Category: adventures

Day of the Daffodils

For me, carnivorous plants fall into the same category as dinosaurs, muppets and the concept of Doctor Who – if you don’t find them wondrous, I’m not sure I can trust you. I hadn’t thought about carnivorous plants recently, what with my brain full of the , but the redoubtable Paul Riddell, ex-writer and essayist and creator of the fondly missed Esoteric Science Resource Centre, has finally opened a web site for his business devoted to these little beasties: the Texas Triffid Ranch, a nursery for “carnivorous, prehistoric, and otherwise exotic plants”.

Besides which, Daffodil Day – a fund-raiser for the excellent Cancer Council (which as a kid I always called the “Anti-Cancer Council“, which is either an organisation who like to make it clear they’re not in favour of cancer, or a rival group who oppose the altruistic deeds of the real one) is coming soon. Every year on Daffodil Day the city fills with tiny, Triffid-like flowers, their bell-shaped mouths leering at me from every corner, watching, waiting… I can’t help but imagine that the plants will soon eat us all. Read more

The Big Pterodactyl?

There are times when you’re struck with something so bizarre that nothing makes sense; reason is turned upside down and wonder and confusion take the reigns of your destiny. So it was when, on the way back from Dubbo with my beloved, I spotted this statue of a pterosaur in a field.

[singlepic id=7 w=320 h=240 float=center]

There was no sign proclaiming Dubbo to be the home of “the Big Pterodactyl” (which would no doubt be its name if it had one, though like most popular representations of pterosaurs, this one has the classic Pteranadon head crest), nor were there any other nearby monsters. There was just this guy, who more resembles Rodan (the Godzilla monster, not the much smaller Port Adelaide footballer) than any actual prehistoric flying reptile.

There’s something very charming about this statue – it’s very old school, almost Crystal Palace-like in its chunky, heavy design – but at the same time it seems somehow…sinister. So far I’ve not been able to find any information about its origins or fate. Was there once a dinosaur park in Dubbo? Was there a tourist attraction here? Perhaps its the last remnants of some obscure cult, and obscene sacrifices were made in its name?

This might not be science, but there are few things the Man in the Lab Coat enjoys more than finding answers. I’ll let you know how I get on!

The Man in the Lab Coat versus the Giant Squid

When I was in primary school, I guess I would have been about 6 or 7, one of my most prized possessions was a small, illustrated, abridged paperpack copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I must have read it 50 times; I even brought it in for one of my teachers to read to us, and when we dressed up as literary characters for Book Week (do kids still do that?), I came as Captain Nemo.

It’s true – I’ve been geeky all my life. But I like to think I was at least a cultured geek, with a love for Important Geek Literature. And even years later, after re-reading the full unabridged novel a few years ago and realising it’s largely just a list of interesting fish, I still remember the fight with the giant squid. It was, predictably, also my favourite part of the Disney film, in which a bizarrely upper-class Nemo played by James Mason fights off the world’s rubberiest monster with the help of Kirk Douglas as Ned Land. (I still love that movie, and it was the best birthday ever a few years ago when my Mum bought it for me on DVD.)

So you can imagine my excitement when a couple of weeks ago I headed down to Melbourne Museum to see them dissect a Giant Squid. Read more

Here’s an experiment you can try at home.

Just to show me they appreciate their starring role in my show, a bunch of microorganisms have decided to swarm and multiply in my throat, first making their presence felt at 5am on the morning I left for Adelaide. I’m booked in to see a doctor today; we’ll see how the little rascals do trying to evolve their way around some antibiotics…

The problem is, of course, that some bacteria have evolved resistance to antibiotics. Remember, these microscopic villains reproduce incredibly quickly; even though some species do not reproduce sexually (and therefore lack the sophisticated variation of those who do), they still have more than enough variation through simple mutation over the millions of individual organisms and hundreds or thousands of generations that are currently living inside me to have a fair crack at it.

But never fear; the Man in the Lab Coat’s mighty constitution (at least 14, for the D&D nerds out there) is up to the task of battling these foul invaders, even if medical science isn’t. The corpuscles are massing, indeed the offensive has already begun, and come Friday my sweet voice shall be unadulterated by germs.

See you all at the show!

Evolutionary Damage

The Man in the Lab Coat isn’t all smiles and japes, oh no. He’s serious about science’s place in the world, and its perception. This was brought to mind today when I was asked if I was convinced by a book I was reading on evolution (Daniel C. Dennett’s Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, an excellent philosophical study of evolution, very well worth a read). I like the fellow who asked me, though I didn’t know – and still don’t, since we didn’t get to have much of a discussion – what his education, background or philosophical stance is, but it took me a moment to realise that I’d just been asked – for the first time – if I “believed in” evolution.

I told him truthfully that I was already very much convinced before I started reading the book, and that I was learning more about its philosophical implications. I was all ears to hear my friend’s story of his last trip to Turkey when he was offered a “visitor’s book”, produced in English and offered free to tourists (he told me charmingly that he’d asked in Turkish if he was still allowed one if he spoke the lingo), which advised them of the evils of Darwinism.

I’d never heard of such a thing – nor can I easily imagine why someone would spend all that time and effort to do it – but I readily agreed that some people had certainly misused Darwinism for evil purposes. Our discussion was cut short as we had to go back to work, but I learned something valuable: I’m ready for that kind of question. I know what I think, and why; and I was ready to listen, ready to be patient, and definitely not ready to try and destroy anyone’s beliefs, only to challenge them to think about what they believe and why.

But while this is all very serious and lovely and life-affirming in its own self-aggrandising way, I should say that I will still kick the arse of anyone who comes to my show and challenges me on home ground. I wouldn’t do the same to Father Bob, say, or even a nutter minister; it’s not cool. My show is, despite its content and message, still an entertainment, a one-man show, not a debate.

On the other hand, if you want to come to the bar afterwards and supply me with drinks, I’ll happily talk to you about whatever you want for as long as you like…