//////////////////////I believe that reading, in its original essence, [is] that fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of solitude. —Marcel Proust
Learning involves the nurturing of nature. —Joseph LeDoux
///////////////////Reading can be learned only because of the brain's plastic design, and when reading takes place, that individual brain is forever changed, both physiologically and intellectually. For example, at the neuronal level, a person who learns to read in Chinese uses a very particular set of neuronal connections that differ in significant ways from the pathways used in reading English
////////////////Joseph Epstein put it, "A biography of any literary person ought to deal at length with what he read and when, for in some sense, we are what we read."
///////////////Janeane Garofalo once quipped, "I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth."
//////////////////////The assemblage of plants and animals in a particular setting (for instance, a lake, forest, or meadow) and the interactions of those plants and animals result in an intricate, dynamic community termed an ecosystem. Intermeshed with the flow of energy among the various life-forms of an assemblage is the equally important cycling of matter between the nonliving and living components of such a community. One characteristic pattern is the cycling of elements between the living and nonliving components of an ecosystem. Such cycles are termed biogeochemical cycles. Gaseous cycles, those involving nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, for example, have the earth's atmosphere or hydrosphere (the oceans) as the nonliving reservoir. The much slower sedimentary cycles, which involve elements such as phosphorus, sulfur, or iron, have the lithosphere (the earth's crust) as the reservoir.
The availability of vital elements, such as nitrogen or phosphorus, greatly influences the distribution and abundance of plants. An element, generally present as an inorganic compound, is picked up initially by green plants and incorporated into structural components such as sugars, lipids, and proteins. When plants are eaten by animals, the element may eventually find itself enmeshed in the structure of the animal. When plants and animals die, the element, often converted into complex organic compounds that form most of the structural features of plants and animals, must be pulled apart so that it can be taken up again by plants. Here is where those decomposers, the bacteria and fungi, play their vital role in biogeochemical cycles: they convert organic matter into inorganic compounds, the form available to plants. Since the amounts of individual elements present on the planet have not substantially changed since the earth's formation, it is clear that the matter of the planet has been recycled for billions of years.
//////////////ECO NICHE FITTEST=The organisms that interact in an ecosystem carry out a particular role or function within the grand patterns of energy flow and matter cycles; that is, they fill a niche in the ecosystem. A useful analogy may be to think of the habitat in which an organism lives as its "address" and the niche as its "occupation." Some species have narrow niches; these "specialists" may live in only one microhabitat or set of conditions
//////////////////..........Going to the hospital for surgery is a lot like taking a plane trip. The experience is potentially dangerous, but you trust the pilot—or the surgeon—to have the knowledge and expertise to keep you safe. Flight attendants—and healthcare workers in the hospital—will deal with any problems that develop
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