North Carolina Barrier Islands

I’ve posted about the light houses and Jockey Ridge State Park in the past few days which are both part of the barrier island scene. Today I’m picking up the best of the rest from a couple of days on the Barrier Islands of North Carolina.

There was the beach of course.

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate to provide a good sunrise. I contented myself with the morning light on the pines

And yucca pods.

There were a lot more beach houses right along the shore than when we were there years ago and many had their own private boardwalk over the dunes and roofed decks with stairs down to the beach.

We didn’t see as many birds as we had anticipated. I watched an egret long enough to get a picture after a successful catch!

There were a lot of birds overhead in nice Vs.

There was a kite surfing class in the shallows of the sound.

In one place we saw three different turtles. There was a large snapping turtle.

But I’m not sure what these other two are.

The sunset from our hotel room balcony was not bad. The pedestal in the distance is on a sand dune…The Wright Brothers Memorial at Kitty Hawk.

Jockey Ridge State Park

Jockey Ridge State Park was very close to our hotel in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. It’s a dune field on the sound side of the barrier island. They sponsor a school from hang gliding at the park which is just a little south of Kitty Hawk where the Wright Brothers took flight. We also stopped by the park before we headed inland to other wildlife refuges. All the pictures were from that morning in the park.

Walking to the end of the boardwalk from the visitor center that crosses over dunes stabilized with trees -

Some with curly lichen -

There is a wooden platform that looks out to a low place in the dunes where water had collected from the overnight rain.

I took the stairs down to the sand for a closer look at the ripples left in the sand

And a few bird tracks made since the rain had smoothed the sand.

My own footprints were the only human footprints.

I walked down to the edge of the water and heard plops in the water. I never managed to see the frogs but they were probably taking advantage of the water.

At the edge of the forest the shifting of the sand was obvious. Some trees were being buried

And some were clinging to the edge with their roots showing.

Three Lighthouses

On our first full day in North Carolina, we saw three lighthouses! The first was the Bodie Island Lighthouse. It was early enough in the day that the fog had not burned off and we were the only people around. The lighthouse and cottage were in excellent condition judging from the outside and I read later that the latest restoration had been completed in 2013.

Further south along the barrier islands was the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This lighthouse was in the news a lot in the late 1990s. It was moved over the dunes and further inland at that time because the shore had eroded to within a few feet of its base. It appears to have survived the move quite well. Both the Bodie Island Lighthouse and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse are open seasonally - but we were there a few weeks before that so did not climb either one.

The third lighthouse was near the other end of the barrier island - the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. This one is different than the other too in that it is located in a more settled area and has many trees around its base…and it is also unpainted. Evidently it was never painted. Architecturally it is similar with brick façade and iron structure at the top to hold the ‘light’ source and lens. My husband climbed the steps to the outdoor gallery and discovered that it was very windy at the top! I discovered when I was preparing this blog post that Google Maps has a view from the top of this lighthouse!

Zooming - April 2015

There were so many zoomed images to choose from this month…and it is only the 16th! I couldn’t resist a clip from one of the Zentangles to include with the brilliant spring color of maple flowers (my back yard) and skunk cabbage (Brookside Gardens) early in the month.

Brookside Gardens is full of photography opportunities in April. Some is old growth like evergreen ferns and dried flowers from last summer. Other things are the harbingers of spring - bulbs and witch hazel blooming. There are more birds around too.

The rest of the images are from our loop trip from Maryland down to North Carolina to visit wild life refuges. I’ll be posting more images in the next few weeks. The images below are from the barrier islands - lots of beaches…pines...shore birds…turtles.

And then we crossed the sound to the wetlands. The colorful tile (rightmost clip below) is from the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge visitor’s center. We saw otters, spiders, mushrooms, fiddleheads, maple samaras, vultures (turkey and black), and an alligator! There was a formal gardens too (camellias, daffodils, statuary)!

Road Trip to North Carolina

We are back from a road trip to North Carolina - focused on the coastal National Wildlife Refuges. I have a series of posts planned for the next few weeks. Today my focus is the getting away.

We had decided to leave a little later to avoid the weekday commuter traffic around the Washington DC beltway so we took our time packing the car. It had been very wet the previous day and there were earthworms that had taken shelter under the garage door - to keep from drowning. Some of them had stayed to long but others were already making their way back over the asphalt to the lawn. There was also a tiny frog on the driveway that was evidently too cold to move.

