[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads//2013/01/Tall-Trees.mp3[/podcast] Sometimes science is focused on really big questions: where did life come from? How did the universe begin? But sometimes, the focus is much smaller. Sometimes, researchers set out to answer a simple question, one that many people have perhaps asked, but no one has ever set out systematically to answer. A question, for …
Tag: trees
O Tannenbaum
Time to re-roast an old chestnut, a column I wrote several years that has become fresh in my mind due to the successful completion last night of Operation Dress-the-Tree (to be followed in a few weeks, of course, by Operation Curse-the-Tree as the needle-shedding skeleton is hauled out to the alley). Is there scientific interest …
Photo of the (Yester)Day: Angus Crescent Elms
More photos here.
Bonus Photo of the (Yester)Day: Berries and Bricks
More photos here.
Merry Christmas!
More photos here.
Photo of the Day: Cellphone Christmas
Quite Impressionistic, isn’t it? More photos here.
Photo of the Day: The Looming Tree
More photos here.
Log buildings
As I mentioned last week, I recently spent a couple of days at the Chateau Montebello, the world’s largest log hotel. Ironically, that same weekend, another famous log structure, the central building at the Minaki Lodge in northern Ontario, burned to the ground. Both Montebello and Minaki were built more than 70 years ago. But …
Coast redwoods
Imagine a tree taller than the tallest building in Regina–by several stories; a tree as tall as a 30-story building. Imagine a tree trunk so massive you could easily live inside its hollowed trunk. Now imagine a whole stand of such trees, a valley filled with them. That’s the amazing reality of the Coast Redwoods. …
Have yourself a genetically modified little Christmas
Searching for the perfect Christmas tree can be a hassle, and even a tree that looks great on the lot can turn out to have weird branches, flat spots or gaps once it opens up. But someday soon, every Christmas tree may be perfect, thanks to science. Around 40 million Christmas trees are harvested every …
Forest fires
As a kid, I read lots of stories in the “Bambi” genre, tales of young creatures growing up in the forest. All those books seemed to feature a forest fire at some point, which terrified both their animal heroes and me. With people living in and exploiting forests more and more, forest fires have begun …
Wood
“How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” asks the familiar tongue-twister, to which the reply would have to be, in parts of southern Saskatchewan, “Not much.” The prairies just aren’t known for their abundance of trees. Northern Saskatchewan, however, is an entirely different matter. My continuing travels around the …
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