Category: Nature (Page 20 of 20)

Seeing An Upside-Down Frown Face in the Sky

December 13, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

Lately the evening sky has been offering up many spectacular views. On December 1st, the world was treated with the sight of the crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter in close conjunction. My pictures didn’t really come out, so I will refer you to this link (clearly this Brian Combs is way better at taking night pictures than I am!). His pictures show about what it looked like from my neck of the woods, but here’s a great gallery of what people all over the world saw.

As you may remember from my Rainbow Connection post, I enjoy watching the sky for natural phenomena. Not everyone cares about this, but my circle of friends/relatives also seem to enjoy these wonders. I know because my mom called me to tell me about the celestial conjunction (my dad had told her about it) to make sure I didn’t miss it. I did have to kind of coax my husband off the coach to head to the beach with me, but he was a good sport about it and he did thank me for showing him the unique sight.

A few days later, I hung out with my nine-year-old nephew. I asked him if he had seen the conjunction. He said he had seen it and that it looked like an “upside-down frown face” (again check out Brian Combs’s photos to see what he means). I laughed because that was exactly what I had said. My husband was like, “You mean a happy face.” And I was like, “No, I mean an upside-down frown face.”

I was actually quite pleased to learn my nine-year-old nephew and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to looking at the world. After all, much of my writing is geared towards kids exactly his age. (And, in my defense, he is quite bright!) He also showed his perceptiveness and dry wit when he asked me to guess what “grandma” (my mom—don’t be mad, mom, I write this with great affection) said about the conjunction. He told me, “She said, ‘I’ll be dead the next time that happens!'” That’s such a thing that my mom would say—probably half serious, but with a bit of humor as well—that my nephew and I just cracked up about it.

And last night, I was treated to an awesome sight while driving down I-95. Amidst a scene of black asphalt and cold steel, I sensed a light peaking out of the clouds. Only the light was on the opposite side of the setting sun. As I stared at the clouds, a humongous full moon emerged from. It was so low in the sky, I swear if I had kept going straight, I would’ve driven right onto it.

I called my husband to tell him to check it out. He was also on the road and saw it too. He was (pretended to be?) as impressed as I was…he really is a good sport! When I got home, I grabbed my camera and headed to the beach. The moon wasn’t quite as low and huge anymore, but I still got some decent pictures of it emerging from the clouds. It was very cool, despite the fact that a full moon on a Friday night is something we should all be wary of.

Ruining My Love of Fall Foliage in New England with Science

October 24, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

One of the highlights of living in New England is the fall foliage. Last year I felt like I missed the best part of autumn because I was in Tahiti for two weeks in October (oh, the sacrifice!), so this year I made an effort to really enjoy and observe the fall colors. I had grown accustomed to the yellow and gold tones that had dominated the past few years. This year, however, the bolder red and orange hues graced the trees. These colors were particularly ascetic, but I couldn’t help but wonder why they were so bright.

I am familiar with the basic science of why trees turn color (see “Chlorophyll? More like borophyll!” for more—a gold star goes to whoever can name that movie!), but I wasn’t quite satisfied with what I found. Mostly I came across explanations of the processes that take place within the tree and how an extra chemical has to be present for the red hues to appear. There was some mention of how dryer, cooler (but not freezing), and sunnier autumns are more likely to cause these red leaves. Great! I still wasn’t satisfied.

As I see it, things don’t just arbitrarily happen in nature. We may not be able to scientifically explain why certain things happen, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a reason; maybe we just haven’t found it yet. Why would a tree expend extra energy to produce red leaves if it didn’t benefit the tree in some way?

Then I came across another article that suggested that the red leaves may actually mean the tree is in distress and that leaf color may be indicative of tree health. To further this point, Emily Habinck came across an interesting correlation between soil and foliage color while working on an undergraduate research project.

Her research shows that the extra chemical found in red leaves, which acts like a sunscreen, helps the trees absorb more food in preparation for winter, and that a tree in soil with fewer nutrients is more likely to produce this chemical. (Now we’re getting somewhere.) It makes sense that a tree that gets fewer nutrients from the soil needs more nutrients from photosynthesis. So that means the trees in my area may not be as healthy as they were in previous years.

