Author archive for Alun Salt

Alun Salt is the web developer for AoB Blog. If something doesn't work here it's his fault. His interest in biology is personal as, even allowing for the Extended Mind Hypothesis, a lot of him remains biological. When he's not here he's working on a UNESCO Science Heritage project.

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Puppy and Wine

Dogs, blossom and wine

Posted on April 25th, 2012 by Alun Salt

The life led by the ancients was rude and illiterate; still, as will be readily seen, the observations they made were not less remarkable for ingenuity than are the theories of the present day. Pliny the Elder Kamoun Lab have reminded me via their Scoop It page that today is the day of the Robigalia, a [...]

plantmatingsystems

New Special Issue: Plant Mating Systems

Posted on March 2nd, 2012 by Alun Salt

We have a new special issue out on Plant Mating Systems, with a couple of free access posts. Gynodioecy to dioecy: are we there yet? by Rachel B. Spigler and Tia-Lynn Ashman is a review of the evolution of sexes and sexual strategies in plants. The natural history of pollination and mating in bird-pollinated Babiana [...]

Heart-shaped potato

Go to work on a potato

Posted on March 1st, 2012 by Alun Salt

I didn’t do modern history at school so my impression of the industrial revolution is largely a mish-mash of pop history and some misremembered Industrial Archaeology courses. What I do recall is that the emphasis in the Industrial Revolution is firmly on the Industrial side. Agriculture existed as a place for people to leave to [...]

Slash and Burn in Brazil

Does rain forest grow back? Archaeology might have the answer

Posted on January 16th, 2012 by Alun Salt

Most international archaeological work in South America has concentrated on the Andes for various reasons. It’s more accessible, the ruins are more visible, there’s a better ethnohistorical record from the conquistadors, there’s variety over short distances because change in height makes vertical economies possible where different foods grow at different heights and they’re just the [...]