Check Out These Blog Posts From Steve McEllistrem

We now know that plants are intelligent – not in the same way people or animals are intelligent, perhaps, but they are able to learn and communicate, share nutrients with fellow plants, and even move in their own way. In short, they’re not as different from us as we like to believe. This is all relatively new science, but I find it fascinating. I long suspected that there was more to plants than people believed, but I never pursued that ...

I’ve noticed a few troubling trends lately – a correlation between obesity and dementia, a correlation between pollution and obesity, and a correlation between pollution and diseases like Parkinson’s and ALS. It’s like the world is conspiring to get back at us for everything we’ve done to it. If pollution, particularly air pollution, is leading to an increase in obesity as well as neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and ALS, and if obesity is leading to an increase in dementia, then ...

When we learn things, we generally acquire a superficial level of knowledge about them. For example, we learn that leaves turn color in the fall, and perhaps we understand that that’s because they stop their food-making process. The chlorophyll breaks down and since chlorophyll is what makes leaves look green, the leaves now take on a yellow, orange or red hue. But how many of us truly understand what’s happening – how the chemical reactions inside the plants actually work, ...

I’ve been stalking nostalgia for a while now, back through the recesses of my mind, where it likes to lounge in a pleather recliner, reliving good times, meaningful events, old friends, and wiping away the occasional onslaught of tears, pretending they’re nothing more than ragweed allergies. By nostalgia, I’m referring to a sentimental longing or yearning for a place or period from my past – one with happy memories or personal associations. It doesn’t need to be exclusively happy, but ...