With Douglas Drenkow

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The Diversity of

The World of Life

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About the Author

Your "Humble Human",

Douglas Drenkow

Hello!  My name is Douglas Drenkow (the "w" is silent...I rarely am) and I hope you share my lifelong fascination with the world of life!

You may read in detail below about my scientific education and works but please allow me to first tell you something about myself.

One of my earliest and fondest memories was collecting the pictures of 400 different animals given out, a few a week, by a local grocery store and pasting them into their well-labeled places within the official scrapbook, which I carried with me not only to school but also everywhere else I went (including on vacation back to the Middle West) -- I showed all the pictures and named all the animals to every one of my (undoubtedly) long-suffering family, friends, and teachers.  I came to truly appreciate the wonderful variety of animal life on Earth (which, raised as a Catholic, I still consider as nothing short of miraculous, even as I believe in the process of evolution -- the Lord works in mysterious ways).

By the time I reached junior high, I was determined to become a paleontologist, the next Roy Chapman Andrews.

In high school, my focus turned to plant life.  Our family received in the mail a package of Black-Seeded Simpson leaf lettuce from a local bank (come to think of it, it's funny how local businesses inadvertently played such ultimately significant roles in my life).  We planted the seeds in some soil we scraped up around the lot and placed in an old barbeque.  Remarkably (considering we've never again stayed ahead of the bugs with such a leafy crop), it produced many delicious salads...and "pancakes and lettuce", with sweet sour-cream dressing, a childhood favorite for Dad (there's no accounting for taste!).  Then some radishes and carrots and strawberries along the driveway.  And then tomatoes in an ever-more-elaborate "hydroponic" set-up out back.  Eventually, every square foot of bare ground around here was planted in one vegetable crop or another; and ultimately, two friends and I took over the huge backyard of one's parents -- that year our families "ate healthy" (the underweight gaining weight; the overweight losing).  The Organic Gardening magazine was our bible.

Taking biology and botany in high school, listening to the stories my Dad told of growing up on the farm during the Depression, and thoroughly enjoying my frequent outings to every garden shop within 10 miles, I decided to enroll in the Plant Science program at the University of California at Davis, a world center of agricultural research (and an all-around great university).

However, the more I learned of life -- in textbooks, lectures, laboratories, and the world-at-large -- the more I fell in love with life...in all forms (not just green, nutritious and delicious).  My studies gravitated towards entomology, with an emphasis on using "biological controls" (carefully selected pathogens, parasites, and predators) as alternatives to chemical insecticides vs. significant insect pests.  Today, such considerations are standard practice in "integrated pest management", typically using biological controls for long-term prevention and chemical controls for short-term outbreaks; but back in the 1980s, there was a great deal of opposition, from pragmatic growers as well as petrochemical suppliers.

I finally made some inroads by putting the enormous amount of research I had accumulated onto computer disks and teaching myself BASIC computer programming to access my data-bases:  After all, biological controls are applied food webs; and what better to facilitate the tracing of complicated ecological interrelationships ("what eats what") than computerized cross-references?  Today, we call them "hyperlinks".

As you can read below, I also developed educational software and handbooks in other fields of interest; and I was able to distribute my works worldwide, as through the Entomological Society of America.

Then, in the late 1990s, my beloved mother suddenly and quite unexpectedly passed away, leaving my dear old dad and me to face the world alone, together.  Poring through the family albums, I came to appreciate the pricelessness of the images of our loved ones; and I developed a talent that had long remained rudimentary:  My love of life, which had inspired my "left brain" to create so many scientific works, now inspired my "right brain" to create artistic works.  With God-given talents, I have been pleased and privileged to paint portraits, for many valued subjects and clients.

As you might have guessed by now, my favorite period in history was the Renaissance, when art and science went hand-in-hand, to discover and defend the truth.  The Age of Reason, the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Space Age, and the Information Age would not have come about if Western thought had not been "re-born" with the artistic and scientific advances of the Renaissance.

So much for history.  Right here and now, I am popularizing the life sciences for people both young and old, far and wide.  I hope you will enjoy reading about these natural wonders as much as I enjoy writing about them.  What's more, I think we can learn a lot not only about plants and animals but also about ourselves by studying the world of life.

As Shakespeare wrote, "one touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

Or as the Bible says, "And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good."

