Blogger (Book and) Bio Blitz

A biology student and writer, Jeremy, at The Voltage Gate has initiated The First Annual Blogger Bioblitz. What's a Bioblitz? In general, it asks observers to identify and count all of the different species (plant, animal fungal) in a certain area within a certain time. Conducted between April 21 and April 29, bloggers around the world will make multitudes of counts, to be compiled and posted on Voltage Gate, with mapping and other cool techno-enhancements, depending on contributions.

I'm planning to "blitz" a small area around my local library and encourage others, non-bloggers included, to give blitzing a try. It's a great way to put your stacks of dusty field guides to work and to figure out which guides work best & which new ones you might need to really get to know your local flora and fauna. To learn the rules of the blitz, please visit Jeremy at Voltage Gate. It's a good blog to visit for its own sake, too, for stories about biology, ecology, and the wacky world of environmental science.

Give Your Reading a Lift

Most North Americans think of ginseng as a Chinese herbal remedy, a mood lifter and energizer, encountered most often in the health food aisle. But David Taylor's new book, Ginseng, the Divine Root, tells a much more complex story. Journalist Taylor followed the herb for a year, from its native forests in Appalachia (it's nearly extinct in Asia) to the streets in Hong Kong, where a pound of wild roots can bring $400. Along the way, Taylor looks back, too, to learn that Jesuits in colonial Canada first recognized that the Asian and North American plants were viritually identical, launching over 300 years of lucrative international trade. He also investigates the health claims (confirmed and purported) by traditional herbalists and modern phamaceutical peddlars. No wonder Taylor's subtitle is: The Curious History of the Plant that Captivated the World. To learn more about the book, see David Taylor's website .

Reading this delightful book was part of the too-long research for an article that I wrote this week. Although ginseng is quite fascinating, I needed to hurry up but couldn't seem to get just the info that I needed. So I kept reading and reading, plus interviewing a few experts and re-reading their remarks. The process was dragging, which often happens to me at least, if not to most nonfiction writers.

This time, though, I found a way to perk up my research by getting away from the printed word. Though there are no movies about ginseng (an empty niche, Ken Burns?), I found a cool video showing an herbalist digging the roots on YouTube Digging Part I . There were some other lively entries in the category, too, including one the debate about health effects and several music-related. While at the site, I checked for Rachel Carson and Henry Thoreau-related videos and came up with a few of those, too.

I think I'll make YouTube a regular stop on my reading list. I think it can give visual variety, authenticity, and even humor to your reading life. That's a lift from ginseng I didn't expect.