Thursday 25 February 2016

An Index of Blog Posts



Blog posts are rarely indexed, so someone reading an article may be unaware that there are other entries on similar topics. As a result, I thought it would be helpful to group the titles of posts from my "Natural History, Creation and Religious Conflicts" blog into categories. These are given below, with their URLs.



Food and Unusual Foodstuffs

Nutritious aquatic insects

Eating slugs – and a fascinating defence mechanism

Mackerel: easy to catch, good to eat – and beautifully designed

Why not eat sea anemones?

Eating limpets

Moules marinières

Mushrooms – tasty, hallucinogenic and deadly

The evolution of our diet

Being inspired by Frank Buckland... ...with ideas for controlling Grey Squirrels and Canada Geese

Elders and brambles: foods and mythologies



Nature and Art

Seasilk the Natural History of an unusual textile

Fungi and Art

Brilliant illustrations of organisms

Where science meets art – the usefulness and beauty of nature printing

Nature Printing

Blaschka Glass models – the art of Natural History



Life and Death

Capital Punishment and the tragedy of Edith Thompson

Taking life

Fear of death

What is life (are we alone)?

Witnessing a killing

Extraterrestrial Life

The Origin of Life

"......life is moving peacefully towards its close"



Art History

Two paintings – two aspects of Nature

Do souls have wings?

Giotto, Angels, and Heaven

Crows and impending doom

Sargent's portrait of Edmund Gosse

Edmund Gosse on an "accidental portrait" of his father

Nature and identity: the links between a painting and a symphony

Hockney, Elgar and dead trees

Angels



Nature and Music

Elgar, soul and neuroscience

The Banks of Green Willow

Edward Elgar, Ken Russell, and me



Awe

Nature and awe

Solitary walks in Nature

Durham Cathedral is awesome...



The Natural History of the Unusual

The amazing three-toed sloth

Barnacles from space?

We can't exist without slime

Earthworms play "a more important part in the history of the world than most persons would at first suppose" (Charles Darwin)

Darwin's dust

Cat fleas and chegoes: amazing examples of evolution

The Natural History of the Unmentionable

More on the Natural History of the Unmentionable

Impressive sea foams

Sea anemones in ice?

Slugs that glide, use "smoke screens" – and can swim

Walking on water

Plagues of flies

Shells, floats and an interesting association

Underwater flowers

Parachutes and wingsuits

Mermen and mermaids

Drinking water and the "miraculous" power of sand

An extraordinary alga



Bible Stories

Doubting Thomas

Strange Winged Creatures

Noah's Ark – a likely story?

Biblical birds, reptiles and .... dragons



Medical Matters
Natural History – as valuable as Biomedicine

"Natural History is the handmaid to the study of medicine and surgery"

Charles Waterton and Medicine

The Dark Ages and Islamic Medicine

Wart cures and our powers of imagination



Creation and Evolution

Torquay, Philip Henry Gosse, and Creation

Rock pools, restoration and Creationists

Trying to understand Creationism

Creation or evolution (again)? – the strange life of hydrothermal vents

Looking at gulls – evidence of a God, or not?

Creation or evolution?

The blindness of a Creationist

The evolution of a fascinating mutualism

How did humans become such unique animals?

"When believing in Creation seems like an easy option"

Changing one's mind about Creation – or not

Two bugs, predation and evolution

Aristotle, Natural History and Evolution

Caddis flies, earrings and evolution



Famous Natural Historians

Charles Waterton's encounter with an orangutan

What to wear on the shore

Women on the shore

Charles Waterton, taxidermy and the "Nondescript"

A famous "ride" – Charles Waterton and the Cayman

Gosse, Elgar and the wonders of microscopy

Philip Henry Gosse and Nature

In praise of Leslie Jackman

E Ray Lankester and Henry Gosse

Connections: Henry Gosse, Charles Waterton and the Peales of Philadelphia

A moving discovery in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum

Rotifers, Henry Gosse, and me



Religion and Religious Beliefs

Cosmology, theistic force and human imagination

The pain of uncompromising religious beliefs

Emily Gosse – a notable evangelical Christian and writer of tracts

Why proselytise?

David Attenborough and the John Frum cult

Celebrating Christmas

Families and religious differences

Ecclesiastical fashion

Two wives in Heaven



"Mainstream" Natural History

Monarchs and milkweeds – wonders of Nature

Stories of kingfishers

Being fooled by bee flies

Garden plants, seeds and being unnatural

Why Drosophila is so interesting

Giant albatrosses: mythology and mastery of flight

What's not to like about bats?

Putti and bumblebees

Why does the Comma have a comma?

Watching azure damsels



The Future of Natural History

Where is Biology heading?

The decline of Natural History



Eccentricity

Eccentricity and Natural History

Sherlock Holmes, fairies and our imagination

Meadows, lawns and human eccentricity



Miscellanea

Two wonderful Museums – and mention of another

Decoration in humans and other animals

The beginning and the end of the Anthropocene

Limpets and F1 cars

Beautiful streams and rivers – good places to discharge sewage?

"All Nature is marvellous" – Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, and credulity

Our fascination with dinosaurs

Looking at the countryside from railway carriages

Discovering John Betjeman

Burns and basilisks

Aunts and time

Coming up for air

In praise of scholarship

Ammarnäs and Renforsen

Looking back on Academic Life