I recently finished a first full draft of my next ‘Scientists in the Field’ book. Once it was off my desk and onto my editor’s, I treated myself to a few days of Work/Play.
What’s Work/Play? It’s hours and hours of unstructured research, a time when I follow up on every crazy little idea or story nugget or interesting link that came my way while I was working on that last book and unable to take up the chase. Work/Play is luxurious, and fascinating, and fun. It’s a gift. And it’s how I find the stuff that keeps me writing.
What sort of stuff? This article from the pages of The Canadian Entomologist—The Pickled Fruit Fly by G.J. Bowles—is a great example.
In case you’re pressed for time, here’s a summary …
“In August, 1879, I met with a small Dipterous fly, Drosophila ampelophila, in considerable numbers…”
How did explorer Bowles meet this little fly?
“I found it in the pickled raspberries.”
Of course. But wait, it gets better …
“An earthenware jar had been nearly filled with this fruit and vinegar, prepared by the good housewife for the purpose of making that favorite drink (in Canada at least) called raspberry vinegar. On opening the jar about ten days afterwards (16th August, 1879) it was found to be swarming with the larvae and cocoons of the insect.”
Bowles spent the next several weeks studying the life and times of his herd of pickled fruit flies. And then he published his findings in a professional research journal. I am not even kidding, people.
Why do we humans keep forgetting that science can be done anywhere, anytime? That it is, at its heart, simply a way of looking at the world? Of seeing a seething jar of fruit fly maggots and asking, “What in Heaven’s name is this?” And then taking a couple weeks to, you know, play with it?
Friends, I hope you find some time to play this week, at your desk or otherwise. If you’re not sure where to start, may I remind you that fruit fly season is just taking off here in North America? And that glass jars, raspberries, and vinegar are pretty easy to come by?