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

Feast of the Animals

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Roger Gosden

The Feast is held today, October 4. I don’t mean a feast of animals like a medieval banquet crammed with meaty dishes, but an ecclesiastical “feast” offered for animals, for blessing them and wishing them health and longevity. It commemorates … Continue reading →

Posted in Animalia | Tagged Blessing of the Animals, Canticle of the Sun, Dylan Thomas, Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals, St. Francis of Assisi | Comments Off

A Root to Cure Evils (Ginseng)

Posted on September 25, 2016 by Roger Gosden

A police informant reported a horde of vegetable roots drying in the sun outside a home in Randolph County, WV. This is not the kind of news that makes headlines or pricks up ears, but to our friend, a law … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Nature | Tagged Appalachian Outlaws, Doctrine of Signatures, Panax quinquefolius, Paracelsus, Randolph County, saponins, Schinseng, WV, WV DNR | Comments Off

Who’s seen a Thylacine?

Posted on September 18, 2016 by Roger Gosden

Only Aussies born more than 90 years ago can make a plausible claim to have seen a living thylacine: according to official records, the last of them died in Hobart Zoo in 1936. And, yet, thylacines still live! Few “extinct” … Continue reading →

Posted in Animalia, Environment, Nature | Tagged Bigfoot, Irian Jaya, Loch Ness Monster, Merauke, Tasmanian tiger, thylacine, West Papua | Comments Off

Who’s Afraid of Artificial Gametes (Eggs and Sperm)?

Posted on September 10, 2016 by Roger Gosden

In the dystopic Brave New World of Aldous Huxley, he did not add artificial gametes to the bevy of reproductive technologies for replacing natural fertility in his future World State. Nevertheless, they might find a place one day for helping … Continue reading →

Posted in Assisted reproductive technology, Fertility, Health | Tagged Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, embryo stem cells, In Vitro Fertilization, iPS cells, Kyoto University, Paul Ehrlich, Raelian cult, Reproductive cloning | 1 Comment

An Axolotl with a Tale for Regenerative Medicine

Posted on September 2, 2016 by Roger Gosden

Who would imagine that a salamander could offer clues for regenerating human limbs after amputation in an accident and on the battlefield, or even show how to thwart human cancer? Axolotls are the kind of weird creature you might expect … Continue reading →