Mycorrhizal fungi grow in and around plant root as well as provide a nutrient-exchanging path for different individual plants. Occasionally I’ll see some meme or link to a brief YouTube video about these fungi, not that one would recognize the term “mycorhizzal” because it is never used. It’s danced around. Sometimes substituted with something in…
After reading What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis and watching Rory Stewart’s The Great Game (incredible dual documentaries on imperialism and Afghan independence) on Netflix (the first is also on YouTube), I continued the theme and watched an installment on one of my favorite natural history…
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Deep oak and hickory wood laced with purring creeks and rocky rubble beckon me, but most days they must wait, as getting out of town to the nearest decent public hiking area requires twenty minutes–more than one can afford on a working day. Instead I often opt for a five minute drive (to avoid crossing…
What Went Wrong: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis Reflection: After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe entered the termed “dark ages” of inward warfare and cultural intolerance, and the Middle East entered the Islamic “golden age.” Between now and then, Europe has developed a diverse but…
As a kid, as many kids, I was super crafty. I particularly liked making posters by attaching construction paper with drawings or cut outs almost as good as my drawings to make an even bigger view. I was one of those kids the art teachers favored. I was very good for my age. But beyond…
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic series Sherlock Holmes was a literary revolution back in its Victorian days because it was the first to successfully introduced a scientific approach to crime. Now inspires a plethora of modern remakes in film. It’s popular–is and was–without a doubt. But…. There’s no shame in not boarding the band wagon.…
Keystone species: like a stone bridging the two sides of an arch, once removed the structure crumbles. One of ecologists favorite example in the last twenty years has been the grey wolf. Humans have a long history of destroying ecosystems and obliterating biodiversity. More than likely we’ve seen the loss of more keystone species than…
Supposedly in the United States people consume some 80 billion servings of tea. Depending on the age demographic, an estimated 80-87% of the population regularly have it. On a given day half of those people will have a cup. The country is the world’s third largest tea importer and the only Western nation to continually…
Poisoning ivory horns tagged with pink dye to deter poachers. When I read this old news on Facebook, at first I thought, “How does this affect survival among other wild animals?” Then I remembered that this is limited to animals living in fence reserves and human kill far more than the lions do. Then there…
Patrons of my local library vie for this book. I waited several weeks before I got a chance, even though The Sixth Extinction was published over a year before this time. Then I couldn’t renew it, because of course someone else was in line to read it. Several weeks later down the waiting list I…
Science classes from middle school up to the second year of university, popular science books, and many internet sources cling to cliche examples. Don’t talk to me about the bottleneck effect and use cheetahs as an example–just don’t. If you’re a complete nerd like me and constantly prowl for something new to learn, finding a…
My mom has been pestering me to read Pierre Berton’s books for many years. Starting with the book of her choice, The Invasion of Canada: 1812-1813, I can see why he is a favorite among Canadians and history lovers in general. He strung together dozens of sources and put them in a narrative that reads…
