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

Hellbender

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Roger Gosden

Sounds like a rock group, but hellbenders are mute, cryptic, and uglier than any band! I imagine some American pioneer naming them after turning over a rock in a mountain stream and recoiling in horror at the sight of something … Continue reading →

Posted in Animalia, nature | Tagged blastema, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, Elk River, Greenbrier River, Hellbender, regenerative medicine, salamander | 1 Comment

Autumn Leaves have Fallen

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Roger Gosden

I remember leaves falling precipitously in Quebec during September when the sugar maples create a blazing mosaic of gold and ruby on forest floors. But the first snow blots over the colors as it quietly descends layer on layer with … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, garden, Seasons in Virginia | Tagged fall leaves, leaf mold, Quebec, William Blake | 2 Comments

Look like a Wild Turkey

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Roger Gosden

I want to look like a turkey. Don’t misread me. I want to look like one, not look like a turkey. The eyesight of wild turkeys is superior to every other inhabitant of eastern forests with the exception of raptors … Continue reading →

Posted in Animalia, Environment, nature | Tagged artists and painters, Boy Scouts, cross eyes, First Avenue, Look Wide, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, naturalist, optical brighteners, Rembrandt, strabismus, Wild turkey | Comments Off

Lady Marion Fraser

Posted on December 28, 2016 by Roger Gosden

A light went out in Scotland on Christmas Day. Marion Fraser passed away. In a cynical age we have low expectations of “virtue” in our public figures whose ranks often seem unattainable except to those with the privileges that come … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir | Tagged Christian Aid, Church and Nation committee, Church of Scotland, Gandalf, Hobbits of the Shire, Marion Fraser, Middlemarch, Order of the Thistle | 2 Comments

How British Dentists Created Heavy Metal Generation

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Roger Gosden

At my first dental examination in North America the Montrealer with a deep knowledge of the ethnography of decay leaned back from my chair and holding his pick aloft declared, “You have British teeth.” His tone was grave, like a … Continue reading →