Doesn't that just frost your cake?

Seeds, once in the possession of the Phactor, seem to have a viablity half-life in terms of hours or days.  And the more important they are for your research, the sooner their viability disappears completely.  And then you try to store items of short shelf-life in your freezer only to find them dehydrated beyond any ability to resurrect them.  Now using tissue culture, a Frankensteinian technology, Russian scientists have succeeded in growing a plant from 30,000 yr old seeds frozen in perma-frost.  They did not report that a container of inedible frozen squash was found right next to the seeds. While the seeds were not directly viable, they contained viable tissue, but this is pretty remarkable longevity of frozen tissue.  In this case the plant is a species of Silene (cy-lean-ee)(the radio announcer pronouced it cy-lean just moments ago) that still exists, although small differences can be seen.  In other words, it has changed a bit over 30,000 years.  Now let's do something really cool and revive the wooly mammoth. Have they found any of its seeds? 

Spring has begun!

Not counting small weedy winter annuals, like chickweed, the flowering season, our definition of spring, officially began yesterday, the 18th! of February, with the flowering of a witchhazel and snowdrops.  Snowdrops and aconite have been in bloom in warmer sunnier places for a week or more in other places, but our gardens are pretty shady.  Now let's look at the data.  The earliest this witchhazel has flowered in the past was the 9th of March.  The earliest the snowdrops have flowered was the 4th of March.  This puts 2012 15 to 20 days ahead of 2010; 2011 was generally later for everything.  Hellebores and lots of bulbs are getting ready to go.  So the garden log was dusted off, a new column was added, and we're ready to go. 

Plan ahead - corn your beef

St. Patrick's Day looms just 4 weeks from now, so if you want that corned beef to be ready in time, get it started.  This will be relatively easy this year because having gotten the OK from Homeland Security to purchase potassium nitrate last year, the supply will suffice for this year and the next couple as well.  Corned beef is one of those homemade things that is so much better than store-bought.  The recipe is also posted at that link, so once you get your clearance you're ready to go. 

Just don't drink the water

“In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria.”  David Auerbach, 2002.

Dear fellow imbibers, having once been chided for traveling with a small supply of bourbon, the Phactor explained it was strictly for medicinal purposes.  And it’s so good to know that my favorite excuse has more than an element of truth to it.  Once, a whole bus load of fellow travelers get a nasty wog from the local water that the Phactors avoided because one of us had stowed a couple of bottles of beer for quenching our thirst even be they not cold.  Now all those cases of cholera and diarrhea that were not caught will be attributed to a strict reliance on ethanolic beverages when abroad.  So here it all is, via the Scientific American blogs, so you know it’s safe to drink it all in.

Joseph Hooker - Botanical Explorer, and plant quiz too!

Joseph Hooker was one of the most prominent botanists of Darwin's day.  His exploits and travels are the stuff of adventures.  So hang on to your pocket books and credit cards because this new book about Hooker is going to be hard to resist, and since it is actually quite reasonable in price, why not indulge a bit in some botanical history.  Hooker probably named more plants than anyone since Linnaeus.  So here's the link if you're interested.  And dang the Phactor loves that hat, rakish angle and all.  Yes, botanists are dashing sorts, especially in the field.  And do you recognize the plant that is being illustrated?  If so, what sex is it and where was it growing (country)? 

Spring has sprung, almost - in February?

Here in the upper midwest February has been a winter month for as long as the Phactor can, uh, uh, oh, something, period.  And both my faithful PC and my fancy satellite-signal updating watch say today is the 17th of February, and the high today will be 50F.  The earliest any plant has ever flowered in the Phactors' gardens, not counting the silly chickweed which is already in flower, is March 1st.  On the route to work a favorite hedgerow, long neglected, is filled with snowdrops and aconite, and they are in full bloom, an event always ahead of the Phactors' shady gardens.  The tens of thousands of scilla that will turn our yard blue are poking up everywhere along with all the other early bulbs.  Still witchhazel usually wins the trophy for earliest in bloom.  It's going to take quite a bit of mental resetting, maybe by satellite signal, to start thinking of February as spring.  A terrifying thought just occurred; field research will start earlier than ever and overlap even more of the semester!  How to ruin a decent morning's late winter revery.  Pass the seed catalogues and a margarita, please, and we'll see if we can adjust. 

Sucrose therapy

Darwin day was not a great success this year in terms of numbers, although a great success with those who came.  Some students were a bit depressed and came for some major league sucrose therapy, and even considering the lack of clinical data, all that sugary frosting seemed to help.  A few curious ones looked through the considerable Darwin library that the Phactor has assembled over the years and several decided that, yeah, maybe they should read some Darwin.  The trouble it seems is that email is no longer a relevant form of communication among students; email is to be ignored along with newspapers, web sites, and bulletin board posters as if they were cave paintings.  And then a couple of smart-phone zombies wandered by both totally absorbed in the little screen before their nose as if to underscore their indifference to anything else. What would Darwin have done?  He's have a piece of cake with lots of frosting flowers. 

Confirming your suspicions on climate change denial

Particularly with the topic of climate change denialism, it was pretty easy for us skeptics to believe that corporations and individuals whose fiscal interests are wrapped up in polluting businesses were promoting denialism by paying think tanks, even pseudothink tanks, to produce counter arguments, counter "studies", to convince people that the issue is still a matter of some debate, something still disputed, so reasonable, but gullible, people still might think inaction is OK or maybe even warranted.  Now someone has spilled the beans on the Heartland Institute, that wonderful organization that pioneered denialism for the tobacco industry.  And it worked so well for so long that it only made sense to use their tobacco-causes-cancer denialism play-book on climate change.  You can find all the details in some leaked documents via Greg Laden's blog.  The best part is how you portray climate change as "uncertain and controversial" as a means of dissuading teachers from teaching science!  Yes, keep them uneducated about science; they're just so much more gullible that way.  An awful lot of people will be very defensive, if not downright belligerent, because it isn't fun to find out you've been played.  The same tactic has worked pretty well for religious opposition to evolution too.  And why shouldn't it?  Grifters know that the same old cons continue to work. 

Botancial Geek Tour - 2012

The planning is underway for this year's botanical geek tour, our third, in the continuing quest to see the 1001 botanical gardens you should see before you die.  Economic times being what they are, and the Phactor's salary being what it is, the tour is most likely to be domestic, and in mid to late May.  One plan suggested thus far is to center the tour around Longwood Gardens.  It is hard to believe that the Phactors have not been there before, but that's the fact.  Now here's the question: what else in the general region warrents a botanical geek's attention?  Your suggestions will be taken under consideration.  If you know the region well, remember that good food and beverages are an important, actually essential, component of botanical geek tours.  Last tour the best cole slaw in the world was encountered in a bar and grill located nowhere in particular in rural Wisconsin, so this does not mean fancy is what we seek.  Let's hear from you.

Cake Walk

Ordering a cake for Darwin's belated birthday was like a trip to another land.  Cake themes: subcategory: professional - no biological/scientific professions at all.  Bummer.  Can you do some botanical decorations?  No, would flowers be OK?  Yes.  Message: Happy 203rd Birthday Charles.  Wow!  203!  That's amazing!  He's 203?  No, Charles is actually dead, but it's still his birthday.  And you're celebrating his birthday?  Yes.  OK.  Charles who?  Darwin.  Oh. Oh!  Darwin!  He did genetics or something.  Yes.  White cake or chocolate?  Marble.  Butter-cream frosting?  Yes.  Wow, you know your cakes!  Thanks.  A healthy dose of cake reality complements of the local grocery store baker.