{"id":10037,"date":"2023-03-23T10:52:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T10:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/?p=10037"},"modified":"2023-03-23T10:56:55","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T10:56:55","slug":"trailblazing-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/03\/23\/trailblazing-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Trailblazing Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In honour of Women’s History Month CONNECTED explores the trailblazing discoveries of Tina Negus – from discovering a fossil, to undertaking one of the first quantitative mussel surveys.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Tina Tina\u2019s interest in natural history led her to choose to study zoology, botany<\/a> and geography<\/a> as an undergraduate at Reading in the 1960s. With her scientific gaze focused on the River Thames, Tina conducted one of the first quantitative surveys to evaluate freshwater mussel populations in 1964.<\/p>\n

Six decades on her endeavours continue to provide valuable insights into the health of England\u2019s longest river, as University of Cambridge PhD student Isobel Ollard revisited Tina\u2019s research methods late last year.<\/p>\n

Tina, who grew up in Grantham, Lincolnshire, said: \u201cI was offered the opportunity to undertake the research by Dr Ken Mann, who was my supervisor, and I jumped at the chance. Despite the fact that it involved traversing a heavily-polluted, musty Thames in an extremely heavy boat in fairly miserable, cold and wet weather to collect samples.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI suppose this was the first time the study had been done in this country and was part of a trend at that time; ecology was becoming quantified.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBecause it was quantitative, it lends itself to being repeated, but I never thought that someone would one day repeat the study \u2013 it never occurred to me. The news that Isobel was repeating my study came out of the blue and I was delighted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decades of change<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"The intervening years showed a marked difference in the research findings. The data collected by Tina demonstrated an abundance of freshwater mussels in the river, whereas Isobel\u2019s return to the same stretch of water showed a scarcity of shelled invertebrates.<\/p>\n

Over 50 years later, the Cambridge scholar found the molluscs \u2013 which help to filter water, remove algae, and provide places for other aquatic species to live \u2013 have been almost completely wiped out in the intervening years.<\/p>\n

The mussels\u2019 mathematical decline may, however, not all be bad news for the Thames. Noting the subjects of her original study feed off organic matter, which is common in sewage run-off, Tina argued their demise could be an indicator of improved water quality.\u00a0She said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOver the past 50 years, we\u2019ve had increasing control over pollution thanks to the European Union. There\u2019s also been the development of an awareness that we\u2019ve got to look after the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Correcting history<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Tina’s scientific discoveries extend beyond the banks of the Thames. In recent years Tina was acknowledged for discovering Charnia Masoni \u2013 the first Precambrian fossil to be formally recognised by geologists.<\/p>\n

\"\"The leaf-like fossil was originally presented to scientists in 1957 by \u2013 and duly named after \u2013 schoolboy Roger Mason, whose father worked at Leicester University. However, it has since been confirmed that Tina made the discovery a year earlier in Charnwood Forest, Leicester, as a 16-year-old.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cMy initial excitement over a rubbing I took had been dampened and dismissed out of hand by my secondary school geography teacher. I knew nobody and hardly knew what a university was in those day. I was just interested in rocks and fossils.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put yourself back in those times. When I was a teenager \u2013 a female teenager \u2013 you weren\u2019t taken much notice of, and I didn\u2019t know who to ask about this fossil. I didn\u2019t even consider it. I mean, back in the day, it was just assumed that what men said went.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Since history was corrected on the 50th<\/sup> anniversary celebrations of the discovery of Charnia Masoni\u00a0\u2013 when Dr Trevor Ford, a senior lecturer in the geology department of the University of Leicester and other geologists, corroborated Tina\u2019s claim \u00ad\u00ad\u2013 her name has been further immortalised.<\/p>\n

The University of Reading has since commissioned an accolade in her honour, with the inaugural Tina Negus Prize<\/a> presented to a graduate of the School of Biological Sciences in 2019.<\/p>\n

Read about Isobel Ollard\u2019s research<\/a> into mussels in the River Thames in The Conversation<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honour of Women’s History Month CONNECTED explores the trailblazing discoveries of Tina Negus – from discovering a fossil, to undertaking one of the first quantitative mussel surveys. Tina\u2019s interest in natural history led her to choose to study zoology, botany and geography as an undergraduate at Reading in the 1960s. With her scientific gaze […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":10021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[165,54,102,19,155,23,105,34,139,126],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrailblazing Research - Connected<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CONNECTED explores Tina Negus' discoveries - from discovering a fossil, to undertaking one of the first quantitative mussel surveys.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/03\/23\/trailblazing-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trailblazing Research - Connected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CONNECTED explores Tina Negus' discoveries - 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