Fall/Winter Digital Newsleaf 2024

In this issue, we'll discover the true science behind nature's medicine, tips to create change through civic engagement, and read "ground-breaking" details about the future of Long Branch Farm & Trails. There are also lots of engaging and exciting seasonal programs you won't want to miss this season!

’s

NATURE

smell pine, herbs, or marijuana, your

immune system gets a little boost.

Looking back, my upstairs neighbors

in college were actually helping

me every time they smoked…um…

oregano at 2 am.

FRACTALS

Fractals are patterns that repeat

themselves over and over again at

diferent scales. Take, for example, a

fern frond upon which sits a number

of smaller frondlets that themselves

have a series of even smaller frondlets,

and these frondlets have even smaller

frondlets, etc. At every scale, the

pattern of the fronds and frondlets

are the same.

Fractals found in nature are called

natural fractals or statistical fractals

because they don’t repeat themselves

exactly. For instance, there is always

a little randomness that prevents

frondlets from being exact duplicates

of the fronds. Nature is never perfect.

Exact fractals, on the other hand, are

just that—exact. The pattern repeats

exactly at every scale. Why is this

important? Well, hold your frondlet,

I’m getting to it.

It turns out that even our brains

are physically structured in fractal

patterns. We even process information

in a fractal pattern. Sensations travel

fractal pathways in our brains and

initiate behaviors that themselves are

manifested via connections that are,

yes, fractals. This fractal nature of

our brains is hypothesized to be one

reason why we seem to find fractals so

dang satisfying to look at. But there’s

more to it than just aesthetics. For

reasons that we don’t fully understand,

when we view fractals, we feel less

stressed, we become better able to

cope with frustration, and our ability

to focus and learn new information

improves. Even when we are not

consciously aware that we are viewing

fractals, our brains are tuned to locate

and respond to fractal patterns.

Amazingly, but not surprisingly, our

brains are significantly more sensitive

to natural fractals—the ones we

see when we hike outside—than to

exact fractal patterns, which are less

routinely encountered.

NATURE Rx

It probably comes as no surprise to

you that spending time in nature

helps our physical and mental health.

I’ve always felt the benefits of being

outside, but when we uncover the

scientific mechanisms underlying

those benefits, it solidifies for me that

even when I felt alone, Mother Nature

was taking care of me. It’s no wonder

that my preferred brand of self-care

is hiking and gardening. There’s just

something about being covered in

mud that you can’t get out of a bottle.

By Cory Christopher,

Director of Conservation

Fall/Winter 2024 | CincyNature.org 7

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