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By Kirsty McHugh, OUP UK

Victoria Braithwaite, Professor of Fisheries and Biology at Pennsylvania State University, is the author of Do Fish Feel Pain?, which publishes in the UK later this month. In it she engages with the latest research on fish pain and suffering, explaining what we now understand about fish behaviour. In the original post below, she looks at the behaviour of coral reef cleaner fish, who remove skin parasites from client fish. But the cleaner-client relationship is rife with deception and reprimand – and even a battle of the sexes.

If you’ve ever had an itch that you couldn’t scratch, then you’ll understand what drives this quirky example of animal cooperation. Under the aquamarine surface of tropical seas, coral reef fish literally line up to be tended by one or a pair of small, striped cleaner fish. Without limbs or fingers, big fish have a tricky time removing parasites on their skin and fleshy gills. The small cleaner fish provide the solution: they bite off any crustacean parasites they find. It seems to be a simple arrangement. The client fish are cleared of their irksome parasites and the cleaner fish get a meal. But things are not always what they seem.

Cleaner fish are not just interested in parasites. They actually prefer mucus, the protein rich secretion that covers a fish and makes them feel slimy to us. From time to time cleaners cheat by taking a bite, not at a parasite, but out of their client. Client fish don’t like this at all and visibly shudder. Client fish have found that the best way to punish cheating cleaners is to swim away and avoid that cleaner in the future.

Intriguingly, it turns out that the relationship between the cleaner and client isn’t just restricted to any pairing, but in fact a whole communication network can become established with cleaner reputations being lost or gained. Some cleaners work at specific places on the reef, known as stations. The clients learn to approach these areas and wait for their turn to be serviced. Fish waiting in line for the cleaner’s attention keep a wary eye on the client in front, and if they see it shudder, they too will swim away in search of another station with a more cooperative cleaner. Cleaner fish that get too greedy lose their clients and their reputation.

A further twist to this tale has just been discovered. Researchers working in the Red Sea have reported that cleaner stations with a paired male and female are more cooperative and cheat less than stations with a solo cleaner. What makes these pairs different? It turns out that the male cleaner actually polices the honesty of the female cleaner, chasing and harassing her if she munches on mucus. Males punish the females, even though the client was the victim, because males need satisfied clients. On average the male gets more food when a client remains at a station until the cleaning operation is complete.

There is much in this tale. Clearly fish are smarter than we could have imagined. They can make and lose reputations. They can learn from the experience of others. They can cooperate as business partners – by force if need be. Who would have thought that such a beautifully simple business model would turn out to be a hotbed of cheating, reprima

I’m really excited about LookyBook. LookyBook is a fantastic new site that offers a free way to read entire picture books online, cover to cover. Simply click on the cover of a book you’re interested in reading, and it will open up. Then click on the right page to turn a page forward. You can also click on the left page to turn back a page.

LookyBook is a wonderful way to find new picture books that you might be interested in buying and having a real copy of, and, unlike most (if not all) bookstores online, you can read the entire book, to see whether you like it or not, just as you could in a real bookstore. You can also add books you like to your virtual bookshelf, and go back any time to read them. Other people can also see your bookshelf, and be inspired by your choices, just as you can by others. Registration is free. (Note: When you sign up, if you’re outside the US, you can just input 00000 into the zip code and the registration will work. That’s a blip that they’re working on.) Some of the books are a little hard to read because the type is so small, though that may be different if you have a large screen (I’m using my Tablet PC). This is because publishers were worried about the size affecting sales. I hope they eventually realize that being able to read good books online will only spur sales. I already have a number of new (to me) books that I want to buy, found through LookyBook.

Currently, you can find books to read through clicking on “author or illustrator”, or “subject” on the left panel, or, at the bottom, by looking through the Book Tumbler, which shows a random selection of the books they feature; LookyLikes, which are favorites of the Lookybook staff; Highest Rated Books; and Most Looked At Books. They may, in the future, be adding books by title so you can go through all their listings (I hope they will). New books continue to be added. They currently have over 200 books, and aim to have more than 1,000 books by mid-2008.

