Author Archives: Roger Gosden
Star-struck
Few people are star-struck these days—unless you mean a movie- or rock-star. How could they be when the nightly spectacle is veiled by light pollution? That expression might strike you as perverse, even as a non sequitur, for isn’t “light” … Continue reading
Posted in Other
Tagged astronomy, blackout, light pollution, science, stars, West Virginia
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A Scythe for all Seasons
Old Cyrus thought he had killed off the scythe for good when he invented the mechanical reaper. The scythe has mowed hay for fodder and harvested grain for bread since the Roman Empire, and its diminutive cousin, the sickle, was … Continue reading
Tiny Terrors
Peel back the soft green cover, and you might find menace skulking in a Virginia garden. A neighbor picked up a copperhead by its tail, which turned round to bite him (can you blame it?). Large wolf spiders enjoy nipping … Continue reading
Posted in Animalia, Biomedical
Tagged Centers for Disease Control, ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, medicine, naturalist, ticks
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Gold in my Garden
Colonial Williamsburg staff in 18th Century garb draw your eye and a fife and drum band may turn your ear, but never on a Saturday morning when a farmer’s market takes over Duke of Gloucester Street. The ancient street is … Continue reading
Dear Jean
Dear Jean I couldn’t leave my students to say farewell. Our friends told me it was one of those miserable days before the daffodils bloom along the Cambridge College Backs: Scots would call it a “dreich day”. Pronounced correctly, everyone … Continue reading
Posted in Memoir
Tagged Cambridge, embryology, Grantchester, IVF, Jean Purdy, Robert_Edwards, Rupert Brooke, science
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Roger musing about Peace with Nature 