Saturday 21 November 2009
Science vs Nature
There are many tensions between Science and Nature; this one churned in my thoughts during a particularly dull lab meeting many moons ago. Old words.
Science involves trying to understand natural processes by dissection (not always literal) and examination of the composite parts, then trying to fit these parts into the grand scheme of the process in question. So much of Science involves classifying and sorting entities, from butterfly species to serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates. In doing all of this organising and strict classifying we are imposing our way of thinking on Nature’s products. It’s a fundamental difference in concepts. Science attempts to compartmentalise natural processes, but there will inevitably be overlaps where what we find in Nature doesn’t conform to the artificial organisational system we have created. We don’t have enough boxes into which Nature’s offerings can be put, and continually creating new ones seems to defeat the point. Science and Nature should work together, not be in battle.
Friday 20 November 2009
icy
She felt like an ice sculpture; frozen and numb, melting slightly, some part of her drifting away.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
tendrils
We are made up of a unique combination of tiny moments melded together and held in place by timorous tendrils. Some tendrils break and the tiny moments are lost, others grow thick and strong from constant use, and moor us fast to the memories most looked at.
There are others that seem to be floating free, appearing out of the dregs of the memory without prompting; a gentle inconsequential moment like crunching through autumnal leaves, or a heart-breaking shock of a flashback, flinging you defenseless into the past. Whether these moments are tinged with fear, anger or love, a reminder of terror or a tender tryst, they are all devastating in a way. Tethering us to what happened before, with no guarantee that we will learn from our nostalgia as we tiptoe into the future.
