Author: Mariah Wheeler

OGDEN, Utah – The other day, partly out of curiosity and partly because I am rapidly becoming a man of a certain age, I found myself reading an article about something called a campus-connected retirement community. These are retirement communities connected to university campuses that offer courses and activities for their residents and, in some cases, are located on the campuses themselves. As a university professor, one could assume, I’d become tired of academic life as I grow older. But I honestly can’t imagine a better place to be retired than near a college campus, especially one as gorgeous as…

OGDEN, Utah – Seen from space, life may appear a mere fluorescence over the surface of the earth: the rich blue of oxygenated oceans, the wash of green across the continents, the amber highlights where air and moisture have rusted minerals. But that thin veneer of beauty also shows the power of life to transform the entire planet. When photosynthesis in cyanobacteria first tapped the power of sunlight to fuel life’s processes, it released oxygen that slowly shifted more than just the hues of sea and land. The oxygen was toxic to the anaerobic life forms that then held sway.…