On January 30, 1903, British-American zoologist George Evelyn Hutchinson was born. His growth as a preeminent ecologist was perhaps foreshadowed when the young Hutchinson set up his own aquarium “pond” with red water mites and other aquatic insects to observe their behaviour. And kept…
On December 1, 2005, Torngat Mountains National Park of Canada was officially established along the northeast coast of Labrador after decades of study and land claim settlements. Labrador’s spectacular first national park includes Arctic Cordillera and Tundra ecozones and a rugged coastline of mountains,…
On November 27, 1701,, Swedish astronomer and mathematician Anders Celsius was born. He has become most famous outside of his native Sweden for the temperature scale he created. There were a number of temperature scales in use in different countries and regions during his…
On October 21, 1999, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison was designated a National Park in western Colorado. The long narrow canyon is a carving of about two million years of relentless river erosion through the soft as well as granite bedrock created by…
On August 3, 1915, American zoologist Donald Redfield Griffin was born. As a Harvard undergraduate and early pioneer in animal behaviour studies, he investigated bat echolocation as the animal’s means of navigation, along with fellow student and future neurophysiologist, Robert Galambos. Griffin coined the…
On April 15, 1452, Leonardo da Vinci was born. Without formal education, he recorded much of his interest in every facet of life and study. He was an observational scientist who tried to understand something by illustrating and describing it, taking joy in quiet,…
On February 26, 1919, the first national park east of the Mississippi River was designated in Maine. Originally called Lafayette National Park, 10 years later it was renamed Acadia, a name that better reflects the area’s history. It includes a red granite mainland…
On September 5, 1892, Danish anthropologist and cartographer Therkel Mathiassen was born. He studied Arctic cultures at sites from Greenland to Nunavut and followed the spread of culture and emigration of Inuit ancestors. He named these the Thule people. Mathiassen located little groups of…