Deep Adhya, PhD

“My father committed suicide because the morning newspapers depressed him.” – Boris Yellnikoff (Whatever Works, 2009) I usually don’t blog about these important things written in morning newspapers, focussing instead on the banal and trivial. It helps me to avoid having to think about our impending doom, and no one wants another fluff piece on political confectionary anyway. But sadly, the world has come/is coming to another crossroads. Human beings have started to realise that in our need to see everything and do everything, we are trying to evolve too fast. The conflict between the variedness of liberals and puritanism of conservatives has become so stark that the liberals are now viewed as an entirely new species by the conservatives. The conservatives have stopped trying to educate them in their beliefs and values and have gone on an outright war against them. The human race is in labour. The old are hurt and baffled as the new tries to break out of its grasp. The ...

How did we end up here? We are farmed rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ), born to be baked in the oven. We are from the salmon family, an oily fish with pink flesh. Our ancestors were first identified in the Kamchatka peninsula in Siberia. The name ‘mykiss’ has nothing to do with my kiss. I don’t have a kiss and even if I had one, it wouldn’t be fatal. We live in fresh water and are extremely adaptable, therefore widely farmed around the world. We are probably the most common species of trout around, spawning wilfully and leading other species to extinction. But our natural habitat is still the Pacific Ocean, and our wild cousins only swim into freshwater to breed. But the real magic of our existence lies on the dinner plate. We have a tender flesh and a mild, nutty flavour. Our wild cousins taste better because of their varied diet and plentiful exercise, but we are high in vitamin B and our flavours are appealing enough for anyone to salivate when cooked with our...