Walking through nature with John Palka, a neuroscientist who loves plants and ponders big questions
By John Palka — Posted May 7, 2017
Darwin taught us that “There is a grandeur in this view of life . . . [that] from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” Let’s explore this grand vision.
By John Palka — Posted April 8, 2017
Take a walk in the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest and you will probably come across trees literally growing on trees. . . It’s a dramatic sight, sometimes with almost mythic overtones. But what is going on, really, and why?
By John Palka — Posted January 15, 2017
Toward the end of summer, people with gardens start to notice spiders hanging in magnificent orb webs. . . Now many of the females are big and getting ready to lay their eggs.
By John Palka — Posted December 11, 2016
Fall is a wonderfully engaging season. The days are still long, though each one seems noticeably shorter than the one before. . . And—most dramatic—the leaves on the deciduous trees are turning color.
By John Palka — Posted November 6, 2016
The wild ocean coast of the Pacific Northwest is like a natural sculpture garden in which fantastical shapes abound. On almost any beach or cove you visit, you will find logs and uprooted trees in mind-boggling arrays, the trunks as straight as the beams of a house, the roots twisted in phantasmagorical convolutions. They have many lessons to teach us.
By John Palka — Posted October 23, 2016
In the 13th century, Saint Francis saw Mother Earth as sustaining and governing human beings. Today we understand that the connection is even deeper, that human beings are inseparably a part of Mother Earth.