Tortoises:

I just read an article about the giant tortoises which inhabit the Galapagos, those famous islands which inspired Darwin to come up with his theory of evolution. The article describes how one species of tortoise, previously thought to be extinct 150 years ago may still be around. The mapping of the tortoise genome found 30 tortoises on an island which were hybrid between the extinct species and one other. Scientists now believe that the extinct tortoise was simply captured and reintroduced onto a different island where it interbred. If they can find the parents they can restore them to their former island where they played a key role in the “ecological integrity”. I find this very interesting – the use of a DNA forensics to establish which tortoises were descended from which, and also the idea that although these islands are small, and the scientific presence there is huge, we still do not know everything about them. The constant stream of discovery is an amazing career to be involved in and is one of the reasons I’m interested in Medicine – doctors and other scientists are always discovering new and interesting techniques and mechanisms to do with, or that are happening in, the human body. I’m also particularly interested in the Galapagos, as that’s the destination of this year’s biology field trip. I’m extremely excited as this won’t be the standard school tourist-y type trip, because we also get to be involved in some of the research out there – helping monitor the wildlife of the surrounding environment for a few days, and seeing how the data is used should be a real eye opener.