Tambarikosy

Nestled on the west coast of Africa, a plant lives 3000 km from its 3000 relatives. Most bromeliads are relatively similar in shape but take on a wide variety of habitats in the neotropics. Except one. Meet  Pitcairnia feliciana.

One day I'll get back to writing biology-related posts and shut up about my hip... For the history on the hip issue and the surgery that has changed my life, see previous posts Hip, Hip, Hurray! and Hippiversary! One year post-op Yesterday I had the year-on orthopaedics appointment. Prepared to spend the usual 3-4 hours in the Manchester Royal Infirmary, the orthopaedics department was unusually quiet and I was in and out of there within 45 minutes! At least, I would have been, had I not got the time of the appointment wrong and mistakenly arrived an hour earlier. It was a little disappointing that I did not get to see the surgeon who did my hip replacement, as both my physiotherapist and I wanted his personal opinion on whether I am ready to start building up towards running. Everyone has different views on how you should go about recovery and the level of activity you should embark on, opinion differs even amongst surgeons. I got the usual talk on thinking of t...

It's been a year to the day that two weeks into twenty-five, I got a full hip replacement, courtesy of the UK's ever fantastic National Health Service (NHS). Before I start rambling, I would like to take a moment to emphasise just how must I appreciate the NHS. Even beyond the hip, I owe my life and sanity to the NHS and will never forget it. Hip goes back to work. Sort of. For background on what happened to the last hip, see this  previous post  ( Hip Hip, Hurray! ) . It is more interesting than this post will be. This is essentially an update for anyone who cares, because I get asked about the ol' hip a lot by friends and family. For the most part, these concerned friends and family tell me off for how I treat it or the decisions I make, whether or not I should be doing a particular activity, whether I do enough physiotherapy or not, ... Sometimes they are correct, of course, I can overdo things. However, I thought I might explain why I do these things and demon...

Anyone who knows me or has seen me walking in recent years will be aware that I have longterm problems with one of my hips. In February just gone, I went home to Spain and was met at Barcelona airport by my brother. On the drive to my parents' house, Calloway asked exactly what was wrong with my hip, which had been freshly replaced 2 months prior. I started with "Well, you know what they did to my hip when I was a baby, right?" "Not exactly, no..." he replied. A lot of people ask about my hip, so I decided to use the 6-month-versary of my shiny new titanium hip as an excuse for a completely self-indulgent post about what was wrong with my hip to begin with and why I needed a replacement two weeks into my 25th year (and an excuse to show off my scar and some x-rays, look away now if it embarrasses you to see x-rays of my pelvis).

Sawfly orchid ( Ophrys tenthredinifera )

Yes, it has been a tough year for the world. We've lost iconic and talented artists and public figures, the UK has lost its min–, I mean, Europe, and the US has voted for a hate-mongering orange baffoon called fart to be their next president. Much of the West despairs for the ideological murder that has occurred. When many of us thought things were getting better and we were all learning to accept each other, we've been hit in the face with a barage of hate. Europe swings to the right, the US follows suit. The warming global climate continues to melt icecaps and exacerbate poverty in Africa, ISIS continues to ravage the Middle East, refugees continue to flood into peaceful neighbouring countries – only to be met with reluctance and disdain. However, the inundation of bad news and the intolerable coverage of the US presidential "race", means that many of us may have missed some of the good things that have happened this year. We've dragged ourselves through 2...

This post was originally published under the title  "Water Worlds"  in the December 2016 issue of  The Biologist , the Royal Society of Biology's magazine. If you're a member of the RSB you can also view the  article on their website here . Tropical rainforests are known for being full of life. Whether you're captivated by the calls of colourful birds, mesmerised by hypnotically patterned cats, or fascinated by the apparently infinite variety of invertebrate life, you still have to acknowledge that what makes a rainforest are the plants. A forest is by definition a collection of trees, but there is a whole lot more to plant life in a rainforest. Coating every surface, including the trees themselves, are more plants. Some of these we would as surface-covering vegetation in temperate environments as well, like the mosses and liverworts that coat stone walls or the dandelions that poke their sunny faces out between cracks in the concrete. However, there are ...