Chemistry – Stone Fig

Young Man/Old Man

The tree has stood here for generations. Its wrinkled features speak of Springs and hot Summers and Winter storms and Fall Hurricanes rolling out of the Sea.

Yet here it stands. Right where the mountain man had stopped over 300 years before, and leaning on his staff he paused to look out to the Sea beyond the valley – and he has stayed here – still thinking. His hand clutches the shaft of his staff. You can see his fingertips curling around from the back of the shaft as he rests his temple against his hand. His hair is blown upwards and back as he stares stonily out towards the distant Sea.

The years have washed soil and stones and leaves out of the hills above so that the man’s shoulders and torso and hips and legs are now buried deep below. Yet still he stands and looks outward and wonders. When he decides, will he rise up and tear his roots from deep within the earth and walk these hills again?

These are tales of the deep woods.

The young man pushed out by his tribe,

Walked toward the sound of the Sea.

He crossed mountain peak and fast glacial stream.

He forded broad rivers.

He climbed stones as if they were steps to the top of the ridge.

And from his new vantage point he could see the great Sea before him.

He leaned his head on his staff and he wept, because he had found Ocean, his mother.

What would he say to her when she saw him and rose up? Would she be in a fury? Would she rejoice that he had found his way back to her?

He leaned on his staff, for a year, and another, and another ten and then a hundred and then more.

He stands there still wondering how he will be greeted when he reaches the rolling wave and the murmur of shale rolling in the retreating wave.

What will he say that he has accomplished? Who will he say that he has helped? Has he made his path a better place? Has the world benefited from his life?

He leaps up and leaves his body behind, still, standing, staring.

His spirit goes out and back along his path to correct what he has damaged.

When he sees a tired person sitting next to the road, the wind blows down and refreshes the weary. The rain falls upon the parched . The sun shines on the lonely.

The young man in the wind and rain and sunshine is rebuilding his story.

And he will smile.

One day he will return to this tree and shake loose the binding roots and finish his walk to the Sea and be greeted with joy.

This is one of the trees that I remember. There are many others. These are the trees I see while I am in the woods. They speak to me as the warm spring rains patter down on their budding branches. When the Summer storm whips the limbs and branches, they howl with strength. When the Winter winds bring snow and ice that crackles on the branches when the sun returns and when I cross the snowy field to visit them, they moan and creak like an old gate on rusted hinges.. The trees are always with me, they are everywhere. They are of many ages, and they always welcome me to the deep forest and woods by the lane.

Some have forgotten how to leaf and bud and leaf, but still stand as a home for birds and squirrels and the members of the fourth kingdom, the fungus that returns the tree to the soil. Some have fallen in the wind. Some have fallen to the ax. But they all live on in my memory and in the memory of all who visited them and touched their bark, or played in their shade, or picked up their Fall leaf form the ground. Or watched a bird fly among its branches.

They are our friends. Each has its story. You must listen to hear it being told.

Titan Dino Egg

When I first read the news article on the Titanosaur/Sauropod egg and the embryo inside, I was completely fascinated. When I read further about the findings from the study of the egg, I was amazed both at the methods of investigation and in what the authors of the study presented about the embryo.

The egg is believed to have been a Titanosaur, several types of Sauropod which that lived in the area where the egg was discovered in what is now Argentina. A cast/fossil of one of these Sauropods, Maximo the Titanosaur, is now on display in the Field Museum in Chicago. It has taken the place on the main floor of where Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex) skeleton ever found use to stand. Sue is now in the second-floor dinosaur exhibit of the Field Museum.

A comparison of the completeness of the two fossils, Maximo and Sue, is interesting. The bones comprising Sue’s fossil (it is named for the discoverer of the fossil; the sex of the dinosaur is unknown) compromise approximately 90% of the mass of a complete T-Rex skeleton. By contrast, the skeleton of Maximo the Titanosaur is made from casts of fossilized bone found at several sites, and of some sculpted bones where no reference bone is available. There were about 130 fossilized bones found, not just from one Titanosaur but from six different individuals.

The initial scientific article in Current Biology on the egg and its investigation, examines several interesting aspects of the dinosaur’s life. The embryo was approximately 80% of its in ovo, inside the egg, development before it was ready to hatch out. The examination of the embryonic fossil indicates that the tiny dinosaur had what is commonly known as an “egg-tooth.” An egg-tooth is used by a young bird as it hatches to break open the shell of the egg in which it is enclosed and protected. The egg tooth later falls off once the young bird is out of its eggshell.

