Spontaneous amputation

There should definitely be awards for the most outlandish scientific papers. I don't mean for those that are wasteful or stupid, like the Ignobel awards or the Darwin awards, but just for the strange ones.

My award of the day goes to this paper
http://www.ejbjs.org/cgi/reprint/47/7/1401.pdf ,which is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

It describes a case where a large vein in a man's leg became blocked, causing the leg to become swollen, numb and, eventually, gangrenous. Ordinarily, once gangrene set in, one would have expected him to die without urgent medical attention. In his case, he recovered in bed at his sisters house for 15 months, until finally, the diseased leg just dropped off...

The best bit of the story however, is that even this drastic turn of events did not prompt him to seek medical help. Instead, he called a vicar for advice about what to do with broken off bit of leg. Fortunately, the vicar suggested a doctor might be appropriate.

*BEWARE- the paper contains one VERY gory image *

Cheering up Bird number 4- Wild Pheasant

Wild Pheasant, UK

The powerful red cheeks of male pheasants look very garish and absurd- like something from a Venetian masked ball.....

Silence, Absence and The Writing Experience

Please excuse my long absence- I have been busy doing research for my forthcoming popular science book and creating pieces for my jewellery collection- due to be launched later this month. I will post details of the book here in due course. Actually, writing this book has been a very strange experience in many regards. From what I have read in interviews with well known authors, I think most people find some books harder to write than others.

For a while, things were very heavy going with this book, but lately I've been learning all sorts of bizarre and entertaining facts that I'm trying to squeeze into the narrative. (well, they entertain me, anyway). It's very tempting to share what I am learning as I go along - to enthuse about it all here and to mention it to my friends when they ask how things are going, but I'm fighting that for the moment- even to the extent of avoiding talking about it at all. I hope keeping it all to myself will make the book better in the end.

Both the writing and the jewellery-making are proving great experiences and -oddly- seem to compliment each other. Sometimes doing two creative things simultaneously seems to be utterly exhausting; for example, conducting research science and writing a book at the same time was disastrous for me- but other activities seem to support each other. Jewellery manufacture and writing seem to work well together.

Volcano photo

Amazing photo of an erupting volcano from a satalite

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2498407/Volcano-snap-out-of-this-world.html

Cheering Up bird 3- Night Heron

Night Heron, Lisbon - image (c) Victoria Neblik, 2009

Compared with the previous cheering-up birds, the Night Heron has a very subdued appearance, but his head wires are just ridiculous enough to secure him the dubious honour of cheering-up bird number 3.

The world's Most Terrifying Penises - Leopard Slugs

There are times when I think that I've seen many of the world's weirdest creatures. Then time and again, I get proven wrong. The latest unexpected surprise is this wonderful tongue-in-cheek video on the penis and truly bizarre natural history of the leopard slug-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2tZLWIo9nY&feature=channel_page

Spineless Hedgehog

Ever wondered what a hedgehog would look like without the spines?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2321923.ece