Alex Wild's insect adventures. (Isn't the Internet great?)

I feel like I haven't made enough science blogs of late. One reason for this is that there are others out there doing it so much better! So, instead, until I have something interesting to say, I thought I'd do a quick blog about a science blog.

My friend, Joel, who works on ants, first told me about Alex Wild. This guy takes amazing insect photos, one of which can be seen here from his blog Myrmecos. (I did ask first - because his photos are so cool, Alex has had problems in the past with bloggers, and even the media, taking them without permission.)



The beastie in question is a rare Loboscelidia sp. wasp. I'm not a bug man, so to me it's just a crazy-looking critter but this is actually a really unusual find. You can read the story on Alex's blog but it's great tale of the power of the Internet and how Twitter is not (just) a waste of time filled with the inane ramblings of strangers (in 140 characters or less)! Check out the photos on Alex's website too; they're jaw-droppingly good. (And not all ants!)

The joys of Japanese Whisky

Each year, one of my colleagues lays on a themed whisky tasting for the University wine club. In recent years, this has been timed at the end of January to coincide (roughly) with Burn's night. This year, it was Japanese whisky.


I can't say that I really knew anything about Japanese whisky prior to the tasting - to be honest, I did not even know that the Japanese made whisky. Any reservations I had, however, we're blown away when we tasted the five offerings selected.

It seems that the Japanese have been making a real effort to learn how to make quality whisky in the Scottish style, and these five could happily sit unnoticed among those north of the border. My favourite was the "Yoichi" single malt from the Nikka distillery. Smooth, warming and packed full of flavour. Unlike with actual Scottish whiskies, my favourites were not at the higher peat end of the spectrum, although that might have been just my mood on the night.

The only real negative of the whiskies was the price - though good, I cannot help but think you could get a better Scottish one for the same price. That said, the opposite might be true in Japan, and I would definitely look out for some of the local stuff if ordering a whisky in Japan.

The final element of the night was a Japanese/Burns fusion of whisky-related haiku. Unfortunately, there is not yet a collection of these but here is my effort for what it's worth:

A wine drinker sips.
Whisky on a Haggis night.
"It's good but... It Burns!"

I'm not sure whether it strictly follows the rules of good Haiku, and it's a bit unfair on the whisky, which did not burn, but hopefully it captures some of essence of the night.

Busted faith healers try to hide behind "religious persecution" smokescreen

There's been a bit of a furore over the past couple of days after a brave citizen reported the Bath contingent of the "Healing On The Streets" (or "HOTS") movement to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for making the unsubstantiated claims that God could heal you (on the street) through them. You can read the actual account of the complaints made at the blog of the complainant, Hayley Stevens.

Hayley is an atheist but, more importantly, a skeptic and complained on skeptic grounds that HOTS were misleading people with claims that cannot be supported by evidence and could detrimentally influence the weak and vulnerable away from authentic medical treatment. ASA agreed and have ruled that HOTS have to remove these claims from their advertising material.

Do HOTS respond with tales of clear and unequivocal healings performed by HOTS teams? No. Of course, HOTS had the opportunity to counter the complaint with convincing evidence that supports their claims but they have none. (Their website contains "Hot Stories" of successful healings - presumably their most convincing stories. Judge for yourself how anecdotal they both(!) are. Why is it that God never regrows an amputated limb or anything else unambiguous and unattributable to placebo?) Instead, they try to deceive and grope for support by playing the "religious persecution" card, totally inappropriately, including a news article disingenuously entitled "UK Advertising Standards Authority try and stop HOTS Bath from sharing the Gospel!" 

Well, if HOTS cannot - or will not - tell the difference between "sharing the Gospel" and making unsubstantiated claims, then I think that speaks volumes about both the evidence for their Gospel message and their true motivation for "healing" strangers on the street. (I thought the Gospel was about forgiveness from sin, not healing from physical ills. I obviously did not pay enough attention in Sunday School.)

It's not just HOTS, though. Bible Reflections also ran the story, saying that the ASA "would now like us to recant our Christian faith in the Bible". No, they wanted you to agree to "not make claims which state or imply that, by receiving prayer from [HOTS] volunteers, people could be healed of medical conditions." They are welcome to believe it, they are just not allowed to push those beliefs on others without evidence. Like HOTS themselves, BR went for a misleading headline, claiming that ASA were "trying to stop Healing on the Streets". Again, no. It was not trying to stop them entirely, just to stop their unsubstantiated claims.

The complainant - an individual, not a group, as claimed by Bible Reflections - was not complaining on anti-Christian grounds but rather on anti-non-evidence-based medicine grounds. And quite rightly, too. Anecdotes are not evidence. If people wish to seek out faith healing then that is their business. However, accosting the vulnerable in the street and encouraging them share personal matters with strangers in the hope of unproven potential to be healed is a different matter, and wrong. It would be wrong if it were Homeopaths, wrong if it were psychics and wrong if it is faith healers.

But isn't it all harmless, even if it doesn't work? HOTS are not making money or trying to con people, like psychics or homeopaths.

