The mystery of mass extinction.

Over a week ago, Tiarnan, 6, peered up at me, with questioning eyes, as we waited for his school bus, to take him to school in the morning.

“Daddy, why did all the dinosaurs die, but other animals are still alive?”

He had a point.

I then explained to him how many of today’s animals did not exist at the time of the dinosaurs. I explained that they had evolved since then and did not, therefore, have a chance to die in the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs.

He didn’t comment on my answer, he just listened, quietly.

I found his question impressive in a way. It shows that he is not just acquiring facts, but considering the “whys” of how they could have become, in the first place. It was clear to him, that not all animals had been treated the same way, it seemed...some lived and many had died. Therefore, he saw the fact that there were animals alive today, as a mystery in itself. That is an interesting way to turn around the question of mass extinction – he was not asking, “Why had the dinosaurs died?”, he was, in fact, asking: “Why had all these other animals not died?” That is quite a sophisticated way to reconsider the facts.

I rather like my mornings sending Tiarnan to school, even though it is very early. I like them because he is very alert and filled with questions. He likes to probe the mysteries of the world, through me, by posing questions whilst we wait for the bus. Some of them are scientific in flavour and answer – and some of them philosophical. Whichever it is, I am pleased to hear him, for by asking questions, of me, he is answering one of my own: “What is in my son’s head?” It is ever pleasing to find out. So, carry on questioning, Tiarnan!

Posted by Valentine Cawley.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Fintan's true love.

Recently, Fintan and Tiarnan went swimming in a lake, with life jackets on. This is something that Ainan had done when he was just eight months old. The boys reacted in a blissful way, being totally absorbed in the moment.

Fintan observed: “We don’t need electronic games like the PS3, if we have Nature.”

His mother could not have heard more happy words, for she, too, loves Nature. It was good to hear a modern child say such a thing – that Nature is to be preferred to electronic games. I wonder how many other boys of their ages (7 and 5) would think such a thing? Not many I hazard. That, is the pity of it. At least, however, our boys are able to appreciate Nature, despite the presence of electronic games in their lives. In fact, their appreciation of Nature is all the more special, for the fact that they compare it to the best distractions of modern childhood – and She still wins.

Well done, Fintan, on seeing what is truly valuable. Hopefully, there will still be enough of Nature left for Fintan’s children to say the same thing one day.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Of curiosity and criminality

Which is worth more: a tree or a PhD? Have a think about it and come to a decision.

Which did you choose, the tree or the PhD? (You can say in the comments if you like).

Well, I think the tree is worth more, when you know a little bit more about the tree. In 1964, a young geographer, Donald R. Currey, was working his way towards his doctorate, and was interested in gathering evidence for Ice Age glaciers, in the Southwest USA. He was on Wheeler Peak with a colleague when he came upon some bristlecone pines at the timberline. They started drilling cores into them, to determine their age. They found one that was over 4,000 years old, which rather excited them. Then their only corer broke.

They had, before them, an even bigger tree than the others. It was known as "Prometheus". Without the corer, there was only one way to find out its age: kill it. Shockingly, this impatient young man called the U.S. Forest Service to ask permission to cut down the tree, just so he could find out how old it was. Even more shockingly, some dimwit at the Forest Service said yes to his request. So, Mr. Currey (as he then was) and some Forest Service personnel duly cut down this magnificent ancient tree 8 foot up from the base. Then they settled down to count the rings. They got to 4,844. (Later dendrochronologists determined that it was actually over 4,950 years old). Donald R. Currey had just killed the oldest living thing on Earth, known, at the time, simply to find out how old it was.

I really had to share this incident with you, because I was stunned by the stupidity of the attitude that would allow such a wonderful multi-millenial life to be snuffed out, just to find out how long it was.

It was completely unnecessary to kill the tree. All they had to do was come back another time, with a new corer and get their answer that way. However, this young man had no patience for that: getting his PhD pronto was more important than the life of the oldest living thing on Earth.

