ECR Spotlight – Nicholas Barrett

Nick Barrett

How did you become interested in biology?

I have always been fascinated by the natural world, equally intrigued by its innate beauty and curious about how and why animals and plants exist. At school, biology was always the science that I enjoyed the most. It seemed unbelievable that a cell, with all its complex machinery and finely adjusted mechanisms, had come into being through natural selection! Nature is clearly the best designer. I like the idea that in biology, at any scale of measurement, the number of interactions taking place at any one time is arguably incalculable. This leaves plenty of room for creative thinking when it comes to interpretations.

Describe your scientific journey and your current research focus

After studying biology at university, I didn't feel ready to commit to further study or a traditional career path. Instead, I had other interests I wanted to explore like art and music. I formed a band with my brother and a friend and spent the next 8 years making music and touring. It was a really fun period, and I loved the freedom and creativity of making music with other people. Later, I focused on making visual art and working in the art world. Despite initially enjoying it, over time I began to feel like I was missing something and lacking fulfilment. One morning, while feeling a bit lost, I stumbled across an open day at Imperial College London for a masters in Taxonomy, Biodiversity and Evolution, which was being jointly taught at the Natural History Museum. After going along, something clicked. I realised that I had been missing using the analytical side of my brain. Going back into full time education was quite a shock after many years away, but I persevered and really enjoyed learning about evolutionary relationships and the molecular mechanisms underpinning them. After that year, I was fortunate to get my research project published, and I think this helped in my application for a PhD at the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey. My current research is investigating the resilience of Antarctic marine animals to lower salinity as a result of climate change. I spend most of my days in the subzero conditions of our polar aquarium in Cambridge (which is basically a walk-in freezer), running physiology experiments with marine animals brought back (alive) from Antarctica. It is a both equally bizarre and rewarding daily routine.

How would you explain the main findings/message of your paper to a member of the public?

Climate change is expected to increase rainfall in coastal areas around Britain, resulting in more freshwater entering the seas and diluting the salty seawater. Some marine animals, such as sea urchins, are vulnerable to changes in seawater saltiness (salinity) as a result of their evolutionary history of being a solely marine group of animals. We wanted to know whether a common sea urchin from the British Isles (called Echinus esculentus) could adjust to living in diluted seawater. We took the lowest salinity level that these sea urchins could survive over 24 h, which also corresponded with a level that they may experience in extreme freshening events, and then held them at this salinity level over a period of around a month. We also repeated this with sea urchins held at a mid-level salinity between the lowest tolerated salinity and ambient salinity. Sea urchins held in the lower salinity showed signs of physical deterioration, reduced activity levels, the inability to feed and were respiring at a much higher rate than those at normal salinity levels. However, the sea urchins held at a mid-level salinity showed clear signs of adjustments and tolerance, indicating they could survive long-term at this level if conditions change in the environment. Our study underscores the potential impact of climate-induced rainfall changes on marine ecosystems, as we can predict the specific consequences for individual marine animals.

What do you enjoy most about research, and why?

For me, it is the variety and breadth of skills that research involves. There's just so many different elements to a research project, from conceptualising a question, to field and lab work, interpreting results and doing statistics, to writing and communicating the science. It's really rewarding as you can challenge yourself in so many different areas, it never gets boring. I also like that research is always building upon the work started by others. There's a thread connecting your current work to the great scientists of the past, making it an ongoing, collaborative endeavour across time.

What is the hardest challenge you have faced in the course of your research and how did you overcome it?

I found the first year of my PhD particularly hard. It began in October 2020 in the first year of the pandemic when we were having intermittent lockdowns and constantly changing rules for using labs and office space. Moving away from my partner was particularly hard but made harder by all the travel restrictions. Then, to compound it all, the aquarium where I would be running my experiments went out of action and ultimately needed rebuilding! Everything moved so slowly because of the pandemic, so I spent much of that time reading and writing a very long literature review. It got to the point that my supervisors and I were considering changing my PhD question; however, an opportunity came up to do some molecular work with a collaborator's samples, and I jumped at the chance. In the following year with the aquarium still out of action, I decided to do some comparative work on temperate species and spent the summer in Oban, resulting in the paper in JEB. I think the key to overcoming these types of challenges is to accept that you can't control everything and therefore be open to reframing your expectations and not get too transfixed on specific goals.

What is your favourite animal, and why?

As a marine biologist, I should really pick something weird and intriguing that lives at the bottom of the ocean, however I'm going for Felis catus because they are cute.

What is the most important lesson that you have learned from your career so far?

I think it is important to accept that doing good science just takes a long time, and therefore involves a high degree of patience. It involves not only the duration dedicated to setting up and conducting experiments but also the substantial time needed to deeply grasp the purpose and methodology. Unfortunately, I don't think there are any shortcuts to this, genuine learning comes through experience, and that often involves making many mistakes and often many hours repeating the same task.