Message in a bottle – send us your stories

Here at The Company of Biologists, we remember George Parker Bidder III as the man who founded our Company. But by many, Bidder is remembered for his pioneering work at the Marine Biological Association. And that brings us to the story behind the message in a bottle.

Back in the early 1900s, Bidder was working on a project investigating ocean currents and released 1,000 bottles into the North Sea. Each bottle had a message inside, asking the finder to send it back in return for a shilling.

Bidder hit the news in 2015 when one of his bottles was found on a beach in Germany – at the time it was thought to be the oldest message in a bottle, though that record has since been broken.

In honour of George Parker Bidder III and as part of our 100-year celebrations, we have set up our own ‘message in a bottle’ project. We would like to hear stories from you, our community, on how The Company of Biologists has supported you over time and how that has positively impacted your careers. Where has it brought you, or helped you go? This can be anything from a Travelling Fellowship, which helped you travel to another lab to learn a new technique, to going to one of our Workshops, which connected you with people that helped shape your career, or progressed your research into a new direction. Some more examples can be found below, but if you have any connection to The Company of Biologists that has helped you along, feel free to let us know.

We look forward to hearing your stories and we will  be highlighting a selection of these stories throughout the year.