 

Scientific Education

Scientific Software & Handbooks

Scientific Projects Related to Film

 

Scientific Education

Arcadia High School:  National Merit Scholarship & One of Six Valedictorians (4.0 GPA), in a graduating class of over 800

University of California, Davis:  Alpha Zeta Award (Top Freshman); Regents Scholar; the Ben A. Madsen, Robert K. Malcolm, & Peter J. Shields scholarships; Bachelor of Science Degree with Highest Honors in "Plant Science" (Agriculture & Botany), supplemented with courses in Zoology, Nematology, etc. as well as Individual Study in Entomology

Graduate Record Examination in Biology:  99th Percentile (in U.S.)

National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship (in Plant Physiology):  I declined the honor, to pursue a career in freelance writing (If there are kids reading this, please do as I say, not as I did:  Never pass up an opportunity to continue your education as far as you can -- not only will you learn more but also people will take you more seriously.  I'm proud of what I've accomplished, but I could have done more -- more readily, more profitably -- if I had earned a higher degree).

Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi:  Member in Good Standing, 27 Years

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Scientific Software & Handbooks

Self-Published, Sold Worldwide

Software Reviews:  Most Titles Judged "Excellent" by CHOICE (An American Library Association Publication), May, June, & July/Aug. 1993

Note:  Clicking on the links below will take you to samples of my writing and supporting materials.

Please also note that in the original computer software, entering the code numbers etc. that are displayed within the text and indexes of these data-bases would bring up the appropriate, cross-referenced entries -- an early form of hyperlinks:  Starting in the 1980s, I was helping to "pioneer" the use of computer data-bases as educational reference materials for college students and practicing professionals.

I hope to one day (soon) create HTML (Internet-browser-compatible) versions of at least some of this material and release them on CD-ROMs.

Handbooks:  As noted below, I published several software titles also as handbooks; however, the software versions had the distinct advantage of computerized cross-referencing.

Biological Sciences

As Distributed by the Entomological Society of America

Computerized Biological Control (Software with Illustration Booklet):  Controlling insects without pesticides, as in gardens -- also distributed to Third World agricultural agencies ("For the researcher or anyone who has a fascination and interest in insects, this is a must." -- Earth News, March/April 1993)

Computerized Vegetable Gardening (Software with Illustration Booklet):  Everything you need to know about (organically) growing dozens of the most commonly grown vegetable crops at home

Food Webs of Insects & Their Kin (Software) With Tens of Thousands of Cross-Referenced Pieces of Data on Agriculturally & Environmentally Significant Species, Both Beneficial & Injurious

A Computerized Dictionary of Entomology (Software)A fundamental work (a dictionary) on a fundamental subject (entomology), with content integrated by conceptual indexes (as on anatomy or ecology); "a nifty program" -- American Entomologist, Summer 1996

Discovering Insects (Software & Handbook)Introductory Entomology, with an Automated Identification Key

The Animal Kingdom (Handbook) a.k.a. How Animals Are Alike Yet Different (Software):  Introductory Zoology

The Plant Kingdom (Handbook)Introductory Botany 

The Tree of Life (Software)Introductory Biology 

Fermentation & Respiration (Software) Introductory Biochemistry

Physical Sciences

The Periodic Table of the Elements (Software):  Introductory Chemistry

Qualitative Chemical Analysis (Software):  Introductory Inorganic Chemistry

Conversion Factors (Software)Mathematical Calculations for Science

Social Sciences

Dynamics Within the Economy (Software)An animated schematic of national accounting, showing the interrelationships of the components of GDP

The Constitution of the United States (Software & Handbook):  Used in a collegiate Constitutional Law course

Comparative Religions (Software & Handbook)One of my best sellers.

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Scientific Projects Related to Film

A Model of Root Tip Development (8-minute 16-mm Film & VHS Videotape):  A College Senior Class Project (a bit too ambitious)

Secrets of Success (1-Hour Teleplay):  A Nature Documentary on Insect Life

Killer Instincts (2-Hour Screenplay):  A Sci-Fi Adventure with Giant Insects!

Ancient Egyptian Animals:  A Research Report in Support of a Production Company's Project on the Exodus

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Doug@DouglasDrenkow.com

(c) 2004 D.D.  All Rights Reserved.

Photo of Cells:  H.D.A. Lindquist, US EPA