Roberta McMorran-Lait
@rrmcmorranlait.bsky.social
Leicester/Kew PhD Candidate | palaeoclimatic & ecological drivers of early agriculture 🌍🌿 | Prior: Exeter Uni and UBC Sustainable Agriculture Lab🌋🌾 | Cookbook collector, podcast obsessive, hot sauce addict, neurospicy, probably out looking for trilobites
The GGE department at Leicester is under serious threat. University leadership looking to axe massive amounts of staff. Jobs, postgraduate supervision, degree programs, student experience, and people's futures are at risk!
Please sign and circulate if you can 🙏
c.org/SfCJhxQwRc
Please sign and circulate if you can 🙏
c.org/SfCJhxQwRc
Sign the Petition
Save Geography at the University of Leicester
c.org
November 7, 2025 at 5:54 PM
The GGE department at Leicester is under serious threat. University leadership looking to axe massive amounts of staff. Jobs, postgraduate supervision, degree programs, student experience, and people's futures are at risk!
Please sign and circulate if you can 🙏
c.org/SfCJhxQwRc
Please sign and circulate if you can 🙏
c.org/SfCJhxQwRc
Happy to share that I passed my upgrade and I'm now an official PhD candidate! I had a stimulating, thoughtful conversation with my assessing panel and am excited to get started on my research 🔎🌍📈 Been celebrating by hiding in caves, exploring old castles, and having Bloody Mary's on the beach 🍹
August 6, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Happy to share that I passed my upgrade and I'm now an official PhD candidate! I had a stimulating, thoughtful conversation with my assessing panel and am excited to get started on my research 🔎🌍📈 Been celebrating by hiding in caves, exploring old castles, and having Bloody Mary's on the beach 🍹
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
Great to see a more combative tone from @teamlabouruk.bsky.social on delivering net zero. The conservatives should be ashamed www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Ed Miliband says Tories are ‘anti-science’ for abandoning net zero consensus
Energy and net zero secretary lays out stark picture of how climate crisis and nature depletion is affecting UK
www.theguardian.com
July 14, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Great to see a more combative tone from @teamlabouruk.bsky.social on delivering net zero. The conservatives should be ashamed www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Important read! Good to see some pushback against a emerging poisonous narrative about SEND transport costs.
Seeing school travel, especially for SEND students, as just a cost makes children seem like a burden to local authorities. Our research shows that national education policy reforms have made school commutes longer, undermining health and environmental goals (1/4) www.bera.ac.uk/blog/escalat...
Escalating school travel costs: Recognising the role of national policy
A BBC news article from March 2024 highlights that local authority spending on school travel for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has increased from £728m in 2018 to...
www.bera.ac.uk
April 1, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Important read! Good to see some pushback against a emerging poisonous narrative about SEND transport costs.
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
Brilliant news! At last, confirmation that the Govt *will* go ahead with the #NaturalHistoryGCSE 🎉 We have to get to know our fellow travellers on this planet again. Young people who know & love nature are far more likely to protect & restore it - as well as enjoying better physical & mental health
Department for Education confirms launch of natural history GCSE
Campaigners have been calling for the qualification for years but plan stalled despite a curriculum being drawn up
www.theguardian.com
March 21, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Brilliant news! At last, confirmation that the Govt *will* go ahead with the #NaturalHistoryGCSE 🎉 We have to get to know our fellow travellers on this planet again. Young people who know & love nature are far more likely to protect & restore it - as well as enjoying better physical & mental health
Had a fabulous time on my DTP field trip with @centa.bsky.social! We learned from @severntrentwater.bsky.social about innovative technologies for mitigating N2O emissions from wastewater treatment plants 🧪🏭💨, culminating in a fun info-video and POSTNote. Also managed some gorgeous sunset walks ☀️🌿
March 21, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Had a fabulous time on my DTP field trip with @centa.bsky.social! We learned from @severntrentwater.bsky.social about innovative technologies for mitigating N2O emissions from wastewater treatment plants 🧪🏭💨, culminating in a fun info-video and POSTNote. Also managed some gorgeous sunset walks ☀️🌿
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
📣Now Free Access: Non-stressful temperature changes affect transgenerational phenotypic plasticity across the life cycle of Arabidopsis thaliana plants
Get the Paper:
Get the Paper:
doi.org
March 15, 2025 at 9:16 AM
📣Now Free Access: Non-stressful temperature changes affect transgenerational phenotypic plasticity across the life cycle of Arabidopsis thaliana plants
Get the Paper:
Get the Paper:
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
This #InternationalWomensDay we're celebrating the many recent stories of trailblazing women — researchers, curators, educators, and horticulturists — that are each advancing our shared understanding of plants and fungi! 🌱👩🔬🍄
www.kew.org/read-and-wat...