Another finding of the study can be understood by picturing a rabbit. A rabbit’s skull is quite narrow, and its eyes are situated well back on the sides of its skull. The rabbit is preyed on by many other animals including mammals, large birds, and snakes. The position of the rabbit’s eyes gives it the ability to have a field of vision well beyond the field of vision of a human. While our human peripheral vision from the side of our eyes allows us to see approximately to the line of our shoulder, the placement of a rabbit’s eyes allow it a field of vision well past its shoulder. The rabbit’s field of vision reaches beyond 45 degrees past its shoulders on each side. This allows them to see a predator sneaking up on them from the sides and from their rear. This is similar to what is known about the placement of eyes sockets on adult Sauropod skeletons. They also had predators that they had to watch out for.

In the study it was found that the embryo’s eye placement was more forward giving it more of a three-dimensional vision to the front. It’s not that these tiny creatures did not have predators. I imagine the predation of the new hatchlings was very high. But when they first emerged from their egg, their eyes were forward looking. Perhaps this helped them to be better able to learn to stand and walk in a straight line and to see food such as a blade of grass or a seedling tree right in front of them. But as time went on and as their body and their skull expanded, their eyes moved to the side of their skull which created a field of vision more like that of a rabbit.

The growth of the Titanosaurs was amazing. In the art at the beginning of this article, I have tried to capture a size comparison of the adult Titanosaurs to a modern human and to the fossilized egg shown as the round ball next to the human figure.

In this study the fossilized egg was approximately 10 inches in diameter. I postulate that an embryo was likely about twelve inches long when it emerged from its egg. When compared, a modern ostrich egg is more egg-shaped, the dinosaur egg being studied was more spherical. A modern Ostrich egg is approximately 10 inches long and 5 to 7 inches in diameter. The hatchling Ostrich is generally the size of a chicken. It will grow to be upwards of 8 feet tall.

The hatchling Titanosaur by contrast is assumed to be 10 to 12 inches tall at the shoulder. It would have grown to be 20 times that high at the shoulder. It will also grow to be over 120 feet long and weigh 140,000 pounds (70 tons).

The last bit of the story also speaks to the truth of modern science. At one time fossils were stolen in the field from one team of paleontologists by another team representing a different museum or university. Fossils were sometimes destroyed in the field to keep rival museums from retrieving them. Today museums and landowners and discoverers often work together to improve our knowledge of these ancient beasts and the world they lived in. There may be court cases to determine ownership or partial rights of ownership to a fossil. This allows the courts to decide the question of ownership and the fossil can be recovered and displayed and studied and enjoyed. In the case of the fossilized egg and its embryo, the fossil had been removed from Argentina illegally. When this became known to the research team, the fossil was returned to Argentina. The fossil is now housed at the museum, Museo Municipal “Carmen Funes,” in Plaza Huincul, Neuquén Province, Argentina.

Fascinating.

The picture of the herd of titanosaur sauropod Argentinosaurus is by artist Miguel Angel Amorin Fernandez. It is copied from a page in “palenontologyworld_com”, it may be found at https://www.instagram.com/p/B00DxYblpOd/?igshid=dbe23rmt94sf .

The picture of the embryo of the Titanosaur sauropod inside its egg is copied from the article, “Specialized Craniofacial Anatomy of a Titanosaurian Embryo from Argentina”, Martin Kundrat et al, published August 27, 2020 in the journal Current Biology.

The pictured size comparison of the human (at 5 feet 6inches) and the sauropod Argentinosaurus (shoulder height 20 feet) is based on the scale presented in the article “Titanosaur” that may be found at https://www.britannica.com/animal/titanosaur.

The initial news article I read on this fascinating subject was an online article in CNN. It may be found at https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/27/world/sauropod-dinosaur-embryonic-skull-scn-trnd/index.html . The pictured comparison of the size of a titanosaur egg (approximately 8 inches in diameter) is based on the comparison to an Ostrich egg in that article.

The article about Sue the T-Rex may be found on the website of the Field Museum of Chicago at https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/sue-t-rex .

The difference between the complete skeleton of Sue, and the mostly Cast skeleton of Maximo the Titanosaur is discussed in an article on the website of the Field Museum of Chicago may be found at https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/which-dinosaur-bones-are-real .

