Wednesday, March 9: Tune It Or Die!
A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE
by Rob Lopresti
For the past two weeks I have been celebrating things in this space. I hope you will indulge me if I extend the streak, even though this one has little to do with mysteries or fiction. I would argue that it is, in a certain way, about storytelling.
I hope you will join me in celebrating the fact that the world is a little better this week then it was last. It is richer by one Ph.D. in biology. My kiddo has a doctorate. In the first blog I ever did at Criminal Brief I promised not to boast about my daughter all the time and I have stuck to that, but I think you will agree I can make an exception for this.
Susan’s specialty is the behavior of eusocial1 insects; and if you want to know anything about paper wasps, she’s your gal. I would try to explain more of what she’s working on but if I did I would be able to hear her rolling her eyes from here. “That’s not quite right, Papa.”
No story, telling stories
Having said that, I don’t know what else to add. Oh, I could say plenty. I could tell you tales about her childhood and so on, but why embarrass her on this great occasion with the kind of stories parents find adorable and offspring find mortifying?
But this is a blog about storytelling and the fact is that scientific research is useless unless the results are communicated. The last thing Susan had to do was give an oral presentation of her research to her peers, and then defend her work before experts. All about communication.
But I don’t want you to think my kid only writes scientific papers. Here is an example of her less scholarly writing:
One final note. After the defense of her dissertation there was champagne. Susan announced “This tastes better than it tastes.” I’ll bet it did.
- I had never run into this word before reading it here, so I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary: “Characterized by, pertaining to, or designating an advanced level of social behaviour in animals, spec. that occurring in certain species of social insect.” —JLW [↩]
Congratulations to Susan. That’s a huge achievement.
In an abstract sense, many academic disciplines are, at base, about storytelling, and always were. The ancient Greeks told mythical stories of Gods and heroes to explain, and thereby make less frightening, the workings of the natural world. The natural sciences of our day are arguably more sophisticated (they are almost certainly closer to the truth), but one of their purposes is surely still to tell a coherent narrative of the world around around us, and our place within it.
Your daughter has contributed a chapter to this exciting, never-ending novel. Congratulations to you, too, Rob!
Surely there’s a mystery to be written somewhere in here. Eusocial isn’t exactly the opposite of noir . . .
Murder In The Hive
Death of a Naked Mole Rat
Fatal Swarm
B is for Drone
Well, the titles are easy. Now a cast of characters and a species-appropriate plot. T H White and U K LeGuin managed to personify bugs without anthromorphizing them, much . .
And, of course, congrats to the Susan unit.
B is for Drone… (laughing)
I notice Susan has an eusocial song as a follow-up to the one in the article.
Congratulations to your daughter, Rob!
Congratulations to your daughter. You are rightly proud!
Sincere congratulations to Susan! Great column.
I’ll use an old saying that I’ve often referred to in the case of my own children: “The offspring done sprung higher than them they sprung off of.” Right?
Sometimes our daughters and sons do something so wonderful that we have to boast about them. Congratulations to Susan!
Congrats to Susan (and the proud Papa, too)! btw, I think it’s okay for us to brag on our babies every once in awhile. I don’t even notice the eye rolling quite so much…
Except that being childless, I’m afraid my babies are either cats or manuscripts.
Susan is a woman of many talents and I congratulate her on all of them.
Thanks for all the kind words. As for “eusocial” my understanding (commence eyerolling) is that it refers to a species in which a small percentage of the population reproduces and other members participate in the childrearing.
Think of the queen bee (mama to all in the hive) and the worker bees. But naked mole rats have a similar arrangement (which is why Zeke included them above) and (depending on your definition) you might include some types of birds or even humans (think of grandparents in traditional societies).
Again, my understanding. Consult your local entomologist.
I should have mentioned, the video shows Susan’s band Stranger Ways. http://www.stranger-ways.com/