Monday was back on the beach in the morning, there were lots of bluebottles washed up because of the wild weather we had had. There was also a prion on the beach washed up but still alive. Last Friday when I was at the beach I photographed a bird I hadn't seen before. I couldn't identify it from the bird books I got out of the library either. A few emails later I found out it was a wandering tattler. They are infrequent visitors to our shores from Alaska and Eastern Siberia. I was quite pleased to get a shot of it on the beach.
I spent Tuesday back in Stratford looking through the microscope for species in soft sediment samples. Wednesday and Thursday were back in front of the laptop typing up about what I have been doing and what I have found out. Friday was more of the same but I did get down to the beach for a short while.
Friday lunchtime I took my daughter to get some lunch, she had just finished her level 3 exams. Anyway waiting for our food we overheard a woman telling the owners that allergies were caused by all the additives in food these days and that 4 out of 5 children now have allergies and this is the reason why. My time around scientists and workiong with science made my ears prick at this. Really I thought to myself, what evidence is there, what proof is there, what studies have linked these two things, or is it just what someone thinks and it gets repeated often enough then people will beleive it without asking questions. Thankfully in the car my daughter thought the comments were wrong too. It reminded me of another time when a man my wife was interviewing firmly believed there were more rips at beaches these days because there were more ships off our coast. This is a true story. Thankfully science makes me ask questions, even though I might not always get the right answers I know where or how to research to find out. This is a skill we need to teach as well.
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