What does all this show? I would have thought that was obvious. Historians do not have a monopoly on talking out of the wrong end. Go on, prove it. #EndOf? @robinince.bsky.social #edscifest

BOTANISTS2 There is no anterior or posterior to a plant. Branches have proximal & distal ends but come back later & the distal end will be someplace else. Likewise stems & roots never really end. Plants must grow or die, though midlife naps are allowed. #EndOf? #Botany

BOTANISTS1 have a mania for naming things. There is not a gardener on God's green Earth who does not secretly want a labelling machine for Christmas. But plants don't have what you could accurately label an end. Not really. #EndOf? #Botany

ZOOLOGISTS2 After the discovery that animals have 2 ends, it was proposed to better to talk out of one than the other. Choosing which one proved problematic & much time was wasted talking carp. Not till Darwin broke his polite silence did biology get the right way up. #EndOf? #Zoology

ZOOLOGISTS1 are twice as confident as cosmologists about ends because early on they discovered that animals have 2. The front end is called the anterior & the back end is the posterior. Ideas developed sequentially from there. #EndOf? #Zoology

COSMOLOGISTS have top billing for the end of the universe. Since the Big Bang knocked out the Steady State, we are assured that the existence of a beginning implies an end. But plenty of time for a few more rounds before the apocalypse. #EndOf? #Cosmology

Free Chapter 1 from OUP here academic.oup.com/book/56105/c...