Outreach and Media

Media Coverage and Appearances

We are always very keen to hear from journalists, producers, and other researchers, and are happy to talk about our research and general study areas. Our work is frequently covered by the national and international media – see Publications for details.

We have also helped with, and appeared on, a range of media productions for a variety of TV channels (e.g. BBC 1 & 2, NPR, Channel 4, National Geographic, History Channel), radio programmes (e.g. PBS, CBC Quirks and Quarks, AAAS) and magazines (e.g. Smithsonian, BBC Gardeners’ World, Science Illustrated).

We have given various public talks. For example, Martin has given, and is due to give, lectures on a range of subjects to the Royal Institution, Hay-on-Wye book festival, Brighton Science Festival, the Army and Navy Club in Washington DC, and a range of more local talks.

Citizen Science, Online Games and Videos

We have teamed up with David Griffiths, an award winning game designer from FoAM Kernow, to produce three citizen science games for our bird camouflage work. The purpose of these games is to generate genuine scientific data for our research in understanding the evolution of camouflage and vision, while engaging the public in the science we conduct. The games have attracted over 60,000 players.

The first two games involve participants trying to find hidden camouflaged nightjars or plover eggs, while seeing the world either through the eyes of a trichromatic primate or a dichromatic predator: you can play them here.

Egg lab is our third citizen science game where players search for evolving camouflage eggs. Here we are investigating what camouflage strategies evolve on different habitats. Eggs evolve over time with those taking the longest to find surviving and replicating with small mutations in colour and pattern. The aim is to understand how camouflage strategies and features evolve against different backgrounds.

With the BBSRC we have also made a number of videos about our work on camouflage in birds. One of these has attracted well over 500,000 YouTube views.

All the games and videos have received a range of media coverage, including from the Independent, Economist, Daily Mail, The Guardian, and organisations and prominent sites such as the BTO and ‘Why evolution is true’.

New game and interactive displays for NHM exhibition

We’ve been working with the Natural History Museum to make a new citizen science game about camouflage in shore crabs, as well as interactive displays on how animals see the world. It’s part of an exhibition on ‘Colour and Vision’, open from 15 July to 6 November.