Monday, March 4, 2019

A Parasite a Day Helps Creativity Stay

Hello and happy 2019, folks! Among marathon training and starting a new beekeeping hobby -- oh, and a bit of fiction writing as well -- I had the recent opportunity to snag an interview with Dr. Tommy Leung, one of the primary scientists behind the blog Parasite of the Day. Capturing the vast array of biodiversity in parasites across the globe, this blog is a must for anyone even remotely interested in biology. . . or monsters, for that matter. If you ever need inspiration for a sci-fi antagonist (or maybe sympathetic anti-hero? It's not their fault they feed off others. . . ), look no further than the world of parasitology. . . but that's for another post.

Tommy not only runs the blog but is also an artist, creating graphic narratives outlining parasite life cycles as well as creating his own creatures based on knowledge of evolutionary biology.

Whoa.

You see now why I had to have this chat.

So let's get started.

Admittedly, I forget about evolutionary biology. I love bio but become consumed with the here and now: why is that dog barfing, why is that horse lame, why is that amphibian species doing extinct, and so on. But I think a big part of understanding why things are now comes from knowing how they used to be and where they came from (insert all historians ever: "I told you so. . . "). I asked Tommy why and how he became interested in this niche subject. "What I am really interested in is biology -- in living things," he said. "And since evolutionary biology is the modern foundation to all aspects of biology -- it is like what the periodic table is for chemistry -- becoming interested in evolutionary biology became part of the ideal, so to speak.

"I am always interested in things that are quirky or unusual and for free-living organisms like ourselves, the lives of parasites are certainly that, even though it has been estimated that parasitism is probably the most common lifestyle on this planet which makes us the unusual ones. I want to know how parasites live their lives and how they came to be the way that they are, so naturally I became interested in their evolutionary biology as well."

Tommy then explained that he writes and draws things based on topics that he finds interesting, so it's natural then that parasites are the creature feature of the Parasite of the Day blog and his artwork.

Tommy's artwork is heavily influenced by comics and cartoons. "I guess anime and the graphic novel, in particular Japanese comics, i.e., manga, are particularly suited to exploring unusual stories or narratives because their styles and topics are less constrained compared to some other media," he explained. "I have adopted this style because it allows what I create to be more expressive. Art and science was a natural fit simply because I like both activities."

Artistically, Tommy did not have any formal training but has drawn since he was a child. Interestingly, his brightly colored creations are a result of scanning his work into TIF files and colorizing with good ol' MS Paint.

If you delve into Tommy's artwork, you'll soon see creatures not quite of this world, but make sure to get your terminology straight when it comes to fantastic beings. "Cryptozoology is the search for animals that allegedly exist but no solid evidence has been recovered, so this includes things like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and Mokele-mbembe," he explained. "Speculative biology is a particular sub-set of speculative fiction that focuses on the made-up biology of fictional organisms. It is a common background component in many stories, especially those that take place in a fantasy or science fiction setting." Tommy gave some examples of novels, however, that make the speculative biology aspect the main focus of the narrative -- After Man: A Zoology of the Future by Dougal Dixon and Evolution by Stephen Baxter.

"If you've ever thought about questions like: if fire-breathing dragons are real, how would they work or what is the internal anatomy of a Tauntaun from Star Wars or what would have evolved if the end-Cretaceous Mass Extinction Event didn't happen then you have engaged in speculative biology thinking," he said.

For someone (me) who loves anatomy and monsters, well, speculative biology is right up my alley.

Until next time, dear readers -- happy reading, happy writing, happy vetting.



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