Roger Wotton's Exopolymer Extravaganza: Turning S*** into Swifts and Swallows

Each year the WTT hosts a weekend event of talks, food, drink and fishing. This June's Annual Get Together (for members and non-members alike), saw some terrific talks from all speakers. Perhaps the one that surprised the audience the most is the one that is reproduced in full in the video below. A wide-ranging talk that drew on Professor Wotton's fascinating research career on how vitally important to life in rivers (and also all aspects of human existence - from tooth decay to safe drinking water!) are the tiny, stringy "chains" of molecules exuded by cells at the microscopic level.

Now retired, Roger Wotton can look back across a career of teaching and learning to give us a great "taster menu" of anecdotes relating to the surprising invisible world around us. From fish, to invertebrates to the way that classic chalkstream water weeds orchestrate themselves a supply of slow-release fertiliser right on top of their root stock (whilst keeping their leaves swaying just sub-surface for maximum photosynthesis) - the 25 minute talk has it all. Make sure to watch it right the way through because there are wonders of the natural and human world explained like never before throughout (like the answer to how the feat mentioned in the title of this post is achieved!!) - all offered in a wry, dry delivery of which Peter Ustinov would have been proud.

Enjoy...

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