www.kew.org/read-and-wat...
International Women's Day 2025: our favourite Kew stories
Read and watch our top science and garden stories from the trailblazing women of Kew over the past year.
www.kew.org
March 8, 2025 at 8:50 AM
This #InternationalWomensDay we're celebrating the many recent stories of trailblazing women — researchers, curators, educators, and horticulturists — that are each advancing our shared understanding of plants and fungi! 🌱👩🔬🍄
www.kew.org/read-and-wat...
www.kew.org/read-and-wat...
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
Refreshing to see someone at the House of Lords question the cult of economic growth! Growth at all costs without considering public good is absurd. This outdated mentality is how we end up with projects like expanding Heathrow during a climate emergency 🙃 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
When politicians tell us to focus on growth we need to ask: ‘Why, and for whom?’
Isolate growth from public good and you are simply planning for breakdown. My research shows that a resilient society should be rooted in wellbeing, not wealth, says former archbishop of Canterbury Ro...
www.theguardian.com
March 8, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Refreshing to see someone at the House of Lords question the cult of economic growth! Growth at all costs without considering public good is absurd. This outdated mentality is how we end up with projects like expanding Heathrow during a climate emergency 🙃 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
Stonehenge-like circle unearthed in Denmark may have links to UK
Stonehenge-like circle unearthed in Denmark may have links to UK
Archaeologists suggest ‘woodhenge’ was built between 2600 and 1600BC on similar axis to English stone circle
An “extraordinary” timber circle believed to be thousands of years old and connected to Stonehenge in England has been discovered in the ground…
www.theguardian.com
February 26, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Stonehenge-like circle unearthed in Denmark may have links to UK
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
Niche nerd alert, but this is huge! Genetic analysis validates the permaculture/forest gardening practices of precolonial North America as serious agriculture on a similar time scale with domestication of corn, rice, potatoes, and other global staple crops!
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Indigenous tribes engineered British Columbia’s modern hazelnut forests more than 7000 years ago
Genetic analysis of hazelnut trees could help First Nations secure land rights in Canadian courts
www.science.org
November 22, 2024 at 4:32 AM
Niche nerd alert, but this is huge! Genetic analysis validates the permaculture/forest gardening practices of precolonial North America as serious agriculture on a similar time scale with domestication of corn, rice, potatoes, and other global staple crops!
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
I am creating a #starter pack for #environmental #sciences doctoral research students.
Reach out to be added to the starter pack! I need 7 to start.
#students #phd #academics #scientists #researchers #biology #chemistry #physics #ecology #conservationists #geographers #geospatial
Reach out to be added to the starter pack! I need 7 to start.
#students #phd #academics #scientists #researchers #biology #chemistry #physics #ecology #conservationists #geographers #geospatial
November 21, 2024 at 4:43 PM
I am creating a #starter pack for #environmental #sciences doctoral research students.
Reach out to be added to the starter pack! I need 7 to start.
#students #phd #academics #scientists #researchers #biology #chemistry #physics #ecology #conservationists #geographers #geospatial
Reach out to be added to the starter pack! I need 7 to start.
