Mountain Views News          Saturday, May 16, 2015

THE WORLD AROUND US

14

Mountain Views-News Saturday, May 9, 2015 


SEA SALT ON EUROPA; SUNSET ON MARS


NASA laboratory experiments suggest the dark 
material coating some geological features of 
Jupiter’s moon Europa is likely sea salt from a 
subsurface ocean, discolored by exposure to 
radiation. The presence of sea salt on Europa’s 
surface suggests the ocean is interacting with its 
rocky seafloor—an important consideration in 
determining whether the icy moon could support 
life.

 “We have many questions about Europa, the 
most important and most difficult to answer 
being is there life? Research like this is important 
because it focuses on questions we can definitively 
answer, like whether or not Europa is inhabitable,” 
said Curt Niebur, Outer Planets Program scientist 
at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Once 
we have those answers, we can tackle the bigger 
question about life in the ocean beneath Europa’s 
ice shell.”

 “If it’s just salt from the ocean below, that would 
be a simple and elegant solution for what the 
dark, mysterious material is,” said research lead 
Kevin Hand, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

 One certainty is that Europa is bathed in 
radiation created by Jupiter’s powerful magnetic 
field. Electrons and ions slam into the moon’s 
surface with the intensity of a particle accelerator.

 To identify the dark material, Hand and his 
co-author Robert Carlson, also at JPL, created a 
simulated patch of Europa’s surface in a laboratory 
test apparatus for testing possible candidate 
substances. For each material, they collected 
spectra -- which are like chemical fingerprints -- 
encoded in the light reflected by the compounds.

 “We call it our ‘Europa in a can,’” Hand said. 
“The lab setup mimics conditions on Europa’s 
surface in terms of temperature, pressure and 
radiation exposure. The spectra of these materials 
can then be compared to those collected by 
spacecraft and telescopes.”

 For this particular research, the scientists tested 
samples of common salt—sodium chloride—
along with mixtures of salt and water, in their 
vacuum chamber at Europa’s chilly surface 
temperature of minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit. 
They then bombarded the salty samples with an 
electron beam to simulate the intense radiation 
on the moon’s surface.

 After a few tens of hours of exposure to this 
harsh environment, which corresponds to as long 
as a century on Europa, the salt samples, which 
were initially white just like table salt, turned a 
yellowish-brown color similar to features on the 
icy moon. The researchers found the color of these 
samples, as measured in their spectra, showed a 
strong resemblance to the color within fractures 
on Europa that were imaged by NASA’s Galileo 
mission.

*******

THE SUN DIPS TO A MARTIAN HORIZON in 
a blue-tinged sky in images sent home to Earth 
this week from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. 
Curiosity used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) 
to record the sunset during an evening of 
skywatching on April 15, 2015.

 The imaging was done between dust storms, 
but some dust remained suspended high in 
the atmosphere. The sunset observations help 
researchers assess the vertical distribution of dust 
in the atmosphere.

 “The colors come from the fact that the very fine 
dust is the right size so that blue light penetrates 
the atmosphere slightly more efficiently,” said 
Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College 
Station, the Curiosity science-team member who 
planned the observations. “When the blue light 
scatters off the dust, it stays closer to the direction 
of the sun than light of other colors does. The 
rest of the sky is yellow to orange, as yellow and 
red light scatter all over the sky instead of being 
absorbed or staying close to the sun.”

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@
MtnViewsNews.com.


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

NUTS & BERRIES OF CALIFORNIA:

Tips and Recipes for Gatherers. A Falcon Field Guide 2015

 

 by Christopher Nyerges


THANK GOD I’M A 
COUNTRY PREACHER


[Nyerges has been leading wild food identification classes since 1974. Information about 
his classes and books is available from www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.]

I was born and raised in the country for 
which I thank God every day. At the time, 
however, I did not know how good I had it.

