24/09/2015 Professor B. Nirmal Kumar

The 15^th Triennial British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology (BACO) was successfully held in Liverpool earlier this summer. One of the highlights of the conference was the Clinical Skills Center (CSC). This was pioneered and led by Professor Nirmal Kumar (Editor-in-Chief of BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders), which offered hands-on training for both students and professionals alike. In this guest blog, Professor Kumar highlights the novel use of virtual reality simulators for otorhinolaryngology surgical training, and covers some of his favorite Sections in the CSC.

23/09/2015 Christopher Foote

Obtaining research funding through traditional routes is becoming ever harder. Could alternative funding sources provide a solution? Charissa de Bekker discusses her experiences financing her research through crowdfunding – soliciting donations directly from members of the public.

17/09/2015 Christopher Foote

New research, published this week in BMC Evolutionary Biology, finds that Mauritian stick insects originated in Australasia. This means their ancestors made an incredible sea journey of over 5000km to reach the island. Even more surprisingly, they arrived in the region before Mauritius itself existed.

17/09/2015 Martin Frisher

Research published in BMC Public Health investigates the association between alcohol consumption and self-rated health. Co-author, Martin Frisher, explains more.

16/09/2015 Sophie Marchant

Daniel Winkler is this year’s Landscape Ecology and Ecosystems section winner of the BMC Ecology Image Competition. Capturing the diversity of life in the desert, he explains more about the story behind the image in this Q+A.

14/09/2015 Raymond Wightman

Recent work published in BMC Plant Biology has made use of 3D scaffolds commonly used in biomedical research for studying plant development. The results were unexpected but most interesting, opening up a new field of plant tissue engineering. Co-author of the work reveals more here.

12/09/2015 Hilary Logan

Sexually transmitted infections are on the rise. In a new special series, we look at curable sexually transmitted diseases and how they should be treated.

10/09/2015 Christopher Foote

Whether giraffes can communicate vocally is a controversial topic. New research, published today in BMC Research Notes, finds the best evidence yet that they do – by humming.

09/09/2015 Sophie Marchant

The young leaf captured here has extrafloral nectaries which has attracted an ant that in turn defends the leaf from herbivores. This photograph is co-runner up for this year’s BMC Ecology Image Competition and in this Q+A the photographer, Daniel Carstensen, tells us more.

04/09/2015 Hayley Henderson

A group of international veterinarians and scientists have joined forces to form the International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force (IVETF), with the goal to improve research in canine and feline epilepsy. In this blog we discover why the IVETF came about and how creating a set of guidelines will hopefully improve research in this field.