My Virtual Reading Room

Here's Why Hibernation in Space May Not Be Possible For Humans After All, from ScienceAlert

(or, one would truly need cryo-sleep)

Some Animals Don’t Actually Sleep for the Winter, and other Surprises about Hibernation--a fascinating article from The National Geographic
~~~

And then I decided it was high time to find out from what tree these annoying dry spiky things fall in such profusion, every autumn. And I found this article:

Which Trees Produce Spiky Round Balls? Here's How to Identify Them, from Better Homes and Gardens

...obviously, others must've been curious too. And thus, I found out that the tree I thought was a North American variety of maple is not a maple tree at all but a sweet gum tree, aka Liquidambar styraciflua, from which the spiky seedpods fall.

Fascinating stuff, really--some medical and manufacturing uses; and there are many posts about the uses for the seed pods, for rituals--"Hexing, protection, and also silence/quiet neighbors, more polite neighbors" and crafts and more crafts

(and people actually sell these spiky balls by the dozen on Etsy and Ebay...I had no idea... :P)