#students #phd #academics #scientists #researchers #biology #chemistry #physics #ecology #conservationists #geographers #geospatial
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
hey everyone! i made a list of some useful starter packs (primarily biology/earth sciences with a few bonus things thrown in) to share with friends who have joined bsky in the last week and thought it may be useful for some people here too! 🌍🧪 #SciSky #BioSky docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Starter packs
BIOLOGY Ecology Macroecology https://go.bsky.app/GBn9pNZ Global ecology https://go.bsky.app/V6tN4cv Trait based ecology and evolution https://go.bsky.app/PThMXeX Invasion biology https://go.b...
docs.google.com
November 11, 2024 at 5:41 PM
hey everyone! i made a list of some useful starter packs (primarily biology/earth sciences with a few bonus things thrown in) to share with friends who have joined bsky in the last week and thought it may be useful for some people here too! 🌍🧪 #SciSky #BioSky docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Spotted in the rock garden at work 🦊
November 20, 2024 at 10:38 AM
Spotted in the rock garden at work 🦊
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
Okay, y’all… I have finally decided that retreat is the better part of valor. Bringing some rainbow energy over to these blue skies.
#bydhttmwdi
#bydhttmwdi
a pixel art of a man standing under a rainbow on a blue background
Alt: a pixel art of Levar standing under a rainbow on a blue background
media.tenor.com
November 18, 2024 at 7:43 PM
Okay, y’all… I have finally decided that retreat is the better part of valor. Bringing some rainbow energy over to these blue skies.
#bydhttmwdi
#bydhttmwdi
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
With domestication, humans directed the evolution of crops & livestock. But farming likewise reshaped our genomes too! DNA from ancient hunter-gatherers and farmers alike shows how the rise of farming changed our biology
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
How Farming Reshaped Our Genomes
Analysis of 8000-year-old European hunter-gatherer suggests cultivation of crops and livestock dramatically reshaped our DNA
www.science.org
November 15, 2024 at 2:14 PM
With domestication, humans directed the evolution of crops & livestock. But farming likewise reshaped our genomes too! DNA from ancient hunter-gatherers and farmers alike shows how the rise of farming changed our biology
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
Or, according to James C. Scott, the other way around.
No pain no grain
October 22, 2024 at 3:10 AM
Or, according to James C. Scott, the other way around.
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
The Onion should buy Elsevier next
November 14, 2024 at 8:28 PM
The Onion should buy Elsevier next
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
Impressive synthesis of biodiversity responses to the 2019–2020 megafires in Australia, now out in @natureportfolio.bsky.social. 🧪🌍https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08174-6
Biodiversity impacts of the 2019–2020 Australian megafires - Nature
Data collected from more than 2,000 taxa provide an unparalleled opportunity to quantify how extreme wildfires affect biodiversity, revealing that the largest effects on plants and animals were in are...
www.nature.com
November 13, 2024 at 9:33 PM
Impressive synthesis of biodiversity responses to the 2019–2020 megafires in Australia, now out in @natureportfolio.bsky.social. 🧪🌍https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08174-6
Reposted by Roberta McMorran-Lait
“…the driving force of apple domestication appears to have been the trans-Eurasian crop exchange, or the movement of plants along the Silk Road” 🌾🧪
*waves in trans-Eurasian*
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
*waves in trans-Eurasian*
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
Origins of the Apple: The Role of Megafaunal Mutualism in the Domestication of Malus and Rosaceous Trees
The apple (Malus domestica [Suckow] Borkh.) is one of the most economically and culturally significant fruits in the world today, and it is grown in all temperate zones. With over a thousand landraces...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
October 11, 2024 at 8:03 PM
“…the driving force of apple domestication appears to have been the trans-Eurasian crop exchange, or the movement of plants along the Silk Road” 🌾🧪
*waves in trans-Eurasian*
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
*waves in trans-Eurasian*
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...