Monday, 22 November 2010


Life is a funny business. My most successful scientific project came to fruition after I retired.
See Nerc News

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=867_

John

13 comments:

  1. Congrats!

    When you say you're into miniatures, you're not kidding! ;-)

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  2. Wow. I'm not sure which is more impressive. the new technique of 'environmental metagenetics' or the fact that you did this manually!

    Congratulations btw.

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  3. As A Professional gardener of over 25 years worms and soil life in general are an important although overlooked part of my job...interesting article..
    Cheers
    Paul

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  4. Dear Sons
    I once cut the head off a nematode 20 microns from the front and rotated it in jelly such that when it set I could look into the mouth with a high power oil-immersion interferance-contrast microscope and draw the exact shape of the teeth - thuis proving that the species on the west coast of Scotland was different to the one from the coast of France.

    Molecular biology ain't half speeded things up.

    John

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  5. Dear Col, SC & Igi,
    Thanks - amd my manager said my ideas were crap. Ha!
    John

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  6. Dear Lee
    I studied ten thousand eight hundred transparent, microscopic worms under high power microscopy for my PhD thesis. I have, of course, been quite mad ever since,
    J

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  7. Dear Paul
    Nematodes are just as diverse on land as in the seas. Nematode clades have switched from sea to land and visa versa several times. We still don't know where they evolved as we can't find the right part of the DNA to work does suggest they are related to Arthropoda (insects spiders, crustaceans and so on). These two groups make up the most important animals on earth - everything else is rare and unimportant.

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  8. For a moment then, I was back in that pub (the Gypsy Moth ?) marvelling at your tales of the so microscopic.

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  9. Dear Zzz
    I remember the beverages we consumed at the dear old Gypsy Moth with some relish - excelent conversation too.
    J

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