The winter solstice is today, when the northern hemisphere marks its shortest day length and longest night length. (It’s the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere.) Of course, the Earth doesn’t actually tilt on its axis, it’s just reached that part of its annual journey around the sun where the northern hemisphere is tilted...
First published in October, hope you enjoy the story! You can learn more from the Scenic Secrets podcast, also found at Modern Marinade. The journey is long and dark, over 3000 miles, beginning in the Sargasso Sea. First, the tiny leaf-shaped, transparent larvae drift along the ocean currents towards the east coast of the...
Remember that classic sci-fi climax line, screamed by a thrashing Charlton Heston being hauled off to an insane asylum? In 1973, the year that movie came out, there was a cultural and political focus on the realization that the human population was exploding exponentially. That same year, the Battle for the Planet of the...
Life is all about change. Day, night. Seasons. A life-span from birth to death. All living organisms are changing all the time. At the most basic level, we are a complex, coordinated series of chemical reactions. Our atoms and molecules form and transform. We seek new molecules in the form of food and water,...
High in the misty mountains of central Mexico, eastern Monarch butterflies rest for the winter in massive clumps hanging from trees, protected from harsh winds and snow. Then, in March, in response to lengthening days and warming temperatures, they begin an incredible journey north, fueled by the nectar of flowers in bloom in the...
