News that was on the website

Here we've put the old news that is archived from the website. We'll put it in blog posts in due course.

News Archive (2010-11) 

• 15 Jan 2012. Conker Tree Science is one of the projects featured in our invasive species recording project with the Observer.
• 16 Sep 2011. Darren and Michael are on The One Show (BBC1 TV) talking about the project. This follows recent press coverage in the Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times and BBC Radio 4's Farming Today.
• 28 July 2011. Stephen Fry likes our app! Join with the thousands of others and take part in the Mission: alien moth survey with the app or via this website.
• 19 July 2011. Our app is featured on BBC Midlands Today television program.
• 18 July 2011. Our iPhone app is in the top ten 'new and newsworthy' apps on the App Store.
• 14 July 2011. Conker Tree Science is featured on BBC Radio Leeds and ITV Yorkshire's Calerdar program.
• 8 July 2011. The Conker Tree Science: Leaf Watch app honoured as a 'New & Noteworthy' iPhone Education app and the Android version is described as 'rather excellent'. Excellent critical acclaim for the team that developed it.
• 7 July 2011. Conker Tree Science is featured in the Guardian, BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Nottingham.
• 6 July 2011. Read our press release.
• Results from both missions in 2010.
• Take part in Mission: alien moth survey with our new Leaf Watch app for iPhones and Android smartphones.
• Article on the identification of the species of pest controllers published in British Wildlife.
• Conker Tree Science features on Autumnwatch Unsprung (14 October 2010) and BBC Radio Humberside (15 October 2010).
• Now that conkers are out, the results of Conker Tree Science are again in the news: BBC Midlands Today (7 October 2010) and The Independent (3 October 2010).
• Listen again to Dr Michael Pocock on BBC Radio 4's Material World (26 August 2010).
• See our blog on NERC's Planet Earth Online (12 July 2010).
• Conker Tree Science is featured in Times Higher Education (24 June 2010).
• Listen again to Dr Darren Evans on BBC Radio 4's Material World (10 June 2010).
• 6 June 2010 - the first leaf mines are spotted in Bristol!  They are only a couple of millimeters in diameter.
• Our missions in a nutshell - download the Conker Tree Science flyer, as featured at Cheltenham Science Festival and Bristol Festival of Nature.
• Conker Tree Science is featured on BBC Breathing Places and on SchoolScience.
• We had a fantastic response from Bristol school children who helped with a similar project in 2009. See the BBC video clip about it.

The One Show

Conker Tree Science went national on the telly today! Darren and Michael were inviewed for a piece for The One Show (BBC1 TV) talking about the project, especially about the Leaf Watch smartphone app. 

This follows recent press coverage in the Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times and BBC Radio 4's Farming Today.

When will the moth get to Ireland?

Across the Irish Sea they are aware of the risks posed to their horse-chestnut trees, according to an article in the Irish Times by the naturalist Michael Viney.

Whenever it arrives, it will almost certainly come across in someone's car, crossing on the ferry. My guess would be that it will be first found in a town near a port in south of the island (maybe Cork or Dublin) in about 5 years' time. It could easily come from someone in a town in England or Wales who was packing their car boot under a horse-chestnut tree and some of the moths got in the boot but by mistake, survived the journey and they escaped when the car was unloaded.

Stephen Fry tweets

Stephen Fry likes our app! He tweeted today inviting people to join in. 

 

Join with the thousands of others and take part in the Mission: alien moth survey with the Leaf Watch app or via the website.

BBC Midlands Today

Today I filmed in Cheltenham with the BBC Midlands science correspondent David Gregory, who was really fascinated with the potential of the LeafWatch app to record the damage caused to our horse-chestnut trees.

David Gregory also blogged about the app.

Climbing higher in the charts

Our app has climbed in the iTunes charts. It is now at number 3 in the iTunes Education Free app chart.

Do some proper science on your telephone…

Eurodroid, an app review site, posted a very favourable review on the LeafWatch app, describing it as a "rather excellent niche Android app".

They then go on to describe the "deadly conker-eating moths that are gradually eating away at the UK’s stock of horse-chestnut trees". Well, that's a bit of exaggeration, but the right sort of idea!

Guardian article

Conker Tree Science was featured in the Guardian today.

Press release

We have just issued the latest press release through the University of Bristol, promoting the LeafWatch app:

Nationwide mission to save conkers from alien invaders gets underway.