My husband decided the traffic was light enough for us to leave earlier than he’d planned…and we were ready. We were on the road by 8:30. It was such a gray day that it was not a scenic drive. The non-native pears trees (escaped Bradford pear trees) were in bloom in the brushy areas along the highway. The new leaves of the season provided a hint of green.

We stopped to stretch our legs at the rest stops almost every hour….made very good time. It was still gray and cold as we drove over the bridge near Norfolk and saw larger ships.

And then we arrived in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina and discovered that our room had a view of the Wright Brothers National Memorial (on the side of the barrier island facing the mainland) and about a block from the beach in the opposite direction (on the side of the barrier island facing the Atlantic). We hoped for a warmer and sunnier tomorrow!

Brookside Gardens Walk About

I’ve already posted about the birds and the bulbs I photographed in my walk around Brookside Gardens the first weekend of April. Today I’m showcasing my favorite images that didn’t fit in those previous categories.

On the boardwalk between Brookside Gardens and Brookside Nature Center I noticed a recently cut stump. The rings were interesting because the tree cross section was not round. Tree cookies from this tree would be very different from the ones we typically use for field trips with elementary schools. The rings in this stump would show up wonderfully with a little sanding.

A little further along the boardwalk - and the reason I had gone to the boardwalk to begin with - were the skunk cabbages. They are past the purple and green bloom stage and are all around the bald cypress with its knees. Both tree and cabbage like wet soil.

As I walked back toward the gardens I noticed a dried blossom from last summer catching the light and marveled that it had survived the ravages of winter so well.

There were several early magnolias beginning to bloom. At this stage - the fuzzy coverings are almost as interesting as the flowers!

The pink saucer magnolia buds frequently seem to be damaged by cold weather…but these battered buds have an abstract appeal.

I tried a background experience with the Lenten roses against a rock wall.

The witch hazel is still colorful but past prime.

There were three nests in the stand of river birch - two for birds and one a squirrel. I wondered if they birds’ nests were being built or from last year. Both of them seemed to have colorful (man-made) fibers woven into their structure.

These pine cones were probably blown from the nearby pines with the recent breezes since they don’t appear trampled.

Brookside Gardens in April - a great place for a photographic walk about. 

Brookside Gardens - Early Spring Bulbs

My walk around Brookside Gardens last weekend was a great time for early spring bulb photography.  The daffodils dominated with different configurations of yellow and white…big and small. Miniature irises were in bloom too. It seems like there are fewer hyacinths every year; I’m not sure why. The tulips were up but there were no buds showing; they will be worth another trip to Brookside a few weeks from now. Enjoy the early spring bulbs slide show!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 11, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust - It’s in Inner Mongolia…a place that is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of ‘rare earth’ minerals. So sad that we can’t manage to build our tech in a way that is sustainable for the planet.

A Delicate Stone Bridge Creates a Mystical Passage with Its Reflection - After that last story - I needed to look at something beautiful for a bit...and this was it: a picture of a half-circle bridge reflected in water to complete the illusion of a full circle.

Bombing Range Is National Example for Wildlife Conservation - Elgin Air Force Base had 300 year old trees and is home to the last remaining old-growth longleaf pines in Florida…there is a natural resources visitor center and has 250,000 acres open for public recreation/wildlife habitat.

Erupting Volcanic Lightning! - A volcano on Mexico’s west coast.

A complex landscape has both vulnerabilities and resilience to climate change - Changes in the length of growing season and timing of rainfall will change the forests in Central Appalachia over the next century….and probably in the area of Maryland where I live too.

Can You Identify 20 Of The Most Common Birds in North America? - The quiz is here. Identify the bird pictured from the list - you’ll know if you got it right immediately. How many can you identify? I got 15 out of 20!

Theoretical study suggests huge lava tubes could exist on moon - So - how long will it take to have a mission to the moon to discover if the lava tubes exist?

Essential Spring Guide '15: On the Road to Castles of Stone and Wood Turned To Rock - This story brought back memories of the vacation to northeastern Arizona last January! My picture of Montezuma Castle is below!

Yellowstone by Moonlight - A 3 minute film that includes a series of time-lapse views of moonlit scenes in Yellowstone - including geysers and stars. I don’t have the patience for this kind of photography but I enjoy seeing the work of others.

MIT Climate CoLab Asks All For Impactful Climate Plans - Contests seeking high impact ideas on how to tackle climate change…submission due 5/16/2015. The Climate CoLab site is here.