No-one should put short term personal gain, over the long term health of the world - or the existence of a magnificent life, such as the nigh-immortal tree that Mr. Currey killed that day.

That tree had stood from the dawn of human civilization, right up until the modern world: from the time of the Ancient Egyptians to the time of the 20th century Americans and the hippies of the sixties - until one young man put his immediate career and personal curiosity before its undying life. Think of the sadness of that trade: he killed it just so he could write a number on a piece of paper - the tree's age. (Oh, and make some observations about the Little Ice Age - which most regard as being just 600 years ago: so there was no need to gather information from such an old tree, at all).

How many of you, now, think a PhD is worth more than a tree? Comments please.

By the way, Donald R. Currey went on to earn his doctorate five years later. He had a successful academic career primarily studying a single lake - Bonneville. His papers on geomorphology of lakes, paleolakes, lake basins, and coasts; geotectonics (paleolimnology) and geochronology and geodynamics of quaternary lakes; geoarchaeology; and environmental change in desert, mountain, Arctic areas were highly cited.

Personally, I would swap his entire career for the grand tree he murdered in the name of it.

As a direct consequence of Mr. Currey's tree killing action, Bristlecone Pines have become a protected species - and the areas in which they grow are now part of a national park. (Something for which Currey, in perhaps a fit of late-arriving guilt, lobbied for.)

Rather pointedly, despite all his academic ambitions, Dr. Don Currey is most famous for the day he killed the oldest tree in the world. Or should I say, infamous.

So, if curiosity ever leads you to a course of action with irrevocable harmful consequences, please pause to think again. Don't do as Mr. Currey did - for the sake of us all.

Dr. Don Currey, himself, didn't have the lifespan of a tree, though: he died at 70 in 2004. I hope he came to understand what he had done, before his time was up.

Prometheus, the ancient tree, would still be alive, today, if Mr. Currey hadn't killed it, for career advancement.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and four months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and nine months, and Tiarnan, twenty-six months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Friendship between species: a love of animals.

Tiarnan, twenty one months, rather likes animals. He reacts to them as if he is seeing a particularly sweet thing: with a big smile and evident excitement.

A couple of days ago, I was walking Tiarnan in the park when he saw a dog. He took me by the hand and dragged me towards it. He then stood watching it for a while, before reaching out, tentatively, with a single outstretched finger, to touch its white hair. It was a small dog, perhaps a third of his height, with white hair all over, apart from brown on its face. As soon as his finger touched it, he pulled it back, as if unsure of the reaction. His face was all intent, his lip covering his lower teeth, in concentration.

After nothing untoward happened and the dog didn't seem to mind, he reached out again. This time he let his touch linger longer. He pulled away more slowly. Nothing happened. So this time he reached out again and patted the dog. No reaction. So then he placed his hand on the dog and squeezed. Again, no reaction: I thought the dog was most tolerant. Finally he set about touching various parts of the dog to see how they would feel and what would happen. He squeezed the back (again); he grabbed the short white tail; he patted the head; he pulled at the ears - and then his wandered around to the front of the dog's face, near the teeth. I pulled him back at that. Yet, it was good to note how well the dog was taking all of this. It must be used to the ministrations of children.

After some minutes, of this, I thought that the dog and owner had had enough of this, so I dragged him away. He was most reluctant and kept on looking back. "Doggie...doggie..." he kept on moaning. Finally, when we were about 30 metres away, he took a stand, and pulled against my hand, trying to halt me: I did. I let go of him. He ran off to one side where there was a giant, fallen palm branch, about 6 or 7 feet long and he began to drag it behind him. He walked over to the dog and placed the palm before it, such that green leaves rested on the dog.

