Chris courts controversy and posts his first blog comment

Chris had a book review 'A sixth mass extinction?' published in Nature last week. His review has been misquoted as 'Nature endorses human extinction' on a blog hosted by the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. Only one of the many people have who have commented on the blog recognise the quoted text (see below) as dry wit.
"Humans will presumably be gone within a few million years, perhaps sooner. If the past that Novacek describes is a guide to the future, global ecosystem processes will be restored some tens of thousands to a million years after our demise, and new forms of life over the ensuing millions of years will exploit the denuded planet we leave behind. Thirty million years on, things will be back to normal, albeit a very different `normal' from before. It is good to be optimistic. The problem is living here in the meantime".
But then Chis is often the only one who laughs at his own jokes.

Cambridge Networking Lunch

I hadn't been back to Cambridge, the University or Newnham College since the day I graduated in June 82. Just over 25 years later very little had changed. Newnham has a new library, buttery and extra residential wing but the main victorian buildings and garden were unchanged except for some garden lighting and the loss of a few trees. The new wing is named after Rosalind Franklin and is one of the many examples of posthumous recognition awarded to Rosalind for her contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA

Lucy, Alice, Hannah, Rose and Justine were suitably impressed and posed for this photo outside the room I had in Sidgewick Hall in my final year.

Whilst the girls went shopping, visited some of the other colleges and generally gained an impression of the University and town, I met up with Newnham Natural Scientists past and present over lunch. Although one of the main aims of the lunch was to enable current students to meet women scientists at a later stage in their careers very few current students attended. Despite that us 'old girls' enjoyed sharing memories of the college and catching up on what people were doing now.

Where are they now?

I've tried to remember, and track down, the other Biological Natural Science students who were in my year at Newnham

Helen Billington - University of Leeds

Fiona Catchpole

Anne Clift-Hill

Sarah Guthrie - Kings College, London

Kate Hardy - Imperial College, London

Anne-Marie Lloyd Williams

Sarah Millar - University of Pennsylvania

Dorothy Newsholme

Ros Sawyer - South Tyneside NHS Trust

Rebecca Short

Olivia Webley

Lucy Wedderburn - University College, London

Bonfire Party

We had a great bonfire party on Saturday with members of Chris' research group at York plus some of Rose and Alice's friends. Everyone was invited to bring old clothes to make a guy. This one was made from some of Chris' old decorating clothes and was an uncanny likeness.

The bonfire was spectacular. We had cut down some cuppressus trees and Chris had cleared the garage of all the pieces of wood he was keeping in case they came in useful. It was nice to meet so many of Chris' new research students and their families.

Selby Olympia Under 13s

Chris was away this weekend so I took Jack to his away match at Wheldrake. I hadn't watch Jack play football for over a year and he was very please that I was going to watch him play. Chris usually acts as linesman but another one of the Selby Olympia parent's picked up the flag so I didn't have to volunteer.

I was amazed by how many teams were playing at Wheldrake. They must had had Under 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, and either U11s or U12s as well as the U13s since there were 7 pitches of vaying sizes in use.

The League Table can be viewed on line. At the moment they are 7th out of 13.