Around the web (week of 8 July)

Reading

• Bedlam for the ages, by Vithushan Ehantharajah on Cricbuzz, about what was probably the best ODI Cricket game of all time.

With nine needed off the final three balls of the match, Ben Stokes dived, scampering back for a two. Only the throw from the deep cannoned off his bat, squirting away to the boundary in front of the Lord’s Pavilion. What could’ve been seven off two was now three off two. Stokes was on his knees, hands out in apology. Trent Boult, in charge of the 50th over, just laughed. The umpires conferred to see if there was something they could do even though they knew there was not. The Blackcaps simply cursed their luck and got on with it.

Around the web (week of 9 June)

Reading

• The Simply Complex: Trendy buzzword or emerging new science?, by John Casti, available in “Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight”.

A more direct reason for trying to create a science of the complex is to get a handle on the limits of reductionism as a universal problem-solving approach.

New paper- how soil microbes can influence plant diversity

I’m very excited that the first paper from my PhD dissertation is published online. This paper uses ecological theory to ask how interactions between plants and microbial communities in the soil can influence coexistence among competing plant species.