When I start working on a project, it is always interesting and exciting, otherwise I wouldn't start working on it. Developing ideas is ...

Different fields of science often don't talk to each other, even when coming at the same problem from different angles. A stark example ...

The field of life-history evolution, into which the stuff I do roughly fits, spends a lot of time thinking about optimality. What is the opt...

Rostock Zoo, Oct, 2011 I like zoo photography. Click the caiman to see the slideshow.

The Rostock main train station (Hauptbahnhof, Hbf) is an easy walk from our building, even when bedangled with a laptop bag, poster tube and...

In Rostock it is entirely unsurprising that the woman who answers the phone at the Fremdsprachendienst (Foreign Language Services company) ...

I've just spent six hours trying to convert a file (a poster I'm presenting at a conference next week) from one standard format to a...

The National Hurricane Center was remarkably accurate in predicting the track Hurricane Irene would follow up the East Coast of the US. Trop...

I am about to submit another big funding application. This one has been a lot more work than the previous applications, as the required rese...

I am working on another big funding application. This one is a lot more work than the previous applications, as the required research st...

One should be cautious in naming a taxonomic group for their ecological habits. I offer you these examples: 1. Most turtles ar...

I tend to find religious fundamentalists, whatever the religion, hard to listen to. One of the habits I find objectionable is the tendency f...

For my birthday, my parents sent DVDs of the Life series with David Attenborough, nature films from the BBC. These are wonderfully made, wit...

It is an obvious yet remarkable fact that a fetus, near the end of pregnancy, could as easily be a newborn baby. Whether through natural bir...

I know a bit about a lot of organisms, but don't really qualify as an expert on any species. It is great fun planning experiments with p...

There is a certain irony to being to a researcher who studies mortality risk early in life, and also a soon-to-be father. Sometimes I feel I...

The Institute where I work is built on land that used to be part of huge East German ship building facility. The facility folded shortly aft...

The first time I saw one? I was out in the rowboat, only a couple of hundred feet from our dock, and had, for whatever reason, dropped an oa...

There is a principle that I want to refer to in an upcoming talk, but I can't find a name for it. Someone must have named it after thems...

The ladybugs are successfully reproducing on our mint plant. Oh frabjous day! The larvae are crawling all over the plant scarfing down aphid...