What determines the variety of trees in a tropical forest? Is it the seed size? Perhaps seed-hungry animals? And what happens to forests that are being drastically changed by humans? Smithsonian Tropical Research Center Botanist, Helene Muller Landau, talks about her attempt to find answers to these questions.

The post Meet Our Scientist: Helene Muller Landau – Tropical Forest Science appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Smithsonian Scientist Helen James dives into dormant Hawaiian volcanoes to find bird fossils. Her work to identify these species (some new species, some extinct) helps us learn about the past--specifically, how humans might have caused the extinction of certain bird species.

The post Meet Our Scientist–Helen James dives into dormant Hawaiian volcanoes to find bird fossils appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers a framework to guide federal, tribal, state and local agencies, community groups, and other interested and affected parties in making decisions about the Spirit Lake and Toutle River system, near Mount St. Helens in southwest Washington state.

Patt's Hats for April 17, 2013.; Credit: Michelle Lanz/KPCC

Is it, by chance, Helena Bonham Carter’s birthday? This begged me to take it out of the closet this morning, a frock very much a la Bonham Carter mode. [We all do know that her husband, Tim Burton, is from Burbank, right?]
 
The dress is from Stefanel – anyone know of Stefanel? An Italian company that’s done especially knockout knits. I don’t know that it has any shops here in the U.S. but I hazarded into Stefanel in Europe and liked the attitude, as well as the silhouettes, and this one in particular.
 
The sweater-ribbed knit band at the bottom puts an edge on the frou-frou of the skirt, as do the big hardware snaps on the bodice.  [That word, froufrou, or frou-frou, meaning fussy or embellished, or covered with "furbelows." "Furbelows"  is one of my favorite fashion words.
 
"Froufrou" dates to France in about 1870, when women’s clothes were exactly that. Sarah Bernhardt, one of my style icons, starred in a play entitled “Frou-Frou.”   

Of course Bernhardt gets to die ravishingly and at length in the play – she had more ways of expiring than James Bond’s villains ever dreamed up – and even though she only performed in French, American audiences ate it up when she toured here. Bernhardt said she could always recoup her fortunes in the United States, and “Frou Frou” helped her to do just that.
 
This dress, with the taffeta bubble skirt, reminded me of the style worn by Tom Wolfe’s New York society matrons in “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” It’s the magnificently seminal social novel about race and wealth in 1980s New York. Wolfe he called the women “social X-rays” for the bony gauntness they cultivated. If you have not read it, you really must. It lays the groundwork for the lifestyles of the Wall Street rich and notorious of today, and is one of my favorite novels.
 
The Lucite heel on the ankle boots – "Perspex," as the British call it – gives the effect of floating, ballerina-like, across the floor – an effect I will never achieve in real life, so must rely on footwear to give me a semblance of it.

I coveted the Lucite-wedge shoes that Maison Margiela sold briefly at H&M, but didn’t have the stamina to wake up at dawn and line up at 6 a.m. back when they went on sale, so these shoes gave me a bit of the same look, along with a full night’s sleep.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Watford Ladies captain Helen Ward has been called up for international duty by Wales for a friendly with Estonia.

The Republican presidential candidate from Minnesota thinks she has the magic touch for lowering prices at the pump.

Video: Life erupts once again from the once lifeless mountain.

The tongue-in-cheek campaign, courtesy of 350.org, proposes naming storms after climate change deniers.

The latest Republican to seek the presidency has a clear environmental record.

Answering the President's Executive Order "National Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End Suicide," WVIC plan is a bold, shovel-ready therapeutic model for our nation.

Ms. Fioratti applies years of expertise into her work with L'Antiquaire and the Connoisseur, Incorporated

Dr. Tanous has been endorsed by Marquis Who's Who as a leader in the fields of healthcare and higher education

Money Mentors is a six-year Consumer Choice Award winner in Alberta. The company has been in business since 1997, and is Alberta's leader in Debt and Credit Counselling Services

Book Becomes International Best Seller

Mount St. Helens' explosive eruption on May 18, 1980, was a pivotal moment in the field of disturbance ecology.

On Wednesday, May 16, research ecologist Charlie Crisafulli will be available for field-based media interviews at Mount St. Helens, the volcano that erupted catastrophically 38 years ago this month.

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens produced a massive landslide and consequent pyroclastic currents, deposits of which blocked the outlet to Spirit Lake. Without an outlet, the lake began to rise, threatening a breaching of the blockage and release of a massive volume of water. To mitigate the hazard posed by the rising lake and provide an outlet, in 1984–1985 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bored a 2.6-km (8,500-ft) long tunnel through a bedrock ridge on the western edge of the lake.

Forty years ago, Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington was just days away from a devastating eruption. When the mountain finally did blow, after weeks of frequent quakes and ash belching, on the morning of May 18, 1980, it caused the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history.…

Small in stature, Helen Molina had a big heart when it came to her family and Washington Huskies athletics. Ms. Molina died April 3 due to complications from COVID-19 and end-stage Alzheimer's disease. She was 85.

Small in stature, Helen Molina had a big heart when it came to her family and Washington Huskies athletics. Ms. Molina died April 3 due to complications from COVID-19 and end-stage Alzheimer's disease. She was 85.

Every Mother's Day, climbers flock to Mount St. Helens in festive dresses in the continuation of a tradition started by 'the woman in the red dress.' This Mother's Day, a new mini-documentary from OPB tells the story of Kathy Phibbs, a gifted alpinist who paved the way for a more inclusive outdoors community — and pink flamingos on mountain summits.

Every Mother's Day, climbers flock to Mount St. Helens in festive dresses in the continuation of a tradition started by 'the woman in the red dress.' This Mother's Day, a new mini-documentary from OPB tells the story of Kathy Phibbs, a gifted alpinist who paved the way for a more inclusive outdoors community — and pink flamingos on mountain summits.

Every Mother's Day, climbers flock to Mount St. Helens in festive dresses in the continuation of a tradition started by 'the woman in the red dress.' This Mother's Day, a new mini-documentary from OPB tells the story of Kathy Phibbs, a gifted alpinist who paved the way for a more inclusive outdoors community — and pink flamingos on mountain summits.

Small in stature, Helen Molina had a big heart when it came to her family and Washington Huskies athletics. Ms. Molina died April 3 due to complications from COVID-19 and end-stage Alzheimer's disease. She was 85.

Small in stature, Helen Molina had a big heart when it came to her family and Washington Huskies athletics. Ms. Molina died April 3 due to complications from COVID-19 and end-stage Alzheimer's disease. She was 85.

Every Mother's Day, climbers flock to Mount St. Helens in festive dresses in the continuation of a tradition started by 'the woman in the red dress.' This Mother's Day, a new mini-documentary from OPB tells the story of Kathy Phibbs, a gifted alpinist who paved the way for a more inclusive outdoors community — and pink flamingos on mountain summits.

Helena Rubinstein began her career in Victoria at the turn of the 20th century, and when she died she left a cosmetics empire, philanthropic foundation and a backstory laced with myth.