Finding Sperm in the English Countryside—The 14th Biology of Spermatozoa Meeting
Most people wouldn't look to the rolling green hills of central England as the place to get a crash course on the latest in sperm biology. Yet, for the past quarter of a century, sperm biologists from around the world have congregated in the picturesque Peak District (near Sheffield) for Biology of Spermatozoa (BoS) Meetings - the most recent of which representing the 14th such gathering. BoS meetings are relatively small, typically consisting of 60-80 delegates, and attract a cadre of sperm enthusiasts who return year after year. As with previous meetings (e.g. Wolfner and Montgomerie 2016), the size and atmosphere of the event gives BoS meetings a special feel - part 'family' reunion, part meeting new colleagues, part solidifying and developing collaborations, and all cutting-edge science.
Spermatozoa in the Peak District
Conferences can be amixed bag. On the one hand, they are often invaluable for networking; for getting to, or staying at, the cutting edge; for getting helpful input from colleagues; for seeing friends and collaborators, old and new; and (occasionally) for getting to visit a new and exciting part of the world. Sometimes, unfortunately, scientific conferences are just too big; too expensive; too boring; too lonely, exhausting, and time consuming. Too often, delegates present old work that you already knew about, venues are hot and stuffy, and the chance of meeting old friends and making new ones is slim indeed. In September 2015, we attended a conference that epitomized all the positives (with none of the negatives) the biennialBiologyofSpermatozoa (BoS)meeting (http://www. bos.group.shef.ac.uk) in thegorgeousPeakDistrictofnorthern England. This small scientific meeting, run for the past 25 years by Tim Birkhead and Harry Moore, both at the University of Sheffield, focuses on the evolutionary biology ofspermatozoa,and reproduction ingeneral.Fourprinciples have guided the organizers from the start: (i) to keep the meeting small with no concurrent sessions; (ii) to require presenters to focus on unpublished research in progress or nearly finished; (iii) to invite 2-3 speakers from outside the core group of evolutionary biologists as a way of injecting new ideas and perspectives from other disciplines, such as physiology, imaging, proteomics/genomics; and (iv) to stay flexible, trying new approaches, replacing or modifying whateverdidnotworksowell in thepast.More thananything, this conference encourages and maximizes interaction and discussion whichmakesattending itsoproductiveand fun. To that end (and because there is only one presentation at a time) post-presentation questions and discussions are allowed to continue as long as they are interesting. Consequently, there isno rigidscheduleeachday except to finish in time for a drink before the sumptuous dinner served in an elegant dining room at the conference venue.
Hydrogen-rich gas production from biomass air and oxygen/steam gasification in a downdraft gasifier
Biomass gasification is an important method to obtain renewable hydrogen. However, this technology still stagnates in a laboratory scale because of its high-energy consumption. In order to get maximum hydrogen yield and decrease energy consumption, this study applies a self-heated downdraft gasifier as the reactor and uses char as the catalyst to study the characteristics of hydrogen production from biomass gasification. Air and oxygen/steam are utilized as the gasifying agents. The experimental results indicate that compared to biomass air gasification, biomass oxygen/steam gasification improves hydrogen yield depending on the volume of downdraft gasifier, and also nearly doubles the heating value of fuel gas. The maximum lower heating value of fuel gas reaches 11.11MJ/Nm3 for biomass oxygen/steam gasification. Over the ranges of operating conditions examined, the maximum hydrogen yield reaches 45.16gH2/kg biomass. For biomass oxygen/steam gasification, the content of H2 and CO reaches 63.27–72.56%, while the content of H2 and CO gets to 52.19–63.31% for biomass air gasification. The ratio of H2/CO for biomass oxygen/steam gasification reaches 0.70–0.90, which is lower than that of biomass air gasification, 1.06–1.27. The experimental and comparison results prove that biomass oxygen/steam gasification in a downdraft gasifier is an effective, relatively low energy consumption technology for hydrogen-rich gas production.