The website for the museum Museo Municipal “Carmen Funes,” Plaza Huincul, Neuquén Province, Argentina may be found at https://www.interpatagonia.com/cutralco-huincul/carmen-funes-municipal-museum.html .

South Works

I took this picture in the early 1970s when I worked for a friend of mine as a Cargo Surveyor in the ports around Chicago, Illinois.

It was long days and hard work. But I was able to be outside most of the time. If I was not outside, on the deck of a ship, climbing up or down the 90-foot ladders that led to and from the ship’s holds, or walking the huge outdoor storage lots confirming off-loading of the giant rolls of steel, I might be inside a steel manufacturing facility, or a cheese importer in one of the Chicago suburbs, or in a warehouse full of imported items. It didn’t matter if it was hard work; it was fun and fascinating work. The ships on which we oversaw the unloading were from nations around the world.

We were up early and on the ships watching the longshoremen and the huge cranes unloading the rolls of sheet steel, bundles of steel beams, or railroad wheels, or 40-foot containers filled with wine or cheese or beef hides or any number of amazing products that were being imported into the Chicago from around the world. These good would be transported for sale in the Chicago area or to other locations in the Midwest.

We worked while the Great Lakes were open for shipping. We worked in the heat of summer and the frigid days of early winter with ice on the decks and snow in the air. The only weather that we did not work in was the rain. When it rained the owners would close the massive steel covers over the ship’s holds so the cargo would not get wet. Steel rusts. Cardboard falls apart. Food stuffs spoil. All of this had to be taken into account as we oversaw the work and inspected the cargoes, usually working for the owners of the shipping line.

The Great Lakes are open for international ocean cargo shipping as long as the locks along the Saint Lawrence River Seaway are ice free. The locks are the portal for ocean going shipping on the Great Lakes. The locks were scheduled to close before they iced up. That was the day by which all ships that had other places to go, had to be off the Great Lakes. For example in 2019 the Locks and the Great Lakes were opened to ocean traffic on March 29, 2019. The season was closed on December 31, 2019, and ships could no longer transit out of the Great Lakes.

It can easily be imagined that the closing weeks of the season were busy weeks as no shipping company would want their cargo vessel trapped in the Great Lakes for three months while the locks are closed.

On this morning I had arrived just at sunrise. The ship we were unloading was docked near the mouth of the Calumet River. The Calumet River stretches from Lake Michigan down into the industrial areas south of Chicago. The entire length of the river was wharves and turning basins, for the ships to tie up, unload, and maneuver back out to Lake Michigan. To the west the Calumet River joins the Des Plaines River via the Cal-Sag (Calumet-Saganashkee Channel) Canal, which carried barges from the Mississippi into this same maze of wharves in the industrial area.

I could not be further from the forests surrounding Chicago than standing on the deck of that ship on the Calumet River. When I turned to the North and looked to the other bank of the river, I could see the decrepit US Steel South Works. Its furnaces and mills were shut down, but the steel assets still stood against the rising sun of that morning.

It was odd, this behemoth of American industry shut down due to foreign competition from more modern facilities in Asia and in Europe, and the products of those foreign mills traveled to their buyers by landing on the wharves and docks along the Calumet River, and by first passing the US Steel South Works, the ancient and ruined guardian of the Lake shore.

The wind was blowing from the North. As it blew across the old South Works, it picked up dust and particles of steel. I could see the flecks of metal catching a glint of the morning sun as they floated in the air around me while I stood watching the cargo being unloaded on that cold winter morning.

Boats and Clouds

Several decades ago I had an opportunity to go to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). I saw places that I had not seen before, and I talked to people about all types of things. I was even asked if I had any Blue Jeans to sell. It was funny. The guy who asked me that was an American who at that time was working for the CIA. Now I think he is in jail.

We were there for three weeks and started in Moscow and the area around it. I was profoundly moved by the World War II memorials. The USSR lost more than 20 million people, some died in internal struggles, others died fighting the Nazis.

As part of the trip we also traveled out to Odessa in the Ukraine and then north to Lithuania. Both were part of the USSR at that time. Lithuania became an independent republic in 1990, heralding the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Ukraine followed and became independent in 1991.

Lithuania is a truly beautiful place. We stayed in the city of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The country’s northern climate supports vast forest of conifers and hardwoods. These forests include Larch, Spruce, Birch, and Aspen. The geography supports many stream and lakes, many of which flow north towards the Baltic Sea. It was Fall when we were there, so it was too cold for swimming. And even in summer, I can say from experience, the Baltic Sea is cold on the best of days.

