Welcome

Hello, in case you have just found this. I do not expect this blog to become very popular or well-noted, but start it merely to have a place to write about some of my thoughts and experiences, and who knows? Maybe it will in due course contain something that somebody will find interesting or useful.

I am a systematic botanist of German origin who is now working outside of his home country. What you can find to expect here are posts of varying length and quality on the (non-personal) topics that are of greatest interest to me. In order of decreasing narrowness:

• Botany. This aspect will be covered with regular postings of photographs of nice or interesting plants, especially from the time before I took up duties at my current institution (the photographs from my current work ultimately end up on a searchable database anyway), and discussions of relevant work or publications that I find interesting. At some point in the future I may also life-blog from a conference if I get the feeling that somebody has started to follow the blog who might be interested in that.
• Cladistics and phylogenetic systematics. I am fairly sure I will, at some point, feel inclined to grumble about what is known as "evolutionary" systematics.
• Science in general, especially our habits and work culture as a scientific community.
• Freethought and the importance of using evidence and reason to inform our view of the world.

It should go without saying, but the views and opinions I express on this blog are mine and mine only, and not necessarily the ones of my employer, colleagues, or family members.

Enjoy - or feel free to search for greener pastures elsewhere!