astronomy

Siouxsie Wiles

Siouxsie Wiles is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Siouxsie Wiles rather than just read about it. In short: Siouxsie Wiles (born Susanna Wiles) is a British microbiologist. Her specialist areas are infectious diseases and bioluminescence.

Key takeaways

Siouxsie Wiles belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Siouxsie Wiles to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Siouxsie Wiles from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Siouxsie Wiles (born Susanna Wiles) is a British microbiologist. Her specialist areas are infectious diseases and bioluminescence. She is based in New Zealand. She is the head of University of Auckland's Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab.

Early life Wiles was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in the UK and South Africa. Her mother is a retired social worker and her father is a business owner.

Education

Ebola was the microbe that started Wiles' interest in microbiology when she was a teenager. During her TEDxChristchurch talk in 2015 she said:

"This is the microbe that got me hooked on microbiology in the first place, because it's both amazing and utterly terrifying. I was a teenager when I first read about Ebola and all I could think of was: How does this turn the human body into a virus producing factory?" The book The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, which focuses on Ebola, was what made Wiles focus her education on medical microbiology. Wiles studied at the University of Edinburgh and graduated in 1997 with a BSc(Hons) in medical microbiology. While an undergraduate, she received a Nuffield Scholarship and worked in the university's School of Biological Sciences. Wiles received her PhD from Edinburgh Napier University, conducting research at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (previously known as the Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology), which is located in Oxford. During her PhD Wiles first used bioluminescence to create biosensors to monitor the health of environmentally beneficial microbes.

Professional life After completing her PhD, Wiles moved to Imperial College London for a post-doctoral research position on tuberculosis. In 2007 she became a lecturer at Imperial College's Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunity, and in 2009 was awarded a Sir Charles Hercus Fellowship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and moved to the University of Auckland. Wiles is the head of the university's Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab. In 2013 she won the Prime Minister's Prize for Science Media Communication which includes prize money of NZ$100,000. Wiles started the company Brightenz that sells kits with which one can create bioluminescent art at home. In 2018 Wiles became science ambassador for House of Science, a not-for-profit venture for raising science literacy in local communities. She was also reelected as general Councillor of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2018. Two years later she was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020. Wiles is also working on finding new antibiotics by screening 10,000 New Zealand fungi for possible medical use.

Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab

Wiles leads the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland which focuses on how glowing bacteria can advance the understanding of microbial infections such as food poisoning, tuberculosis and hospital superbugs. The bioluminescence is used to speed up the process of developing new antibiotics utilising the light emitted from the bacteria, because only living bacteria emit light. About her work Wiles says "My career has been built on making nasty bacteria bioluminescent and using them for all sorts of things, including finding new medicines". New Zealand has some of the highest rates of infectious diseases among developed countries. Globally 700,000 people die each year from drug-resistant diseases.

Science communication

Wiles is passionate about demystifying science for the general public. She is an active blogger on Sciblogs.co.nz, an online podcaster, a commentator on Radio New Zealand and appears on TV shows to discuss science stories in the news. She was one of the eight scientists who fronted the "Great New Zealand Science Project", the New Zealand government's public engagement programme leading to the National Science Challenges in 2012. She commissioned, co-wrote, and appeared with her daughter in the TVNZ online children's science show Siouxsie & Eve Investigate. From 2010 until 2016 Wiles was co-host of the Completely Unnecessary Skeptical Podcast which focused on skepticism in New Zealand. She has also used art and film to communicate scientific ideas: in 2011 she collaborated with Australian graphic artist Luke Harris to produce a series of animated films featuring bioluminescent creatures and their uses in science. The animations on NASA's use of fireflies for the search of extraterrestrial life was selected for inclusion in the 6th Imagine Science Film Festival in New York in 2013, and the Goethe Institute's 2014 Science Film Festival. Wiles collaborated with artist Rebecca Klee on an installation at the Auckland Art in the Dark Festival in 2013, which featured Hawaiian bobtail squid and Aliivibrio fischeri. Wiles thinks that relevant science education should start in primary school, for increasing science literacy and interest in the field more generally.

Her 2015 science communication projects include the Biolumination II exhibition. Wiles is active in the skeptical movement having received the Skeptic of the Year Award from the New Zealand Skeptics in 2016 and attended several NZ Skeptic Conferences. She has also spoken out against anti-vaxxers and other public health related issues. In 2018, Wiles was named as a finalist for New Zealander of the Year Awards for her work on antibiotic-resistant superbugs and infectious diseases. She won the award in 2021 for her leadership in the public communication of New Zealand's COVID-19 response.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Siouxsie Wiles

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Siouxsie Wiles claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Siouxsie Wiles before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Siouxsie Wiles ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Siouxsie Wiles

In research: Siouxsie Wiles appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Siouxsie Wiles in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Siouxsie Wiles is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century New Zealand people, Academic staff of the University of Auckland, Academics of Imperial College London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Siouxsie Wiles outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Siouxsie Wiles in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Siouxsie Wiles means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Siouxsie Wiles out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Siouxsie Wiles in simple terms?

Siouxsie Wiles (born Susanna Wiles) is a British microbiologist. Her specialist areas are infectious diseases and bioluminescence.

Why does Siouxsie Wiles matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Siouxsie Wiles?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Siouxsie Wiles.