 I was always hearing how great and 
wonderful city life was. The school teachers 
raved about all the excellent entertainment, 
museums and such in the city. It was so bad I 
began to feel I had missed out on a lot of things. 
I never went to a Broadway play. I never 
attended one of those highfalutin orchestra 
concerts. I never even went to a fancy 
restaurant. I thought I was missing out on 
the good life.

 When I was growing up, we did not have 
television. Television had come to our neck 
of the woods, but not everybody could afford 
a television set. I would go into the small 
town square where they sold appliances, 
stand with other people at the window and 
watch television.

 Being from the country at the time seemed 
to be rather boring and with no future. 
According to all I heard about city life, it was 
the life to live. Of course, I did not know any 
better. I thought everything I heard was true.

 That is a problem with us country boys. 
We cannot figure out why anybody would 
lie about something. If it is not true, do 
not lie about it. When people told me how 
wonderful city life was, I thought they were 
telling the truth.

 I guess it is true what they say. Nobody 
really appreciates their boyhood until they 
are 50 years down the road from it. I did not 
know how good I had it at the time.

 When thinking about city life I thought 
of all the money people were making and all 
the good times they were having and all the 
fancy food they were eating. Why, I thought 
to myself, that must be heaven. I have since 
had to apologize to heaven.

 Not having a television in our home at the 
time, we did not know about all the bad stuff 
happening in the cities. The riotings, the 
murders, the debauchery. All of this was far, 
far from our experience. When we thought 
of city life, we thought of the brilliant lights 
of Broadway and all the good times people 
were having.

 Meanwhile, back in the country, as I was 
experiencing my boyhood I thought I was 
missing life. When I got older I realized I 
was missing out on a lot of things and I am 
mighty glad that I did miss out on some of 
the debauchery.

 Out in the country, we either raised our 
own food or we swap something with the 
neighbor out of his garden. Processed food 
was something we never even thought of. We 
ate real food and enjoyed it.

 When one neighbor was in trouble, 
everybody in the neighborhood came 
together and helped. It was just what we did 
out in the country. We knew all our neighbors 
by name and even celebrated their birthdays. 
When I felt God was calling me to be 
a pastor, I thought this was my chance to 
indulge in city life. I could now live where 
the lights were the brightest.

 Unfortunately, or fortunately, however 
you look at it, I never pastored a city church. 
I lived close to a city at one time, Baltimore. 
It was then that I realized that city life was 
just a myth people indulged in to make us 
country folks feel guilty about the goodness 
of our life.

 I certainly am glad to be a country pastor. 
I do not need to worry about all the latest 
technology, fads and trends out in society. I 
do not have to worry about what celebrities 
are doing.

 I remember out in the country our 
celebrities. They were all hunters who 
would regale us with stories of their hunting 
adventures. We would sit around the stove 
in a little country store and listen to these 
hunters tell their stories.

 Now as a country pastor, I realize one 
important thing. Someone put it this way, 
“You can take the boy out of the country, but 
you can’t take the country out of the boy.” I 
never really understood that until I got out of 
the country a little bit.

 I visited cities; New York, Baltimore, 
Chicago, Los Angeles just to name a few. 
Looking back, I am so glad I did not grow up 
in any of those cities.

 I remember once walking down a New 
York City street and just stopped and looked 
around me. Everybody was rushing here and 
there, the noise was deafening, I took a deep 
breath and the streets stank to high heaven 
(another apology to heaven).

 I am only now beginning to appreciate 
the great privilege I had growing up in the 
country. Now that I am a country pastor, I 
can say this with a great deal of authority, 
“You can take the country preacher out of 
the country, but you can’t take the country 
out of the country preacher.”

 David appreciated the country life and is 
reflected in one of his Psalms. “As the hart 
panteth after the water brooks, so panteth 
my soul after thee, O God” (Psalms 42:1).

 Only out of the country can you really 
appreciate the quietness of a water brook and 
meditating upon God.

 We are in danger of losing our country life 
and when we do, we will lose our Country.

