This weekend brought a full moon to the desert. I was reminded of a fragment of Sappho (Bergk fr. 3): Ἄστερες μὲν ἀμφὶ κάλαν σελάνναν ἂψ ἀπυκρύπτοισι φάεννον εἶδος, ὄπποτα πλήθοισα μάλιστα λάμπῃ γᾶν [ἐπὶ πᾶσαν] … ἀργυρία … which has been translated by H.T. Wharton as The stars about the fair moon in their…

What can survive the passage of time? I spent this past week in the Chiricahua Mountains on an ecology-themed camping trip with nearly 80 middle school students. As part of the trip, we visited the remains of Fort Rucker, which more than 100 years ago was an Army post. Today several buildings remain standing in…

I’m back from Panama as of Sunday evening, though I did find a lovely large blood-filled tick while in the shower. Instead of showing you that, I want to showcase a few more fungi that appeared after the recent rains. Any mycologists are welcome to chime in with identifications – I was happy to simply…

A lot of things, actually! I went for a short hike on Thursday and was struck by the diversity of white and filamentous structures in the forest. Filamentous – long strands are a common biological theme, because they join parts together or transport resources. White – many low atomic number materials (like nearly all biological…