Natural Selections

(Oct 22, 2020) In Song of Myself, Whitman says, "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."

(Oct 15, 2020) We all take thousands of breaths each day without thinking about it, yet it's one of the human body's most complex and interesting functions. Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss what is actually happening when we breathe.

(Oct 8, 2020) A lot of different things are mixed with silicon dioxide to make different kinds of glass. Added lead makes crystal. Most ordinary glass is made with the addition of soda lime. Pyrex glass has boron to give it heat resistance. Fiberglass contains aluminum. Amorphous substances like porcelain and polycarbonate plastic can also count as glass, as can certain amorphous mixtures of metal.

One of the most interesting new technologies is Bioglass, where calcium, phosphorus and other bone nutrients are added to glass to serve as a matrix for replacement bone. Actual bone cells are attracted to the glass and new, healthy bone can form around it. Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss.

(Oct 1, 2020) Glass is basic stuff - melted sand, pretty much. But your lovely crystal decanter or goblet gets its heft and clarity from a big dose of lead, up to one-fourth by weight.

(Sep 17, 2020) Mushrooms grow out of the soil like plants, but are fungi. Lichens may look leafy, but they are symbiotic colonies of fungi and algae. Seaweed looks like a plant, but is an algae colony. And Indian Pipe looks like a fungi, but is a plant. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager discuss the ins and outs of botany.

(Sep 10, 2020) The success of the Clean Air Act in reducing acid deposition in Adirondack lakes is an under-reported good news story. Many lakes once devoid of life can now support healthy fish populations and other aquatic life.

But as Curt Stager discusses with Martha Foley, the life that returns to recolonize the water is not the same as what was lost. Sediment cores show that the original algae and plankton varieties that form the base of the food chain and were unchanged for hundreds of years are being replaced by different varieties. A balance has been restored, but it's a new balance, tipped perhaps by warming, and by invasive species.

(Aug 27, 2020) Cohesion, adhesion, magnetism: there are a lot of different ways that a lot of different things can stick together. Martha Foley and Curt Stager pry loose some of the secrets of stickiness.

(Aug 20, 2020) Science fiction movies aside, most spiders pose no threat to humans. Their venom may be fatal to small insects, but few species are powerful enough to hurt something human-sized and most are not equipped to penetrate our skin. Most spiders are not even aware that we are there.

(Aug 13, 2020) Curt Stager reports on a long-term study of flying insects in Germany that records an astounding 76% drop in the total biomass of flying insects entering their traps over the last 30 years. This is not a decline as happens in a single species, but appears to affect the whole spectrum of species.

Martha Foley wonders if this could explain the decline in insect-eating birds that appear around her house, or the steep decline in bug spats Stager observes on his car compared to decades ago.

Disturbing news from long-term study and anecdotal observations.

(Aug 6, 2020) We continue a conversation about that bane of sunbathers, the mosquito. But it's not just our blood the female of the species lusts after. Other insects, birds, mammals - even reptiles - can be the target of her search for protein rich foods to help her create and feed the next generation.