The February 2010 edition of National Geographic contains an article entitled One Cubic Foot, written by Edward O. Wilson and photographed by David Littschwager. Mr. Littschwager took a green metal-frame cube and placed it into environments around the world, then photographed the life forms that he found coming and going through the cube. The photographs are fascinating so check out this magazine issue to see the results. Most of the life forms range from tiny to microscopic but the size of these creatures doesn’t prevent them from being extraordinarily beautiful.
This article started me wondering about what I would find in a cubic foot of space where I hang out. So I did a thought experiment and wandered around a mental version of my various environments. Imagine with me, a green metal-framed cube in the following spaces and what might be found there.
The Picnic Table: It is winter now and snow is blowing through my cube. I wonder what tiny, invisible-to-the-naked-eye creatures might be floating in the air or riding the snowflakes but I have no technological means to capture physical images of these possible travelers. If you’ve ever seen magnifications of snowflakes, you know how amazing they are and I wonder, how do we really know that no two are alike? But what a delight it is to find the footprints of birds and squirrels in the thin snow. Their lovely prints form a lacy design on the surface of the table and the ground under the bird feeder.
The Bird Feeder: It is a busy place with house finches, sparrows, chickadees, and juncos feasting on the black oil sunflower seeds that I provide. The birds are fascinating to watch and it appears that they throw seeds down to the patient pair of squirrels waiting below. After a visit to the local pet store to buy birdseed, I realized that one could spend quite a bit on birdseed and other wild critter food. Can you believe that a bag of – maybe – a dozen ears of corn to feed squirrels costs $11.00? I wonder how long a bag of corn cobs might last.
Outside My Front Door: Lots of stuff blows into the alcove at my front door. This area must be swept periodically or else it looks like lazy people live here which is only true sometimes! So the sweepings consist of dead leaves and sand pebbles year round and an assortment of insects in the summer time. Occasionally I have helped an innocent spider or roly-poly out into the yard before sweeping up the trash and the invisible critters I am sure are lurking in the sweepings in the dust pan. Apologies to these critters; I am doing the best that I can, and I do not want to look perpetually lazy.
My Rock Garden: The plants there consist of a variety of sedum plants and, in the summer, annual marigolds. Ants live in my yard and so populate this particular flower bed. It is interesting to rest on hands and knees and watch the ants. They are always busy. I’ve never seen an ant relaxing, taking in the sunshine, and watching the passing scene, as I like to do. But in this particular green cube is a rock with lichens growing on it. You can find magnifications of lichens on the Internet and these organisms, in their varied forms and colors may be the plant equivalent of snowflakes.
Wikipedia says “Lichens sometimes are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus (the mycobiont) with a photosynthetic partner (the photobiont or phycobiont), usually either a green alga (commonly Trebouxia) or cyanobacterium (commonly Nostoc).The morphology, physiology and biochemistry of lichens are very different from those of the isolated fungus and alga in culture. Lichens occur in some of the most extreme environments on Earth—arctic tundra, hot deserts, rocky coasts, and toxic slag heaps. However, they are also abundant as epiphytes on leaves and branches in rain forests and temperate woodland, on bare rock, including walls and gravestones, and on exposed soil surfaces (e.g., Collema) in otherwise mesic habitats. Lichens are widespread and may be long-lived; however, many are also vulnerable to environmental disturbance, and may be useful to scientists in assessing the effects of air pollution,ozone depletion, and metal contamination. Lichens have also been used in making dyes and perfumes, as well as in traditional medicines.”
That’s a mouthful, but consider what a wonderful thing is growing on a rock in my back yard.
Hubby’s Garage Workbench in Summer: Hubby is an organized dude and his garage workbench always has some tools scattered on it depending on the project of the moment. Besides the tools there may be stray leaves, bits and pieces of the Miller Moths that invade us every summer, as well as a glass of ice tea and a cookie provided by me. It is fascinating to watch Hubby work on his various projects. He wields his tools like a master musician.
My Scrap Basket: This contains, at any given time, scraps from assorted knitting and sewing projects. The contents may include bits of string, yarn, fabric, buttons, beads, sewing needles, knitting needles, crochet hooks, glue, tape, ribbon, twist ties, paper clips, safety pins, pencils, pens, cat hair, scissors, small Ziploc bags, tissues, a plastic fork, a drinking straw, toothpicks, sandpaper, old magazines, small stones, and some spare, unused teabags. If this scrap basket and its contents describe some of my daily activities, you may draw your own conclusions.
What sort of things would you find in your own cubic foot?
