Do oysters cause disease? Or, can oysters be the magic bullet that cleans up polluted waters? Which is better for fish habitat: an oyster bed, or one of eel grass? Dr. Robert Rheault, Executive Director of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association (ecsga.org), discussed those questions in conjunction with the showing of the film “Shell Shocked: saving oysters to save ourselves” at URI recently. The event was sponsored by […]
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Note: SaNfaP is on Facebook! Go to facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and click on “Follow” to receive pictures, facts, and more about the natural world. Then suggest that your friends do the same. They’ll thank you. -HM “I take everything away that isn’t a bird, and what’s left is a bird.” Hmmm… if that instruction on bird carving sounds a bit too simple to be true, that’s because it is. And champion […]
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2 Comments Note: SaNfaP is on Facebook! Go to facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and click on “Follow” to receive pictures, facts, and more about the natural world. Then suggest that your friends do the same. They’ll thank you. -HM It takes Captain Tom Puckett a moment to decide on the most unusual fish he’s brought aboard the URI research vessel Cap’n Bert. Tall, lanky, and sporting curly gray hair, Puckett has been responsible for […]
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5 Comments It’s dusk. A dirt parking lot (well, more like a clearing of dirt) retains a few cars, and further back there is a small circle of people sporting binoculars. They wear the full palette of the bird watcher’s color wheel: khaki, tattered khaki, dirty khaki, spanking new khaki, and new khaki stressed to look old. (We are nothing if not consistent.) A bearded young man in the circle speaks to […]
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No Comments Note: “Science and Nature for a Pie” is now on Facebook! Visit www.facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and “like” the page for ongoing discussions, photos, and factoids! Looking at them was like seeing diamonds scattered in the shoreline. They were translucent, and sparkled brilliantly in the wet sand as the sun caught them. There were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, running the entire 1.5-mile length of Napatree Point Conservation Area. Shimmering, sparkling, a king’s […]
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Note: “Science and Nature for a Pie” is now on Facebook! Visit www.facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and “like” the page for ongoing discussions, photos, and factoids! Taylor Swift’s cell phone tower? Some new spying gadgetry from the NSA? Wrong on both counts. Then why on earth is a 40-foot tall antenna rising from the dunes at Napatree Point Conservation Area in Westerly, RI? Fear not. This is an instrument being used by doctoral […]
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2 Comments Note: “Science and Nature for a Pie” is now on Facebook! Like the page for regular updates on new stories, photos, and other discussions about the wonders of the outdoor world! www.facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie . If moths and butterflies thought like human children, they would be embroiled in a never-ending case of sibling rivalry. “Why do the butterflies get all the attention?” the moths would moan. “People never even notice us!” The […]
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No Comments Note: “Science and Nature for a Pie” is now on Facebook! Stop by and “like” the page for ongoing stories, photos, and discussions about the great outdoors! https://www.facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie “You have some gall saying that to me!” “Man, that guy galls me!” It’s difficult to determine precisely how common these expressions still are, but most will recognize the idea that having “gall” or to “gall” someone is not a good thing. […]
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Note: The 2014 BioBlitz was held at what’s left of one of Rhode Island’s legendary attractions: Rocky Point Amusement Park. That story is in a different post. What follows here is a memoir of my time spent working as a busboy at my first job, at the Shore Dinner Hall. The story goes that river boat captain William Winslow brought the genteel set to Rocky Point in the 1840’s for […]
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No Comments From the mid-19th century until the late 20th, it was a fantasy land of adventure. Rides, games, food, music. Over its 150-year life cycle, it was a world of vaudeville acts and 1970’s metal bands playing in the Windjammer Lounge. Visitors swam in a salt water swimming pool, filled from the rocky waters of Narragansett Bay, whose cool breezes swept the park from only feet away. They arrived by […]
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