Inner Nature: Merde!
By Vidya Rajan. Columnist, The Times
Merde. In other words, s**t, p**p, d**g, number 2, BMs, excreta, droppings, stools, feces. This is not a really pleasant subject of conversation, or even a polite one (unless you lived back in the eighteenth century when everyone was apparently fascinated by it as an indicator of health). But it’s an important part of life. If you’ve ever been constipated or...
Inner Nature: Digestion and food processing
By Vidja Rajan, Columnist, The Times
The previous group of Inner Nature articles were loosely organized around how organisms sense the external environment using vision, sound, touch, taste and smell. What is most remarkable about this cluster of what appears to be completely different mechanisms is the profound underlying similarity. This similarity is due to the outcome of notionally different sensory...