Author Archives: Roger Gosden

About Roger Gosden

A British/ Canadian/ American scientist specializing in reproduction & embryology whose career spanned from Cambridge to Cornell's Weill Medical College in NYC. Married to Lucinda Veeck, the embryologist for the first successful IVF team in America. They retired to Virginia, where he became a master naturalist and writer affiliated with William & Mary. He also writes on Substack at What’s Hot in Fertility? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Gosden

There’ll Be Bluebirds Over

Posted on May 15, 2020 by Roger Gosden

The American composer of “There’ll be Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover” either had the excuse of poetic license or didn’t know that bluebirds are absent from the British Isles. But the song became one of one of Dame … Continue reading →

Posted in Birding, garden, Nature | Tagged Bird eggs, Bluebird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, coronavirus, nestbox, Vera Lynn, Virginia Bluebird Society | Comments Off

Pepysing back at the 1665-66 plague of London

Posted on April 24, 2020 by Roger Gosden

I aimed for a weekly post about the health of the natural world, but here I am dwelling on coronavirus again. Is anyone undistracted by this pandemic? This time I dusted off my copies of Samuel Pepys diaries in which … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Health, History | Tagged Black Death, coronavirus, COVID-19, Eyam church, Great fire, London, plague, Samuel Pepys | Comments Off

Latent impact of COVID-19 in pregnancy?

Posted on April 17, 2020 by Roger Gosden

There was a time when the womb was regarded as a pristine environment for a ‘fetonaut’ to travel safely for 9 months until birth, protected by a shield-like placenta. No longer. The effects of smoking, thalidomide and binge drinking show … Continue reading →

Posted in Health | Tagged coronavirus, COVID-19, flu pandemic, Great Recession | Comments Off

A Day in Dharavi

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Roger Gosden

That day slept in deep memory until Dharavi appeared in news reports about the threat of COVID-19. It wasn’t a Westerner’s curiosity about the plight of poor people that brought me in 2003 after an engagement in Mumbai; it was … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Memoir | Tagged coronavirus, COVID-19, dengue fever, Dharavi slum, Mumbai, rickshaw | Comments Off

Why So Many Hollow Trees?

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Roger Gosden

According to legend, Robin Hood and his Merry Men hid from their pursuers in a hollow tree in Sherwood Forest during the harsh reign of King John (1199-1219). The tree still stands, albeit courtesy of props and wires, and called … Continue reading →