iowisota

Senescence seemed an appropriate topic to delve into as the leaves begin to change color, so I dug out my old plant physiology text to refresh my memory. I was reminded that senescence is “the processes that accompany aging and that lead to death of an organ or organism”. I was also reminded that college textbooks have a magic ability to induce drowsiness! Although the science is still valid, my textbook is from 1985, so the probability of inducing a nap correlates with “the processes that...

Water flows downhill. A watershed is the topographically defined area that water will flow from. It is the area that “sheds” water (depending on the scale you are considering) into a lake, gully, stream, or river system. The idiom “watershed moment” implies an event or point in time that changes history, and that too can be on many scales. I don’t expect this post to change history, but I do want to take a moment to talk about watersheds! My purpose here is to simulate your thinking and...

My beloved American elm tree has Dutch elm disease. It is just a baby, but it is a clone of the big elm that grew behind the old farmhouse. Of course I am sad, but I also have a morbid curiosity about what is going to happen to this tree. Because there is so much more to the story… (play ripple-sounding music in your head, going back in time…) Some of you know that I spent my career with the USDA Forest Service as a forest pathologist. I spent my days (and some nights!) trying to figure out...