People I fail to get along with

I've met so many people who think like this. I usually pick it up after one or two in depth conversations. These people probably never perceive themselves in this way. It's a sad life in which the closest friend they can keep is their own reflection in the mirror. This however, doesn't seem to bother them in the least...

If, perchance, I too fall under this category please tell me so I can perform brain surgery on myself crossing fingers that I will lop off the right portion and become a worthy human being again.

In case you were wondering, this is just a general post aimed at finding out if I am (have become) what I hate. If you think you know who I am leave an honest comment (I can take it !!! *crushes an empty appletiser can onto his forehead*)

The quest for flawless science

As a junior scientist studying living organisms I am constantly in pursuit of the holy grail of our field.

A perfect study!

The one where you’ve considered all the factors, taken every precaution, sifted out all the nonsense and analyzed every ounce of information from your precious data. All of your hard work and effort pay off after you handed in that manuscript and it returned just as clean. Finding out that your best effort was not good enough is quite possibly the scariest thing that can happen to our kind. We’d sooner give up entirely and become bartenders in the UK (or pack fish in Alaska…that’s quite a popular one) than continue down a path where we were certain we’d be dishonoured.

Why all the talk of uncertainty you ask? Well today I read through some old text books and realised something. It seemed little at the time but after some thought the significance of what I had come to realise seemed quite epic. In my pursuit of perfection I had forgotten about one of our most sacred rules in biology.

Don’t be an idiot!

Let me explain. I started thinking about how flawed my motives and study could potentially be after reading this sentence “If one attempted to study adaptation simply by measuring survival and reproductive success, one would reach the vacuous conclusion that those that survive and reproduce are those that survive and reproduce” (Scriven, 1959). GASP! I was so obsessed about eliminating external factors to find out about sugar preferences in avian frugivores that I had inadvertently shot myself in the foot. My theoretical approach to the question I had asked had focused solely on isolating and studying a single factor. It would have been more appropriate for me to try mimicking my test subject’s natural environment to learn something more useful and applicable to the real world. Now (3 years on) all I can do is predict vague trends, much too shallow and universally applicable to actually be meaningful and contribute significantly to my field of study.

Oh, FishSTicks!

Why a Fishtank?

People spend so much time, effort and money on fishtanks.
I know, I have three...

I still can't quite put my finger on why though. Sure they are nice to look at but when I think about it, I probably spend more time on maintenance than I do on actually watching fish.

When I get around to looking at my fish tank (or 'phish tank' as spell check would prefer I typed it...) I realise how bored the fish must be (guess I'll swim to that spot over there now. I wonder if it's any different compared to the last time I was over there? OOoo look it's my baby I think I feel like eating the fruits of my loins again...)

So I had brought it upon myself to try make life a bit more interesting for my fish (in hopes that they would become more interesting to watch).
For instance, I decided to try make one puny male guppy very VERY happy by giving him an exclusive harem of 16 females. It was fun to watch him displaying his tiny dorsal fin and short tail thoughout the day only to constantly be rejected by all the females.

After a number of enrichment efforts I always end up in the same situation though. I suppose you can't blame something that lives in a 1m squared universe for being predictable.

There must be some GOOD reason to explain why we keep fish in tanks. Perhaps I'll stumble across it one day.

Something to do with human nature I guess...

EEbEE