Author Archives: Roger Gosden
Human Population Through the Looking Glass
I can’t avoid this topic forever, not under the headline Peace with Nature. It is the intractable, controversial matter of the teeming numbers of human beings. How many more of us can the Earth sustain in this Anthropocene? Only the … Continue reading
Don’t Write Off the Bat
It was a perfect evening for a spin in the Batmobile with a team of three amateur chiroptologists. The air was warm and still when the sun went down. After leaving the carpark, we were overtaken by every vehicle along … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged ACE-2, Batmobile, Big brown bat, Chiroptera, coronavirus, COVID-19, Red bat, SonoBat, White-nose syndrome
2 Comments
Virginia is for Oyster Lovers
“Why then the world’s mine oyster, which I with sword will open.” Thus, Shakespeare gave us a new idiom in the Merry Wives of Windsor repeated ever since, and Oscar Wilde wielded it with customary wit: “The world was my … Continue reading
Posted in Animalia, Environment, Nature
Tagged Chesapeake Bay, Oscar Wilde, oyster, Shakespeare, VIMS, York River
1 Comment
The Sound of Noise & Silence
Among many things we will remember after the coronavirus pandemic, the world was quieter than normal. When I compared a busy avenue-street intersection in Manhattan before and during the lockdown, I found a 6 decibel (dB) difference, four-fold in amplitude. … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Biomedical
Tagged 4'33", hearing loss, John Cage, John Keats, nightingale
About Giant Eggs & Double Yolks
This week’s gift from a neighbor’s chicken coop included one extra-large egg. After hard-boiling and cracking open we found a double yolk, which some say is a good omen on our wedding anniversary. The following conversation over a meal would … Continue reading
Posted in Animalia, Assisted reproductive technology, Fertility, Nature
Tagged blastocyst, Human egg or oocyte, IVF and ARTs
