Glacier mice revisited! An earlier post in this Nature Rambling blog introduced you to the mystery of these mossy formations. Now the New Scientist has more details about them, plus, their associated glacier fauna: glacier "fleas", glacier worms, and other animals associated with glaciers, including a glacier finch.
Hakai Magazine weekly contents.
Bioluminescence! Two videos of "sea sparkle." I've only seen sea sparkle once. It was on a small, outboard powered boat going to an island off the coast of El Salvador. As the sun set and the sky darkened the wake of the boat came alive with light. I dipped my hand into the ocean and a similar, smaller wake appeared.
This video shows you the organism that causes sea sparkle and this video shows you what Sea Sparkle is like.
Seeing these videos, I'm reminded of a passage from Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales:
"And books which told me everything about the wasp, except why."
My holiday gift to you is magic by British magician Michael Vincent performing at the Magic Castle. Be amazed!
The Werewolf Plant: "It's a warm, moonlit night in the Balkans. The landscape is crisp and dry, the rocks underneath sinuous and jumbled, the product of the ancient Himalayan Orogen and millions of subsequent years of erosion and tectonic activity. The Mediterranean breeze permeates the air, and the sky is a cobalt blue, framing the opalescent corona of the moon. But the moonlight is strangely refracted from a million crystal spheres hidden among the rocks, each visited in turn by moths, expertly navigating the night sky using the azimuth of the moon. This was the scene recently faced by a team of researchers studying the pollination mechanisms of the genus Ephedra, a type of Gymnosperm common in arid environments."
The Ugliest Orchid in the World, plus other new and unusual plants discovered in 2020. Kew Gardens reports on more species described by Kew scientists.
These lizards lost their legs, but don't call them snakes.
The Botanist in The Kitchen: Favorite Christmas Posts from the Past. (If you haven't seen this blog before, you're in for a treat. It deals with edible plants or plant parts and presents the botanical background behind the usage and preparation of food from the plant. Recipes sometimes included.) This is a really cool blog!
I hope each and everyone of you have a wonderful holiday!
See you next year,
Dale