One day we traveled out from Vilnius and visited the Lake area near the historic town of Trakai. The lake shores were ablaze with late Fall color. The Latitude of Trakai (54^o37’N) is approximately the same as the south end of Hudson Bay in Canada. We wrapped up against the Fall chill and walked out into the forest that lined the lake shore. The paths were narrow and wound back into the forest.

On the lake I had hoped we might see an over-wintering Red-necked Grebe (Podiceps grisegena). If there were any wintering birds, we did not see.

The isolation and depth of the forest assured me that in their season they are full of the songs of Lithuania’s native birds. And I was sure that the lakes teamed with ducks on their migration to the far North, or perhaps to this very spot.

There was a lake house. And there were row boats. Being fond of rowing in any season, I asked if there was time to go out onto the lake for a bit of a row. Our host apologized and said we would need to stick to our schedule. I am certain he was sorry that we did not have time. Sticking to the schedule during the times of the Soviet regime was important. I accepted it and apologized to our hosts to relieve him of the burden of not being able to allow such a small excursion.

A heavily traded commodity of the region from pre-Roman and into modern times is Amber, the fossilized resin/sap of ancient conifer trees. Amber is an organic near-gem quality stone. It has a rare warmth of color and can be polished to brilliance. Some Amber, when polished, and if clear, may be seen to contain an ancient beetle or ant. The Amber of the Baltic region is from the Eocene epoch and was deposited about 40 million years ago. Any bugs found in Baltic Amber would not have been the gadfly of the dinosaurs. Deposits of that type were laid down over 66 million years ago and are not found in the Baltic region.

In my visit to this region of frost and magical lakes I received a set of cuff links made from Amber.

The Amber of my cufflinks is clouded from the minerals and tiny air bubbles trapped in the flowing tree sap. The face of the polished Amber shows streamers of milky white. It is a cloud of ancient air and minerals trapped in a scene of golden earth tones. The outside surface of the Amber, the “rind”, is just as fascinating with its deep browns and reds from reactions of the ancient resin to the overburden soils that held the raw Amber. The rind is also deeply pitted from its burial for millions of years.

To touch Amber is to touch earth, sky, and water.

The pictures were taken by me or other members of our group and are under our personal Copyright.

Diving at Subic Bay

The USS Leonard F. Mason, DD-852, had left the line off the coast of VietNam, and we had brought her to Subic Bay for some repair and some recreation.

People often asked, “What do you do on the ship all day?”

We worked. We worked hard. There were watches to stand. There were repairs to be made to the ship and its equipment. There was underway refueling and resupply. And occasionally there was inflight refueling of a helicopter flying out on a rescue mission. There were orders to be fulfilled and support of our troops fighting for the freedom of people in southeast Asia and around the world.

Look at VietNam now. Through our efforts we helped ensure a better future for the people not only of the south but for all of VietNam. Do you question this? Look at the country now. It is prosperous, both North and South. And the people enjoy a level of economy and freedom that they never dreamed of under totalitarian regimes. But this came at a tragic cost including the death of 58,318 Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, and Sailors/Coast Gaard.

To the hundreds of thousands of young men and women who answered their nation’s call and went to serve on foreign shores, Thank You. You might have been scared. You might have been wounded. You might have returned to an ungrateful nation. And I am certain that you had friends who left their young lives behind. But you SERVED. You did not hide behind a Doctor’s note. You did not hide from the mail. You stepped forward and served. THANK YOU.

When the ship left the gunline for a return to port for replenishment and repairs, the ship’s crew also had a chance for liberty and relaxation.

There were many things to do off base at Subic Bay. One thing that many of us we enjoyed was the beauty of this part of the Philippine Islands. In particular there was an island that was used by the SEALs for training that was also open during the day for the use of its beaches. It is now called (on Google Earth) Grande Island. I am sure it had another name back then. And there was no resort hotel as there is today.

We hiked across to the south side of the island, facing out to the wide Pacific, there was a small beach of rocks, and clear water, and a deep hole or two that was marvelous for snorkeling.

The water was crystal clear and alive with fish. Periodically we would have the hair stand up on the back of our necks when we would see a Black-tipped Reef Shark watching us. And maybe there would be two of them.

We watched out for each other. It is always good to be cautious.

