Browsing my <a href="http://blogs.msmvps.com/access/" target="_blank">brother's blog</a>, I read an entry where he links to a news article on <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7623912.stm" target="_blank">cork as a renewable resource</a>.
Now, I knew that cork came from trees, that it was grown. I remember that much from studying the cellular structure under a microscope in some science or other way back in the stone ages. But I didn't know that cork was the outer bark of a tree, and that it could be periodically peeled off, and it would then re-grow.
More than that, there's a micro-environment happening there in the cork forests, complete with a type of mushroom that grows on the roots of these trees, and there are animals, birds, and insects that are unique to the area where the cork is grown.
Read the article to learn more - it's interesting and well worth the read.
And, since I am nothing if not a science fiction/fanasy writer, I wonder how something like this cork forest and all that it entails can be worked into a story. What can you do with it?
