Skip to main content

Liz Kalaugher - Five Way Interview

Liz Kalaugher is a science journalist and campaigner, based in Bristol, who has written for the New Scientist, BBC Wildlife, the Guardian, BBC News and more, as well as winning science journalism fellowships from the World Federation of Science Journalists and the European Geosciences Union. She is also the co-author of Furry Logic: The Physics of Animal Life. Her new book is The Elephant in the Room.

Why science?

I think science is fascinating as it helps us interact with the world. Once you start to understand how things work, it opens up all sorts of possibilities. You’re no longer stumbling around in the dark, hoping you’ll find the light switch by chance; instead you’re building a map of where the light switch might be, and testing that map systematically. Hopefully that means you’ll find the light switch more easily, and learn techniques that can help you find other switches. Though lots of scientific discoveries have been made by chance. And it’s crucially important that we don’t think we know more than we do - that can lead to all sorts of trouble.

Why this book?

Originally I was planning to write a book about Grevy’s zebras: I was travelling in Kenya in search of these animals just after the first cases of Covid-19 broke out in China. Like everybody’s, my mind turned to the emergence of new diseases. Concerned there might be a backlash against bats, I started investigating the other side of the coin - just how much we’ve been harming wildlife health over the centuries. I was surprised by how long and in how many ways human activities have spread diseases to wildlife. And by how much we can do about wildlife health that we haven’t yet chosen to act on.

Apart from reducing deforestation, what is the single thing we could do with the biggest impact to reduce the risk of zoonotic transmission?

According to a study from 2024, reducing biodiversity loss is one of the most crucial factors in cutting the risk of outbreaks of disease. As Neil Vora of Conservation International told me for The Elephant in the Room, 'Nature is not the solution to everything, but nature is critical, a necessary condition for a better future. We need to start investing in nature now and that will save costs down the road.' Investing in nature would also reduce climate change, another factor that boosts disease, and it would save species from extinction.

What’s next?

Next up will be another book broadly in the wildlife and environment space, again with a historical angle. I’m researching it at the moment and wrangling with almost too many fascinating stories. I’m also enjoying experimenting with fiction in the form of an eco-thriller. Watch this space.

What’s exciting you at the moment?

I’m enjoying seeing more butterflies in the UK this summer, a welcome treat after their terrible season in 2024. I’m focusing on their striking colours as they flit between flowers, and the poetry of their names – comma, skipper, silver-washed fritillary - whilst trying not to think about why it’s been so hot. I’ve also become a Merlin fan and use this app’s help to listen out for new bird species wherever I go.

These articles will always be free - but if you'd like to support my online work, consider buying a virtual coffee or taking out a membership:


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Luna: Moon Rising (SF) - Ian McDonald ****

I'm not the natural audience for this book. Game of Thrones l eaves me cold - and it's hard not to feel the influence of GoT (and a whole lot of Dune )   underneath a veneer of science fiction and the trappings of a South American drug cartel in the cod-medieval family power battles and chivalric details. There are even dragons (of a sort). I'd be really sad if the future did involve this sort of throwback feudalism. However, remarkably, despite this I found Luna: Moon Rising kept me engaged. The fact is that Ian McDonald can put together a good plot with intricate machinations, which is enough to carry the reader through what can be a bewildering collection of characters. The two page scene-setter saying who did what to whom at the start was useful, but I could have done with family trees for the main family as I was constantly forgetting who was who - especially easy as McDonald endows many families with characters with the same first initial (e.g. Ariel and Al...
Post a Comment
Read more

Adventures of a Computational Explorer - Stephen Wolfram ***

Stephen Wolfram, the man behind the scientist's mathematical tool of choice, Mathematica, plus a whole host of other software products, including the uncanny Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine, is undoubtedly a genius of the first order. In this book, we get an uncensored excursion into the mind of genius - which is, without doubt, a fascinating prospect. The book consists of a collection of essays and speeches that Wolfram has produced over the last ten to fifteen years, covering an eclectic range of topics. Like all such collections, the result is something that lacks the coherence of a book with a narrative that runs through it, inevitably introducing a degree of repetition and a mix of interesting and not-so-interesting topics - but there's likely to be something to catch the attention anyone who is into computing or mathematics. One of the most interesting pieces is the opening one, where Wolfram describes being a consultant on the SF movie Arrival. He seems to hav...
Post a Comment
Read more

The AI Paradox - Virginia Dignum ****

This is a really important book in the way that Virginia Dignum highlights various ways we can misunderstand AI and its abilities using a series of paradoxes. However, I need to say up front that I'm giving it four stars for the ideas: unfortunately the writing is not great. It reads more like a government report than anything vaguely readable - it really should have co-authored with a professional writer to make it accessible. Even so, I'm recommending it: like some government reports it's significant enough to make it necessary to wade through the bureaucrat speak. Why paradoxes? Dignum identifies two ways we can think about paradoxes (oddly I wrote about paradoxes recently , but with three definitions): a logical paradox such as 'this statement is false', or a paradoxical truth such as 'less is more' - the second of which seems a better to fit to the use here.  We are then presented with eight paradoxes, each of which gives some insights into aspects of t...
Post a Comment
Read more