I am a fig biologist at heart and in practice. I study the big balete trees and the tiny wasps that they are in close association with. It is in the great outdoors that my job and my hobby meet! This allows me to travel to a lot of places, especially in the Philippines, that are not mainstream tourist-y areas. Thus, this blog will be a tribute to the beauty of the world as seen through the eyes of a young ecologist. An ode to the marvels of nature, one of our greatest blessings as a species.
Nonetheless, being a fig biologist is not easy in the Philippines. When they learn I work on figs, the first question is always: “May figs ba tayo sa Pilipinas?” (“Do we have figs in the Philippines?). My answer is always: “Marami po! Nakakita na po kayo nun, hindi niyo lang napansin.” (“We have plenty and I’m a hundred percent sure you’ve seen one at least once in your life.”) And so we come to one of the main reasons that I wanted to start a blog, to popularize science. We think it’s high-time that our society trust science and use it for its betterment.
I hope you enjoy reading through this blog and that you learn some new stuff. Ultimately, as my late mentor Dr. Dan Lagunzad put it, I also hope to cure you of your fig (plant) blindness 😉
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– diwata sa balete
diwata sa balete 