Steve's Herpetological Blog

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

Steven Allain

#SciFri: A quick fieldwork update

As many of you will be aware, I am almost 2 months into my PhD fieldwork. So far it’s had it’s ups and downs which have been mainly in part due to the weather and the somewhat unpredictable nature of…

#StevesLibrary: The Hidden Life of Trees

I recently read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben and generally thought it was a engaging read. In the book, Wohlleben shares his deep love and knowledge of forests drawing on decades of experience working within German forestry….

#StevesLibrary: The Pebbles on the Beach

If you’ve read my previous #StevesLibrary post then you will have probably found out that I have quite the passion for geology. That brings us to the latest book I recently put down, The Pebbles on the Beach by Clarence…

#SciFri: Skype a Scientist

A couple of weeks ago I Skyped a classroom in Qatar to present a quick presentation to a classroom of kindergarten children on my research as well as the importance of amphibians and reptiles. If you’d like to learn more…

#StevesLibrary: The Lie of the Land

It probably isn’t a surprise to many of you that I developed a deep interest in geology as a teen and even studied it at A-level in college. Since those days, I have followed my true passion of zoology/herpetology but…

#SciFri: Fieldwork has begun!

Hey everyone! If you’ve read my recent #StevesLibrary post then you will know that recently I have been SUPER BUSY! I will be busy over the next few months surveying barred grass snakes (Natrix helvetica) as part of the fieldwork…

#StevesLibrary: Your Inner Fish

Note: Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of posts recently – I’ve just started my PhD fieldwork and so I’ve been quite busy with that and a few other things. Don’t worry though, I will now be blogging again on…

#StevesLibrary: The Future of Life

Those of you that read this blog regularly will know that I have a soft spot for Edward O. Wilson, one of the grandfathers of modern ecology. I’d previously read his earlier book The Diversity of Life whilst carrying out…

#StevesLibrary: Bad Science

It should be stated first that the author Ben Goldacre (who you may recognised from TV, indeed I first saw him on an episode of QI) also has a website and a former weekly column in The Guardian of the…

#SteveReviews: Our Planet

As I’m sure most of you are aware, a brand new David Attenborough series has recently aired on Netflix titled Our Planet. Thankfully I was able to watch all eight episodes over the weekend and oh my, if you haven’t…