He looked at the dog's failure to react, then moved forward and shoved the leaves towards its face. It was clear that Tiarnan, in a gesture of concern, for the dog, was trying to feed it. Little did he know that it wasn't a natural vegetarian. "He eats meat, Tiarnan, not plants." I said, to him, but he ignored me, thinking, perhaps, that if only he tried harder to attract the dog's notice with his offering that it would eat. He pushed it towards the dog again. Then he placed a couple of leaves on its face, directly. Nothing happened. The dog treated the plant as if it weren't there.

Finally, Tiarnan understood that the dog didn't want to eat it. He then picked up the branch and dragged it back the fifteen metres or so, to where he had found it, and replaced it.

We said our goodbyes to the dog and Tiarnan walked off happily with me.

I found the whole incident very sweet to behold. Tiarnan was clearly trying to befriend the dog and had made an offering of what he thought would be food for the dog. You see, we don't have a pet and he has never seen a dog eat - so he doesn't know that they are carnivores. He just thought that that giant branch looked appetizing.

It seems, from this evidence, and much else beside that we should really get our children a pet - preferably a furry one, if Tiarnan's reaction to the dog's coat is anything to go by.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The World's Most Exotic Reptile

Fintan, four, is shaping up to be a child with an imagination all of his own. His remarks are so characteristic of him - and of no other - that I long ago started to call them Fintanisms. The same applies to his behaviour.

Two days ago, for reasons known only to himself, Fintan came up behind Tiarnan, twenty months, and gently pushed him to the ground so that he was on all fours, saying: "Run reptile, run!"

Then he paused, momentarily, "Oh no..." I thought, then, in that moment, that he was going to correct his odd description of his younger brother, "crawl."

Hilarious.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Daddy is on a roll

Yesterday we went for one of our habitual walks. This time it was to a strange new park, that Syahidah had christened "Stoney Mountain". It was like something out of the Hobbit. Alongside the path that wended its way through the wooded area, were large boulders that had obviously been placed there, in imitation of what might be a natural formation in some parts of the world. The effect, although artificial, was quite charming: one almost expected elves to pop out from the woods at any minute, or for a friendly hobbit to enquire after second breakfast.

My children, however, not having read such books, had no such references. Nevertheless they enjoyed it.

After we had climbed to the top of "Stoney Mountain", we began to make our way down to another path we saw cutting across the landscape far below - a shortcut, if you like. Ainan, Fintan and Syahidah ran down, hand in hand, but I, feeling a mass that once had not been mine, declined to do the same.

After they had reached the path, Fintan, four, looked back up at me and seemed to be ambushed by an idea. He ran back up the hill to meet me on the way down, shouting: "Roll, Daddy, roll!". He then got down on to the ground and began rolling down the hill, to show me what to do.

Clearly, he had conceived that Daddy, being rounder than the average boy, might do better as a ball, than as a walking man. In the distance, I could hear Syahidah and Ainan laughing at Fintan's suggestion. As for me, I looked at Fintan's rolling and the long hill down, and thought better of it. Yet, at his age, I had done the same, when confronted with a hill.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Listen to the children

Today, we went to a nature park in Singapore. There are a few of these and they help give nature-lovers a break from the City.

We wandered far and wide within the park, seeing its peaks, its artificial lakes (dug out quarries) and wildlife, peeking from the trees. There is no need to speak of the detail of this.

After some while climbing many a step, high up in the midst of the "park", Fintan suddenly said:

"I heard a lion roar!"

My wife and I looked at each other and smiled. We both knew of Fintan's great imagination and, not having heard a lion roar, ourselves, we ascribed it to his imagination. "He heard a lion roar." echoed my wife, as if she was saying that he had seen a U.F.O.

About three minutes later, we both heard a sound, rather like a roar, in the distance. "Did you hear that?" my wife asked, suddenly a little anxiously. "Yes."

"Maybe not a lion," I said, doubting that there would be a lion roaming any part of Singapore - despite its name: "Lion City".

My wife looked towards the dense foliage all around us and to the kids down below us, perhaps thirty metres away. She didn't need to speak her thought.

"Boys!" I shouted, "Come close!"

"Don't frighten them." she said, a bit frightened herself.

