Published February 2026

Posted on April 4, 2026 by Roger Gosden
Big Ben in London

Why do we age—and why has rejuvenation always proved so elusive?

This book expresses a clear-eyed, deeply informed exploration of the biology of aging and reproduction. Drawing on evolutionary biology, endocrinology, reproductive science, and medicine, it examines humanity’s perennial attempts to outwit time—and why biology so often resists our ambitions.

From Victorian gland grafting and early hormone experiments to contemporary treatment of infertility, menopause, and senescence, I trace how scientific insight has advanced and myths have perished.

I aim to explain with clarity and wit why fertility declines, why men and women age differently, and why extending the lifespan is far more challenging than a simple remedy. This is not a self-help guide and doesn’t offer recommendations for longevity. Instead, Cheating Time is an accessible and thought-provoking account of what science can—and cannot—do about aging, written for curious readers with an interest in medicine, biology, and the future of human reproduction.

This is the first digital edition. It is a reissue of the original print edition published in the USA and UK, revised with updated information.

This digital edition is available at Amazon for $3.99 (or equivalent currency) or free with Kindle Unlimited.

Posted in Health | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sing Blackbird Sing

Posted on March 28, 2026 by Roger Gosden
Red-winged Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird

Last month I posted about migrating flocks of grackles and blackbirds. Hundreds of them landed, turning the lawn from green to black as they hungrily searched for seeds between grass blades.

When they flew away, a solitary blackbird still lay on the grass. An hour later it was still there, so I checked it was still alive. Unable to find an injury, I supposed it was stunned by some impact – likely dropped by an attacking hawk since it wasn’t under a window.

It was too weak to fly. I took it indoors to recover in a box with mealworms and water and Lucinda warmed it in a towel against her breast. We earnestly hoped it would recover, and worried through the night.

Why should we care about one in thousands? Among so many, there must be several that never live to see another day. It set me pondering all day.

I thought it was our parenting instinct. We cared for the individual like a vulnerable baby. Or was it more than that?

Was it what psychologists call “the identifiable victim effect?” We respond emotionally to a single known individual, yet care little for the multitude. The one is a unique being that has its own story whereas a thousand birds are abstract, so we perceive them statistically. I felt responsible for it because if I didn’t help, who would? The bird crossed a boundary from its remote life in nature to enter our circle. The flock was not my responsibility.

It is in our nature to love individuals, not populations. Empathy is a moral reflex. We respond more to the image of a hungry Sudanese child on a poster than the thousands of other children that newscasters tell us are suffering at the same time.

There are countless stories and parables that illustrate how our hearts go out to the individual. The Good Samaritan who feels a responsibility to help a stranger. The shephered who leaves his 99 sheep to search for the lost one. Blake and Thoreau wrote about moving encounters with singletons in nature, and so did Emily Dickinson in the Bird Came Down the Walk:

… Like one in danger; Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb …

Posted in Birding, Nature | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Published March 2026

Posted on March 21, 2026 by Roger Gosden
Generation by Roger Gosden
Published digitally by Amazon

GENERATION is a collection of thirty-five essays exploring the dynamic frontiers of the biology and technology of human reproduction.

Once a neglected corner of physiology, reproductive science now shapes medicine, agriculture, and society in profound ways. From contraception and IVF to genetic screening, reproductive cloning, and the ethics of embryo research, the field has expanded with remarkable speed during the past half-century.

Drawing on a lifetime of research and teaching, I examine the science behind these advances while reflecting on their wider implications. The essays move from laboratory discoveries to clinical practice, from philosophical questions to personal encounters, and from the pioneers who laid the groundwork to the technologies transforming fertility today.

Written for scientists, clinicians, and curious readers alike, Generation offers a clear-eyed exploration of how humanity has learned not only to understand reproduction—but increasingly to shape it.

The essays are extracted from my Substack What’s Hot in Fertility? and deeply edited with extra articles. Available as an eBook at Amazon. $3.95 (or equivalent currency) or free on Kindle Unlimited.

Posted in Assisted reproductive technology, Fertility | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Finding Harmony

Posted on February 21, 2026 by Roger Gosden
King Charles III

We have a similar birth date and the same hometown, but otherwise I have nothing in common with Charles III, except a passion for nature that grew out of childhood and has never faded. I am no apologist for monarchy, but I applaud the King for his love and care for the beauty and bounty outdoors.
I admired his grit when it was unfashionable to be called an environmentalist, to advocate for organic farming, or to criticize grotesque objects of modernist architecture. I am glad he has lived long enough for his prescience to be acclaimed.
Finding Harmony is his 2026 documentary on Amazon Prime, declaring a belief in the need to reconnect with nature for the sake of our bodies, our souls, our land, and the survival of humanity. Far more than musing on the throne, he has inspired practical solutions that pitifully few people in like positions of wealth and influence can match. The documentary will delight the fawning flatterers of royalty, but that should not discourage viewing the history and philosophy of this man.
The title resonates with thinkers, poets, and scientists who have believed that harmony with nature is not a retreat from civilization but a reorientation of consciousness desperately needed in these times and materialistic civilization.
From Lao Tzu in ancient China to Mary Oliver in modern America, there is a common thread of thought that human flourishing depends on remembering we are not separate from nature.
Nature is not mere scenery nor scripture for Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson; it is an open book through which moral and spiritual truths are revealed. To walk outdoors is to step through pages of instruction, which William Wordsworth reverently echoed, seeing nature as a teacher, healer, and moral guide.
The ecologists John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson had insights into this connectedness from the experience of immersion in nature. Harmony is not sentiment, but meant survival to Chief Seattle.
Albert Einstein and Thomas Henry Huxley, to name just two scientists, believed we gain wisdom by observing nature’s patterns rather than imposing our own interests and arrogance on them.
These are the common threads:

  • Belonging — We are participants in nature, not outside observers.
  • Attention — Wisdom comes from patient observation and wonder.
  • Reciprocity — To live well is to live gently. When we cause harm to the earth, we hurt ourselves.

Posted in Environment, Nature | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Blackbird Migration

Posted on February 13, 2026 by Roger Gosden
Bird migration
Screenshot

It is mid-February after the coldest weeks I can remember in south-east Virginia. Our summer visitors are still wintering in balmier latitudes; they won’t fly north for another month, but some locals are on the move.
A cloud of Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds often land to feed on our lawn and chase smaller visitors off the bird feeders. The noisy, boisterous flocks look Hitchcockian, numbering a few hundred, but when I walked the dogs, I heard a vast twittering flock approaching from the east, too high to land nearby or even identify. (The headline image is not either of these species)
They kept coming … and coming … and coming. It took three minutes for the flock to pass. I estimated the column at over fifty wide, but they flew so fast I couldn’t do more than guess at the total, certainly many tens of thousands, and likely ten times ten the number.
To use a hackneyed word – they were awesome. But they didn’t perform the kind of murmuration that Starlings are famous for, the collective acrobatics that forces a stop for watching the performance. The blackbird flock, probably a mixture of the two species plus some fellow travelers, flew in a steady stream toward an unknown roosting place under the setting sun. I saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk race after a straggler. There’s safety in numbers except for tail-end Charlie!

Red-winged Blackbird

Image credits, respectively: Pexels (Aleksandar Pasaric) and the late Inge Curtis

Posted in Birding, Nature | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment