Goodbye invaders

Originating from Africa, we have established ourselves in all 7 continents (Curtis, 2015). Everywhere we go, we modify our environments to best fit us. This comes along with massive ecological changes which have resulted in great biodiversity loss (Curtis, 2015). It is estimated that the…

Playing god

How else can we reduce the spread of invasive species besides early detection and monitoring, poisoning or eating them? Well, there is genetic engineering, specifically CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) which could reduce suffering by allowing invaders to die of natural deaths and…

A short email interview

Hi everyone, a few weeks ago, I briefly talked about the existing tendency to frame invasive species in a bad light in literature and Dr Coleman suggested interviewing 2 professors at NUS who study invasive species.  The terms “invasive” species and “invasion” biology themselves have negative…

Eating our problems away

Growing up in an Asian household (I feel like this common for Asians), my parents undeniably influenced me to be frugal. Through taking my red packets for savings, emphasising on prices, discounts and reusability, buying shoes/clothes too big for me saying I’ll grow into them…

Invaders in a Society obsessed with appearance

Should we prioritise the welfare of invasive species or the conservation of native species? Such ethically challenging questions arise when it comes to invasive species eradication programmes as it usually involves killing. This is especially relevant among the lay public who are ignorant of the…

What’s the real motive?

What gives us the right to meddle with the lives and outcome of other species? Homo sapiens might just be the big boss of all the invaders, originating from Africa, today we now settled into every continent and island on Earth (Curtis, 2015). As we…

Friends or Foes (part 3)

Hi all welcome back, I am back more educated… In my previous posts, I have made a couple of misconceptions that Dr Coleman has named and I’d to clarify them. Firstly, let’s look at the definitions! Non-native species a species that has been intentionally or…

Friends or Foes (part 2)

Welcome back to my blog! Without further ado, let’s delve into the positive impacts! Invasive species are good  Non-native species can contribute to biodiversity conservation by acting as replacements for extinct species (Schlaepfer et al, 2011). However this is controversial as invasive species are widely known…

Friends or Foes (part 1)

Hi everyone! Before I begin, I would like to ask you a question! When you hear the term “invasive species”, what comes across your mind? Well as for me, I think of a dangerous, aggressive and foreign animal. My bias shows in my introductory blog…

Hi there!

Hey everyone! I am Lixuan, doing an undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) from NUS, specialising in Biology. A little fact about me is I love animals! The sheer amount of biodiversity on Earth is incredible, always in awe of it. Thanks to…