The Wonderful World of Oz…and Science

Lately I’ve been reading my way through the series of Oz books. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is only the first in a series of 14 books, and it’s not remotely the best. It’s fascinating to reread books I loved as a child. Some are still great. Others have inexplicably morphed into poorly-written, preachy duds. […]

Murmuration. The poetry of the morning walk.

This morning I awoke to the kind of day that offers an easy excuse to skip the walk. The temperature gauge read -3F (-19C) when I crawled out of bed, and by the time I’d finished the tea and hot porridge my husband had prepared, it was still only -1F. But the dogs were eager, the […]

Gossamer Wings and the Alchemy of Flight

Take one brilliant middle-school science teacher with a love of hang-gliding.   Add a classroom of typical teenagers, a phone book, a stack of printer paper, and a pair of scissors.  Watch something truly magical take place, as a fleet of miniature planes takes to the air on gossamer wings.   Who wants to work […]