Nature

As someone who derives a great deal of pleasure from growing and studying flowers, I would like to suggest that everyone get involved with planting flowers this spring, whether indoors or out, at home or as part of a community beautification program.

The sting. Pain is what we associate with the word “wasp,” because our definition of wasp is far too narrow.

Could extinct species, like mammoths and passenger pigeons, be brought back to life? In How to Clone a Mammoth, Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary biologist and pioneer in ancient DNA research, addresses this intriguing question by walking readers through the astonishing and controversial process of de-extinction.

My mother swears my first word was ‘horsie’. When other little girls were playing with dolls, I was snipping pictures of horses from newspapers and magazines, pasting them on poster board, and taping them to my bedroom walls.

Bonds of affection can take as many forms for birds as they do for humans, and common evolutionary themes explain many ways birds, like humans, experience and demonstrate “love.”

Even better than a shady bank scattered with the fresh June fronds of Beech Fern Phegopteris connectilis interwoven with bluebells, stitchwort, red campion and spikes of Wood Horsetail Equisetum sylvaticum is a roadside verge with thousands of Beech Fern fronds, stretching as far ahead as you can see and spilling down the bank into the woodland alongside.