The End is Near

It’s Actually Here Right Now!

I used to start my Introductory Biology Course with the following question:  I asked the students to tell me what they thought was characteristic or typical  of “Life” and, of course, there were answers like “movement and sensitivity”, “reproductive capacity”, “growth”, “feeding and metabolism”, but almost never did I get to hear “senescence and death”.  And yet, they too are part of Life.

Although a series of essays (or ‘blogs’) like those of my “BIOFORTHEBIOBUFF” cannot be compared with living organisms, it does, however, have to come to an end  – eventually. And the end for this series, which has been appearing week after week for more than six years and which covered a variety of topics, aspects and subjects (and often touched upon events in my life), is now here.

The topics that I had chosen, to a very large extent reflected my activities and interactions as a university teacher with students from a huge number of countries and regions, but also the experience I had gathered on expeditions and research trips to diverse and often remote places on Earth as well as during the times I had lived and taught in many different parts of the world. 

My aim had been to deal with specific topics (that I felt were worth tackling) on an A4 page using font size 11 or 12 in as fully and understandably a way as was possible given that space. Quite often the topics, as already mentioned, came from my own research in a variety of disciplines and the courses that I had taught; some, however, were related to questions I had received from students, my own children and other people and some arose from news and discussions I had followed in the media.

What I certainly will not forget and must mention, is the contribution that my trusted friend Florian Nock has made over the years. Not once in over six years has he forgotten to put the texts on the web and to monitor and administer our ‘Wordpress’ webpage. For that and his support, I thank him wholeheartedly.

Finally, I should also not forget the readers of the “BIOFORTHEBIOBUFF”, because the feedback we received from some of them was one hundred percent positive and encouraging.  We can only assume that the ‘silent majority’ also enjoyed the series and got something out of it, be it reliable and accurate information or simply “food for thought”. If the blogs have shown our readers how fantastically wonderful it is to observe, learn and understand Nature and all its living manifestations, and not everything needs to be “applied” or “useful”,  then we have achieved a great deal of what we set out to achieve.

I am ending this series now, because I feel I have covered a sufficiently wide range of topics and I do not wish to repeat or update any of them. Too much of anything can be counter-productive.  I now have plans to embark on a different project and sign off:  it’s been a great journey! 

If, however, someone has an idea how the series (or perhaps a selected number of the blogs) could be published in book form and can suggest possible publishers, we’d be most grateful.

Without much further ado: Cheerio and keep appreciating Nature and never stop learning from it !

PS: You might enjoy reading some of the older blogs (they started on October 17th, 2015) !

© Dr V.B. Meyer-Rochow and http://www.bioforthebiobuff.wordpress.com, 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to V.B Meyer-Rochow and http://www.bioforthebiobuff.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.