Teach your children well. — Crosby, Stills and Nash The year 2013 marked the 100th birthday of the British Ecological Society, and the International Congress of Ecology recently met in London to mark this auspicious occasion. Like many scientific professionals, ecologists only reluctantly come away from their remote field sites to share expertise on new […]
A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician; he is a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales. — Marie Curie The word orange comes from the French term, “or,” meaning gold. For most baby boomers, as a legacy of childhood, no day starts without a glass […]
Mankind survives on the Earth only because green plants grow here. — Isaiah 40:6 In our zest to breed the most resilient crops, agriculture is fast losing the genetic diversity of many food plants. Apples and tomatoes, with their shrinking heirloom stocks, are prime examples. The agricultural industry cultivates and distributes seed stocks that are […]
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. EXPLORE, DREAM, DISCOVER. — Mark Twain It is often assumed that wheelchair dependency hinders a career in […]
Dr. Meg Lowman writes about saving the forest canopies of Ethiopia in “What’s Up?” The Newsletter of the International Canopy Network; Volume 19, Number 3,
Not everything that counts can be counted. — Albert Einstein Our daily lives are surrounded by many trillions of unwelcome aliens that constantly engulf us, and yet we know next-to-nothing about them. They are technically the product of Aeolian (or wind-driven) processes, otherwise known as “dust.” Dust is everywhere — sprinkled onto our food, inhaled […]
Treetops at Risk Challenges of Global Canopy Ecology and Conservation M. Lowman, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA; S. Devy, Ashoka Trust for Research in
Dr. Lowman’s latest Nature’s Secrets column in newsobserver.com: Our daily lives are surrounded by billions of unwelcome aliens that constantly engulf us, and yet we know next to nothing about them. They are technically the product of aeolian (wind-driven) processes, and are called “dust.” Dust is everywhere – sprinkled onto our food, inhaled into our […]
What is the vitality and necessity of clean water? Ask the man who is ill, who is lifting his lips to the cup. Ask the Forest. — Mary Oliver, poet Turning the age of 40 often inspires human reflection, change, or reinvention. Although not a person, the Clean Water Act had its milestone birthday last […]
It’s the biggest conservation crisis that no one talks about. — Paul Johnson, Director, Alabama Aquatic Biodiversity Center What group of species is more common in North America than anywhere else in the world? The answer: freshwater mussels. But this unique group of organisms rarely reaches the headlines or even becomes the center of discussion […]
