Friday 29 August 2008

You are a _____ biologist!

"In the pages that follow you will meet 3 kinds of scientist. The first is a molecular biologist, muttering about enzymes and exonucleolytic degradation. He wants to know what happens to th eDNA of which genes are made. His conviction is that sex is all about repairing DNA or some such molecular engineering. He does not understand equations, but he loves long words, usually ones he and his colleagues have invented.

The second is a geneticist, all mutations and Mendelism. He will be obsessed with describing what happens to genes during sex. He will demand experiments, such as depriving organisms of sex for many generations to see what happens. Unless you stop him he will start writing equations and talking of 'linkage disequilibria'.

The third is an ecologist, all parasites and polyploidy. He loves comparative evidence: which species has sex and which does not. He knows a plethora of extraneous facts about the arctic and the tropics. His thinking is a little less rigorous than others', his language a little more colorful. His natural habitat is the graph, his occupation the computer simulation."
~ "The Red Queen - Sex & the Evolution of Human Nature" Matt Ridley

What kind of biologist are you? This could be one of those personality tests you find on websites. Evolution doesn't seem such a dull and unimportant topic after reading this book. Thanks to sy who's now probably having fun in some lovely part of the world.

On another note, life's best when there are constant little goals that takes effort to achieve but are totally do-able. The little goals can all lead to a big huge goal or they can be just little goals in all kinds of directions. It's when there are no goals or unattainable goals when life gets boring and hopeless. The big low after the high of a difficult mission accomplished is the low of hopelessness and despondency. You'll have to find a new Personal Legend when you've attained one to stay happy.