All About Connecting: Navigating dating for the older set
By Nancy Rugart Plummer, Columnist, The Times
Dear Nancy,
I’m new to online dating and have been meeting great women, but many expect me to pay for everything—even though they’re successful professionals. I like one woman in particular, but I’m hesitant to be exclusive since she never offers to split costs. Any advice?
Pascal – 59 – Bryn Mawr
It’s completely understandable...
Inner Nature: The Poison Book Project
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
Last week, I visited Connecticut. Walking in Hammonasset Beach State Park, I came across a bunch of birders all excited for the migratory birds that they were spotting. One of the birders and I got talking and told me he was an art restorer at Yale University.
This was very exciting for me, because I really love to read about how artists created pigments. For example,...
Inner Nature: Magnetic field sensing in animals
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
In my previous Inner Nature article, the focus was on animals which make or use electricity to protect themselves or to apprehend prey. In this article, the focus moves to animals which sense and use magnetic fields. The staggering feats of navigation prowess of birds and butterflies are thought to be made possible by the Earth’s magnetic field to guide them to...
Inner Nature: Animal electricity
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
All living organisms are electric, since it is electricity – the movement of electrons – that powers life with energy. Then that energy, obtained from light or food, can be used to move molecules around the body or join atoms to make new molecules. That, in summary, is the process of metabolism. Rather than examining metabolic processes in this article, I will...
Inner Nature: Photosynthetic and light-harvesting animals
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
Photosynthesis – a term that pretty much everyone understands – uses sunlight, carbon dioxide, water, and the light-harvesting green molecule, chlorophyll, to make sugars and release oxygen. Photosynthesis is carried out by free-living cyanobacteria, as well as plants and algae which contain chloroplasts, which are really just internal cyanobacteria, inside...
Becoming The Best U: Advice on love and dating
By Nancy Plummer, Columnist, The Times
Question: I’m a widow finally ready to date but I’ve never tried online dating and am not sure of the modern expectations. My question is, who pays for the first date?
Abbey – Wayne, PA
Dear Abbey,
I am so sorry for your loss. It takes immense strength to navigate widowhood and to put yourself out there again. I am very happy for you!
This is a great,...
Inner Nature: Party Season
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
Tipple. The season is the reason. Well, with party season behind us now, let’s delve into the ubiquity of alcohol during the holidays. It is considered a conversational lubricant and socially acceptable to drink in a group setting, but it is considered a problem when someone drinks alone without an interlocutor, or for the purpose of getting drunk. It can also...
ReFirement at Any Age: Protect Your Peace
By Gail Supplee Tatum, Columnist, The Times
With all the uncertainties and all of the changes going on in the world, my mantra, my prayer for myself, and for the world is to protect my peace, to protect our peace.
Protecting your peace is essential and of the utmost importance for maintaining mental, emotional, and even physical well-being in a fast-paced, often stressful world. By focusing on mindfulness,...
Inner Nature: Animals of Japan
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
In the fall, I spent a month in Japan. It’s an interesting country geographically, sociologically, and ecologically. Geographically, Japan is a comma-shaped stretch of some 14,125 islands to the east of the Korean peninsula. About 120 are inhabited, and five islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and the tiny southernmost island of Okinawa) host 95% of the...
Inner Nature: Good news in science
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
This month, I highlight some of the great things that are happening in the world which science had a hand in delivering. Enjoy.
Klamath dam is down and salmon swim freely upstream for the first time in 100 years.[1]
The mighty Klamath river flows from the Cascade mountains along the Oregon-California and empties into the Pacific Ocean. In 1918, the first dams were...
