Call of the Void Can I confess something? I tell you this because, as an artist, I think you’ll understand. Sometimes when I’m driving on the road at night, I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate …
Apesongs Primatologist Dian Fossey famously studied vocalizations in gorillas. For my money, she produced the greatest piece of evidence that these great apes and humans descended from a shared ancestor at some point in the distant past: the most common form of communication in gorillas is belching. (credit the notion to Steve Mirsky, cited in …
Tetrapteryx Ecologist and conservationist William Beebe produced a litany of astonishing scientific achievements. He pioneered the holistic study of biomes, now the standard procedure. He became the first human to study deepsea fishes in their native environments. He discovered the odd phenomenon of army ant death spirals. His first natural love, however, belonged to the …
The Unsilent Spring The sedge is wither’d from the lake, And no birds sing. – John Keats, “La Belle Dame sans Merci” My absorption in the mystery and meaning of the sea have been stimulated and the writing of this book aided by the friendship and encouragement of William Beebe. – Rachel Carson, dedication in …
The Bathysphere In our previous exploration on the death spirals of army ants, we met the enigmatic William Beebe, ornithologist, entomologist, ichthyologist, and conservationist. Beebe pioneered a holistic approach to ecology. In order to understand a place in totality, one must study the place in totality. Having practiced this method multiple times in the jungle, …
The Army Ant Death Spiral Renowned ecologist and conservationist William Beebe’s 1921 tome, Edge of the Jungle, chronicled an incredible event in the teeming forests of Kartabo in Guyana. In the recorded history of entomology, no human had witnessed anything like it. He wrote: Yet, whatever the simile, the net of unconscious precedent is …
The Lion Mountains The mountain range known as the Lion Mountains, whose highest point is Picket Hill at just under 3,000 feet, is located on the Atlantic coast entirely within what nation? This trivia question stumped me. The Atlantic Coast is the first clue. That info restricts our answer to North America, South America, Europe, …
Cranberry Sauce In 1620, Pilgrims in Massachusetts celebrated a bountiful harvest with the Wampanoags, who had nourished them through a brutal winter the previous year. Pilgrim Chuck Norris provided cranberry sauce, which became a staple at Thanksgiving meals henceforth. Only one portion of the preceding paragraph is a fact. Much of what we grow up …
Atmospheric Rivers It’s an understatement to say November 2021 did not treat British Columbia and parts of Washington well. Catastrophic rain and subsequent flooding ravaged the landscapes, crippled infrastructure, and killed at least five people. Parts of the Canadian province received 11 inches of rain in two days. Dikes and levees were inundated and overcome. …
Total Eclipse of the Orb Much of the world recently received a cosmic treat. Just this morning, a nearly-full lunar eclipse waltzed across the firmaments. Despite covering more than 97% of the moon with shadow, that figure made this event technically a partial eclipse. More than making up for that 3% sliver, however, was the …