Kelping Whales Earlier in 2023, we investigated the strange behavior of orcas in Portuguese waters. Not only were they attacking boats, but they seemed to be teaching the behavior to other orcas. One theory that might explain the behavior relates to fads. The intelligent creatures who run in tight groups sometimes display odd conduct for certain …
Pumpkin Pie Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done? / Hurrah for the pumpkin pie! –Lydia Maria Child, “Over the River and Through the Wood” We continue a tradition of exploring plants and animals associated with Thanksgiving, after investigating wild turkeys, cranberry sauce, and maize. Though cranberry sauce contains some sweetness, most people do not consume it …
Landing a 787 on Antarctic Ice The inhospitality of Antarctica requires little setup. It’s the coldest place on the planet. It’s so remote that, sometimes, when one develops appendicitis one must perform surgery on one’s self. Approximately 70 scientific stations dot the icy continent, staffed by around 1,200 brave souls during the winter. During the summer, …
Reduce Your Usage Without a doubt, plastics have revolutionized engineering, medicine, packaging, and numerous other milieu across the globe. The first human-made polymer is generally considered to be Parkesine, which was created by Alexander Parkes in 1855. Parkesine was composed of cellulose, a natural component of plant cell walls. By 1907, the first synthetic plastic …
Mt. Logan – Canada’s High Point The clouds parting toward the northeast revealed several giant peaks not before seen…One stranger, rising in three white domes far above the clouds, was especially magnificent. –Israel C. Russell Most students of the mountains know Alaska’s Denali is the highest point in the United States and North America. What about the …
For My Next Trick, I Will Make the Rings of Saturn Disappear Follow this plan and you can become a celestial magician. The next time you’re at a party filled with astronomical aficionados – what gala isn’t filled with these types of people? – you can wave a wand, proclaim “abracadabra,” and pull off a …
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Puffling Patrol The Atlantic Puffin loves rocky coasts. Cliffs on remote islands without natural predators provide wonderful nesting habitats for these birds. Puffins inhabit a wide swath of land from North America to Europe and northward toward the Arctic Circle. Despite this wide home base, puffins really love one place above all others: Iceland. More than 60% of all Atlantic puffins …
Inishfearglin, Puffin Island, & Puffin Rock In our last issue, we examined the distinctive, colorful birds of the planet’s northern oceans: puffins. These avians spend half the year on the open ocean and the other half nesting on often spectacular cliffsides. Puffins congregating on a cliff – photo by Steve Garvie One of the joys of …
Puffins We recently declared the Dalmatian to be one of the most recognizable dogs on the planet. Certain types of critters are so distinctive that most humans can identify them with just a glimpse. Some of these animals stand out because of their size or shape, such as the elephant or the crab, but not necessarily their …
The Dark Lady of DNA For many decades following the 1950s, biology classes across the United States and the world drilled two names into the heads of students in relation to unraveling the “secret of life.” Which brilliant scientists unlocked the famous double helix of deoxyribonucleic acids – aka DNA – the coding chains of life on …