newcastle university

Welcome to Onmanorama's Wacky News hosted by Vishnu Muraleedharan. Tune in to listen to some crazy stories from around the world!

Welcome to another episode of the For Stars Podcast, where today we get to hear from Fergus Mainland. The man behind the mic for “The End of The Island Podcast”, also apart of the Junior Rowing News media accounts, Mainland has always had his foot somewhere in the sport of rowing, whether that be podcasting, writing, researching, or even commentating for British University Championships and Henley Women’s Regatta. 

Fergus attended Newcastle University for five years, where he rowed for their crew team; yet, had to part ways when he was diagnosed with Glandular Fever. He chose to not let his illness get to him, and with the love he has for this sport, decided he could start coaching and being the President for the club team there at Newcastle. Him and some of his friends, established “The End of the Island Podcast” in April of 2020, which is affiliated with Junior Rowing News (JRN) during the world shutdown, and it has been an absolute hit, with people listening internationally! 

Mainland has been involved with Junior Rowing News for the past six years, but the actual organization, has been around for over a decade. JRN, a company of 40-50 people, partnered with British Rowing, is comprised of race previews that are volunteered-based from junior rowing athletes, where athletes get to preview races all around the UK. 

Hudson and Fergus discuss the overall impact and initiative that Junior Rowing News and “The End of The Island Podcast” has had on rowing as a whole, the differences that we see in rowing in the United States and the United Kingdom, how he has dealt with his illness, the naming behind his podcast, and even his love for football and the dynamic of collegiate rowing and all sports in the United States overall. Be sure to tune into this epic episode and Fergus’ show “The End of the Island Podcast”!

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

​Dr. Adriana Humanes is a coral reef scientist from Venezuela. She completed her Ph.D. in Australia, and now is pursuing a postdoc with the @Coralassist_Lab through Newcastle University in the UK….I met her on the ship to Antarctica in 2018.

For the last four years Adriana, and her colleagues have conducted field work in Palau, which is an archipelago of more than 300 islands situated in the Pacific Ocean between Indonesia and the Philippines.

As Adriana explains, coral reefs are facing and unprecedented decline due to marine heatwaves, and also because of mass coral bleaching events. In the last decade, there have been five large scale coral bleaching and mortality events which have affected hundreds of reefs around the world.

During the last massive bleaching event, on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, almost half of the coral cover lost. Over the last 30 years, worldwide, coral cover has decreased by an alarming 20 per cent.

The research at the Coralassist lab (as well as Adriana's) focuses on testing the feasibility of assisting evolution by identifying coral colonies that have a high tolerance to heat stress, and then, sexually breeding them. The goal is to create next generation corals that have inherited heat tolerance from their parents.

Adriana first went to Palau in 2018, which was not long after I met her, in Antarctica. Although the pandemic has restricted her ability to travel there to continue her onw field research, by coincidence, one lone Ph.D student working with the  Coralassist lab  flew to Palau on March 7, 2020 … which turned out to be a long stay for her, 18 months, to be exact, where she became the lone student there tasked with keeping the Lab research project going.

Adriana and her colleagues hope to returned this year, for their final leg of field research...after being away for years. And good news! They found corals spawning! 

Hopefully this is one more step towards the goal to use these sexually produced corals to help increase their future resilience, and hopefully even restore some vreefs that have been damaged or degraded from heat waves. Who knows, maybe they could even restore some reefs that have endured massive bleaching events, which are predicted to be more frequent in future climate change scenarios.

Only science will tell.

This episode was brought to you by the newsletter Audio Love, where I share unforgettable stories, with sound and word. To subscribe, go here:

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The Get Greater Podcast is aimed at maximising finances for university students thanks to Greater Bank Finance Lab and University of Newcastle.

This episode learn how to Get Greater at saving. 

General advice in this podcast has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any advice consider its appropriateness, consider the relevant disclosure documents which include product disclosure statements for any financial products and seek advice from a licensed financial advisor to decide what is right for you. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reflections of a medical student from Newcastle University, UK, this year's Wakley Prize Essay winner.

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