The Philipendium

The word “protein” is quite familiar to all of us, and yet most of us have a very limited understanding of the role of proteins in our…

Three different ways to categorize living things: traditional terminology, biological classification, and cladistics

It’s not hard to find wacky ideas about science on the internet — bizarre concepts that stand out because they are so far removed from…

What do tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers have in common? One obvious answer is that these are all food plants. We can grow these plants in…

Throughout human history, people have been fascinated with the sun, the moon, and the stars. So it is not surprising that our words for…

The Oregon Trail is, by most measures, the most successful educational computer game of all time. Many versions of the game were created…

The term DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) often appears in the media these days. Because of these frequent encounters, we all have a…

In this episode of the Philipendium, we examine the hidden mysteries of rainbows — along with other natural phenomena that produce colors…

The words “read” and “write” are the two most fundamental terms we use regarding the process of communicating using the written form of a…

Humans are fascinated with colors. We surround ourselves with colorful objects. Our decisions on what to buy, eat, collect, or look at are…

To most people, it seems self-evident that a virus is some kind of living creature. We usually put viruses into the same mental category as…

Many of our simplest, most common words have been part of the English language for millennia, dating back to Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and…

The recent talks with North Korea have brought renewed attention to that nation — and to the extremely repressive nature of its government…

All of us are familiar with fire, and yet most of us would have a hard time describing exactly what fire actually is. When we look at a…

In this episode of Word Connections, we look at the words we use to identify the principal meals of the day, and how these words have…

I recently encountered a fascinating line of thought on the internet. Someone claimed that greenhouse gases are a myth, and he presented a…

Starting with a single word — “apple” — we can weave a tangled web of surprising linguistic connections, across time and space, through…

In this episode of Word Connections, we examine the words “rock” and “stone”, along with a great number of other words whose meanings or…

After a restaurant meal, do you appreciate an after-dinner mint? Do you like mint-flavored toothpaste? Are you a fan of chocolate-mint ice…

For anyone who loves nature, the sheer diversity of life on Earth is breathtaking. There are so many kinds of birds and wildflowers, so…

The time has come again to follow a twisty path of word connections across continents and centuries. Today we start with the words “left”…

There is no consensus on a census of the senses.

Our system of telling time is based on the premise that every day is exactly 24 hours long — quite precisely, with no exceptions. This…

The time has come again to follow a twisty path of word connections across multiple languages. Today we start with the English words…