Herbs, magic, and some other stuff that I found interesting

Obligatory Hallowe'en post...



Online Open Courses-
Magic in the Middle Ages
(I took this and it's quite interesting)


Videos-
 Science, Magic and Religion- From Antiquity to Today


Blogs, Encyclopedia Entries and Articles-
How Witch's Brews Helped Bring Modern Drugs to Market- Smithsonian Mag
Astrology and medicine in the Middle Ages
John Dee's Crystal
Herbalism in the Middle Ages- Wikipedia
Medieval magical plants from the Cloisters Gardens, NYC

More advanced topics- Soil pH

As I learned from my daughter's grade 8 science class notes pH stands for potential of Hydrogen, and it's determined by measuring the number of hydrogen ions. Water has a neutral pH with a balanced number of hydronium and hydroxide ions. This pH is measured as 7. Anything less is acidic and anything above is basic (or alkaline). Lemon juice is 2.2 pH, so it is highly acidic. The best range for plants is between 5.5 to 7.5 (so acidic is better than alkaline), although some plants have evolved to survive in soils outside of that range (like Arabian coffee and highbush blueberry).