Steve's Herpetological Blog

An insight into the life of Steve, his research and the many books he reads

Year: 2018

#StevesLibrary: Oxygen: The Molecule That Made the World

Some of you may remember that I went to see Nick Lane give a talk at the Linnean Society of London back in March. I’d been aware of Nick’s research for a while involving the evolution of life. For those…

#StevesLibrary: Elephants on Acid

If like me, some of the more questionable experiments in history such as the Harlow experiments investigating the isolation of infant monkeys interest you as much as they shock you, then ‘Elephants on Acid‘ by Alex Boese is certainly a…

#SciFri: Fossil hunting at Walton-on-the-Naze

Whilst visiting my mother’s house in Essex, I couldn’t help but take the opportunity to travel to Walton-on-the-Naze (known as Walton for short) with her when she headed to the beach to walk her dog. Whilst she would be ensuring…

#StevesLibrary: The Sixth Extinction – An Unnatural History

This book features two design elements that market it pretty well towards me, that is lots of green and a frog on the cover! I was familiar with the author as I also own her earlier work ‘Field Notes from…

#SciFri: Midwife toads in the UK

Sorry for the delay in this fortnight’s #SciFri, I’ve been frantically bashing at a keyboard in order to write my Master’s Thesis so I’ve been a little pre-occupied. You’ll be glad to know that everything is going well and I’m…

#SciFri: In search of the marsh frogs of south Essex

This fortnight I thought it would be great to merge #FrogFriday with #SciFri and give you all something a little different. As many of you will know I grew up in south Essex, not far from Southend-On-Sea. In recent years…

#StevesLibrary: The Diversity of Life

In 2016 when I spent 3 months in Malaysia, I took a number of books to read on the flights but also for during the downtime. It turned out that I actually read most before bed, or when we were…

#SciFri: Life in the Dark

The Natural History Museum is quite possibly my ideal image of what utopia looks like, I’ve been going there for over 20 years and it’s my home away from home. Whenever a new exhibit is announced, I try to visit…

#SciFri: Rock N Roll is Noise Pollution

Regular readers of the blog will know that every fortnight I write a special blog on something science related that I’ve either visited or been involved with. Some of you may have already realised that I like to listen to…

#SciFri: Amphibians and Reptiles of Scotland

On Saturday 9th June, herpetologists from all over the UK (including me) gathered in Glasgow for a very special occasion. The Glasgow Natural History Society, in conjunction with Clyde ARG, had organised a fantastic line-up of herpetologically themed talks for…