What role do stories play in selling research? Not just to communicate the results but to stir interest the methods, the personalities, the stories behind the data. I have an Indian colleague who rides around rural India on his Enfield motorbike collecting field data. I know when I get his email I’ll learn something new, and in part I can appreciate his effort in getting out there.

Today’s story is of the research team riding out a typhoon sitting in the guesthouse on an island in the South China Sea – mopping up streams of water that made it through the blinds and mosquito nets. Telephone coversations accompanied to the sound of broken glass communicate enough of the details themselves, though from recent experience earthquakes require a running commentary to make sense (we had an unusually long day-time quake in Tokyo recently). But for tonight I’m not yet sure how this story ends – its still being written. Time to waterproof the camera and play around outside.

And the photo above? A flash picking up a moment in the life of a rain drop taken on the rather blustery guesthouse roof. A chance to try new stuff whilst waiting for the storm to pass.