Brookside Gardens Birds

My walk around Brookside Gardens last weekend offered more than the usual opportunities to photograph birds. The day was chilly and a little breezy….but full of sun and an improvement over prior days. The birds were active.

The robins were the easiest to photograph because of their numbers and their interest in searching through leaves and grass for edibles. It was possible to get close enough for the camera zoom to do the rest. This bird had just stopped his searching temporarily to survey the surroundings…eyeing me with suspicion.

The cardinal was singing a spring song in the tulip poplar. I appreciated my monopod for this shot - and that the breeze paused momentarily.

This mourning dove was walking around the bed of sprouting bulbs looking for nesting material. In the instant after this picture was taken, the bird flew away with the piece of straw in its beak.

There were lots of these black birds (in the trees, in the bushes, on the grass) but I haven’t quite identified them. The tail seems short for a common grackle. They eye is yellow so that rules out a cowbird or starling…and there is not red shoulder patch for it to be a red winged blackbird. Hmmm.

Too Cold at Centennial Park

When I went out to photograph the sunrise (posted here), it seemed like the clouds were clearing and the temperature was pleasant enough - in the 50s - to walk around Centennial Park. A few hours later I got out of the car and realized that my bulky sweater and photo-vest were not going to be warm enough because the breeze was making it feel a lot colder than the mid-50s temperature. We had not walked too far when my husband commented that his coat was adequate but his legs were cold. So we didn’t walk very far! I took a few images as we hurried back to the car.

The canoes looked worn from previous years.

The paddle boats look colorful at the dock; they looked sparkling and new - or maybe we were just far enough not to notice the wear.

The trees were still very bare and the grass brown.

The geese were honking at each other the whole time we were making our brisk walk. And finally one pair was chased away…and a brief quiet reigned before other geese resumed their territorial defense.

Back in the car - I was glad to be out of the wind and warmed by the exertion of the walk.

Master Naturalist Field Trip - Part 2

After the hike along Trolley Trail between Banneker Historical Park and Museum and Ellicott City on Saturday (previous post), our group headed to the Avalon area of Patapsco Valley State Park. The Thomas Viaduct - a railroad bridge that crosses the Patapsco River and Valley just inside the park. It was completed in 1835 and still carries railroad traffic!

In our previous Master Naturalist classes we had learned about the history of the area from colonial times. Where the sign talks about Elkridge Landing as a port looking unimaginable today; the silt and dams have changed the river tremendously since colonial days when Elkridge Landing was a significant port.

The CCC built building in the park and we visited one. It was built of stone and there was an interesting nest (wasps?) near the ceiling of the porch. The inside is evidently riddled with termites - beyond repair.

There is a sewer pipe is exposed along the river. It was uncovered during the flood caused by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 - and there is not stable way to cover it again. The river was stocked a few days before our hike; a little boy was fishing with his day and joyously held up a fish they’d caught for us to see as we were walking on the swinging bridge over the Patapsco.

We saw a couple of skunk cabbage just poking up from the leaves.

The main green was moss. This log with green cap was a welcome relieve from the brown leaves.

There was some color in the rocks too if you looked closely…a lot of big crystals in pegmatite.

And what’s not to like about water tumbling over rocks…and down to the river. It was a good last ‘uphill’ for the day. We’d been out and about since 8:30 and it was 4:30. The Master Naturalist field trip was history.

Master Naturalist Field Trip - Part 1

Last Saturday was the day-long field trip for our Master Naturalist class. It was very cold but everyone bundled up and headed out from the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum. We saw a replica of the type of cabin that would have been on the property when Banneker lived there and marveled that the property was purchased with 7,000 pounds of tobacco. Dried tobacco is very light so we assumed it must have still been green…but that is still a lot of tobacco.

One of the first stops was the Banneky House built in the mid-1800s - long after Benjamin Banneker’s time. Our focus was the rocks on its exterior! This wall showcases Ellicott City Granite with the small, very dark pieces being amphibole.

We started to walk down the pathway of the park to the Trolley Trail that would take us into Ellicott City. The trolley stopped in 1959 and the rail to trail occurred in the 1990s. The forest was not an old forest and there were some houses (some very new ones in the mix) built fairly close to the water. The weather has been too cold for wildflowers to be blooming but there were other things of interest. I always stop for shelf fungi and these with gray/white/rust rings were nestled into some green lichen….the color and texture was eye catching.

There was water trickling everywhere…and the most seemed very green against the backdrop of rocks and brown leaves left over from last season.

