Hi folks,
It’s been a stressful week and I’m ill – hence the dearth of recent posts. To tide you over for a bit, here’s some miscellaneous stuff from me:
Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year – I’ve been to this superb exhibition every year since 2002 and this year, I had the privilege of going to a media preview and reviewing it for Nature Networks. Have a look. It was great to talk to some of the winners; their commitment and passion for their work was infectious.
Lunching with David Attenborough – It’s not everyday you get to meet your childhood hero, except of course, for last Friday, when I spent most of the afternoon having lunch with Sir David Attenborough. The lunch was a prize-giving for the Daily Telegraph Science Writer Award and in a ludicrously jammy move, I was sat between Sir David and Philip Campbell, editor of Nature.
I spent three hours or so talking to them about science, evolution, my job, blogs, writing, documentary-making, and everything in between. It was incredibly relaxed and informal – neither of them gave any sense of superiority. Getting to meet David Attenborough is one thing, but actually getting to debate with a British institution about science and nature was quite another.
And really, aside from the wedding, I don’t think I’m going to get a better moment this year than the editor of Nature telling David Attenborough OM CHS CBE FRS that he should read this blog.
Anyway, I now have David Attenborough’s card (and his place-holder, which will sit atop my monitor at work and confuse people).
Carnivals – Various blog carnivals have featured posts of mine including:
- The All Things Medical carnival, with my piece on how doctors repress their patients’ pain
- Four Stone Hearth, with a post on the evolution of the past tense in verbs
- Mendel’s Garden, with a post on how genes affect our likelihood of punishing unfair play
Filed under: Personal stuff
Wow, that picture… the elephant, it doesnt even look like photography, it looks like a painting. A really cool painting.
That’s very, very sweet about the luncheon. For halloween, I’m gonna call you a hob-nob-goblin.
cus you hob-nobbed with… yeah, you get it.
I just knew it! Ed’s hobnobbing with the rich and famous now. I’d like to point out that I predicted this would happen when he won the Science Writer Award. Can the fast lane with Paris Hilton and Courtney Love be far behind?
If Paris Hilton is the future, I think I’ll stick with the current level of hobnob(gob?)bing.
[...] another year finishes and it’s been a good one for me. I won a writing award, got to talk to David Attenborough and started a freelancing career. Luckily, the Christmas break has provided some much-needed [...]
Sounds like a great year!
I don’t know much about Attenborough, but I’d love to meet Sir Patrick Moore.
Many pleasant wishes for 2008!