I’ve updated the page of info about my 2016 book SENESCENCE and included a link to a new video of senescence-related images with a soundtrack from the forthcoming Wilson-Thomas album ‘The Country Side of Jazz’. It’s a setting of Robert Herrick’s poem ‘Counsel to girls’, alternatively known as ‘To the virgins, to make much of…
Continue readingWebsite repair, maintenance and update
I’ve taken the opportunity of enforced indoorness imposed by the unpleasant Easter weather to treat the website to an overhaul. Under construction or dead pages are no longer empty or moribund. I’ve consolidated various fossil blog pages so that now there’s just the main site (this one) and the Idle Weeds blog (which I hope to…
Continue readingThe Country Side of Jazz
Nance Wilson and I have I have just about finished recording and mixing our album of artisan-crafted, locally-sourced, whole-earth, non-urban songs, performed in a diversity of styles and moods. Here’s a glimpse of the track list. Next step is to finalise the design and liner notes for the album and start CD production. We have…
Continue readingSeminar to launch The War Between Trees and Grasses
Today (13 November) I made a presentation in IBERS Aberystwyth to mark the publication of my new book, The War Between Trees and Grasses. It was accompanied by a Twitterstorm (hashtag #wartreegrass) and resulted in an interesting and thoughtful Q&A session (as well as the sale of a few copies of the book). Here’s a…
Continue readingThe Country Side of Jazz
Nance Wilson and I have been working on an album of defiantly non-urban jazz songs. There’s a preview of four of the tracks on Soundcloud.
Continue readingWar, huh, good god, what is it good for?
My new book finally saw the light of day on 17 October 2017, and looks pretty good to my eyes. Copies available from Amazon, or direct from me.
Continue readingPlants, People, Planet
The New Phytologist Trust is launching a new journal, Plants, People, Planet. It’s been exciting to be involved in the conception, gestation and imminent birth of our new baby, and particularly gratifying to have been invited to join the formidable board of Strategic Advisers to the journal. The objective of Plants, People, Planet is to offer a platform for…
Continue readingThe War Between Trees and Grasses
My new book will be published next week (around 18 October). Here’s the blurb: There is a co-evolutionary bond between trees, grasses and people which has its origins in the earliest era of life on land. This book traces the history of this edgy relationship, revealing its decisive role in the physiological, psychological and social…
Continue readingOn plant growth and form
Helen Ougham and I recently published an article with this title in a special issue of New Phytologist on Plant developmental evolution. Our paper is a commentary on a very nice study in the journal by Runions et al. in which computational methods were used to generate a wide range of virtual leaf morphologies. This…
Continue readingEverything you need to know about human-plant coevolution in 618 words
Nature Ecology & Evolution has published my response to a paper by Olivia Judson on energy and evolution. My commentary serves as a useful summary of the core argument in my forthcoming book The War Between Trees and Grasses.
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