Tag Archives: water

Cool Beans

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by James Morris
Illustration by Sara Haidermota

A few summers ago, I was driving my two sons to a trail head for a hike in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. They were going with a group of kids up a mountain called Iroquois.

I advised them to be sure to bring lots of water for the long hike. In turn, they asked me how I was going to spend my day. “Writing about urine,” I replied.

“Urine?” they asked incredulously.

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Snow Daze

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by James Morris
Illustrations by Hannah King

Watch Factory after Winter Storm Juno, Waltham, MA, 1/27/15

Watch Factory after Winter Storm Juno, Waltham, MA, 1/27/15

What is snow?
We do not know.
But snow is lots of fun,
We know.
~P. D. Eastman

What is snow? That’s a simple question. Everyone knows what snow is. But when I asked my teenage son, he wasn’t sure. He of course knew it’s kind of like ice, but when I asked why it doesn’t look like frozen rain (sleet), he wasn’t sure. I then asked several other people, both kids and adults, and they were also unsure.

This is one of those everyday questions that is harder to answer than we think. Snow is something familiar and at the same time unfamiliar. Continue reading →

Stamp of History

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by James Morris

November 24, 2014 marks the 155th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Anniversaries are an opportunity to look back – in this case, way back. The Origin changed the way we look at the world and gave us a new window on the past. This essay is a celebration of our remarkable history.

In golf, we are told to focus on the next shot, to just look ahead. Don’t worry about past mistakes: a shot in the bunker, a slice that spins the ball out of bounds, an errant drive that enters the water with a loud and emphatic splash. Perhaps this is why many see golf as a lesson for life: Don’t dwell on the past. Move on. No “what if’s” or “if only’s.”

GolfballIn biology, however, there is no such forgetting the past. Continue reading →