By Wendy Langhans

Normally, I look for Prickly Pear Cactus in the spring; their cheerful yellow flowers are quite striking in May and June.  But last weekend, I got to see the fruits of their labors - pear-shaped, purplish-red fruit known as “Tunas”.

By Wendy Langhans

Sometimes I go in search of stories and sometimes they go in search of me.  Sometimes...they even pay a visit to my back porch.

While I was watering the plants on our back porch, just before sunset, I spotted a small green leaf on the railing.  Being in a mood to tidy-up, I walked over to it.  That’s when I got a surprise.  It wasn’t a stray leaf - it was a Katydid, most likely a Broadwinged Katydid, Microcentrum rhombifolium (also known as Greater Angle-wing Katydid).  And she was waiting for the evening serenade to begin.

By Wendy Langhans

Tucked away in on a shelf in my office is a can of compressed gas, which I use occassionally use to clean the dust off my computer keyboard.

The first time I used it, I noticed that the can became really cold, almost too cold to hold.  Physicists refer to this cooling as adiabatic expansion:  “As the gas expands and does work, its internal energy drops, resulting in cooling.”  We see this process at work whenever air flows up and over our surrounding mountain ranges, especially when there’s a bit of humidity in the air:  “When the cooled gas makes contact with water vapor in the air, it condenses and forms a mist.”

By Wendy Langhans

What does Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, the writers of the U.S. Constitution, the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Native Americans of southern California have in common?

They all used plant galls as a source of black dye.

Oak galls were used to produce iron-gall ink.  To make the ink, oak galls were crushed to obtain gallotanic acid.  Then the acid was mixed with water and iron sufate and exposed to oxygen.  Gum arabic from acacia trees was added as binder, resulting in iron-gall ink.  It had an advantage over carbon-based ink; iron-gall ink would not rub off of parchment.

By Wendy Langhans

Sometimes it pays to get up early.  Like last Saturday, when a few intrepid (or insomniac) folks went for a morning walk with me in Pico Canyon.

Our valley was wrapped in fog, yet the mountains were clear and bathed in the early morning light.  Rabbits were out feeding -  taking advantage of the transitional time - before the hawks woke up and after most owls called it a night.

By Wendy Langhans

Have you ever watched people walking?  Did you notice how their arms swing in sync with their opposite legs?  As the right leg steps forward, the left arm swings forward (and vice versa).

Moving our arms make us more stable and our walking more efficient “by counterbalancing our torso and hips and keeping them from twisting and bobbing too much.”

But what about creatures with legs but not arms, like a caterpillar?  How do they maintain their stability, especially when crawling on a vertical surface?  When you observe how a caterpillar crawls, you see it moves in waves, moving one segment at a time while keeping the rest of it’s body in contact with the surface.  For those of you who swim, the movement resembles a butterfly stroke.  For those of you who dance, visualize how the torso can undulate back and forth while krumping.

By Wendy Langhans

The other day, my Dad and I were exploring Frog Alley, part of the Vernon Wildlife Area in southeastern Wisconsin.  We spotted some Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), one of the most common of the 24 different species of Goldenrod in Wisconsin.

And true to their name, these flowers brightened the lush green meadow with deep golden swatches.

By Wendy Langhans

Have you ever watched a wound heal? Bleeding, followed by a scab, which falls off revealing pinkish skin that eventually changes back to skin color. Healing is a process, involving a series of changes over time.

Ecologists also study changes over time; they refer to this process as succession: “a process of ecological change in which a series of natural communities are established and then replaced over time.” Primary succession begins with the creation of new land, empty of life. (eg. land created by a lava flow).  Secondary succession is like healing a wound, it begins with land where life once existed but has been destroyed (eg. after a wildfire).

by Wendy Langhans

Handles on bags. Such a simple thing, but it allows us to carry more than we otherwise could. That’s true for us and also true for pollen-carrying insects.

When we think of pollen, we think of tiny, mustard-yellow powdery grains, the kind that stick to beetles and bees.

By Wendy Langhans

This weekend, as we celebrate the 4th of July, we pay a special tribute to those who have and are now serving our country.  This weekend my family is also celebrating my father’s 88th birthday.  Ansel Burton Bratberg served in the Army Air Corps during WWII, flying 42 combat missions in a B-17 over Europe. So, in honor of those who returned (and those who did not), here is his homecoming story.

By Wendy Langhans

What does “The Boomerang” principle” and the “Different Strokes” principle have in common? We’ve all heard of these principles; we may have even quoted them ourselves. The Boomerang principle can be found in the saying, “What goes around, comes around” and the Different Strokes principle is found in, “It all depends upon your point of view”. The first principle has to do with “getting even”, while the second promotes diversity and tolerance. So what could they possibly have in common?