Old Growth Arts

07/02/2013

it's been a long time, but I have something I want to share. A man wrote to me today asking about Old Growth Arts, and I googled him, and this is what I found. I find it arresting and startling and lovely! I could not ask him quickly enough to be an artist resident, and to lunch. Think of all the moving delightfulness of Lake Leonard species for his longitudinal kinetic empathy research project, the Somatic Natural History Archive. Wow.

I am documenting the movement patterns of plants and animals. With your support, I will research 200 species and present my discoveries.

03/09/2012

count their steps???! good god, that's a lot of steps

Foraging desert ants always find their way back to the nest, even when it is only marked by a magnetic cue, vibration, or carbon dioxide.

03/05/2012

Scientists have now demonstrated that a variety of environmental toxicants can have negative effects on not just an exposed animal but the next three generations of its offspring. The animal's DNA sequence remains unchanged, but the compounds change the way genes turn on and off -- the epigenetic ef...

03/02/2012

"The morbidity of sorrow," he claims, "is often a productive sluggishness, a time when the soul slows down, too weary to go on, and takes stock of where it's been and where it's going. During these gloomy pauses, we often discover parts of ourselves we never knew we possessed, talents that, properly activated, enrich our lives."

What draws us to the darker side? What compels us to look whenever we pass a grisly accident on the highway and drives us to watch horror movies and television coverage of disasters? A professor and a lifelong student of the macabre, set out to discover the source of people’s attraction to the...

03/02/2012

dc folks: leafcutter fungi gardens are one of the best exhibits at the national zoo, imo

New research points to two important roles for bacteria that live in the underground fungal gardens of leafcutter ants: they help decompose leaves that ants bring to the gardens and play a major role in turning those leaves into nutrients for both ants and the fungi. The findings could help research...

03/02/2012

now that's Old

The floor of the world’s oldest forest has been unearthed. Scientists are now piecing together a view of this ancient site, dating back about 385 million years ago, which could shed new light on the role of modern-day forests and their impact on climate change.

02/14/2012

the future for climate-responsible landlords: a model that will eventually show energy efficiency per square foot living space for every metropolitan area in the world. some day soon. it will be a competition for virtue.

Cities across the globe are trying to develop plans to cut down their energy consumption and lower their carbon footprint by reducing the associated greenhouse gas emissions. While initial efforts have focused on individual buildings by incorporating

01/22/2012

oh great

Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found. Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere...

01/20/2012

origin of all things good

People living along the coast of Peru were eating popcorn 1,000 years earlier than previously reported and before ceramic pottery was used there, according to a new article.

01/20/2012

A bizarre creature that lived in the ocean more than 500 million years ago has emerged from the famous Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies. Officially named Siphusauctum gregarium, fossils reveal a tulip-shaped creature that is about the length of a dinner knife (approximately 20 c...

01/20/2012

getting caught up on nature news

Native birds at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge are in unprecedented trouble, according to a new article.

01/20/2012

Wandering albatrosses have altered their foraging due to changes in wind fields in the southern hemisphere during the last decades. Since winds have increased in intensity and moved to the south, the flight speed of albatrosses increased and they spend less time foraging. As a consequence, breeding ...