Travels of a Fish Nut

Physics has fundamental forces as its core. Chemistry has its elements. And the fundamental unit of biology is the species. In this regard it's been likened to stamp collecting. A more modern analogy might be to Pokemon - gotta catch em all! Like chemists studying elements, once we know the different species we can work out how they interact with each other and how they work. And in so doing we can learn about our natural world. Fun stuff! But what actually is a species?   What is a Species? You probably learned the "biological species" definition at school. This definition states that: species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups (Mayr, 1942) This is an often-used definition, which is why you learn it in school, but there are problems with it. For one thing, there are species that are parthenogenetic , meaning they don't breed but reproduce asexually, with the egg developing ...

James O'Brien has a podcast called Full Disclosure in which he "hosts a series of compelling conversations with fascinating people". According to the blurb on Apple Podcasts ,  These are revealing interviews with people who rarely give in-depth interviews, be it from politics, entertainment or news. It sounds like a great podcast and I began listening when it started back in March of 2019. The first interview was with Tony Blair, not exactly someone who shies away from the limelight but certainly a coup. Then it was Ricky Gervais, a comedian who seems to thrive on controversy. Then it was Simon Amstell, another comedian and TV presenter. The fourth interview was with Dragon's Den "dragon" Deborah Meaden and I realised that this was the first interview with a woman. Four interviews and only one woman. Huh. That sort of gender imbalance is getting increasingly noticeable and not in a good way. But maybe it's just a case of scheduling and there'll be m...

This is, as the title says, a rant. I'm throwing any claims of objectivity, balance and calm out the window. I'm angry. In fact, I'm fucking furious. I'm furious about the way the government has responded to the coronavirus pandemic. And this isn't because I'm a liberal leftie who would be furious with anything a Conservative government does. The Australian right-wing government - currently headed by a man who once brought a lump of coal to parliament in a strange attempt at allying the concerns of opponents of fossil fuels, and who handled the bush fires so badly he was told to "piss off" by victims - has managed to successfully lead their country through the pandemic with only 102 deaths and around 7,000 cases out of a population of about 25 million. This isn't about Left vs Right, this is about Competent vs Incompetent. And our government has been incredibly incompetent. That's not just my opinion, statistics bear this out. We currently ha...

The Black Lives Matters protests have reached Bristol. This isn't a surprise given Bristol's history. Bristol's wealth is built on slavery . It was one of the cities settled by the Windrush generation, leading it to become a focal point for anti-racial discrimination protests in the 1960s. And it has done a pretty poor job of addressing this history in any meaningful way. A particular cause for consternation has been the immortalising of Edward Colston. Colston (1636 – 1721), built his fortune through the slave trade. While there is no evidence that Colston directly traded slaves, he received huge dividends as a member of the Royal African Company which had a monopoly on trade between England and Africa. However, his involvement can't be dismissed as simply being a shareholder who had little or no idea of the details of company operations. Colston quickly rose to be a member of the board and was Deputy Governor (the most senior executive position) for a year from 1...

I love citizen science. I think it's a fantastic way of engaging people who don't normally engage with science and also a way of giving people ownership of their information in a way that traditional methods can't always achieve. So when I heard that Kings College London were creating a COVID Symptom Tracking app for people I jumped at the chance to take part. Last week I reported a sore throat. It was most likely due to me not drinking enough while the weather had been particularly hot but it was something out of the ordinary and I felt I should report it just in case. A few days later I was asked to take a COVID-19 test. They noted that, This does not necessarily mean you have COVID-19 as we are also inviting some people we believe do not have the virus. I was pretty confident that I fell into this category but have been curious about the Home Testing kits and felt I would take the opportunity to give them a go. Ordering the Test The first task was to apply for the test....