Science and Nature
If 'nature' is the world we all share, science can be defined as the description of that world we can all agree on. After millennia of brilliant but erratic preparation, we finally got the trick of it during the Enlightenment. I'm a fan.
Having said this, the practice of science does not always live up to its ideals. There are frequent problems with 'consilience', matching up the accounts between different disciplines or schools. It ought to be a seamless web, but it isn't.
I am sometimes minded to take the piss out of the whole thing, and have recently started a ‘Horrible Science’ section, see below.
From time to time I experience distressing failures to communicate even with those who appear to share the same goals and interests, and I speculate on what might be going wrong, for example
Levels of detail (doc)
If there is overwhelming evidence, I am a fully orthodox True Believer. Within the limits of my small resources, I have often tried to subject heretical notions to controlled testing, and so far orthodoxy has always been vindicated. For example
A dowsing story 1995 (doc)
For more in this vein, see the ‘Epistemology’ section below.
For all my scientific orthodoxy, I do not buy the gung-ho atheist/materialist notion that things are as straightforward as they might appear. The universe has only just started its dialogue with us, and although it is always utterly astonishing, I feel sure we ain't seen nothin yet. Judge the tone of these pieces, obviously sympathetic to the near-heretical:
Gaialogue 2007 (doc)
Weird Water 2006 (doc)
Although I have a romantic enthusiasm for pure science, the logic of the climate situation compels me to argue for a complete reorganisation of research priorities. It should be all hands on deck. A tongue-in-cheek instance is in the form of short letter to the New Scientist, before the Higgs was actually discovered:
A letter from the Higgs Boson 2008 (doc)
Turning towards 'nature' in the more ecological sense, I am sometimes provoked to ask
Is Nature Really Natural? 2014 (ppt)
Much of the material for this emerged from metaphors generated by horticulture:
The Metaphorical Garden (doc)
And here's a proposed test for environmental awareness:
Two-Part Environmental Awareness Quiz 1995 (doc)
Here are some results of explorations with the digital microscope, including a short clip of an aphid being born. Feet first!
Images from the digital microscope, with notes (ppt)
And a short video clip of an aphid struggling with its old skin.
Aphid ecdysis (ppt)
If you are seriously interested in aphids, see also Informal observations of blackfly
In 2019 the Royal Entomological Society announced a competition to redesign the garden at its new headquarters in St Albans. I collaborated with Stuart Reynolds, an Emeritus Professor of entomology, in submitting a bid. It involved all our knowledge of ecological landscape construction and details of insect ecology and behaviour. And we won! Here it is:
Redesigning the R.E.S. garden (word)
As well as all this, I enjoy just wandering about with a hand lens looking at stuff. And of course I love trees, and stories about trees….
What is brown and sticky? (2024)
At the urging of my friend Claire Todd, I constructed a multimedia event based on trees in Corsham Court, a local stately home
Tree Stories (2022)
Suddenly I found myself a resident expert on Liverworts, simply because nobody else knew anything about them
Liverworts 2026
EPISTEMOLOGY
This grand term is meant to indicate my struggles with The Truth, which I generally mediate through science, data and evidence. More of this kind of thing is found in the ‘controversies’ section of this web site. Generally, it’s a kind of arm-wrestle with opponents, or indeed with myself.
Epistemology in a polarised world December 2022
Imagined Realities December 2024
The Politicisation of Science December 2022
The Neutrality of Science August 2026
A conversation with an anti-vaxxer May 2023
A solution to anti-vaxx denialism July 2026
HORRIBLE SCIENCE
There is a British TV programme called ‘Horrible History’ , that makes real history interesting to the young (and really, everybody) by hamming up daft features and making scatological jokes. I have been trying to apply the same spirit to science, largely in the form of stories and dialogues. Real scientists might also find the send-ups amusing.
These are all 2025/6 unless otherwise indicated. I’m getting more fantastical in my old age.
The Origin of Mitochondria Word 2024
A Story in Scientific Metaphors Word 2023
Seedy Dialogue 2023
Animal Life on Land 2024