And here I was thinking that this fall was more spectacular because of the brighter colors, but it really wasn’t spectacular at all! The red leaves were a natural warning sign. Warning colors (called aposematic coloration) are actually quite common in nature. The poison dart frog and black widow spider use bright colors to warn predators that they are dangerous (i.e. don’t eat me!). While red-hued trees aren’t poisonous, their demise would have a devastating impact on the earth.

Nothing like having a little curiosity and knowledge complicate something that appeared so simplistically beautiful. Why couldn’t I have just admired the pretty colors?

The Lunar Effect: Real or Fake?

October 14, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

As the full moon approaches, I can’t help but wonder about the old myth of the Lunar Effect. Does the full moon really cause erratic behavior in humans? A scientist would probably say no (see articles here and here for more). The logical side of me (and yes, there is a logical side of me…I was a logic puzzle editor!) certainly believes there’s no proof of the Lunar Effect, but the creative side of me thinks maybe there is some truth to the myth.

After all, the word “lunar,” which means pertaining to the moon, (stick with me here; I’ll try not to get too wordy on you), is derived from the word “luna,” which when capitalized is the name of the Roman Goddess of the moon and when lower-cased is the Latin word for moon. (Okay, take a breath!) Now, the Latin word “luna” gives us the Late Latin word “lunaticus,” which means moonstruck. In the romantic sense, moonstruck means dreamily bemused, but a more literal interpretation gives us the meaning of struck crazy by the moon. (I swear we’re almost done!) So the word “lunaticus,” i.e. moonstruck, brings us to the word “lunatic,” which in a not-so-politically-correct definition is a crazy person. (Are you still with me?)

Beyond the simple (!!!) word associations, I have my own empirical evidence to suggest a connection between erratic behavior and the full moon. Just spend a few minutes on the road and you’ll see how crazy drivers get during the full moon…oh wait, people drive like lunatics everyday. Well, there was this one time I saw Professor Lupin turn into a werewolf when he caught sight of the full moon…oh wait, I only read about that in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Okay, so maybe I don’t really have any empirical evidence.

Still, scientifically the moon does affect the tides, which in turn affects climate. And in literature, the English Romantic poets were inspired (and possibly driven crazy) by the magic of the moon. When in doubt, I often find it helpful to look to children for the simple answer. My little niece and nephew are always excited to spot the moon, especially during the daytime, so there must be something special about it. Maybe we just can’t scientifically observe its impact on us, much like we can’t verify the existence of the soul in a quantifiable way; we can only feel it.

Stop and See the Rainbow

June 4, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

They weather was ripe for a rainbow. It had been like that for days, bursts of sun interrupting the rain showers. After work, I sat in the couch by the front window and read, but I was also spying. After awhile I glanced out the back sliding doors. The rain was coming down, but the sun was shining too. I turned and looked out the front window again.

“There it is!” I yelled. My husband, who was sitting on the other couch, asked, “What?” I think I had startled him. “The rainbow,” I said like he should have known that’s what I had been waiting for all day. It was a good one, very bright. I stared for a few moments and went to find my camera. We had just gotten back from London (I promise this post has a London connection) and it wasn’t in its usual spot. When I finally found it, I returned to the window to discover the rainbow had already started to fade, but I snapped the picture anyway.

I was kind of disappointed that it didn’t last longer. And I had missed part of it while looking for my camera to get a picture of it so I could remember it. (Okay, here’s where the London connection comes in.) Now this made me think of my trip to London. I kept seeing people–okay, tourists–hauling their video cameras around everywhere. Now I’m all for taking pictures on vacations and at family functions and such, but I think some people miss the whole point of taking pictures or video.

You take them to remember the trip, but the important part is the trip. I think some tourists spend their whole vacations behind the lens. How much are they really experiencing? And who’s gonna watch all those videos? It’s like that video of your wedding. No one really wants to watch it–admit it, you don’t even want to watch yourself get married again–and it’s never really as good as the real thing. Sometimes I just want to go up to those tourists and yell, “Put the camera down! Start experiencing life!” For good measure, though, here’s one of my own pictures from London. Please note that it’s of Tower Bridge…not London Bridge (which is actually quite boring).