Nature’s Depths

Walking through nature with John Palka, a neuroscientist who loves plants and ponders big questions

2016 July

Experiencing the Wilderness

By John Palka — Posted July 31, 2016

I don’t ordinarily post materials that I have not written myself. However, today I can’t help making an exception in the form of an article in the Seattle Times for Sunday, July 31st, that is very close to my heart: http://www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoors/students-trek-a-reset-for-the-human-spirit-as-national-park-service-turns-100/. It deals with nature study in the wilderness.

Indian Pipe and the Forest Underground

By John Palka — Posted July 10, 2016

Exploration

Indian pipe is a ghostly, fleshy, white-stemmed wraith with a nodding white flower at the tip, poking its way up through the duff of the forest floor. It looks like nothing else in the forest and like nothing in your garden. Its life story illustrates the intricate web of life that exists in the forest.

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Explorations and Ruminations

The posts on Nature’s Depths come in two forms, Explorations and Ruminations.

An Exploration is an account of the natural world from my point of view as a biologist who loves nature and is fascinated by how it works.

A Rumination is more personal, relating to my study of nature but written primarily as a reflection on what this has meant to me.
About This Blog
To see a world in a grain of sand—to peer so deeply into the nature of any one thing that the riches of the Universe begin to be revealed—that to me is the essence of science as a quest. Not as a profession or a career, not as a niche in complex modern society, but as a quest for understanding your deepest nature. Read More
About the Author: John Palka
I was a professor of biology at the University of Washington in Seattle from 1969 to 2002. My specialty for all of my academic life was neuroscience, but the very first love of my scientific life was the world of plants. It was peering through a microscope at the brightly colored petals and stamens of an Emperor tulip during my first college course in biology that got me hooked, that literally kept me up at night trying to learn as much about living things as I could. Not only that, it played quite a role in my courtship of Yvonne, whom I married a few months after graduation and with whom I continue to share life, love, and interests 55 years later. Read More