A Field (Mouse) Trip© Linda Bond
Jun 7, 2004
"Once more into the breach!" Professor Skittle called out loudly as he raised his pointer toward the sky and charged into the undergrowth. The small group of students stayed close to his tail and ran as fast as they could toward the spot he had selected earlier. They loved these field trips -- they were field mice after all -- but they also knew that it was important to keep an eye out for hawk and other flying dangers. As juniors, they had already lived long enough to hear terrible stories and once they nearly lost a class mate when she chose to run in the opposite direction from the group. It had been the courage of their physics professor that saved her, when he began running around in circles and making an awful racket in order to draw the winged one's attention. But today, the sky looked clear blue with nary a brown spot in sight.
They began to gather at the base of an extremely tall stalk. Looking up, they saw it went on nearly forever, with sporadic leaves here and there, crowned by a large circular umbrella, itself ringed by what looked like white leaves. But they knew from a previous lecture that they were actually called petals. Professor Skittle waited patiently while they all formed up and became quiet, sitting back on their haunches with paws held up and close to their chests. Soon they were all "noses up" as the saying goes. "Today, students, I want to talk about the physics of botany." That was how he started all his lectures. Sometimes it was the physics of botany. Other times, the physics of hydrology or the physics of biology. He seemed to be able to come up with the physics of just about everything! "See this splendid example of flexible rigidity here? Notice how she stands tall but also sways gently in the breeze. That's because of her inner structure, you see." He waited while they nodded their noses and wiggled their whiskers. Inside, there are zillions of little boxes called cells which, taken together, form the shape of this stem. Those cells are surrounded by a cell wall made of tough material called cellulose and directly under that there's a thin layer called the cell membrane. Your own cells have a membrane but not the tough wall that she has. Now these cells are not all exactly alike, but together they form vascular tissue. Anyone want to take a guess at what that means?"
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