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Giving and Taking: Images and Nature

Once again I’m promoting science writer Michelle Nijhuis, this time for a little piece in The New Yorker on the history of the daguerreotype, an early type of photographic technique.  What I like about the piece is it makes me imagine what it might have been like at that dawn of a new technology, to think about the possibilities of what could happen by merging observation, art, and technology.  It’s hard to say this early technology wa
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No One Can Stop Leaking Oil

Katie Valentine and Ryan Koronowski of ThinkProgress uncover what oil companies (and snow) have been keeping secret. A Canadian oil company still hasn’t been able to stop a series leaks from underground wells at a tar sands operation in Cold Lake, Alberta. The first leak was reported on May 20, with three others following in the weeks after — making it at least 10 weeks that oil has been flowing unabated.
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The Corpse Flower and the Honeysuckle

Considering the lines stretching around the block ten years ago to witness one of nature’s masterpieces, you might want to arrive early when the National Botanic Garden opens its doors. Trained botanists, tropical ecologists, and naturalists must queue patiently alongside curious visitors from Toledo. All eagerly await a chance to pay homage to the world’s largest flowering plant, the titan arum, now opening (literally) at the Garden. This floral extravaganza will likely run a few more days before Amorphophallus titanum returns to normal life and goes out of bloom.
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A New Perspective on Plant Pests

Author Darrin Nordahl's food blog Today is...Fava Beans highlights a different food everyday along with a creative way to easily add it to our everyday diet. Today's food changed the way I think about food, nutrition, and the environment. It is my epiphany food. And it is a pernicious, detestable weed. Today is purslane.
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The Rush for Blue Gold Peaks

Lester Brown of The Observer and Preside of the Earth Policy Institute explores the future of agriculture as our dependence on water hits its peak.  Peak oil has generated headlines in recent years, but the real threat to our future is peak water. There are substitutes for oil, but not for water. We can produce food without oil, but not without water.

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