The bed of moss has fruiting bodies! Note that the height of the whole plant is only about 2-3 inches.

We saw frogs eggs - but the frogs were silent in the cold (and probably burrowed somewhere to keep warm).

There were swirls in some of the rocks beside the trail. Thinking about the metamorphosis of rock under pressure requires a conscious effort to understand a timescale that is beyond our normal comprehension.

We get down to Ellicott City in time for lunch. The decision to eat at a restaurant (and warm up) rather than picnic was welcomed by all.

I noticed the cairns in the little park across from the restaurant. At least two types of rocks were easy to spot!

The post that marks the water level above the normal river height during various floods is at the river end of Main Street in Ellicott City. The one in 1868 is at the very top of the bridge railing. That would have flooded two floors of the buildings! At that time the area would have been heavily farmed - most of the forests would have been fields so the water would have run off quickly from a storm. The 1972 mark is from Hurricane Agnes. Some forest had grown back but there was beginning to be a lot of housing development. More has been built since then. What would happen if a storm like Hurricane Agnes happened again today? A lot of impervious pavement has been added to the watershed. Are there enough forested buffers and rain gardens to slow down the flow of stormwater during a big storm?

After lunch, our group carpooled to the Avalon area of Patapsco Valley State Park. I’ll post about that part of the field trip later this week.

Brookside Gardens Early Spring - March 2015

Last weekend was a pretty cold to be walking around Brookside Gardens but I did notice some harbingers of spring.

The witch hazel is the first tree to show colors in the spring. Brookside has yellow and red specimens. The color comes in the form of festive streamers around the red center of the flower.

There were a few skunk cabbage blooms. The area was thick with the plants last spring so I knew where to look off the boardwalk between Brookside Gardens and Brookside Nature Center. Next time I go - early next week probably - I’ll probably see a lot more of these plants. This is the first year I’ve thought to look for them early enough to see them emerge from the ground.

Of course there are buds and new cones everywhere…the two below were so large I didn’t need the loupe!

Ten Little Celebrations - March 2015

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are my top 10 for March 2015.

Snow Day. It was pretty…and I enjoyed it - but I was ready for it to be the last one of this season.

A Muddy Hike. Who knew it would feel go to be outdoors on a cold cloudy day - squishing through the mud to find animal tracks. It felt good to get out of the classroom.

A March Day. It seemed like there have not been very many of the sunny, breezy, warmer days yet this year but there was one - and I celebrated it between the recurring waves of cold weather.

Fungi of Belmont. The snow had just melted and the jelly fungi were making fruiting bodies - a first bit a spring color to celebrate.

Magnolia puzzle. It is sometimes challenging to identify something with just dead leaves from last season and buds….I am planning some hikes to watch the trees flower this spring to make the final ID.

Brookside on the edge of spring. There was not a lot blooming last weekend ---- but there was a hint of the season. It will be worth a weekly trek to celebrate new flowers.

New hiking boots. So comfy! They felt great as soon as I put them on. I have worn them on one hike already - just to confirm that they are ready for a day long hike. The old ones still have some life in them - but I’ll wear the new ones for the longer hikes.

Last class of the week. March has been a busy month for classes…sometimes 3 days a week. I generally like class - but I’m saturated and celebrating when the last one ends for the week.

A day at home. I celebrated that I had no reason to leave home on one of the icy days early in the month. It seemed like I had a commitment to be somewhere else every other day that week!

Mailing books. I celebrated mailing off books to family far away. It harkened back to when I was mailing off books frequently via paperbackswap and I enjoyed the trek to the post office with my packages.

Brookside Gardens Conservatory - March 2015

It was cold yesterday but the sun was out and we decided to walk around Brookside Gardens anyway. I’ll post about the few outdoors items of interest we found later this week. Today - I’m focused on the lush vegetation of the Conservatories. We were surrounded by color in the green house and it was pleasantly warm.

Now that I have noticed the cycads at the entrance - I check on them at the beginning of my walking around. The cocoa tree has been moved where it is easier to see from the walkway too.

I was using my monopod for my camera and it helped me get the best picture I’ve ever taken of one of the red pompom flowers.

The star fruit on the tree near one corner was the largest I’ve even seen - and the yellow rimmed with green was appealing. It is an improbable looking fruit.

