dr. Philippe Pogge Von Strandmann examined the mechanisms that keep the Earth habitable in a recent talk. He noted that despite large oscillations between cold periods (ice ages) and warmer intervals (interglacial stages), our planet has managed to avoid the fates of Mars and Venus. Both of these planets have lost their oceans, while Earth has retained liquid water at its surface.

Meteorite impacts, glaciations and volcanic eruptions are some of the processes that mark the very dynamic history of the Earth. Atmospheric composition has also changed dramatically over time, formerly being composed of mainly CO2, to the increase of nitrogen and oxygen. These events across Earth’s history have caused extinction of some species, but life has survived nevertheless, and continues to adapt and evolve.

Dr. Von Strandmann illustrated some of the theories that aim to explain the endurance of life on our planet – for instance, Gaia Theory, the Medea Hypothesis, the Daisyworld Experiment – and explored the influence of geological processes on climate mitigation. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, dictates atmospheric and surface temperature; therefore its atmospheric abundance is critical in long-term climate change. Plate tectonics play an important role by removing gases through subduction (where oceanic plates sink under continental plates) and re-emitting them through eruptions. But this process is slow, acting on a time scale of hundreds of millions of years. The weathering of rocks is a more effective process. Dissolved material is washed away by rivers into oceans to form rocks, which lock crucial amounts of carbon dioxide inside.

Dr. Von Strandmann concluded his talk with considerations about consequences of human actions in the face of the current climatic stage. Atmospheric CO2 has surpassed the barrier of 400 ppm (parts per million) and over the last decade, every year has been hotter than the one prior. This is evidence we can neither deny nor ignore. Climate change is going to exert challenging environmental pressures, for instance in a reduction of land available for agriculture. Geoengineers are committed to finding ways to actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, the effects of carbon sequestration are still unknown and more research is needed.scienceweekgeoengineeringoriginalThe second speaker, PhD candidate Tianchen Hen, illustrated the emergence of animals that occurred as oxygen levels began to rise. About 540 million years ago, the Cambrian fauna started diversifying from the Ediacaran fauna, introducing several biological innovations. This event is known as the ‘Cambrian Explosion’, and is characterised by an accelerated rate of diversification. Cambrian rocks preserve amazing fossil records, dominated by Trilobites – the first representation of animals that we can call our ancestors.

What seems to be a sudden change in the fossil record has caused significant debate. Charles Darwin noted it to be the main counter-argument to his evolutionary theory of natural selection. However, although all Ediacaran fauna became extinct and were replaced by Cambrian fauna, there is not a distinct separation. Both faunae share a certain degree of diversification and show symmetrical structures. Indeed, molecular biology suggests that a co-occurrence is rooted in the Ediacaran fauna.

The rise of oxygen levels is vital for animal metabolism. It influences body size and allows more intense activities. However, it is unlikely that just one mechanism can explain the triggering of early animal radiation. Tianchen Hen explained other possible factors that may have contributed. Hox genes are responsible for biological innovations, such as appearance of limbs and eyes that could induce behavioural changes. These changes may have refined the relationship between predators and prey, bringing diversification in the battle to survive. Warmer temperatures following the period of extensive glaciations, known as the ‘Snowball Earth’, may have also played a part. The consequent rise of sea-levels expanded habitable shallow sea zones. Moreover, the post ‘Snowball’ stage caused an increased availability of minerals and nutrients.

The interaction between abiotic and biotic processes is extremely fascinating and deserves a better understanding – life as we know it depends on it.