Well, in some ways, I think faith healers are even worse. HOTS may think that faith healing is harmless because they believe it. But who do they believe God heals? Those with faith, presumably. And what is one of the "reasons" that faith healing does not "work" when it fails? Insufficient faith. How do you prove your faith in God's healing? By avoiding conventional treatments. Sure, HOTS may not explicitly encourage this but it would be very naive to believe that it is not a subtext. Almost as bad, what's the other "reason" it doesn't work? "God's will." Given that most people are not healed - either that or their "Hot Stories" editor needs sacking - what HOTS are really doing is going around implying that people are sick either because they lack faith or it's God's will. That's wrong on many levels.

No one is asking you to "recant your faith", HOTS, just to stop meddling and misleading people with your unproven beliefs. I've seen these people before in Winchester and felt annoyed but not had the guts to do anything about. Well done, Hayley Stevens.

In support of TripAdvisor

So, it seems that TripAdvisor has been in the news recently for being unregulated and not being able to assert with 100% confidence that reviews are genuine. Furthermore, certain establishments have been caught encouraging fake favourable reviews. (Not just TripAdvisor.)

I have no doubt that both of these are true but, at the same time, I have personally found TripAdvisor to be pretty reliable. Successes include Kali Mirchi in Southampton, The Dandy Lion in Bradford-on-Avon, and Yak Yeti Yak in Bath. I've also contributed a few reviews myself, so I know they're not all falsehoods.

Most things in life are open to abuse by the devious and determined that lack the scruples of better (wo)men but let's not throw the baby out of the bathwater. Long live TripAdvisor and all who sail in her! (You can read their response to the ASA here.)

Kali Mirchi, Shirley a top Indian restaurant

Southampton has quite a lot of restaurants and is particularly well-endowed with good Indian restaurants. Fortunately for me as a curry lover, a whole bunch of the best Indian restaurants are within spitting distance of where I live, Shirley, and work. (Well, spitting distance for a bionic camel. And don't call me Shirley.)

Near the University on Burgess Road is Kairali, which is a great South Indian restaurant. (One without a website it seems.) A bit further along the road, on the corner of Hill Lane and Winchester Road, is Jehangir, an Indian and Bangladeshi restaurant and takeaway. Both are well worth a visit and both have their own charms but I am not going to say any more about either right now. Instead, I want to sing the praises of Kali Mirchi in Shirley - partly because it is long overdue, partly because I have just had a delectable Kali Mirchi takeaway for my dinner.

This place first caught my attention when a friend revealed that it was the #1 restaurant in Southampton, or possibly even Hampshire, on TripAdvisor. (It's currently #2 in Southampton, having been knocked off the top spot by another Indian restaurant, which I am yet to visit.) I think that the first time I went was when my brother came over to visit from Dublin in late 2010. I went back twice more in the next couple of weeks. It was that good.

The dish that really blew me away - and still a favourite - was the Chicken Tikka Malaidar. This is a spicy(ish), creamy, spinach dish; something that I don't think I've seen elsewhere and certainly hadn't tried before. (It's the green one in the picture, which is actually a greedy takeaway portion from two or three weeks ago!) The deliciousness of the Malaidar (also great with lamb tikka or paneer!) has sometimes made it hard to order other things but I may have a new favourite with the Tawa Murgh, "shredded chicken breast cooked on a hot plate with bell peppers in a smooth onion and tomato sauce". (It's the one on the other side of the mushroom rice in the picture. Fantastic Peshwari naan on the far left.) I also heartily recommend the Kadhai - with paneer, if you like Indian cheese. Mmmmmm!

I've now eaten in several times, in large groups and small, and got a few takeaways, both collections and deliveries, and it has always been great. The all-you-can-eat buffet lunch isn't bad, either. (Although I don't think you get Malaidar or Kadhai - at least, there was none the one time I have been at lunchtime.)

I do have one caution, however - don't order the Chicken Tikka Masala! At least, don't order it if you like the generic British coconut-rich Chicken Tikka Masala that (understandably) is Britain's favourite dish (allegedly) and is emulated by pubs and supermarkets across the land. Kali Mirchi, for whatever the reason (presumably the speciality region of India of the restaurant, or possibly even the authenticity of the food) is not that kind of curry house. To be honest, though, there are so many interesting and tasty dishes on the menu, it would almost be a crime to order Chicken Tikka Masala! (The same actually applies to Jehangir. If I fancy Chicken Tikka Masala, I tend to get it from somewhere a bit more "generic".)

In addition to not ordering Malaidar today (I went for Tawa Murgh and Lamb Biryani), I also made one other break from tradition today. I don't normally have wine with curry but there was a bottle of McGuigan Bin No. 528 open, so I figured I have some rather than the traditional lager. It was good! I think I will have to experiment more with curry and wine in future.

Translation UK 2012 website now live

The website for the Translation UK 2012 conference is now live:

A meeting bringing together researchers in translational control and other aspects of mRNA metabolism.

Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th of April at the University of Southampton

Online booking is not quite ready but the registration deadline is Feb 20th, so start planning your submission now if you want to come!

The Cabbages of Doom: only 99p from iBooks!

At some point, I am going to have to get to the bottom of the slightly wayward pricing of the different formats for The Cabbages of Doom. The good news is that it's only 99p from the Apple iBooks store. (Free sample chapter PDF here.)