Enjoy the color from the Brookside conservatory to start the work week!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 21, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Nine superfruits and super seeds to add to your diet - I eat 3 of the 9 frequently (chai, flaxseeds, and blueberries)!  There is only one that I haven’t added to my diet (yet): Acai berries.

There May Be More Water on Jupiter's Largest Moon than on Earth - Subterranean oceans - on Ganymede. It wasn’t so long ago that we assumed that the Earth’s oceans were unique…and now we are thinking that maybe they aren’t.

World's most iconic ecosystems: World heritage sites risk collapse without stronger local management - These sites have importance to world…the researchers argue for stronger local management. That is needed but these ecosystems are connected to other ecosystems are not iconic but may be critical to sustaining these designated iconic areas. We have to start thinking about how we sustain the Earth - worldwide - more often than we’ve ever done before.

Cherry Tree that needs pruningPrune Trees like a Pro - This post has good diagrams. I noticed it this week just as I was thinking about what I need to do first in my yard and decided pruning was high on the list; our cherry and plum both need it.

Archaeologists Uncover Ancient Egyptian Tombs with Stunning Murals - They were found near Luxor. Isn’t it amazing that there are still things like to be found in places that have been intensely searched for over a century? Hopefully they will be preserved in a way that the colors remain as vivid as they are now.

Towels top kitchen contamination hazards list - Ugh! I think I’ll start putting out a fresh towel every day.

The World’s Largest Solar Energy Projects - Some projects from India and California…these are huge installations.

Oncologists reveal reasons for high cost of cancer drugs in U.S. - There is a list of some potential solutions at the end of the article. One that sticks out is to allow the FDA or physician panels to recommend target prices based on the drug’s magnitude of benefit (i.e. value based pricing). Why has our system allowed something other than value based pricing to be the norm? Hurray for the doctors that are standing up for their patients!

10 National Monuments you’ve never heard of - Vacation ideas. I always like to keep these in mind to add to the itinerary of a trip to the area. I’ve been to El Malpais several times. Maybe next time I visit Tucson - Chiricahua will be a day trip.

Chitin, a structural molecule associated with allergy response, is identified in vertebrates - A few weeks ago, I learned that chitin (the material of insects’ exoskeletons) is in the cell walls of mushrooms…and then this article about chitin in fishes and amphibians! And chitin has been shown to be an excellent material for biodegradable plastics!

Master Naturalist Training - Week 5

Last Wednesday was the fifth of eight days of training to become a Master Naturalist in Maryland. The snow that held on for the first 4 weeks was totally melted but the wind was still bitterly cold. I took some pictures of the turtle in the nature center next to our class room rather than walking around outside for my ‘before class’ photography session.

The topics for this week were taxonomy and ecology. One of the exercises in the taxonomy session was to create a dichotomous key for 5 things we collected outside. Our team decided quickly to do evergreens. One person found a branch from a white pine tree on the ground. I picked some leaves from a boxwood and a small spruce branch…we briskly walked over to pick some holly leaves and a blue spruce. And then we were back inside making the key. It was easy to create the binary questions for the key: needles or leaves, smooth leaf margins or spines on margins, long needles or short, bluish needles or green needles. Before we put the pine branch back outside (it was sticky with sap), I took some pictures of the immature cones.

One thing I realized as we were working with dichotomous keys is how computers have changed identification of organisms. We tend to do a search for whatever characteristic seems most distinctive and easily observed….and then use pictures to hone the identification quickly.

The ecology section was focused on stream ecology and we walked down to the nearest stream and did some collecting and water testing. The immediate area where we worked is state park and conservation easements.

This is the time of year to find insect larvae in the water (hatched from eggs laid last summer). We pulled apart leaf packs that had been decomposing in the water and use D nets to catch organisms stirred up by turning over a rock and then stomping the stream bottom. And there was a lot to see. The dobsonfly larva was about 4 inches long!

A water strider was already moving around on the surface of the water.

My contribution - after I borrowed some waterproof boots to wade into the water with a D net - was a small fish! It was a little smaller than the dobsonfly.

As we started back, I took two pictures that were reminders of previous topics: bark of a persimmon (botany from week 3)

and a deep red shelf fungus (fungus from week 4).

Further along the road, I took a picture of Belmont Manor in the late afternoon sun….a good ‘last picture’ for the day.

Short Walks at Belmont - March 2015

Yesterday when I was at Belmont Manor and Historic Park the snow was gone and I made short walks during and after the short class I attended. One focus was to get pictures of the trees before the leafed out for a project I am working on to produce materials of a Belmont Tree Tour. But it was a nice day and I was easily side tracked. From a photographic perspective I am more interested in the close ups - like the English elm branch with buds, lichen and moss.

