Introduction
to Ariadne - The Web Site		Back to Home Page

I suppose that I have to admit that I'm constructing this web site for my own amusement.

For about three decades as an academic scientist, I've enjoyed computer programming and data handling (capture, analysis, interpretation and presentation) in a diverse range of subject matter demanded by my interest in environmental biology. You can read more   about the author,  if you really want to. Anyway, to use a zoological term, that experience has "pre-adapted" me to write this material, and it pleases me to do so.
BUT - I also hope that visitors to Ariadne enjoy their visit and find something to inform, interest or even amuse them. The contents of the site do reflect my interests over the years, with the focal point being the relationship between organisms and their environment.

At one extreme this is concerned with just what the environment involves and the fundamentals of ecology (so I might write about any group of organisms at all and how they inter-relate, such as {spiders, insects, vegetation} or {birds, invertebrates, mud, water} or even {birds, natural vegetation, geological landscapes, agricultural crops and people!). One part of the site, in its early stages of development, is concerned with this sort of topic: Environment Matters .

At the other extreme, this theme of organism/environment inter-relationship concerns where we, ourselves as individuals, are in our world. How do we know where we are? How do we know what's there - or think we know? How do things influence our behaviour and what mechanisms might be involved? Two parts of Ariadne relate to this in very contrasting ways:-
In scientific terms, this is addressed by the pages in the Biology, Brain and Behaviour  set.
In marked contrast, you can browse through our Poems .

I must confess to being an arachnophile. I have studied both harvest-spiders (the Opiliones) and true spiders (Araneida) and have been astonished at their superb adaptations to their ways of life. This is at all levels: from their biochemistry and the fine structure of organelles in their cells at the lowest finely-detailed level up to the intricacies of their community ecology and relationships between their populations and their environments, including other species. Various pages in these themes can be explored in Arachnologia , including Spider of the Month (about true spiders) and Opiliones Notes about harvest-spiders.

It's not all about answers. Take a look at the Picture Quiz  which, in its early stages at least, links in with the fine structural aspects - find out more for yourself...

The contents of the site are likely to change over time and so What's New?   and Size Matters  are intended to give you some guidance about the various pages.

These different sections are listed in the bottom half of the Ariadne Home Page - or you can just click on one of the images at the beginning.

The choice is yours, but I would be interested in any comments - Prof. Dave Curtis.

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