By Eilene Lyon While pondering this week’s 52 Ancestors prompt “So Far Away” (which I will post later this week), the phrase “Half a World Away” came to mind. Though we might use it figuratively to mean someplace rather distant, or a mental distraction (like this post), I wondered about the literal sense. What place... Continue Reading →
Milling Water to the Sea
By Eilene Lyon We recently took a trip to the Netherlands and Norway, so expect a few posts on sights, scenes, and travel. But first, I want to share a bit about the Dutch genius for engineering water. It’s no secret that much of the Netherlands is below sea level. Since more and more land... Continue Reading →
Earth Day and Pogo
By Eilene Lyon Today we celebrate Earth Day, an international event that takes place in nearly 200 countries around the globe, involving roughly a billion participants. Throughout the 1960s, environmental legislation was going nowhere, as Americans roiled about our participation in the Vietnam War. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, an environmental champion, decided to create a... Continue Reading →
Jumpy
By Eilene Lyon Spring in southern Nevada brings out the hibernating desert tortoises, and the people who look for them. Transects, which are twelve-kilometer squares, three kilometers a side, were randomly scattered on the map for the 2008 crews. A crack GIS team produced individual maps for each transect, along with directions to the starting... Continue Reading →
History of the Theory of Evolution
By Eilene Lyon This is the follow-up article to Science and Belief. Darwin’s Observations on the Natural World Charles Darwin formulated his hypothesis of evolution by natural selection based on observations he made during his trip around the world on the Beagle in the 1830s. Some of those observations: Island groups had wildlife differing from... Continue Reading →
Science and Belief
By Eilene Lyon I once asked a classroom of college biology majors, some of them pre-med, whether they “believe in evolution.” About half raised their hand. Ha! Trick question. Science is not about believing. Belief and faith are the realm of religion and spirituality. In fact, you could say that science is the antithesis of... Continue Reading →