Combi 101: Day 4 – Sick Day Science Podcasts

“Black Butte blackberry” by Scott Bauer, USDA ARS

“Black Butte blackberry” by Scott Bauer, USDA ARS – This image was released by the Agricultural Research Service, the research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, with the ID K7774-1 (next).This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.English | français | македонски | +/−. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.

---

This post is a day overdue, I know, I know….

But I have a good excuse, I was off work ill yesterday.  I don’t usually take sick days, so I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself…In the end I opted for a hot bath, some fresh air and a lot of podcasts.

You might be wondering at this point, what does any of this have to do with Thursday’s Blogging 101 & Writing 101 tasks?  And what’s with that tasty looking photo?

Autumn is my favorite season, I love the smell of bonfires, autumn food and crisp autumn weather.  One of the best things is going for a walk and finding blackberries to eat.

I was listening to an episode of a BBC podcast called ‘The Infinite Monkey Cage’, which stars Robin Ince and Brian Cox, you might already be a listener, it’s good.  One particular episode was on forensic science, a subject which I know very little about.  We shared a department with some forensic scientists during my undergraduate degree but they were these strange other beings in lab coats talking about chemicals and gun shots and, in one particularly memorable case, human sweat.

Whilst the Forensic Scientists might have seemed a bit other-worldly, botanists were off my radar completely.  I think I imagined them hanging out at Kew Gardens and the Natural History Museum but it certainly wasn’t a career any of my friends were aiming for.

It turns out that botanists do some really interesting work and, whilst it’s true a lot of them hang out in the Natural History Museum, it sounds like the field extends far beyond specimen collection, intersecting with fields like Forensics.  And this is where the blackberries come in – do you know what Batology is?  I’ll admit I didn’t.  Batology is the study of Brambles, (from báton, ancient greek for blackberry), I love these specific little areas of study and, it might be the cold medicine speaking here, but the thought that someone was not only studying these wonderful, tasty (if a little ugly) plants, but understood them well enough to apply their knowledge in the not-even-vaguely-related-to-snacking area of crime solving, made me very happy indeed.

Thursday’s Blogging 101 prompt asked us to add in a new element to our posts, so I’ve included a link to the podcast in link below.  The subject, forensics, can be a little gruesome so if that’s not really your cup of tea, I’d recommend the episode on ‘Speed’, also available on the BBC website, which I though was a lot of fun.  The task also asked us to pitch to our ideal reader.  If I’m being honest, this blog is mainly for helping me make a habit of writing so I’d continue to post even without an audience.  It would be a lot more fun however with people along for the ride, so, dear readers, for as long as you’re happy to read my ramblings, pull up a chair, grab some tea and let’s chat, if you made it through a medicine-induced post about blackberries you’re probably going to do well here.

Writing 101 wanted us to use a single image for inspiration, I cheated a little, because I found the picture after the podcast but I challenged myself to find something in the public domain, that I thought summed up my theme for the post.

Hoping you enjoyed this little foray into the world of brambles, I’m off to find out what Blogging U have in store for us for day 5…

The Infinite Monkey Cage: Forensics