Welcome to our new Editorial Advisory Board members

Michael Berenbrink (University of Liverpool, UK)

Suzanne Currie (Mount Allison University, Canada)

Alison Mercer (University of Otago, New Zealand)

Jeffrey Richards (The University of British Columbia, Canada)

Sanjay Sane (National Center for Biological Sciences, India)

Commentary – Developmental phenotypic plasticity helps bridge stochastic weather events associated with climate change

Warren Burggren explores how unpredictable environmental phenomena associated with climate change can be challenging to developing organisms, but developmental phenotypic plasticity may be key to their survival.

Editors’ choice – Cuticular gas exchange by Antarctic sea spiders

^{Photo credit: Bret Tobalske.}
Most animals that depend on absorbing oxygen across their skin are thin, have a large surface area and are NOT covered in a tough shell; so how do gigantic Antarctic sea spiders that lack gills absorb oxygen through their armour? In our latest Editors' choice article from H. Arthur Woods and colleagues, it turns out that conical pores in the animals' shells allow them to absorb oxygen without weakening the shell too badly.

Review – Passive water collection with the integument: mechanisms and their biomimetic potential

Skin water collection has evolved in several animal genera, enabling access to differing water sources. Philipp Comanns reviews six such mechanisms and discusses their innovation potential for technical applications.

Featured article – Lower spine curvature is an essential shock absorber for runners

^{Photo credit: The Center for Brain Science Neuroimaging Facility, Harvard University}

While all modern humans have an S-shaped spine to balance our upright weight stably as we stride along, runners and soccer players tend to have more curved lumbar spines than swimmers. Now, a Research Article from Eric R. Castillo and Daniel E. Lieberman reveals that this curvature is a crucial shock absorber that protects us from injury while running.

Propose a new Workshop

The Company of Biologists hosts a series of annual workshops on topics across the range of our journals, aimed at bridging fields and stimulating the cross-fertilisation of interdisciplinary ideas. We are currently seeking proposals for our Workshops programme in 2020. Do you have an idea for a Workshop? Please let us know and you could be one of our 2020 Workshop organisers. We are particularly keen to receive proposals from postdocs. Deadline date for applications is 25 May 2018.

JEB symposium 2017 – The biology of fat

Delegates at the 2017 Journal of Experimental Biology symposium ‘The biology of fat’ share their experiences and highlights of the meeting. We have also recently published a special issue featuring review articles based on the talks at this meeting.