English (or Common) Ivy

I visited a friend yesterday and she gave me an idea for today’s blog – Common Ivy (or, as I just found -Hedera Helix). She has been fighting it for the last three years since she moved to this place, but as far as I can see, the victory is not in sight yet.

It is a very invasive plant, and if you let it grow unchecked, it can take over and choke even the strongest trees. I’ve read it can climb into the canopy of trees in such density that the trees will fall from the weight. Ivy can grow to create the whole "ivy deserts" and, because of it, in some places it is illegal to sell or import it.

It looks like it can stick to, or climb on almost anything. I found it interesting that it is actually being dispersed by birds eating the berries. I see ivy growing everywhere here in Washington – people’s yards, parks, trails, many many different places. I wonder if there were ever any serious efforts to get rid of it locally. I was also wondering if there is anything positive or useful about ivy and found that it can actually be quite good for honey producing as the ivy flowers are very rich in nectar, and are an important late fall food source for bees. I’ve also read that in the past, the leaves and berries were used to treat cough and bronchitis.

However, when I described all this ivy goodness to my friend, she was not convinced. She said she was not giving up. To her, she said, it’s a holy war. She hates ivy with a passion, and she won’t rest until she eradicates it completely from at least her own back (and front) yard.

Growing straight trees.

I was always wondering how to make trees grow straight and tall. I know commertially trees are planted together so they will just grow straight up to reach for the maximum amount of sunlight. But I wanted to find out how can I do it myself and if there are any special tricks. It seems every time I try they are growing out at an awkward angle. I wanted to see if there is any way to train a tree to grow straight up, like a classic tree...

I went on a bunch of different Internet forums but did not really find any good advices except recommendations to insert a stake right next to the tree and tie in several places to straighten it up. I was hoping for something better, as sometimes they look real funny staked, not very straight at all with large gaps between where it's tied. But I guess, if you adjust the ties every so often to different spots, in time it will straighten.

That was what I ended up doing when I got my fig tree from a nursery in Morton, Wa. We will see how it does after a couple of years:-)

Biological Processes in Nature

As an example of biological process I will talk about frying an egg. Since every biological process is a chemical reaction which results in transformation this would be a great example. In its natural state an egg has yellow middle part called yolk and clear, white substance around the yolk called albumen. Both of these parts are composed of protein. As soon as an egg is placed on a frying pan and temperature becomes more than the protein can withstand, albumen of an egg becomes solid white and yolk becomes hard, and of a different consistency. This process is called denaturation, and once denaturation of protein happens it is irreversible. This example is an example of biological process since once substance was transformed to another.

Clouds

One of the most interesting things I saw when I first came here were the clouds. Never before I've seen them so close. I almost felt I could touch them. I remember driving over Snoqualmie Pass on my way to Eastern Washington and the clouds were so low I was actually driving through them when I got high enough. I still find it beautiful when I see white clouds in blue skies.

I remember from my early school days that you can tell a lot from the color or the cloud. If the cloud is dark, it means it is thick, but a thin cloud will let much more light through and as a result will be much lighter. I found on Wikipedia that a green color may indicate heavy rain, hail, strong winds and possible tornadoes. Yellowish clouds may signal forest fire season due to the presence of pollutants in the smoke. Yellowish clouds are sometimes seen in urban areas with high air pollution levels.

Clouds also participate in regulating weather and climate but the complexity of how they are being created cases uncertainty in projections of global warming. On the one hand, white colored clouds promote cooling of the Earth by reflecting radiation from the Sun. However radiation that makes it to the ground is reflected back and easily absorbed by water in the clouds resulting in a net warming at surface level. (I took this phrase almost entirely from Wikipedia)

Another interesting new research relevant to the clouds, indicates a global brightening trend.[*] I found it interesting that there is a cyclical brightening and dimming in the skies as time goes by that is relevant to climate changes.

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*Martin Wild, Hans Gilgen, Andreas Roesch, Atsumu Ohmura, Charles N. Long, Ellsworth G. Dutton, Bruce Forgan, Ain Kallis, Viivi Russak, and Anatoly Tsvetkov. From dimming to brightening: Decadal changes in solar radiation at Earth’s surface. Science, 308(5723):847–850, 5 2005. URL http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/308/5723/847.