Back and better than ever(green)

And we’re back!

That’s right: we. Fronds with Benefits has gone through some major changes in the year since I [Bee] last wrote here and I’m excited to tell you what’s been going on behind the scenes.

We’ve just passed our 3rd Anniversary on WordPress (hurray!), we’ve got a new logo (woohoo!) and we have a load of fresh ideas so we’re raring to go. But first, we thought we’d explain where we’ve been and where we are before we race off to wherever it is we’re going.

starting a podcast

Last you heard from me, I was a Fellow at the John Innes Centre, using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to predict plant developmental behavior changes in response to the environment.

Towards the end of my fellowship, I started working on a podcast called “The Biologist of It”. The Biologist of It aimed to introduce academics and their work in biology to the public using popular culture. What I enjoyed most about this project was talking to people 1:1 and asking questions about their fascinating research.

Unfortunately around this time, my funding expired and I decided to take a step away from academia because I was absolutely exhausted. I started working for another company and the editing and posting for the podcast just became too much. Pretty soon, I had no energy to keep it going so it stopped.

With 5 episodes readily available, and 1 more recorded and ready to upload, the heart of The Biologist of It is still beating. With the addition of the newest team member, I’m sure we can get it up and running again so watch this space.

If you’d like to listen to it, there is a dedicated page on this site which you can find here. Alternatively, the podcast is also available on your favourite streaming sites. I had some pretty amazing conversations about bats, space travel and feminist frogs which I hope you’ll enjoy.

growing the team

The second update, which is probably the biggest update, is that I proposed to my partner James and they said yes! When I stood up, they then proposed back! Add to that our matching hats and our proposal went viral on Twitter, being seen by over 4 million people, and we ended up being interviewed live on BBC News.

It was a wild experience and we were overjoyed by the outpour of love we received from around the globe. Our interview is available here if you want to read some disgustingly adorable facts from our engagement.

If you follow me on Twitter, you will know about James Kavanagh and our meeting during the pandemic: moving in together, getting locked down together and then beginning a relationship. What you might not know is that, since 2021, James has been behind the scenes editing posts, taking photos, setting up equipment and just all round being adorably supportive of all my wild ideas.

Recently, James has become more involved in Science Communication, being a vocal advocate of LGBTQ+ people in STEM. As a result, James has been helping me more with my blog, YouTube and podcast to the point to which I wanted to give them a full role within the Frondship.

Introducing: James, Digital Media Assistant.

Hello, my name is James and my pronouns are they/them! I am a PhD student in London, studying how bacteria (not plants, shock horror) that live inside us can influence how we respond to viral infections.

As Bee mentioned, I’m a keen advocate for LGBTQ+ representation in STEM. I am an operations officer with my university’s LGBTQ+ network and public speaker, often speaking on PRIDE in STEM panels.

James standing in front of their poster at a conference

looking back to look forward

A sprout emerging between concrete slabs — Photo by Gelgas Airlangga on Pexels.com

Looking back at my old posts, I have always poured so much love and attention into every word I’ve written and I am really excited to get back into that. My absolute favourite series is definitely the “Plant science in…” series. I have a million and one ideas for that.

One thing I’m hoping to embrace more this time around is to be truer to my interests throughout my posts. It’s easy in a world of algorithms and trends to obsess over posts that will do well over posts that bring joy, and if I am going to give up my spare time to write, I will write about things that I love. I think that way, my passion will come through and you will also then get to enjoy these topics with me, so think of it as a win-win.

So what’s next for us? Well, we’re working on a few post ideas at the moment and will be bringing those out as they come. James is working on a social media project so look out for that on our socials. I’m still thinking about YouTube and a podcast but I have to prioritise not burning myself out. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

With that, I want to say thank you for continuing to support the blog and I hope you’re as excited for the rebirth as I am!