"Perhaps it is a wild dog." I hazarded.

"Yes. Not a lion."

An animal, anyway, I thought.

The boys came closer and we walked together through the wooded area, a little more warily than before.

So, listen to the children when they speak of having heard and seen things: for one thing is for sure - they haven't heard and seen nothing. There will be something behind their perceptions even if inaccurately described.

What that something was, we never found out. It sounded like an animal roaring. It could have been a distant machine, of course. It was, however, something - not the nothing we had supposed when Fintan (and his acute senses) first spoke of it.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan's emotional responses

We live in Singapore. It is a city-state of modest proportions, but great ambitions. As you might expect, it is getting relatively crowded, being a small island with four and a half million people.

A couple of days ago, we were in a taxi being driven through town, with Tiarnan, nineteen months, in the car. He was sitting with his mother, looking backwards, as the car moved ahead. Suddenly, he pointed out of the window, and grinned toothily- his big smile revealing each of his small front teeth, his nose wrinkling up as it always did when he was most happy.

We looked where he had pointed and saw a big expanse of green: nothing more than that - just a patch of grass and trees, battling for survival in the middle of a spreading city. Looking at the green and looking at his smile, I was immediately struck by how great his response to it was: he was really happy to see a patch of living plant life, clambering up a mound of earth by the roadside.

He has shown a love of nature before, but it is becoming more clear that he really loves nature. Many little children wouldn't even notice the presence of grass and trees - but Tiarnan picks them out as worthy of special notice and smiles, abundantly, at their presence. He actually responds emotionally to nature: seeing it makes him happy.

Given Tiarnan's love of nature and Fintan's love of animals, perhaps we should be living in the countryside, and not a city. Or at least, we should make sure they spend more time amidst grass, trees and four legged friends.

I wonder at the future world they will grow up in. The global trend appears to be towards ever larger cities and ever greater encroachments upon nature. Will there be much less of the type of world our children love, when they become self-determining adults? I hope not. It would be a pity if Tiarnan were not to have something to smile about, everyday.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan and the beetle

Yesterday, Tiarnan, nineteen months, found a new play friend: a beetle.

Unlike most children, Tiarnan shows no fear of all that crawls on six or eight legs (or more for that matter). Indeed, he treats them with both intense curiosity and great friendliness.

Yesterday, he found a very strange looking beetle in our house. It was quite long - about two centimetres - and was black with orange spots on its back. It was like a giant distant relative of a ladybird, but showed no evidence of being able to fly. I had never seen its like before. Tiarnan peered at it, once he found it, then stepped closer until he was right above - then he reached down and picked it up in his hands. That was something I, for one, would not have done. Yet, he held it between his thumb and forefingers watching it wriggle. He was quite absorbed in this.

He set it down and watched it crawl away - but he never let it get far, he would just pick it up again and bring it back.

At one point it crawled over the edge of a wall and fell over - and Tiarnan had half a mind to jump over the wall to follow it. Instead, he walked around and bent down to get it. I had, in the meantime, picked it up on some paper and put it back on top of the wall - to Tiarnan's irritation.

This play with the mysterious beetle of unknown name went on for some time. Yet, after a while, Tiarnan seemed to want the beetle to stand still and not crawl away the whole time, finally, perhaps in frustration, he picked it up with a little too much strength in his little hand and crushed it. Though it didn't crawl away again, I don't think this outcome satisfied Tiarnan and he stared at its broken body for some time, before concluding that there was no more fun to be had with this particular friend.

Throughout, what impressed me was his lack of squeamishness and his absence of fear. To him it was a little playmate - nothing scarier than that. To many adults, it would be something to be avoided. I hope he doesn't learn that fear - for he certainly hasn't started life with it.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Construction of the Grand Snail Hotel

Childhood doesn't seem so far away, when one has children to observe, at play.

At the weekend, Fintan, 4, and Ainan, 7, decided to make their snails more at home. (See the post Children and Pet Animals, for background). They decided to build the Grand Snail Hotel.

