h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I found it very well written, entertaining (but not overly so) - and I did learn a thing or two!

And "Hey, nice flagella" made me ...

(and now that I've auite obviously spent my allowance of praise for one day I'll go and sulk and find something to kick over at P.U.D.D.I.N.G.)

This truly is a fantastic entry. Well done!

I regret to say I found it over-egged. In fact I got bored & gave up about one third of the way through, not through excessive facts, but through too few facts and excessive verbiage. Is it excentric of me to prefer facts to descriptive prose?

Dry.

thanks santra, thanks mr t . dryopithecus - i'm sorry if this bored you... i used to write fiction before i started writing science non-fic, so quite a lot of my verbosity carried over... old habits die hard.

Personally I think that the style is very appropriate here, where lots of non-scientific people may read it. In a university textbook it most likely wouldn't work as good... (but might make a nice change for once )

i basically have two styles of writing - tremendously descriptive, verbose prose for fiction and slightly light-hearted articles, and dull, dry, boring sentences leaving nothing to the imagination for science journal articles. i didn't really think people here would appreciate the latter

regarding the university textbook thing... have you read edward alcamo's microbiology textbook? i *swear* that is the only science textbook that i have read from cover to cover - it was so informative and yet light-hearted and accessible enough that you just couldn't stop reading. (as opposed to kuby's immunology textbook, which i wanted to kill myself with after reading the first chapter)

Hmmm - no. Sounds like I wish I had Ours was by Nester et al - and for Genetics we had Goodenough.

Which I guess adequately describes the level I reached - and (in 20/20 hindsight) why I'm very happy with my life outside of the lab, yet connected to all things biotechnological...

nester? (scratches head) ...sorry, it doesn't help that it looks like 'fester'. that's the expensive textbook, isn't it? i've never seen anybody use it here. our department's #1 microbiology textbook is the classic brock, but i've a couple of others as well (tortora and shimeld). can't remember what genetics books i read (again, i read plenty), although i most certainly *do* remember the 'cartoon guide to genetics'! wonderful book. i recommend it, if you haven't already read it!

I feel out of place here! The only practical microbiology I have ever done is to take & examine a sample from a dish of Sordaria fimicola that the OU's technician had prepared for us. Though I do have other books on the subject, the only one I've read right through is Lilian Hawker et al: An Introduction to the Biology of Micro-organisms, which fulfils its title nicely. Scanning another book, (Williams & Shaw) I've just noticed that, if I could make some sterile PDA, I may be able to isolate the little creature that occasionally kills one of my cacti. Hmm.

Dry.

it's pretty easy to make your own agar at home, dryo! all you need is a pressure cooker, cooking agar and microbe food (some protein and sugar). it's such a good thing most microbes are not picky eaters... you can start by culturing the microbes on your skin.

Sorry, Farlander, I missed your reply. That would explain how the little pests get around. Perhaps, as well as sterilising the soil, I should wash my hands before touching the plants! It would be nice to know what the pest is, or even just look at it under a microscope, so I shall have a go at propagating (sorry - culturing) them when I have time.

Dry.

The cartoon guide is indeed I've actually used it as training material once to give some (absolutely) non-biologists a sense of what the thing is all about...

you know, dryo, the interesting thing is that i had this cactus about two years ago that i bought at a fair... a tiny one. left it on my windowsill at college (dusty and dirty, of course - typical college room), looked at it only once a week when i had to water it. and it *blossomed* most happily. sprouted a head and all...

... well, it just goes to show... maybe all cacti should be neglected...

That sounds like an ideal environment for a cactus, Farlander: dry, dusty, plenty of sunlight & not too much water.

I used to have a collection of cacti & other succulents arranged on benches in front of a South facing window. Unfortunately they had to be moved to an East facing window, since when they haven't been doing so well. One effect has been an explosion of a population of greenhouse mealy bugs, the other is this microbial disease. Occasionally a plant, possibly as a result of some damage, gets infected by the microbe, which causes the cells to break up so the tissues go translucent & the cactus eventually dies. Once it's started, there seems to be no stopping it. Cutting off the diseased part doesn't seem to work. The only defence is to propagate the plant before it gets infected, so one has some in reserve. A better solution, when I can organise it, will be to move them back where they started, as the less humid environment may hopefully be less favourable for the microbes.

Dry.