There were deep holes for diving. And for as long as we could hold our breath, we could have some good bottom time at around 30 feet, marveling at the fish which fed in the corals.

As we came up out of this blue-zone, the colors of the corals and fish became more vibrant. The sea water muted the colors, as it absorbed much of the sunlight. However, while restricting colors in the red, orange, and yellow wavelengths, sea water allowed the passage of blue light.

From above the water these holes might look like they are lined with blue-black rock. It is only when you are in the water, that you can clearly see the coral formations with its varying colors and shades. Only then can you see the multitudes of marine life feeding and minding their own business until they become lunch for another species of marine life that is only doing its business. When you look down into the corals as you float on the surface and peer through your face mask, the web of life of this tiny spot on a Pacific shore becomes visible. And you cannot leave unchanged.

On our hike back to the boat landing we talked about what we had seen. We talked about home and friends. We talked about when we might get home. And sometimes we might have to push off the jacks who had too much beer or too much war. And then we returned to the grey, steel hull that was our temporary home, for another watch.

Later, and much later, we remember the fish, and the sharks, and the sea-child’s teddy we saw on the side of the deep hole on the shores of the Pacific.

A good article on the absorption of light by seawater may be found in the Woods Hole magazine oceanus, at https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/shedding-light-on-light-in-the-ocean/

The photograph is the Black tipped Reef Shark was found on a Wikipedia article titled “Blacktip Reef Shark”, with a credit to https://www.whatsthatfish.com/image/view/6882. Note the blue coloration of the deeper corals beneath the shark, which is in dappled by the sunlight close to the surface.

Stone in the Woods

Which is it? A Stone? Or a Rock?

Was this photograph a picture of a stone, or was it a rock? I thought back to where I had seen this particular item of curiosity with distinct stratification (the lines of varying colored layers). I had been in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia hiking one of the many the grand trails .

These trails are wonderful in all seasons. They wander up beyond the railroad tracks and the old mill, up into the ridges and valleys of these foothills. There are old stone structures deep in the woods to marvel at, and there are streams that in Summer are great for cooling one’s feet off. In Winter the trails are generally passable. But the streams are more often than not frozen over but not to support a hiker’s weight.

There are other ruins up in these hills, and graves of the men and women who pioneered this area. It is one of my favorite places to wander, especially in the Fall as the leaves are changing. The trails wander and seem to take me different places than they had before. And if its a cool day and I’m not too tired I might push for the summit which is not that high, but it sure is steep on my side. The other side? Well, that is a solid rock face and straight down.

So is this a picture of a Stone or a Rock? For me, a stone is something that I can pick up easily and fling over the water to make a splash. A Rock, for me is a different matter. There is no flinging a Rock. UMPHH! You pick it up and carry it someplace. Then you put it down. UMPHH!!!

In the space under the back porch of my house, there is a Rock that I uncovered while clearing an area to store my wheelbarrows. After I had uncovered something three feet in length and a foot in depth and realized there was no end or bottom in sight, I left it and worked around it. That is a ROCK. But I have moved Rocks before. While a boy scout, we moved a massive Rock to create a fire platform for our council campfires. That rock was as big as most of us, and probably weighed more than any three of us. That was a long, hot day. The platform looked really good when it was done. And the fires were brighter and our ceremonies better, because of our work.

While trying to determine whether my classification of Big = Rock, Small = Stone was correct, I first turned to my narrow Vest Pocket Webster Dictionary by World Publishing Company. I had bought it the early 1960s when my high school English teacher, Mr. Miles McNiff, told us that we should buy one and keep it as a ready reference in our desks. I used it, as I assume my classmates did, to confirm spelling of words I wanted to use in my essays.

Now of course this function is pretty much taken care of by our computers which highlight in red these words with which it disagrees. But I keep the small dictionary around even though its usefulness may have been taken over by the computer. I will say for this and many other items of good guidance, Thank you Mr. McNiff.

In this dictionary I found definitions for the two words, Stone and Rock. Stone is defined solid non-metallic mineral matter. Rock on the other hand is a mass or pieces of stone. Hmm, says I, (apologies to RLS), since the definition of rock includes the words “pieces of stone” as if broken or chipped away, then Stone must be more massive.

But I will disagree and stay with my understanding. A Stone might be big, or much smaller, such as a stone in my shoe. But a Rock for me is generally bigger.

