Steve's Herpetological Blog

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

Popular Science

#StevesLibrary: Top 10 Illegal Wildlife Trade Books

After a few conservations with some friends, I thought I’d do something a little different and put together a list of my Top 10 popular science books on the illegal wildlife trade. As a reminder, the illegal wildlife trade (IWT)…

#StevesLibrary: Entangled Life

To try to reduce my fungi-blindness from a conservation perspective, I recently read Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake. As someone that has studied pathogenic fungi for a number…

#SciFri: Reflecting on the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival 2025

The Lyme Regis Fossil Festival was first held in 2005, and conceived by local enthusiasts alongside Dr Paul Davis of the Natural History Museum and the Lyme Regis Development Trust. Originally intended as a one-off celebration of the Jurassic Coast’s…

#StevesLibrary: Slime – A Natural History

If you’ve ever picked up a frog or held frogspawn, one word may come to mind to describe the sensation that you feel. Slime. I am no stranger to this feeling and so I was surprised recently when I found…

#StevesLibrary: Bitch

Another book I wish I got around to reading sooner, is Lucy Cooke’s Bitch. This sharp, witty, and thoroughly researched counter-narrative to the male-centric assumptions that have dominated the field of evolutionary biology for over a century, was an absolute…

#StevesLibrary: Infinite Life

First of all, I must apologise for the long hiatus of this series. Life has been extremely hectic over the past 9 months and so, I haven’t been able to read as much I would have like to. I also…

#SciFri: Jules Howard and Infinite Life

Regular readers of this blog will know that I love books, especially those pertaining to herpetology or different fields of popular science. This also means that I enjoy visiting book launches and meeting the authors who have put in all…

#StevesLibrary: The Secret Life of Fungi

Hopefully by now, you know that I have a fascination for fungi. This has mainly stemmed from the pathogenic species that infect amphibians (such as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) and reptiles (such as Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, which I investigated as part of my…

#StevesLibrary: Platypus Matters

Regular readers of the blog will know that it isn’t just books on amphibians and reptiles that I read, but all areas of science. It feels like I haven’t produced one of these reviews in forever – apologies for that…

#SteveReviews: Life on Our Planet

It is weird to me to watch a nature documentary, especially one which by title appears to be a spinoff of an Attenborough series and not have him narrate it. Instead however, Life on Our Planet which is available on…