The Hotel was quite large, if you were a snail. It was built on the landing of the stairwell outside our flat, between our flat and the neighbour. The construction materials were of the lasting kind: polystyrene and a range of plastics (selected, I believe, by Ainan, because the snails would be unable to eat their residence, it being made of inedible plastic. This is always a good consideration, when one's hotel guests are hungry and unable to distinguish between food and furniture.)

The Grand Snail Hotel had all the attributes of a great and thoughtful hotel. Some polystyrene with a dip in it about a foot and a half long, provided what was, to scale, an Olympic sized swimming pool. Another section with a ramp leading up to it (for snails, like disabled people, are not good with stairs, and need ramps to reach elevated areas), provided a kind of dormitory where snails could sleep en masse. There was a snail restaurant providing the best of leaves - the staple being lettuce from my fridge - and even a supermarket, where there was a large store of unused vegetable leaves, for later purchase by any self-catering snail. The entire complex was self-enclosed in its own wall, protecting the nibbling snails from the difficult environment they might find in the world outside. All in all, it was a masterpiece of Snail Architecture. Credit for the Architecture goes to the creative team of Fintan Nadym Cawley and Ainan Celeste Cawley, who were the sole designers of this innovative construction initiative in the nascent hotel field known as Gastropod Tourism.

Anyway, all this actually happened and was carefully explained to me by the earnest architects: Ainan and Fintan. My wife and I were most impressed at the miniature compound they had created for their adopted snail pets.

As we left to go shopping, my wife called back at Ainan and Fintan: "We will take a photograph of it when we get back!"

We were both happy to see the two aspects of character embodied in that work: creativity in designing it in the first place - and the care for animals that they should think to do so in the first place. Besides, it was hilarious to see what they had done to the stairwell: it had become a Gastropod Hotel. There are not many stairwells in the world like that one.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, including Fintan, aged four years and one month, or Tiarnan, eighteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, genetics, left-handedness, College, University, Chemistry, Science, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Children and pet animals

When I was a boy - oh so long ago - we had a pet cat. Just one. Yet, being resourceful, this pet cat one day turned into a pregnant female. Then we had many cats. Though that was several cat generations ago, there are still cats to this day, descended from our very smart sole kitten, of my childhood days, at my parents home.

Now, there is a dog, too - a large Sicilian Corso: dramatic, powerful, watchful. A good dog to have around if you like giving intruders a nasty surprise.

Yet, here, in Singapore, where we now live, we have no pet animals. We live on the top floor of an apartment block (the "penthouse") and thought it cruel to have a conventional pet, in such restrictive surroundings. It would not be fair to the poor animal to be cooped up in a small space all day. In my mind, I compare the spacious surroundings of my childhood, with apartment living and just can't see a pet as part of it.

However, my children love animals. They seem to have an affinity for them which just won't go away. They engage with animals much as frustrated mothers-who-can't-be engage with other people's little children: with love, affection and just a little sadness. It should not be this way - but I just cannot see the run-of-the-mill animals living in a top-floor apartment with comfort. So, we have a pet-free apartment.

Yesterday, Fintan, who is the prime animal lover in our household, came up with his own solution. I came home to find a large collection of very small (for the most part) snails, in front of my apartment door. At least one had come upon a fatal accident (perhaps a mis-step by someone entering the house) - but the others were lively enough, moving around in what, no doubt was a panicked run, for a snail, as they sought more familiar territory than the stone tiling outside my house.

Fintan, Ainan and Tiarnan were all captivated, in their various ways, by the snails. Fintan, simply had a fascination for them; Ainan saw them as a scientific phenomenon to be observed and learnt from - and Tiarnan thought they were yukky: "Eek!" he said, when he saw them, his face wrinkled up with disgust.