LookyBook has some fantastic picture books here, including some of my favorites, such as Another Perfect Day by Ross MacDonald, Un-Brella by Scott E Franson, and Enemy Pie (Reading Rainbow book) by Derek Munsen, illustrated by Tara Calahan King, and some picture books that are really grabbing me, and that I’m considering purchasing so I can pore over them more, such as The Other Side by Istvan Banyai, A Story With Pictures by Barbara Kanninen, illustrated by Lynn Rowe Reed, and I Am I by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick . I could spend hours and hours here. I already have.

A nice feature is that, when you read a book, if LookyBook has another book by the same author or illustrator, it is listed below, so you can easily find other favorites. Another nice feature is that LookyBook doesn’t just showcase bestsellers–they show “new books, obscure books, and undiscovered gems”, allowing you to find really good books that you might otherwise have missed.

Another really cool thing for bloggers, for site owners, and ultimately for authors and illustrators, is that you can embed a LookyBook title into your blog or site, as I’ve done here. I embedded one of my new favorites, Un-Brella (I love the fantasy, the dreaming, the magic in this book) but I had to take it back out again, because the page wouldn’t fully load. That may be an initial kink that will get worked out; I think it’s a real boon to bloggers and authors and illustrators, and I’m looking froward to it. Granted, the embedded book has small pages, but you can still see the illustrations. So it gives you a taste of the book.

The site is in its final stages of completion (it’s really a preview), so bugs will pop up from time to time. The site officially launches in December. I love this site, and will visit it often.

Looking to find a great picture book? Check out LookyBook.

LookyBook is also a fantastic opportunity for authors, illustrators, and publishers to extend the life of their books and gain new readers. Lookybook is making the program free to publishers for the first year. If I had a picture book published, I would jump at this offer.

LookyBook was featured in Publishers Weekly; check it out here.

I’ve taken the Amazon.com Kindle off my mental wishlist. It’s way too expensive, and there are a lot of things I don’t like about it.

But I just discovered an eBook Reader that’s worth waiting for–the Seikeo eBook Reader.

It’s super-thin, at only 3mm, super-light at only 57g, has a 6.7-inch screen display with a 1,200 x 1,600 resolution that should make for crisp text, and will have WI-FI. All that AND it’s aesthetically pleasing? It looks like something I want to get my hands on. It also looks like Seikeo’s listened to consumers’ want-lists for a perfect eBook. The Seikeo eBook Reader hasn’t been released yet, and I haven’t seen a release date, but it’s on my wishlist.

Found at Gizmo do and BizToolBelt.

I love gadgets. So this new ebook reader–the Kindle by Amazon.com–is on my radar. It looks like the kind of gadget I’d love to have–were it not for the price tag. At $399 US for the ebook reader alone, it’s way too pricey for me. But that doesn’t stop me looking at it longingly on the screen.

There are some things to love about the Kindle . There are also some things to dislike.

Things to Like:

• The screen is highly readable, like paper, and has no glare (and is not backlit) so you can easily read it outdoors (or indoors, as you would a book). It uses the same digital ink technology as the Sony Reader.There are six different font sizes; you can select the one that works best for you.
• You don’t need a computer to download or buy books, and it’s very easy to buy and download them. The Kindle uses the same wireless technology that cell phones use to get online, so you never have to find a WI-FI spot. You don’t have to fiddle with anything or be connected to your PC to get online, and you don’t have to pay to get online. Some users will really like this.
• Some of the prices of ebooks are fantastic, like Philip Pullman’s the Golden Compass for 3.19. That’s the price i think ebooks should all be. Not all their older books are so inexpensive, though. Christopher Paolini’s Eragon: Inheritance is $6.99, which seems overpriced for an ebook.
• A copy of every book you purchase is backed up online in case you ever need to download it again.
• You can read samples of ebooks before you decide whether or not to buy.
• It has a long battery life; if the WI-FI is turned off you can read books for a week before having to recharge it. If the WI-FI is turned on, you’ll need to recharge every other day.
• The design is supposed to be ergonomic, so that you can read and turn pages easily from any position, and so that both right-handed and left-handed people can easily turn the pages.
• It can store 200 book titles.
• It has a built-in dictionary, and you can also look things up online at Wikipedia.org.
• The size and weight of the Kindle seems pretty good–10.3 ounces–the size and weight of a paperback book–yet you can carry around hundreds of ebooks. That’s great for traveling.
• It has a bookmark feature which you can also use to add annotations to the text, and you can export your notes. The Kindle automatically opens your ebook to the last page you were reading.
• Besides eBooks, you can also read newspapers, magazines, and blogs on the Kindle (which you also have to pay to read). The prices of the magazines look great, many at about $1.50 each, though there are only eight so far.
• You can also listen to audiobooks and MP3s on the Kindle.
• The Kindle has a basic web browser.

