Club Ochroma is the bar of choice on Barro Colorado Island, and I've arrived a little early for happy hour at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Station. It's 3:45 in the afternoon, and I'm perched on ...

More than one of my childhood birthday presents included a balsa wood airplane. They came as assembly kits that were fun to build but not as much fun as tossing them into the air and watching them ...

Where does the balsa tree grow? Why is it so lightweight? What is it good for? Why do I even want to talk about it? Balsa trees were mentioned a few times in a story of jungle survival by a group of ...