JF Ptak Science Books
Messages and information, silently displayed data and the announcements of the state of all things are everywhere, all of the time: these things only become part of the language and systematically codified once they are recognized and understood, or at least once the thrust of the message becomes distinguished from the surrounding noise.
One elegant interpretation of above-the-noise display was made by E.P. Keen in 1936 ("Relative susceptibility of ponderosa pines to bark beetle attack", published in the Journal of Forestry) who established a simple and practicable standardized vocabulary for the discussion and communication of tree health. It is a relatively straightforward idea--based upon many years of keen observation and understanding--which used a pictorial schematic to establish a common baseline for the discussion of tree health/growth. Later on Keen would pioneer the use of aerial photography using various films and filters to determine the extent of damage done to stands of trees (and forests) brought about by drought, pests, diseases and other harmful stimuli--especially when the damage was done not in the visible spectrum.
The Blank & Empty part of tree language comes in the form of cells in the trunk of the tree which reveal--in cross section--the age of the tree and some climatic indicators of during the tree's growth. This comes in the form of tree rings--the rings are formed by the growth of the cells, the first of which in a new season respond with expansion, and depending upon water conditions will either grow somewhat less slowly than at first or stop growing altogether at the end of the season, and die; the new cells growing in the new season, and the demarcation being what we call a "ring". This was a fantastic idea, the brainchild of A.E. Douglass at the University of Arizona.
Andrew Ellicott Douglass (1867-1962) was , ironically, an American astronomer at work at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff when, in 1911, he began his experimentation with tree rings.. (I believe that he came to this end trying to ascertain terrestrial climatic conditions in his sunspot research.) The resulting effort was the clarification and near-founding of dendrochronology, with the resulting climatic understanding applicable across many different fields, and all from expanded/contracted cells. Douglass perfected his observation and theory in a three-volume masterwork Climate Cycles and Tree Growth, which was published in 1936.
For an interesting appraisal, see George E.Webb Tree Rings and Telescopes, (the University of Arizona Press), Tucson, Arizona, 1983.
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