 
Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family 
of God Fellowship, PO Box 831313, Ocala, 
FL 34483. He lives with his wife, Martha, 
in Silver Springs Shores. Call him at 1-866-
552-2543 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net 
or website www.jamessnyderministries.com.


 Last year, my “Foraging 
California” book was 
released, a full-color guide 
to the most common and 
widespread wild foods of California. 

 This month, a sequel to that book has been 
released, “Nuts and Berries of California,” another 
full color guide to just nuts and berries. The foraging 
of nuts and berries has long been a family tradition, 
even by those who are just a bit too timid to collect 
wild greens or wild mushrooms. This is partly 
because there really aren’t that 
many toxic nuts or berries in 
North America, and the edible 
ones are fairly widespread and 
easy to recognize. 

 Had my father lived to see 
this book, he would have loved 
it, and would have used it for one 
of his jokes, saying that I wrote 
about the “fruits and nuts” of 
Washington, or Hollywood. 

 In my new book, I first 
discuss native nuts, then native 
berries, and then the introduced 
ornamental plants which 
produce edible nuts or berries. 
I wrote the book with advice 
from Paul Campbell, author 
of “Survival Skills of Native 
California,” who kept giving 
me suggestions about what to 
include in the book. I used many 
of Campbell’s suggestions in the 
book, but not all. Some of his 
suggestions of nuts or berries 
to include were marginal foods, 
or were rare, or were found 
only in very localized areas. 
So when I outlined my book, I 
included those plants which had 
the broadest distribution, and 
which were relatively easy to 
identify. 

The wild nuts include the acorn, 
which every child can recognize, 
and which every Indian tribe in 
California once used in their 
daily diet. Wild walnuts are 
included, and when most people 
think of wild nuts, they think of 
walnuts. 

 Bay, pine, chinquapin, jojoba, 
and mesquite are all included 
in the native nut section. There 
is unique information about 
how to process the California 
buckeye nuts, which were 
widely used by the Pomo people 
for food. Dr. James Adams of USC shared some of 
the latest information about buckeyes toxins and 
how they can be removed before eating the seeds. 

All the common wild berries are included, such 
as blackberries and its many kin, wild cherries, 
elderberries, strawberries, grapes, manzanita, rose 
hips, toyon and many others. 

 The last section is called HIP, a term coined by 
my wife Helen, meaning horticulturally introduced 
plants. These are plants that were brought here 
from somewhere else for ornamental purposes and 
can now be found surviving in the wild as well as in 
the urban landscape. There are many HIP plants, 
but I only include some of the most common, like 
figs, loquat, mulberries, olives, and pyracantha. 

 The book is beautifully illustrated with color 
photos and contains many 
recipes for how to use these nuts 
and berries. 

 When I was first introduced to 
the world of ethno-botany many 
decades ago, it appealed to me 
on a deep subconscious level. 
Food is every where, not just on 
farms! The native peoples from 
around the world actually ate, 
and often ate well, and this is at 
least partly because they had no 
other choice. 

 There was a mystery 
surrounding this field when I 
was first learning about it in the 
late 1960s. Though there were 
books on the subjects, many 
of the authors obviously wrote 
about it in a very detached 
second-hand nature, like 
talking about something that 
doesn’t exist anymore. I saw 
the very pragmatic aspects 
of learning about the uses of 
plants, and I realized that so 
many of the food-related fears 
which mankind suffers are not 
necessary, assuming we educate 
ourselves and live in accord with 
the natural world. Yes, there is a 
trend in that direction, slow but 
sure… 

 My involvement with wild 
foods has included sampling 
everything that I learn about, 
and including many in my 
regular diet. I have also written 
about how these plants are used 
in books, and teaching classes. 
I led my first wild food outing 
in 1974, and published my first 
book, “Guide to Wild Foods,” 
in 1978. Nearly every one of my 
books since then has included 
some information about wild 
foods and wild plant uses.

[Available from Amazon, or the Store at www.
SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com]