Category: Nature (Page 12 of 20)

April Showers

April 2, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Fellow Muser Suzanne de Montigny, author of the wonderful tween novel The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy, was gracious enough to interview me on her blog today. Stop by and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Elixir Bound.

April started off with an afternoon rain shower. Do you think that bodes well for May flowers or it was an April Fools’ joke and just means a rainy spring? Either way, the crocus are blooming, a bluejay has been spotted in the backyard, and the peas have been planted. It’s definitely spring in New England.

While I was out gardening yesterday, I realized I’ve been planting and harvesting crops since, well, since I can remember. My parents have always had a garden and I can remember going to Joseph’s house to pick strawberries. My dad had somehow befriended Joseph–who used a walker and seemed like he was the oldest man I’d ever seen, but was really not nearly as old as I thought.

He had a big strawberry patch in his yard and we’d go every summer to pick them. My older sisters would run around the yard and I’d chase after them, keeping up as best as I could. Seems I spent a good part of my childhood trying to keep up with my older sisters. Joseph always kept flying saucer ice cream sandwiches in the freezer for us. What a treat!

Funny how a little digging in the dirt can drudge up old memories I didn’t even know I had. I hope The Boy ends up with fond memories of gardening. He’s already been strawberry and apple picking, and I think he’s old enough to start working in our garden.

The mercury may only be in the 30’s this morning, but the sun is shining and the birds are chirping. Yup, it’s definitely spring!

Seems the World Will End in a Bang, Not a Whimper

February 20, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve had so much books news going on lately that I’ve neglected to update you all on any science news. My longtime followers know that I’ve been very interested in the progress of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the discovery of the Higgs boson, also called the God Particle. For new readers, some back articles about this topic include what the God Particle is, LHC creates primordial matter, and disproving Einstein.

Well, I reported back in July how scientists “discovered” the God Particle. Awesome news! So the face of physics and what we know about the world has changed, right? Ummm, not exactly. Subsequent analysis of the particle has not found any evidence to say it isn’t the God Particle (how’s that for a double negative!). And earlier this month, CERN shut down the LHC for two years for scheduled maintenance (imagine if your car maintenance took that long!).

Don’t worry, though. Even though there won’t be any subatomic particles smashing together at the LCH for awhile, I’ve still got some mind-bending news to report. Recent calculations regarding the Higgs Boson indicate that in tens of billlions of years, another alternate universe will expand far enough out that it will reach our universe, which will then disappear in a catastrophic event. And it will happen at the speed of light…how’s that for a Big Bang!

But don’t worry about that either. We’ll be long gone before then…and not just you and me and our grandchildren. The whole Earth will be gone when the sun burns out in another five billion or so years!

We Are All Stardust

November 7, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve been watching reruns of Discovery Channel’s series How the Universe Works on the Science Channel lately. It’s totally blowing my mind!

I did take physics in high school and college, but I don’t remember it being anywhere as awesome as this program is. Maybe I’m just late to the party, but being a physicist is probably one of the coolest jobs in the world…or the universe (second only to writing, of course!).

The other night I stayed up late to watch an episode about supernovas (exploding stars) and then a second one about stars in general. I learned something that made my skin tingle: We are all made of stardust.

That’s right. When you look up in the sky at night and see those twinkling burning balls of gas, you came from that. Are you wondering How is that possible? I could try and explain how when a star explodes it shoots out the elements that create pretty much everything in the universe, but the Discovery Channel does a much better job of it in this video.

As if it weren’t enough to realize you’re a star-child, here’s another video about just how tiny we are relative to the largest known star. We’re talking size on a level that I can’t even really imagine (and I have a pretty endless imagination).

Okay, now that my mind has been blown apart, I wonder what kind of beings its dust will create?

Finding the God Particle

July 4, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

Big news in the world of physics today! Scientists claim they have discovered a new subatomic particle that is most likely the God Particle, a.k.a. the Higgs boson (here’s my not-so-scientific explanation of what the Higgs boson is). Basically, the Higgs boson is believed to be the key to understanding the mysteries of the universe, including what the universe is made of and how it was formed.

Two independent groups of scientists who work with the Large Hadron Collider, a giant particle collider tucked more than 500 feet under the ground just outside Geneva, came to the same conclusion that the new subatomic particle is “consistent” with the Higgs boson.

My interpretation: there’s a new particle and it looks like the Higgs boson and acts like the Higgs boson, but they can’t say for sure it’s the Higgs boson because they are afraid it might not be the Higgs boson and it would terribly embarrassing to be wrong.

There’s a chance it’s an entirely new particle that has never been imagined before. Either way these are exciting times for all humankind!

Fruit of the Earth

June 29, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

This time of year in New England the heat and drought of summer has not yet set in and the earth bursts with the tastes, smells, and colors of the season.

This is what happened when I set out a bunch fresh strawberries to dry after washing and hulling them in preparation for freezing. I call it “Deconstructed Strawberry Patch.”

In the last month I have plucked sun-warmed strawberries straight from the fields; harvested sweet peas from my own backyard; and washed, prepped, cooked, and savored a myriad of fresh fruits and veggies from my local CSA (community supported agriculture…basically a farm share).

The sweet aroma of the honeysuckle permeates the air. The cerulean hydrangea blooms match the sky. The butterfly bush has grown to epic size and is abuzz with bees and butterflies. While on a walk with the hubby and The Boy last night, we spotted a bunny with a cotton-ball tail hop by.

The days of summer may be lazy for some, but I find them to be the most fruitful of the year. What are you looking forward to this season?