Over the last twenty years there has been a gradual loss of physiology departments as they merge with other biosciences. One of the important effects of this is a loss of the word physiology from undergraduate prospectuses. In addition, merging departments mean that physiology degrees themselves are at often at risk, particularly as the prospective student population is looking for more general bioscience degrees such as biomedical science. At the same time tremendous advances in molecular approaches have revolutionised bioscience research, with a more multidiscipline approach being adopted in research groups. It is clear that this is an advantage in maximising research findings. However, it has also meant that the differences between bioscience disciplines have become blurred, and in research the word physiology is becoming less obvious. How many researchers now think of themselves as physiologists? With this apparent loss of physiology at undergraduate level and in research there is now a significant risk that recognition of the impact and importance that physiology makes to medicine, society and the economy will be lost. In addition, if physiology becomes lost within the biosciences we also lose our ability to impact on decisions that will drive future teaching and research. In effect we have a battle on our hands to ensure that physiology remains an important bioscience, we need to fight to train the next generation, get them to think of themselves as physiologists and then to pass the message on. So how can we fight and win this war? There are steps we can take as individuals in our respective departments and as members of the Physiological Society, and we should aim to hit at all levels, from school students all the way up to postgraduate education. Like many other universities, at Sheffield the physiology department disappeared some time ago, and in recent years our physiology degree has also been lost (along with a number of other specialist degrees), in the main due to a lack of interest from prospective students. However, we have still managed to ensure that physiology forms an important part of our degree programme and the majority of our students choose to take physiology modules in their final year. The popularity of physiology at Sheffield has been achieved by ensuring that we run high quality modules that marry the more traditional aspects of physiology together with the molecular advances. Our teaching isn’t simply about imparting information, but about using evidence based learning to get students to understand the importance of research in informing our understanding of human physiology. We also strive to challenge our students, by getting them to analyse physiological experimental data that links to their lecture programme, e.g. clearance data in a renal lecture module and electrophysiological data in an ion channel lecture module. Our physiology practical teaching covers all three levels of the degree, and we cover many of the traditional physiology practicals, including some pharmacological lab work using organ bath studies. Again we strive to stimulate further the knowledge and understanding of physiology by introducing data handling exercises so that students not only have a good understanding of the topic but also develop the skills to apply this knowledge. At school level Sheffield academics go out and engage with students of all ages, making sure they are aware of physiology and its importance to biology. These events range from doing practical work on the heart, games looking at receptor function to talks covering genes, ion channels and channelopathies. We have also just started to use modern social networking sites (Facebook) to promote physiology to the public. Overall these approaches help to maintain an awareness of physiology within the university and also in the local community. At a national level the Physiological Society is also working hard to promote physiology at all levels. Whether supporting members in schools work, funding undergraduate research projects, taking part in national science festivals, distributing leaflets on physiology, liaising with other learned societies and decision making bodies, or running postgraduate training courses, all Society activities aim to keep physiology at the forefront of the biosciences. Fighting the war to train the next generation is not something an individual can do alone, but physiologists and of course the Society will need to work together to drive forward our message that physiology is an essential bioscience for the future!