Things Not To Like

• The price. $399. US is way too expensive for an ebook reader. You can buy a heck of a lot of books for $399. I’d love to!
• The screen is only about 3/4 of the total size. Visually, I think the screen should be larger and take up most of the room of the eBook reader. The screen is also only greyscale; some users might prefer some color.
• The keyboard takes up a lot of room–about a quarter–looks ungainly, and is only in QWERTY layout (what about all of us DVORAK layout users?). I’d rather there wasn’t a keyboard at all, though I understand its usefulness. (Why not a tablet with a pen?).
• The Kindle is proprietary; you can only read Amazon.com Kindle ebooks on it, which means you’re limited to only buying ebooks from them. You can read a few other types of documents on it (such as unprotected MS Word documents) but ONLY if you pay a fee to email the converted versions to yourself. Why should you have to pay a fee to be able to read your own documents? And what about people who have purchased eBooks in other formats? There are already a number of ebook formats around. Why couldn’t they have used one of those?
• It’s not aesthetically pleasing. That may not matter for many readers, but it will for some.
• Most newer books, such as Stephenie Meyer’s Eclipse, are $9.99. Why would I pay $9.99 for an ebook that’s just digital, when i can buy the paperback when it comes out for about that, or hold the hardcover in my hands? Want me as a frequent buyer of ebooks? Price them cheaply. Because they’re an adjunct to my library, not a replacement. eBook readers are a great idea for carting around a bunch of books at once, like when you’re on vacation. But I’m sticking with my beautiful paper books.
• There aren’t a lot of children’s or YA kindle ebooks available yet. There are 1,184. This sounds like a lot, but it’s really not, not with all the wonderful books out there. So right now your reading choices are somewhat limited (though I’m sure, if the Kindle is popular, this will change). And they’re all lumped together under “children’s chapter books.” That’s a mistake, Amazon. What teen reader wants to click on “children’s chapter books”? Still, those things can be easily rectified.
• There’s not enough storage. If you use the Kindle as an MP3 player as well, you will quickly use all the space; just a few albums or audiobooks and many ebooks, and it will be full.
• It probably doesn’t work in Canada, yet, at least not to purchase and download the ebooks directly onto the Kindle (though I suppose you could via your regular internet connection), and it also isn’t yet shipping to Canada or anywhere else except the US. Don’t like in the US? You’re out of luck.

Amazon.com and other ebook reader companies want to replace books. It isn’t going to happen, at least not for me. I usually read and purchase ebooks that I already have in actual book form, and if I find an ebook that I love that I don’t have as a book, I run out and buy the book. I love holding a book, how easy it is to turn the pages, to flip back and forth to any page i want, etc. I love the feel and smell of the pages. The way you don’t have to fiddle with any technology, or recharge a battery, or turn it on. Yet I also love gadgets, and being able to carry many books around with me at once, and if the Kindle is as readable as reviews say, it will be on my wishlist–as an adjunct to my regular books.

Interested in reading more? You can read ZDNet’s review here and Amazon.com’s info here.