Here, in the hills, I had photographed a Stone. It was barely bigger than an Oak leaf recently fallen. I saw as it lay upon a cold hill side, reflecting the filtered light from above in its beautiful, lined quartz.

I wanted to ask the Stone what had happened in each of those lines, the narrowest of which was likely thousands of years in the making. Or perhaps it was a single flooding event. But over the eons that stone was laid down and then under the pressure of many million more years, it became Rock.

Then later it was up thrust in some gigantic earth-quaking event, perhaps the lifting of the mountains to my West. And as the layers of strata became once more exposed to light, and heat, and cold, and snow and rain, and the pressure of roots and of freezing and thawing, eventually this squared Stone fell off its perch.

Crack.

It came to lay at this point surrounded by moss and ferns and fallen sticks and leaves.

Even Stones have tales to tell. But who can understand them? We can only guess.

Four-Points

WOW! I am still excited, even two weeks after my wonder-filled find.

I was out in the open fields and forest edges on a warm Saturday, hiking and enjoying being outside. As I crossed a field, I saw something sticking up out of the grass ahead of me. It was about 50 yards away. The sunlight highlighted it so it stood out from the surrounding grasses even though it was not much higher that the brown stalks.

The area where I do most of my local hiking has a rather large white-tailed deer population. There are several herds that populate the area with numerous males of all ages.

One of the aspects of the white-tail deer, which every school child knows, is the male’s antlers are shed each year in the late Spring. Each year, each male deer will grow a new set of antlers. The antlers grow through the Spring and Summer, reaching their full size at beginning of the deer’s mating season known as “the rut”. As the male deer grows older his antlers grow larger with each passing year. A young male may only grow antlers that come to a single point. These are also known as spikes.

An older male will grow more massive antlers with numerous points. The antlers remain on the male until after the mating season is over. At that time the male deer’s body chemistry begins to change which signals his body that the antlers are no longer needed. His antlers become less firmly attached to his skull, and they prepare to fall off. This physiological change takes place in the late Winter and early Spring.

The antlers may fall off as the buck is walking through the woods where the antlers may be brushed off by low branches. They may fall off due to a jolt, if the deer is involved in a late season battle with another male deer. They may fall off as the buck runs and jumps across a field.

In the part of Virginia where I hike this change and the shedding of antlers generally happens after mid-February. If you are out in the woods and fields where deer roam and browse, you may find a single antler, or in some cases a pair of antlers. Finding a pair is rather rare, as the antlers fall off at different times. The pair may be far apart across a field or patch of woods. Sometimes though they fall off on a used trail, so that even if they are shed on different days they may be found at locations on the same trail. It’s a random pattern depending on where the deer goes, his body chemistry, and whether there is an event that causes the antlers to be knocked or brushed off his head.

Then the forest or field takes over. These “sheds” are not just useless bone. Small forest creatures will gnaw on the antlers as they are a source of phosphorous and calcium and other minerals for these creatures. These may be mice emerging from their winter tunnels, or foxes and coyotes.

And of course, there are people who may pick them up. These people, like me, enjoy walking across the fields and up through the woods looking for whatever they might see and enjoying the peace of the natural surroundings.

I have found small sheds before, but this find was certainly different with its polished four points. When I picked it up, I was surprised by how heavy it was. It weighed about four pounds. I have been out to the area where I found it twice more to see if its mate will turn up. It has not. It might not have fallen off yet. Or it has fallen off and some forest creature, or another walker, has carried it off.

Forest Triptych

There are three main levels in a forest. There is the base or ground level on which you enter the forest. There is the mid-level of the tree trunks and undergrowth of bushes, vines, and immature trees. And upper most there is the canopy of leaves.

At this time of year when I enter the forest, even on a well-trodden path, with every step there is a rustling of leaves beneath my feet. If there is a breeze up, there may be the quiet fall of the last leaves as they leave their summer perch in the trees and drift to the base, the floor of the forest. The loss of the leaves allows the distant drumming and raucous call of the Pileated Woodpecker to be heard through out the forest. At the edge of the forest where there is an old Pear tree, there is the drone of wasps as they fly around the rotting fruit as it lies on the ground. And if you are there in the rain there is the wandering, light sound of the rain drops as they fall from the lofty canopy onto the forest floor with its cover of leaves. The path into the forest is covered in leaves from Oak and Ash and Poplar and from the unnamed multitude of lower elevation eastern hardwoods. The leaves scatter with a slight rattle as I walk the path under the trees.

