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It's been a long time since my last blog post on this site – in some ways, it's been a lifetime. I posted that update, an excited look ahead to what 2020 would bring, in late February of that year. Like so many people around the world, I had no idea how much life would be upended or how many of my plans would be scuppered.
The 3D Pollen Project has been more or less in stasis since Covid-19 first hit the UK: plans to use and evaluate the models for teaching fell by the wayside as in-person classes were cancelled; my laboratory/microscope access and funding both ended during an early lockdown; then, more recently, various things (wrapping up my PhD, welcoming a new baby, starting another job, and submitting multiple fellowship applications) consumed the time the project might have used. It's been great seeing other people do exciting things with 3D pollen, but it's also been bitterly disappointing that I haven't been able to get more involved – I've had to send far too many emails saying "I'd love to help, but I don't have the resources right now."
However, there is good news...
One of those fellowship applications – to the UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) – came good, and I am delighted to announce that, as of October 2022, I am a Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the University of York! This is great on its own, but even better is what it means for the 3D Pollen Project.
For the next three years, my job is going to be to take the project to the next level – to make the 3D Pollen Project a globally relevant and truly world-leading resource for pollen-related science communication. I'm going to be producing much more data, of much higher quality and relevant to many more people, much more easily, then having much more time to see just what it can do! More specifically, I'll be:
Using advanced microscopy techniques to produce super-resolution scans of pollen grains from pre-existing modern pollen reference material, without further processing
Scanning a geographically, ecologically, morphologically and phylogenetically representative sample of the world's pollen diversity, increasing the dataset's size by at least one order of magnitude
Working with partners to develop new ways of connecting researchers and public audiences over pollen-related science: as interpretation in a horticultural/botanic garden; as a tool for training citizen science 'para-palaeoecologists'; and to open up dialogue with Indigenous communities about the past interactions between their people and landscape, in a form of 'participatory palaeoecology'.
I'll delve more into these points in one or more future posts (which hopefully won't take two and a half years to arrive!), but you can always follow along much closer to real-time on Twitter. That said, if you want a bit more information now, you can read more details about the project on the funders' website.
In the meantime, you're likely to start seeing a few changes around here. I'm planning to make some updates to the website (which I've hardly touched over the last several years), and will also do some checking and tweaking of the existing online dataset (the MorphoSource repository updated relatively recently and I haven't had a chance to review it since). I'm also in the middle of writing up a summary of the project to date – including principles and specifics of how to scan your own pollen in 3D – which should hopefully appear as an open access paper in a scientific journal early next year. At some point, hopefully before the end of the year, I will also be asking you for help in choosing what pollen to scan for the project, so do keep an eye out for that...
In essence, in both the short- and long-term, fun 3D-polleny things are on the horizon! I can't wait, and I hope you'll come on this exciting journey with me too!
Oli
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