Op-ed in today’s Vancouver Sun about reading John Muir in Tofino, and the tragic loss of environmental oversight in Canada. http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/op-ed/Opinion+John+Muir+words+stand+tall+today+assault/11087593/story.html
Honey, Hives and Poetry
Bees do many things, but one undervalued side product of being involved in apiculture is the diversity of doors that bees open for human interaction. There are, of course, the obvious interdisciplinary collaborations: entomologist with botanist, scientist with beekeeper, professor…
“Bee Time” CSWA 2014 Book Award Winner!
I’m thrilled that “Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive has been selected for the 2014 Science in Society Book Award by the Canadian Science Writers Association! http://sciencewriters.ca CSWA 2014 Book Award Winners Announced Congratulations to this year’s CSWA Book Award…
Short-listed for the Canadian Science Writers Award
Very excited that Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive has been short-listed for the 2014 Science Book Award from the Canadian Science Writers Association http://sciencewriters.ca/awards/book-awards/ It’s in some very good company!
On My 65th Birthday
I turned 65 a few hours ago. It’s an age of significance more for historical reasons than on its own merits, as it used to be the age when retirement was expected, and usually forced. Retirement at 65 became the…
Perhaps Beekeeping Should Change?
(The post below first appeared as a Letter to the Editor in Bee Culture magazine) It was an interesting January, bookmarked with the American Beekeeping Federation (ABF) meeting at Disneyland at the front end, and ending with the American Bee…
Who Keeps Bees?
Who keeps honeybees? The number of beekeepers globally is statistically elusive, but there are something like 30 million hives worldwide, tended by a few million beekeepers. Some manage a single colony while the largest commercial beekeeping operation runs about 70,000…
Experience Shining its Light on Reason
I am an inveterate collector of quotations from books and newspaper/magazine articles, accumulated in two quite thick journals I’ve been keeping for the past 15 or so years. The quotes I pull from my readings are not always the author’s…
Senior Moments
“Perhaps I have reached the age at which those who have been through the wash-and-spin cycle a few times become seized by the notion that their own experience in the suds may be relevant to others.” Margaret Atwood, “Negotiating with…
Mouthparts of the long-tongued bees
At one point early in my career I was recognized as the world’s expert in the labiomaxillary complex of the long-tongued bees, at least among the half-dozen or so entomologists for whom bee mouthparts mattered. I achieved this obscure recognition…