Motivation

My motivation in starting BioBuzz was two-fold. First and foremost, I feel that broader knowledge of biological issues is widely needed. Virtually every social, economic or political issue that you follow in the news has some biological angle. That is not an exaggeration: we humans are living creatures and our whole existence is tied up with our biological reality, from the foods we eat, the environments we inhabit, the genes we inherit, and all the things we do that give us enjoyment from playing sports to making music to love and sex or even quiet things like reading or taking a walk. There is always a biological dimension to everything we do and think. A lot of those connections are quite fascinating in themselves and deserve to be known better just for their intrinsic interest. However, there are innumerable issues that bear on matters of health or the environment (or both) where greater knowledge of what is involved in the science can influence either one’s personal or political decisions. Being better informed before one makes any kind of decision is always worthwhile.

What I bring to the table

A perfectly reasonable question. Let me try to answer that. I began my professional life with a Ph.D. in Genetics (University of Washington, 1969), on a problem in bacterial physiology and genetics. I then had two postdoctoral fellowships in two different areas, one on the molecular genetics of a virus that infects a bacterium, the other on various aspects of the cell biology of a more complicated organism, a slime mold. In my late 30s, however, I began to doubt the suitability of a career as a research scientist for me. There were aspects of it that did not suit my personality. Nevertheless, I very much wanted to stay involved with matters of biology. I have always loved reading and thinking about living things and the questions they raise, and have since childhood. So, I turned to book writing and scientific editorial work. For nearly 25 years, I was involved with a broad-ranging biology review journal, BioEssays, first as the deputy editor, then as the editor. In that quarter century, I corresponded with thousands of biologists about their articles, which ranged in subject matter from bacterial metabolism and genetics to the roots of human consciousness, trying to help them make their arguments more effectively. I have also written and published four biology books, on a range of subjects, and am completing a fifth, plus about 150 articles, many of them discussion articles on different biological topics. Hence, my “career”, such as it is, has featured breadth rather than specialist depth, though I hope to have brought sufficient expertise and depth to each topic tackled to do it justice.

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