Spring is here

Spring is definitely here, for those who would doubt it - simply open your eyes! All over the University campus the colours of the season are springing up, the grass is greener and the yellow, blue, purple, white, red flowers are in full bloom.

The first clusters caught my eye on Thursday and I was gutted that I didn't have my camera with me, but when I returned today I was happy to find the flowers still there (not having fallen under student feet) and that they had multiplied in their tens, even hundreds.

I cut a peculiar picture lying down on the grass to take some (I think) pretty photographs of the plants, and certainly got some funny looks from passing students. Part of me attributes this to the fact the majority of these pictures were taken around the Physics and Chemistry buildings and the funny looks are because scientists have no true appreciation of art. In truth though I probably received the majority of those looks because a man, looking more than slightly like a tramp, was lying on the grass in the University campus...

Anyway, here's a sample photo from the ones I took, the others can be found in the Facebook Album here. Enjoy.

Eye eye

So I've been procrastinating again. Last week I watched a brilliant documentary presented by the legend that is Sir David Attenborough, it was about Darwin and the "Tree of Life". Now obviously Darwin crystallised the idea that we now think of as the theory of evolution, but one of the prime arguments against that theory is the eye.

The eye is an incredibly complex organ and if just one thing is slightly wrong then it just won't work. Anti-evolutionists argue that this is evidence that the eye was designed and put onto Earth in its current form rather than evolving. Attenborough however showed several intermediary stages that could actually have led to the evolution of the eye and some creatures that are alive today that still exhibit these "primordial eyes". At the end of the segment there was a quick montage of eyes in the animal kingdom. Only about four different eyes, I can't remember which ones (the red eyed tree frog was definitely in there) and it was a beautifully done piece.

Basically it reminded me of the beauty of eyes, it's something I've always been amazed by since I was very small. The changes in colour, shape, pattern. In the human eye alone these are remarkable, but take in the whole animal kingdom and its terrific.

So below I've created a collage of photos of eyes, there are sharks, eagles, lions, cats, frogs, geckos, humans and so many more. Hope you like it. I'm going to get it printed and put it on my wall. Lovely.

Not perfect by any means, but coming along.

Always happy to share any randomness I find online here's a link to an article on the good old BBC News about Google's awesome new Zurich offices. I want to work for a company like that!

Onto the main bulk of this blog posting and I'm happy to report I'm feeling slightly more optimistic about the future. Sure, I'm still sitting in the library at 8pm "working" on my dissertation because my computer is so fricking slow and unreliable. And sure I've got even less money to my name than I had when last I posted. And sure I'm reaching the point where I'm so poor I feel guilty buying food.

But that same dissertation is coming along a little, and the applications for housemates are starting to come in and I've got some great plans in place for what free time I'm affording myself this "holiday" so it's hard not to feel just a little lighter on my feet as I lug my bag of books backwards and forwards.

And now, because I'm actually here to work ('ha!' I hear you cry) I'm signing off on that short little note. I'll just leave you with this picture (because I always like to try and include an image in my blog), no real reason other than I like it because I have a soft spot for sunsets. Oh and I took it, almost two years ago in Berlin.