What I thought most telling of my children's attitude to other life-forms, was seeing Fintan, walking around later in the day with the biggest of the snails perched on his hand. He had brought into the house to play with and was not at all squeamish about its slimey form. He was very careful not to hurt it and invariably moved it about by picking it up with its shell. At one point, he wanted to show its form, pointing out the various parts to me and showing what happened when he prodded it in various places - gently of course. "Don't hurt it!" I said. "I am not." he reassured calmly, placing it down again.

They spent quite some time playing with their "pet" snails. They even tried to put out some food for them: I noted delicately sliced banana laid down in the midst of the snail colony. That evening they put the snails on a stairwell. Ainan asked me to buy lettuce - which I duly did. And he placed what he considered a generous sized leaf out for them to have something to eat in the barren landscape of the stairwell.

Seeing all this made me a little sad that they did not have a household pet to play with. Clearly, the urge to "mother" an animal, to nurture a pet, to play with one and learn from one, was strong in them: so strong that they even made snails from the garden into pets.

Perhaps a reader of this post, will have some suggestions as to child-friendly pets that live comfortably in top-floor apartments, without being messy or smelly to have around (we have got three kids, so that is messy enough already!).

If anyone has a really good suggestion, based on actual experience of what that particular pet is like to have around, we might just get a pet to satisfy those pet-rearing instincts of my children.

(If you would like to read of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and one month, or Tiarnan, eighteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, genetics, left-handedness, College, University, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan and the natural world.

Tiarnan is seventeen months old. For him, many things are new - and it is in watching him witness them for the first time, that I, in turn, come to a new appreciation of all that is around me. That is part of the joy of being a father.

Today, we took Tiarnan for a walk in a green area nearby. Many of my readers are from America and will not, perhaps, be familiar with the kind of things one can find here, so I will explain, in due course.

We showed him a plant with a special property, today and encouraged him to touch it. Once he did so, the leaves of this dark, low-lying plant folded up at once and hid away, retracting away from his finger. He was quite taken by this, since it is the first plant he has ever seen which MOVES, when touched.

He did it again and again, touching plant after plant and watched them duly hide away.

We indicated that we were to go - and Tiarnan then acknowledged the plants' strange new status by waving goodbye to them. The little green ones had impressed him in a way that no other plant ever had - and so he accorded them personhood. After all: if a plant can MOVE - it must be alive, in an animal-like way - I assume, he thought.

It was very sweet to watch him react this way to the plant. In all his seventeen months, he had never seen a plant react to touch by moving away - and now one had. It was beautiful to see the surprise dance in his eyes. More beautiful still was it to see him wave goodbye to them, as if to a new found friend.

The plant is the Mimosa, found in Singapore, which is low lying and has dark, delicate leaves that behave in a peculiar way. When the plant is touched, the leaves retract, at once, and fold themselves up, in hiding.

There were other things, too, that impressed Tiarnan - but it was the Mimosa, I suspect, which he will always remember.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, seventeen months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and seven months, or Fintan, four years and no months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan's love of nature

Now, I have heard many a curious thing in my life, but this is one of the more curious.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife was walking with Tiarnan, then fifteen months, in a park. Suddenly, he ran off across a field to where a lone tree stood. He looked up at the tree - which to him must have seemed a giant, but, as trees go, was both young and modest in size - and then he did something unaccountable: he put his arms around the tree and hugged it. He hugged it long and hard, embracing the tree as if it needed comfort. It was a long while before he released it, perhaps satisfied that he had comforted this lone tree, when it had, to him, clearly needed it.

Prince Charles would be proud of him. For those who don't know, Prince Charles won himself quite a reputation many years ago, for talking to plants. I suppose hugging them can be lumped in the same category. There is one difference, of course: Prince Charles the plant-talker was middle-aged at the time of the revelations; Tiarnan, the tree-hugger was fifteen months.

Who knows. Perhaps trees do feel a bit solitary at times. In any case, that was one tree that found itself unusually comforted by a little human, that day.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, now sixteen months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and six months, and Fintan, three, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, creatively gifted adults, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)