The forest takes on a different smell in the Fall. The Summer is more dry as the heat of the day evaporates the moisture and dries out the leaf litter and other detritus on the forest floor. In the Fall the forest may be wetter as the moisture is not evaporated as quickly because of coolness of the season. The pears by the forest entrance lend a heavy sweetness. The leaves as they give up their moisture give an earthy odor to the air. The sap in the trees is being drawn down into the roots. As it goes down the Poplar and Tulip trees do not give the same Summer richness in the forest. The Fall is a time of rest and decay which give rise to the new forests of Springs and Summers yet to come.

During the Fall, the canopy and the understory and on the forest floor each have a wash of a multitude of colors. The canopies of the various trees carry a new palate of color as it is lit from above by the sun and viewed from below. In Fall with its cooler temperatures and shorter days, the tree’s process of photosynthesis slows and then stops. The leaves no longer take up carbon dioxide from the air, nor release oxygen. The leaves no longer are making the sugars necessary for the tree to grow. As a factory, the tree is shutting down; it will restart in the Spring. Now the chlorophyll which gives the leaves their green color and which is the driver for photosynthesis, breaks down, and other pigments are revealed. The carotene and the xanthophyll which will give the leaves their red, to orange, to yellow colors are revealed. Walking below the multi-hued canopy on a sunny day is like walking inside a kaleidoscope. Colors that no one knows the names of (1) are thrown into the air.

All of these speak to the coming of Winter, and to the promise of Spring.

1. Wasn’t Born to Follow – The Byrds, https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=wasn%27t+born+to+follow+easy+rider&view=detail&mid=48DFAEA971D863977A6948DFAEA971D863977A69&FORM=VIRE

Shot with the song in Easy Rider (1969) is at Sunset Crater National Monument, Arizona

Sweeping the Sky

This morning was a wonderful Fall morning. It was clear. It was cool. As the sun came up it burnished the tops of the trees down in the woods. Some high, thin clouds were out to greet the sun. And as they passed overhead they were swept by the top most branches on the sun-lit trees.

At least it appeared that way.

But these trees did not touch the clouds. As the clouds drifted by they only appeared to be swept by the upper branches. However, this is not always the case. On mornings when the day is foggy, the clouds can engulf and move through the trees, and the trees clear out lines in the fog.

But today it appeared that the trees might be touching the clouds. Yet this was only my perspective. In reality, the trees did not touch the clouds. They touched the sky.

The real effect of the trees extends way beyond their height.

The leaves on the trees are the main component in clearing the atmosphere of carbon dioxide (CO2). The leaves absorb the CO2 and use it in the photosynthesis process. Photosynthesis, roughly translated, means, made from light. The light provides the energy of the sun to the trees. The trees use the energy from the sun to change CO2, absorbed from the air, into glucose (C6H12O6) for the tree’s metabolism. Through photosynthesis the tree manufactures C6H12O6 to enhance its own growth. This process uses water (H2O) drawn up from the soil in which the trees roots are bound. From the process glucose is produced, as well as oxygen (O2). But more O2 is produced than the tree requires of its own use. The excess O2 is released back into the atmosphere. There the oxygen is available for our use with every breath we take, and for all other creatures. It is not only the trees that carry out photosynthesis but all plants with chlorophyll use this process to enhance their growth. And thereby they all release the excess O2 into the atmosphere.

The basic chemical reaction that takes place using the energy from the sun is shown as follows;

This is the respiration of trees. Through this process we are supplied with the oxygen that we need for life, to run our own metabolism, and by which we grow and succeed. This is true for birds, for creatures in the trees and creatures on the ground, and for fish in the sea. The trees support us all.

The pumping of O2 into the atmosphere can be seen on the Keeling Curve (see article dated 02/15/2019, the Keeling Curve). The level of CO2 is measured and shown on the curve as a saw tooth edge. The rise and fall of this saw toothed edge come about as the leaves on the trees open in the Spring, and the CO2 falls. Then when the leaves fall from the trees in Autumn, the CO2 rises.

The trees sweep up CO2 from our atmosphere and replace it with oxygen, O2.

The trees hold our atmosphere in place. They are “sky anchors” which bind the chemical makeup of the atmosphere close to the earth where we can all use it. We must treasure our trees and protect them.

