Tag: Nature

Happy Week ‘o Nature!

~ mehopper

This is a busy week for nature lovers!

Wednesday, April 22nd is Earth Day, and Friday, April 24th is Arbor Day!

Of course, the typical way to celebrate is to attend events and plant trees.

My way of celebrating is to also update Cosma’s Nature pages.

Done! Links to the updated pages are below.

In the past I’ve also written posts for Earth Day.
Great Views of Earth
Perspectives on Earth

However, this year I decided to dust the cobwebs off of my Nature Center!

Click “doors” and objects to enter 360° experiences and “i”s for information about them.


You can also see it directly on Kuula.

Touch signs or use these links to enter Botanical Gardens Orangery, Hiking Trails Hall, Critter’s Hollow Refuge, and Natural History Museums).

Happy Earth Day and Arbor Day!

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Find out more about Earth Day and Arbor Day!

Earth Day (Official Site)
Earth Day 2026 Events (Official Site)
Earth Day Network (YouTube Channel)
Earth Day (Time & Date)
Earth Day (Wikipedia)

Arbor Day Foundation (Official Site)
Arbor Day Foundation (YouTube Channel)
Find an Arbor Day Celebration Near You (Celebrate Arbor Day)
Arbor Day (Time)
Arbor Day (Time & Date)
Arbor Day (Wikipedia)

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Find out more about Nature@Cosma …

Earth
Sphere Land, Ice, Water (Ocean), Air, Life (Cell, Gene)
Ecosystem Forest, Grassland, Desert, Arctic, Aquatic

Tree of Life
Microorganism Virus
Prokaryote Archaea, Bacteria
Eukaryote Protist, Fungi, Algae, Protozoa (Tardigrade)
Plant Flower, Tree
Animal
Invertebrate
Cnidaria Coral, Jellyfish
Cephalopod Cuttlefish, Octopus
Crustacean Lobster, Shrimp
Arachnid Spider, Scorpion
Insect Ant, Bee, Beetle, Butterfly
Vertebrate
Fish Seahorse, Ray, Shark
Amphibian Frog, Salamander
Reptile Turtle, Tortoise, Dinosaur
Bird Penguin, Ostrich, Owl, Crow, Parrot
Mammal Platypus, Bat, Mouse, Rabbit, Goat, Giraffe, Camel, Horse, Elephant, Mammoth
Walrus, Seal, Polar Bear, Bear, Panda, Cat, Tiger, Lion, Dog, Wolf
Cetacean Whale, Dolphin
Primate Monkey, Chimpanzee

Hike the Web

~ mehopper

Sunday, November 17th is National Hiking Day, and it’s one of my favorite “made up” holidays!

Here’s an inspirational video about it that includes a bit of nice history.

On This Day (YouTube Channel)
On This Day (Official Website)

Celebrating is easy — just take a hike, or a walk, if that’s more your speed.

The U.S. National Park Service maintains this handy map to help you find a place near you.

Find a Park Map (U.S. National Park Service)

Now, perhaps you are someone who needs a bit more inspiration than watching a video and clicking a link to find a park, or maybe you’re not in a position to take a hike or walk at all.

In that case, perhaps a “virtual” hike might help you celebrate. There are actually a surprising number of ways to take those on the Web.

For example, the U.S. National Park Service maintains a page for that, too.

Find Your “Virtual” Park (US National Park Service)

In addition, many of the parks’ websites have “Photos and Multimedia” pages that include “virtual” experiences. Here is an example from the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Virtual Tours (US National Park Service)

There are also many 360° videos on YouTube that provide virtual visits to National Parks.

For example, Air Pano has made quite a few of them. Here are links to pages on their website for three of them. Their home page has a map where you can find more.

Grand Canyon National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park

Here’s another YouTube Channel with a long playlist of great videos.

National Parks Virtual Tours — 360° Immersive Travel Experiences (Odyssey Visual Media)

Of course, Google doesn’t just make it so that you can immerse yourself in YouTube videos — they are also behind Google Earth. Here’s their “virtual visit” to the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon (Google Earth)

There are also some neat custom made “virtual” experiences. Virtual Yosemite is an example. There is also a Virtual Yosemite Directory.

Finally, writing this post inspired me to create this 360° experience called Hiking Trails Hall.

Click the “doors” to enter 360° virtual parks and “i”s for information about them.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

All of this nudged me to update the “nature” pages on Cosma. One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, I was inspired to create this entire Nature Center with three other spaces to explore in addition to Hiking Trails Hall. Again, click “doors” to enter 360° experiences, “i”s for information about them, and arrows to go to other areas of the Nature Center. Some objects also link to fun 360° experiences.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

Enjoy & Happy Hiking!

Learn more about nature …

Forest Bathing?

~ mehopper

I just came across a new, perplexing phrase.

Forest bathing?

Ugh? What’s that? I want to know more!

It turns out that it’s a form of nature therapy that originated in Japan where it is known as Shinrin-yoku.

Here’s a link to a video I found about the practice.

Why You Should Try the Japanese Art of Forest Bathing (LifeHacker, YouTube)

That stress relief sounds good, but I don’t happen to have a forest handy 🙁

However, I did find this soothing 360˚ video of the Hokkaido forest.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

GALAXIID (YouTube Channel)
GALAXIID (Official Website)

Nice, I could use some more of that!

Of course, there are plenty of other videos like that on YouTube. For example, you might enjoy a 17 minute long 360˚ video of a relaxing walk in a Norwegian forest.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Real Virtual Movies (YouTube Channel)

In fact, writing this post inspired me to create this 360° experience called Hiking Trails Hall.

