zoologist | science communicator
My article for The Conversation | A dangerous fungus has been sweeping across North America with devastating consequences. In the past decade, between 5m and 7m bats in the US and Canada have been wiped out as a result of the fungal disease known as white nose syndrome, which alters their…
My essay for the British Council’s collection “Crossing Points: UK-Poland Common interests, shared concerns” | When I first came to the UK, in 2006, two years after Polish accession to the EU and the opening of the British labour market to Poles, there was a popular joke going round. A British…
My article for the EAIE Forum – Our Gendered World | The metaphor of a glass ceiling, an invisible, often unacknowledged barrier that keeps a certain demographic from career advancement, is often used in the context of women in science. The phenomenon is so globally widespread that it has given…
My blog post on the European Association for International Education site.| The fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), have traditionally attracted more male than female scholars on all academic levels. The disparity of interests between genders can be seen as early as secondary school. The resulting trend is,…
My post for Discov-Her, the L’Oreal Foundation blog. In science, what difference does sex make? Dr. Joanna Bagniewska, ecologist, well-known science communicator and teaching fellow at the University of Reading, is here to explain. I’m an ecologist – and ecologists talk about sex A LOT. We love to prod the…
My post on the Soapbox Science blog Because I’m a zoologist working in a rather gender-balanced and female-friendly environment, I have for a long time thought that the discrimination of women in STEM is a largely exaggerated problem. But then it hit me with the force of a charging elephant (the…
My post for the Crastina Column For many years Poland has experienced human capital flight, or “brain drain”. But this process is slowly becoming balanced by ”returnees”. The networking and communication skills of young members of the Polish scientific diaspora has played a crucial role. Joanna Bagniewska, zoologist and science disseminator, explains how.
A piece I wrote for the British Council Blog prior to FameLab International. | How do our bodies know when it’s night? In our eyes, there are photoreceptors: cells which can determine the difference between light and darkness. But how do the kidneys, liver or stomach know when it’s dark or light? During…
A fascinating example of mimicry by the superb lyrebird, Menura novaehollandiae. I have taken this – somewhat shaky – footage in Healesville Sanctuary, Victoria, Australia, in December 2013. It’s the first time I have seen a lyrebird display outside of David Attenborough’s documentaries! Chain saw, shooting game, camera shutter, kookaburra, car alarm…