However, as the world population soars, more land for farming is required, for both subsistence farming and large scale farming. The land is also required for living space. As whole forests are cut down and burned, each of us needs to work to replace the trees. The Nature Conservancy is leading a campaign called “Plant a Billion Trees”, https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/plant-a-billion/. Its goal is to stimulate reforestation. Large scale efforts like this and even individuals planting trees in their garden can ensure clean air for all of us. The trees are “sky anchors” that can hold the sky in place.

Back to the Moon!

Today is the 50th anniversary of mankind’s first landing on the Moon. We celebrate the men and women of the United States , and truly of all nations, who worked to make the event happen, and who celebrate it’s reality. We all look forward to “peace for all mankind”.

Did any other story of the future written by Robert Heinlein look to the future with such a clear gaze. The character, D.D. Harriman in the 1940 science fiction story, The Man Who Sold the Moon, faces the reality that comes to all visionaries. What’s on the moon and how do you get people to buy it. At the very start of the story Mr. Harriman’s partner says to him, “… and don’t give me any guff about tourist trade and fabulous lunar jewels. I’ve had it.”

Today and this week and this year the moon is being sold; and its being bought. Again this is by visionaries. But are they right.? Is there profit to made on the moon? Can whatever resources that lie on its surface or buried in the moon’s crust and its interior be found and recovered for use?

This is the question that some forward thinkers are trying to answer.

The Washington Post’s lead article in the Business section on 17 February, 2019, “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot”, explores the current activities of nations and individuals/corporations who are sending landers to the Moon to start scratching the surface to determine if there are “lunar jewels” that can easily be picked up.

First what are these jewels? First of all there is the question of whether there is water on the moon. This is followed by questions related to the value and usability of minerals and compounds that may be found on the moon and put to use in industry. What are they? Where are they? Can they be mined (picked up even) and processed? Will they need to be brought back to earth for processing or can that be done on the moon, in situ? And is there a profit in it?

We don’t know the answer to these questions yet. That’s why nations and corporations are sinking hundreds and thousands of millions of dollars into making a soft landing on the moon and roving around and finding out the answers to our questions. And at this time we aren’t even talking about getting people, men and women, back onto the lunar surface.

Last year China succeeded in a soft landing of Chang’e 4 on the far side of the moon. Their rover is currently “asleep” as the sun is on the near-side of the moon and the far-side is in truth the dark-side. When the sun returns to the far-side of the moon, the rover, Yutu, will continue its mission of investigating the Moon’s magnetic filed, and analysis of the surface dust as well as a seismometer to study the interior of the moon.

Israel Space Industries (ISI) with their partners attempted to make a soft landing with their Beersheet mission, but their lander failed and crashed into the moon’s surface in April.. The lander mission was to study the Moon’s magnetic field. Initially they said they would try again. But ISI and its partners have said they will not make a second attempt – just yet. I can only imagine that they will make another attempt. There are not only riches at stake, but a good bit of national pride.

India is next up with their Chandrayaan-2 mission. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) mission has an orbiter, and a lander with a rover. The launch is scheduled for Monday, 22 July. The elements of the mission include the orbiter which will survey the surface of the Moon and the rover which will study the surface material as well as the make-up of the moon to a depth of 10 meters and beyond.

The U.S. has long range plans for landing men and women back on the moon. Russia also has this as a goal. However, we are likely ten years away from either to make a serious attempt. Both nations intend to send unmanned missions to the lunar surface before then.

Mr. Davenport in his Washington Post article, “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot”, comments “… the moon is drawing investors and explorers the way the promise of the American West once did.” A great deal of the effort on the moon will focus on the Moon’s south polar region where it is thought that there may be the possibility of extracting weather from the minerals of the Moon.

That would truly be a “Lunar Jewel”!

Articles reviewed for this post include:

“The Moon is Suddenly White Hot” in the Washington Post ,February 17, 2019, print edition; by Christian Davenport

Israel Today, 19 February 2019, “Israeli spacecraft scheduled for liftoff on Friday”, February 19, 2019: https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/israel-to-the-moon/

New York Times, India’s Shooting for the Moon, and the Country Is Pumped; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/world/asia/india-moon-landing.html

Chemistry World 15 July 2019, What is the moon made of?, by Mike Sutton, https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/what-is-the-moon-made-of/3010686.article

Art work based on “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot” in the Washington Post ,February 17, 2019 and Robert Heinlein’s book, The Man Who sold the Moon, Signet Edition, 1951.