The bald cypress by the pond is interesting because it is a surprise. It is a survivor north of the usual range for the tree. It is easy to identify even in winter because of the knees and fallen needles.

The swallows seemed to be taking over the blue bird boxes. This pair seems to be very proprietary about this particular box already. They both would fly away and return to the same box again and again.

There we shelf fungi growing on a tree that was upright but appeared dead - or near dead.

Some of the interior was hollow and exposed - cracking along ring lines and other trunk structures.

As I walked along nearer the manor house there were periodic patches of crocus. At my house the bulbs have not started blooming quite yet.

The wind had blown some sycamore seeds down. The ones on the tree were too high to get good pictures so it was a bonus to get the pictures. This is one tree I can identify from the bark!

Southern Magnolias are easy to identify too. They keep their leaves and already have buds.

There was also an empty seed pod from last season on the ground - probably blown off by the wind just as the sycamore seeds were blown.

Some trees have places where large branches were cut that are fractured much like the dead tree…but are very much alive. This was from an English Elm that appears to be surviving well enough.

Last but not least - I hiked into the forest to take a look at another magnolia. I’d been told it was a cucumber magnolia but none of the trees is large - they are all in the understory. I’ll have to watch it as it blooms.  It may be an umbrella magnolia instead.

Plans for Spring

We had a first spring-like March day this past weekend: breezy, a little warmer, and sunny. I started thinking about our typical spring plans.

After being at home more than usual during the latter part of winter we are ready for some travel. We are planning a road trip to the coastal North Carolina wildlife refuges sometime in April. The rest will be day trips. I want to visit old favorites and some of places mentioned in the Master Naturalist Training:

• Brookside Gardens
• Longwood Gardens
• Washington DC cherry blossoms (picture from last year)
  
• Soldiers Delight State National Environmental Area
• Adkins Arboretum
• Cylburn Arboretum

Other plans fall into the spring cleaning:

• Pulling leaves and dried stems from flowerbeds, moving compost that is ‘ready’ to the beds and starting a new compost pile
• Cleaning all the windows in the house - inside and out
• Dispositioning the piles of ‘stuff’ that have not been moved since fall (most if it should probably be given away)
• Moving warm weather clothes to closest and deciding which winter clothes to keep/which will not be worn again and should be given away

Now that I’ve made the lists - it is enough to overlay on activities like Master Naturalist class and the subsequent volunteer work for the Howard County Conservancy. I am anticipating a busy - and fun - Spring 2015.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 14, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Karnak: Excavation yields 38 artifacts - New techniques and new finds at Karnak.

71% of Investors Are Interested In Sustainable Investing - It’s positive news that more people are voting for sustainability via their investments.

New Study Pinpoints Where Ocean Acidification Will Hit Hardest - Not only hardest…but earliest. The ocean does not acidify uniformly. Estuaries with excess nutrients will acidify more rapidly. Not a good new message for the Chesapeake Bay’s shell fish industry.

Boosting older adults' vision through training - The core of the message from the research was positive but it was frustrating that the next steps were all about more research. If the initial research finding holds - then why is there not already a strategy activity to think through how vision training could be delivered to larger numbers of people at low cost.

By separating nature from economics, we have walked blindly into tragedy - We live in complex world…making decisions based on simplifying assumptions that ignore the environment or economic or social aspects are perilous.

New research into materials for tooth fillings - The composite that is most common right now is problematic because it requires adhesive to bond to the tooth, needs to be illuminated with a lamp to harden, and needs to be replaced more frequently. A new material - glass ionomer cement - may be the filling material of the future.

Widely Used Antibiotics Affect Mitochondria - The environmental accumulation of tetraclines might be harming us in ways that are just now being studied. Scary.

Epoch-defining study pinpoints when humans came to dominate planet Earth - Two dates jump out: 1610 with the irreversible exchange of species between new and old worlds and 1964 associated with the fallout from nuclear weapons testing. Either way - humans have driven Earth into a new epoch…the Anthropocene.

Fun Parks to Visit in the Top 10 Cities for Wildlife - Staycation fodder. There are interesting parks in most areas of the country. These 10 are clearly the tip of the iceberg!

Did Neanderthals make jewelry 130,000 years go? Eagle claws provide clues - From a site in present day Croatia dating from 130,000 years ago.