Save Our Species with Science: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of Earth Day

The International Earth Day campaign started as a socio-environmental movement back in 1970 and is promoted yearly on the 22nd of April. In the 90’s the movement went global with the aim to raise awareness of environmental problems and driving the inclusion of environmental guidelines during law making decisions. The #EndPlasticPollution movement of 2018 was […]

Hoarder of Average – Drabble

Too often do we limit ourselves. Restricting ideas, conversations and acts through imaginary constructs of what is deemed appropriate, correct or normal. What is normal? Who is the authoritative figure on that definition? Statisticians would argue that normal is average (i.e., mean, mode and median). The x% of the bell curve. However, it’s impossible to […]

The Code of Life – Short Poem

A, C, G, T what will the next one in the sequence be? A double helix twisted round How many base pairs can you count? Genetic information must be read right else the organism may succumb to blight Cellular mechanisms and protein tricks ensures that all the bases sticks Should something go awry it won’t […]

My Studentship Journey: Survivor Academia

#MyPhD #Academia Reference: Original Picture

Seeing is Believing – Drabble

The golden rule of science: provide the evidence, proof, data or results. Do not take anything at face value. However, when clinging too rigidly to such a statement, do we not become fools ourselves? Does it not become a religion in its own right? A fanatical belief that nothing can be true nor exist without […]

Publish or Perish – Poem

They all would deny how they readily rely on egos drenched in pride and that it’s all built on lies Several tools at their disposal all with which to exact reprisal against those who dare refuse to be hung by their dreadful noose Bullies, cowards and theives they belittle and steal your dreams then laugh […]

We are Borg: How Ticks Assimilate Genetic Adaptation

To most people parasites are gruesome creatures, likely the feature of nightmares. Yet, they are fascinating organisms from an evolutionary perspective (read more about Tick Origins and the Fossil Record). They are prime examples of the evolutionary arms-race, where parasite and host try to outwit one another through biological adaptation. Unlike plant ectoparasites, animal parasites […]

Ticks in the Fossil Record: How the cousin of the Spider became a Blood-sucking Vampire

Ticks are blood-feeding external parasites. Truly disgusting creatures and I still say this even after I had studied them for four years. How did they become such repulsive organisms? To glimpse an answer, let’s take a walk down the earth’s memory lane and explore the ancestral fossils from which they came. Fossils are used to […]

HUMPTY DUMPTY

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less”. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. by Peter Dawe. I am endlessly fascinated by words and nuances. As a lawyer, I am part scientist, part artist […]

Writing Journal of a Scientist: Absolute Nonsense Comes From Ignorance

These five words are what popped into my head during a creative writing exercise back in high-school during English class. It has been sitting in my writing journal ever since, but I always wondered as to the validity of such a statement. Is it not rather a statement of half-truth (or for that matter a […]