Brian Bush
University of Bristol, UK

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.110.7

Since a new Scientific Editor will be in place for the next issue of Physiology News, it might be timely to share a few thoughts on the magazine and The Society. Physiology is, I think, the most interesting, important and relevant to everyday life of the Natural Sciences, and an invaluable source of
self-knowledge as well as a pathway to all sorts of interesting careers. Many skills learned in physiological research and teaching are widely transferable, not only within the sciences.

Physiology should therefore appeal to young people, so I believe it’s important to try and attract new recruits at an early age, and also to encourage and empower a questioning mind-set and a real curiosity about ‘how the body works’. To this end, The Society should offer to schools, particularly secondary schools lacking good science teaching, a variety of talks on bio-physiological topics, to be given by research-active physiologists, preferably enthusiastic, young Society members for whom this would be a valuable learning experience and to whom school students should more readily relate.

Nowadays, there seem to be fewer Society meetings than in my day, and most are in London and the south-east. More ordinary meetings at different universities throughout the UK would extend opportunities, especially for geographically ‘disadvantaged’ physiologists, to communicate their research and interact with colleagues from elsewhere. Such meetings could, as in times past, include live or video-recorded demonstrations focusing on local research projects, as well as poster presentations and general sessions, thereby widening horizons and extending access for all. Communications describing a variety of methodological approaches, preparations from different phyla or species, novel techniques and original, imaginative ideas should be welcomed. Video-conferencing may also be worth trying, with advice and technical support in setting up cameras, etc.

A few personal landmarks may help to explain my take. Born in South Africa, I left for Cambridge in 1957, completing a PhD on Crustacean neurobiology in 1960. At Bristol University from 1966, my first Physiological Society ‘Demonstration’ (a requirement for Membership then) was a live experiment on a novel non-spiking muscle receptor organ in the shore crab: Andrew Huxley’s questions were incisive and stimulating. In 1975, a sabbatical year at Monash University, Australia, gave me experience of ‘proper’
(neuro-) physiology experiments – on monkey and possum. And in my last research decade, I ran PhD and BSc projects utilising ideas developed from our work on crayfish and recording hand EMGs to study ‘writer’s cramp’ in students (and myself)!

Now, despite recent reorganisation of the Biomedical sciences in Bristol (and elsewhere), I remain convinced that the continued pursuance of Physiology as an academic and research discipline is vitally important, and that everything should be done to encourage and support aspiring physiologists in their early careers and beyond. More frequent and varied opportunities to meet and exchange research results and ideas with physiologists at other institutions, and perchance to set up new collaborations on problems of mutual interest, could provide invaluable and motivating experience for future physiologists – and may help broaden the scope of British Physiology as Brexit looms!