Like any classic work of art, the moon means different things to different people. For millennia, humans have used its omnipresent face as a canvas for storytelling. Today, we see Earth’s faithful satellite in everything from the children’s book “Goodnight Moon” to the gallery of images collected by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Even the…
Christmas time draws nature-lovers outdoors to watch the sky. They are uninterested in magical sleigh rides, however — their binoculars follow flocks of birds. December 14 through January 5 marks the 115th annual Christmas Bird Count in which thousands of avian enthusiasts count bird numbers and species for one day — in California, local bird-lovers organized counting…
Walking up the stone path leading to Our Green Thumb community garden, I peer over the fence and notice that some of the plots look better than others. “You can tell which ones are student plots,” says Trent Hodges, my guide and a master’s student in International Environmental Policy at the Monterey Institute of International…
After moving 50 times in 50 years, I finally settled down in a deep redwood canyon, across a potholed single lane road from a large state park. Eleven years later, my wife and I are still discovering the hidden treasures in our little 0.44-acre property. Compared to the cities and suburbs we lived in before,…
The remains of eggs Benedict, hash browns, and Bloody Marys littered the brunch table as my girlfriends and I exchanged stories from the previous month. Among the tales of work, men and family, one story stood out. A friend explained how she and her partner had handled their tough year: They went to church. “But,…
By Nala Rogers, Inside Science A spider buries her fangs in a clear oakworm moth on Andy Warren’s porch after luring the moth down from the oak canopy. Courtesy Andrew D. Warren (Inside Science) — Andy Warren spent the summer of 2014 driving around the country with a pair of “magic spiders.” Warren, senior collections…
On Oct. 8, 2013, Carolyn Branecky received news no Ph.D. student ever wants to hear: her research project could be pushed back a year, or worse. The U.S. government had shut down a week earlier, and federally funded research was put on hold until Congress voted on a budget. Less than a month before that,…
Long ago, years before they would marry, make two children, raise them and eventually divorce, my parents shared a bizarre experience. On a Sunday morning in the early 1960s, they were at the same church service. Suddenly, everything began to move. Dad first saw something amiss with the ceiling fans. “They were dancing!” he told…
Parenthood is both a universal and deeply personal experience. With my science background, I’m always contrasting what I understand as a biologist and what I feel as a mother. Sometimes the latest evolutionary/genetic/cognitive behavioral/comparative biology discovery reinforces my experiences (for example positive benefits of co-sleeping.) Other times it jars me out of a prejudice I…
Allison Doupe was one of those people who somehow seemed immortal. She blazed with brilliant curiosity and warmed those around her with kindness and humor. But the undeniable truth is that cancer can take any of us. When I heard of the UCSF neuroscientist’s death in late October, I was as shocked as though a beloved…
