A new term has emerged in the world of business and ecology, called biomimicry. Defined from the Greek bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning imitation, biomimicry is not new — for over 3.8 billion years of evolutionary time, the natural world has been tinkering with what works best on our planet. But only recently have […]
Their equipment list was unusual — carabiners, 200 feet of rope, strips of towels, water, clippers, tree harness, ice chest, plastic bags, notebooks, growth hormones, tin foil and cameras. This month, the New College Tree Climbing Club participated in an important scientific mission, and also a once-in-a-lifetime climbing assignment. They scaled the world’s largest known […]
In south Sarasota County where I live, the residents mark their seasonal clocks with the arrival of baby sand- hill cranes. These awkward, almost prehistoric-looking creatures are an endearing feature of the natural landscape in wet marshlands of Southwest Florida. My children have an annual competition to be the first to see a baby accompanying […]
Dr. Margaret Lowman talks about her personal philosophy of nature in this first addition to the new semimonthly column, Nature’s Secrets, in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Full Article
Dr. Meg Lowman, Professor of Biology and Environmental Science at New College of Florida, was one of 38 education leaders from around the world who joined forces earlier this month to explore ways to lead, engage, and inspire others to protect biodiversity, the variety and complexity of life on Earth. World Wildlife Fund and Disney’s […]
Dr. Meg Lowman, Professor of Environmental Studies at New College of Florida, and research assistant Bryson Voirin, third-year student at New College, are among the invitees to an international forest canopy conference this week in Cornwall, UK. The Eden Project, as it is known, is an indoor botanical gardens and research center specializing in attaining […]
(Sarasota) New College of Florida is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Margaret Lowman as Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies. Dr. Lowman is the first full-time faculty member of the Environmental Studies program, founded in 1972 by former New College president John Elmendorf. Dr. Lowman joins co-directors Jono Miller and Julie Morris, New […]
A new century of environmental consciousness is dawning. Under the pressures of explosive human population growth, our planet’s natural communities are shriveling rapidly. They are shrinking on all sides because of the expansion of agriculture, urbanization, damming, forest fragmentation, contaminants into water tables, road building, and even more indirect human impacts such as the invasion […]
NASA satellite data are giving scientists insight into how large-scale deforestation in the Amazon Basin in South America is affecting regional climate. Researchers found during the Amazon dry season last August, there was a distinct pattern of higher rainfall and warmer temperatures over deforested regions. Full Article
They climbed trees and sucked bugs into tubes, then checked off items on a master list: lizards, snakes, wasps, mockingbirds and gopher tortoises. But students from New College of Florida in Sarasota weren’t catching bugs to kill them. Instead, about 50 students, friends and faculty members collected insects and counted types of mammals and plants […]