Click the “doors” to enter 360° virtual parks and “i”s for information about them.

You can also see it directly on Kuula.

Here’s the thing, though. As neat as 360˚ videos and experiences can be, they are no substitute for the real thing when it comes to physical activity. If you don’t happen to have ingredients for “forest bath” nearby (i. e. an actual bunch of trees), then just go for a regular walk, in the real world, as often as you can.

So get out there and get moving to stay healthy and less stressed, whether or not you happen to be lucky enough to have a forest 🙂

Find out more about forests, trees and nature in general…

Arbornautics

~ mehopper

Traditional news stories usually cover a single subject or the straightforward relationship between two subjects. However, every once in awhile, a story comes along that crams a deceptive number of subjects and interesting relationships into a tiny space. Exploring stories like that can be an adventure. Here’s a link to a wonderful, five minute video that’s like that.

What Tardigrades Can Teach Us About Life in the Rainforest (Seeker, YouTube)

One of my favorite parts of the clip was the analogy about the rainforest as a system.

In an airplane, there are a lot of redundant screws. Maybe you don’t need every single one to fly the plane, but at some point, if they keep dropping off of the machine, it’s not going to work anymore.

Nicely said. So now, let’s unpack the story.

The most obvious thing to do is find out more about the main character in the story, Dr. Meg Lowman. It turns out she is widely known as “Canopy Meg,” she also bills herself as an “Arbornaut,” and she’s been involved in some “interesting” research.

Here’s a clip that shows more about how she was involved with some researchers who explored the canopy using hot air balloons and, incredibly, a luge. Yes, a sled, and even more oddly, they also used a raft! It’s hard to imagine — you’ve got to watch it!

CanopyMeg Lowman (YouTube Channel)
CanopyMeg Lowman (Official Website)

I couldn’t help but wonder if Canopy Meg’s experiences in the Amazon served as the basis for Medicine Man with Sean Connery and Lorraine Bracco. If you’ve never seen it, then here’s a trailer about the scientific side of the plot.

Medicine Man Trailer (YouTube)

As it turns out, Medicine Man doesn’t appear to be based upon Canopy Meg. Instead, it may have been based upon a man named Dr. Henry Ferguson.

Doctor Sues the Makers of Medicine Man (Terry Pristin, LA Times)

Trying to understand more about what Ferguson and his colleagues were doing, as well as what Canopy Meg mentioned about pharmaceuticals in the first clip, led to an unexpected detour into Ethnobotany, Ethnobiology, Ethnomedicine and Ethnopharmacology.

It turns out there are tons of articles about these subjects out there.
Ethnobotany (bioRxiv), Ethnobotany (JSTOR)
Ethnobiology (bioRxiv), Ethnobiology (JSTOR)
Ethnopharmacology (bioRxiv), Ethnopharmacology (JSTOR)
Ethnomedicine (bioRxiv), Ethnomedicine (JSTOR)

There’s even a whole Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. It can be interesting reading if you’ve got an appropriate scientific background.

Along the way, while looking for media about the rainforest, I found this 360° video.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Conservation International (YouTube Channel)
Conservation International (Official Website)

This shorter, non-360°, “behind the scenes” is even more interesting.

Conservation International (YouTube Channel)
Conservation International (Official Website)

Finally, what about those “cute” little water bears that Canopy Meg mentioned? Well, they may or may not be all that cute, but they sure are tough little buggers.

Scripps News (YouTube Channel)
Scripps News (Official Website)

They’re SO fascinating, I decided to create a whole new page dedicated to water bears.

Maybe water bears aren’t so “cute” afterall, but if you want to see something really cute, then be sure to check out this absolutely adorable little video from David Williams.

Big Word Club (YouTube Channel)
Big Word Club (Official Website)

Find out more about Arbornauts at the Tree Foundation …

Find out more about forests, trees, water bears, microorganisms, life and nature in general on Cosma …

Yellowstone, Beauty & Beast

~ mehopper

If you have been Yellowstone National Park, then you know it is a vast, beautiful place with some fairly odd geologic features that smell bad, like rotten eggs. If you’ve never been there, then you might just have a fairly apocalyptic view of it because of the supervolcano under it that has been featured in disaster movies.

Here’s a link to a short short introduction about what is above and below the surface.

Yellowstone World’s First National Park (National Geographic, YouTube)

Very informative, and the last line is key.

It must be seen and experienced to be believed and enjoyed.

National Geographic also made a “Virtual Yellowstone” 360° video.

Virtual Yellowstone 360° – Zen-Out at Yellowstone National Park (Nat Geo WILD, YouTube)

Here’s a link to a more specific coverage about the most famous geyser, Old Faithful, along with the 200 others in the park.

Old Faithful from the Air (Smithsonian Channel)

Here’s a link to another clip from the Smithsonian Channel about the current scientific understanding of the volcano.

Why Yellowstone Supervolcano Could Be Huge (Smithsonian Channel)

You can find out more about Yellowstone on these websites.

Yellowstone National Park (National Park Service)
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

You can also find out a ton more from these sources.

Yellowstone Supervolcano (Science News)
Yellowstone Supervolcano (Science Daily)
Yellowstone Supervolcano (Phys.org)
Yellowstone Volcano (JSTOR)
Yellowstone Volcano (NPR Archives)

Sometimes exploring news about Yellowstone can be interesting in unexpected ways. For example, I triped across a story about how studying life in Yellowstone’s toxic soup could help us find out if there’s life on Mars!

A Yellowstone guide to life on Mars (Michael Miller, Phys.org)

Neat stuff!

Find out more about Earth …