Nature’s Depths

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

Exploration

Sandhill Cranes Flying

Magnetic Migration

Exploration

Our migratory kin travel south in the fall and back north in the spring. They do this over distances of hundreds or thousands, even tens of thousands of miles. How is this possible? Let us side-step the question of how different species manage to obtain enough energy to fly, walk, or swim for such distances and ask the other big question: How do they know in what direction they should be traveling?

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Young goslings snuggle with parent Canada geese

Life’s Renewal Manifests

Exploration

We know from experience about the way we humans court, and make babies, and care for our children. It’s a huge part of our lives. But how about some of the other creatures that make up the living world? How do they bring the next generation into existence?

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Icicle Creek - Dry Rock Lichens

Life Within Life

Exploration

We have been on many a walk together—in forests, on beaches, on the prairie. But let’s go out again, for there is still much to see and much to learn about life on the extraordinary planet that is our home. Today, let’s look for lichens!

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Monarch Wing Edge

The Dynamic Control of Colors

Exploration

More than anything, autumn is the season of brilliant colors, and most of us are immediately drawn to them. However, as much as we relish them, the colors can also prompt us to ponder. In one of the earliest posts on Nature’s Depths, “Our Brightly Colored World” (November 29, 2015), almost exactly four years ago, we asked, where do colors come from and how do we get to see them? Let’s look at that question again now, and then take it further.

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