Biophilia

'Biophilia' is a term the famous biologist E.O Wilson termed for our innate attraction to lush green landscapes, healthy ecosystems, fertile fields, essentially to other life. So, 'love of life'. I've always identified with the term in a nerdy biologist sort of way to represent my own love of nature.

After the wrap up of the conference. Some of us wandered over (in typical biologist fashion of course), to where else? Duh, the local natural history museum...ha, I dork out in natural history museums...I could spend days just wandering around them. So in typical fashion I found myself the last one out at closing time, still only a quarter of the way through all I wanted to see.

The museum on campus here is famous for a collection of glass flowers, literally, handmade in Europe by a dutch family at the beginning of the last century. The idea in terms of collections I suppose, is that real flowers wilt and die, but glass can always be preserved. It was pretty incredible, as were many of the exhibits. I had a hard time narrowing down my blip but eventually I settled on this fossil cast of a Pteronodon (I think?)...

I liked the lighting and the elegance of its design . Extinct now, or as I once heard it put, 'the death of birth'. Extinction. That is one thing that looking at so many old bones of bizarre ancient (and less ancient) creatures reminds me of....but I also love to just stare at the remains of those creatures and wonder what it would be like to come face to face...Just imagining living on a world with animals like that gets my imagination going! I mean how cool...?!!