Field of Science

Berry Go Round #12

This botanical carnival has almost arrived full circle with the twelfth edition posted at Foothills Fancies. Check out all of the green plants to help you make it through the snowiness of winter. We are due for 5-9 inches here in Connecticut today. You may not know, but if you peak beneath the snow you will find that the mosses are in a green suspended animation. They are still alive and will resume growth in the spring. Just be sure to cover them back up, because the snow acts as insulation.

Happy New Year Celebrations!

For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.

Bryo Emails

I don't know about you, but I have a love-hate relationship with my email. I love being able to efficiently communicate with colleagues. I hate SPAM. I love being able to keep in touch with far away friends. I hate that email can eat up hours out of an otherwise productive day. I love getting updates on a scientific journal's table of contents, so that I don't have to remember to check them. I hate chain-mail that says this must be forwarded lest bad luck will befall you. You get the picture and may have a similar relationship with your email. However it is a necessary evil for many people including me that must be dealt with on a daily basis.

Another item in the love of email column is hearing from people who have read and enjoyed my blog. That is always a bright spot to my day! However I have to admit that my responses to blog emails tend to be shuffled to the bottom of my email list. It can take a couple of weeks for me to make it around to composing a response, especially at crunch times during the semester. So if you are one of those people waiting to hear back from me, I apologize for the delay, but know that you are not forgotten and are on my list.

Speaking of my tardy responses, a few weeks ago I heard from Annette, who has a website about plants (in German) and a more specific site about mosses and liverworts (in German and English). For the bryophytes, she has posted 2 or more color photos for each of the species covered on the website. The photos are really great! They range from broad habit shots down to some higher magnification photos where clusters of antheridia can be seen. There is also an alphabetical list of the species that she has photographed with internal links to the photos. Overall I think that it is a nicely composed website and I would recommend that you check it out to enjoy the beautiful bryophyte photography that Annette has on display.

Berry Go Round #11

The eleventh edition of Berry Go Round has been posted at Catalogue of Organisms. I especially enjoyed the post about the stinking Ginkgo seeds. I had some of them in a savory egg custard in Japan and they are really nice to eat. It was quite the pleasant surprise. I think that the way they are prepared neutralizes the butyric acid, which causes the stinkiness. I would definitely recommend giving them a try in their cooked form.

For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.