The following tales are about Indy the invisible Iguana, his best friend Kelvin Cosmic the fun-loving Kangaroo, and their pals Newton Neutron the level-headed, focused and objective Nighthawk, and Johannes Kepler the muddy buffalo who is always the catalyst for trouble.

Tale 1: Growing Up

Part 1

Indy was born during on a night of a full moon to his parents Tyco Brahe, an astronomer, and Judy Devonian, a geologist, during a solar eclipse in a home with a under a collapsed roof on bedrock at the Channel Island of Catalina, off the coast of California--his mom was out on a work trip for a geologic study, and did not expect Indy to come so soon.  (His mom was studying the effects of soil grading and moisture-dependent earth materials).

Nevertheless, the family made their trip home to the rainforest where they lived, and that’s where Indy grew up.  As a child, Indy wanted to be a scientist just like his mom and dad, his dream is to be a geologist.

As an iguana who lives 50 kilometers (50k meters) under the mesosphere, 30 kilometers under the stratosphere, 20 kilometers under the ozone and ozone layer in a biome called the rainforest on the earth’s troposphere.  A rainforest is one of the earth’s biospheres.  A rainforest is characterized by having typically high-levels of rainfall varying from 250 and 450 centimeters a year (average is no less than 188 centimeters).  There are two types of rainforests on the planet, the tropical rainforest and the temperate rainforest.  Most (40 to 75 percent) of the living organisms that live in the rainforest are indigenous to the rainforest--that includes plants, animals, microorganisms.  The rainforest is responsible for 28 percent of the world’s oxygen.  The oxygen made in the rainforest is processed through photosynthesis and uses carbon dioxide.  

If you take a closer look into a rainforest and observe its atmosphere and everything in it, you will also notice that Indy’s home is close to the equator.  The equator is an area near the center of the earth with temperatures that exceed 18 degrees celsius (64 degrees Fahrenheit). The rainforest that Indy lives is located in the intertropical convergence zone (convergent means closer together, and a zone is an area of land) where airflows meet. (11)

 The rainforest is a dense forest made up of different layers.  Each layer has different plants and animals that live and adapt to their layered homes.  The first layer, where his friend Newton just moved, is the emergent layer.  The next comes the canopy and understory layer.  The underlayer is then followed by the forest floor (similar to the ocean floor and sea floor except it is on land).  Indy loves his home and his family, but he also loves to travel, too.  His travel buddies include Kelvin, Newton and Johannes.  Continue reading to learn a little bit more about them....  

Part 2

Kelvin, the fun-loving Kangaroo

Kelvin is from the coastal plain to his parents Aurora Boulder and Doppler Drizzle.  Kelvin’s parents were business people who loved to travel the world and learn about all it’s earthy things.  Originally, Kelvin's grandparents and parents are from and area of the the United States with prairies, but his grandparents moved soon after the dust bowl (a period of time in the 1930s with severe dust storms, that damaged the ecology and agriculture of the U.S. & Canadian prairies).  As a child, Kelvin was constantly moving around because of his parent's business--their work consisted mostly of finding employment for people who have astronomy backgrounds.  Their field of expertise, made them very popular with anyone in with an astronomical background.

Kelvin’s first home was near a drainage basin, but his parents soon evacuated because of the flood in one of the drains.  They then moved in with his cousin Jerry Einstein in southern California, who lived near a beach where their entire home was surrounded by excessive sand.  This was a bad year to live near the beach, as that year Kelvin’s family had another heartbreaking catastrophe when their home was eroded by tidewater during El Nino.  The water level was too much for their home and the home was in absolute array.  

Now, with two devastating blowouts to their family's homes, Kelvin’s parents needed an alternate option of where they should live.  His dad suggested they move their family to the barrier reef, but his mother said that was a bad idea, because that’s near more water (his dad was not very good with geology and the geological sciences).  His mother was very positive, and said that the family can live virtually anywhere on the globe, and that they could adapt to any environment.  His father then suggested living up near Alaska--he had heard there were a lot of astronomers living there. But once again, his wife said that was a bad idea because global warming is a major problem in the melting of icebergs (global warming is the increase in the earth's average surface temperature due to greenhouse emissions, from the release of gaseous pollution.  

After the family had many conversations about where to move, they abruptly settled on in a area close to a lagoon outside of the rainforest where Indy’s family lived.  Once they settled there, and became permanent inhabitants of the lagoon, they lived their lives happily until Kelvin moved away to college.

Part 3

Newton, the level-headed, focused and objective Nighthawk

Newton grew up in the lower mountain range of the Swiss Alps. His whole life he wanted to be the fastest and greatest at what he did. In high school he set the record for biggest wingspan of Nighthawks. His focused attitude and great flying technique is what makes him want to be an Astronomer, and when he met Kelvin's family he knew he would click instantly. His fascination with astronomy started with Mars. From then, he started learning more about asteroids, black holes and galaxies. Asteroids are small, rocky bodies orbiting the sun. Black holes are regions of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape. Galaxies are systems of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attraction.

Newton met Indy and Kelvin in college, in biology class. They all bonded over their love for science, Newton introduced Kelvin and Indy to his friend Johannes, who also had a love for science, but he was a trouble maker. The four of them graduated college, and decided they would all love to take trips, but with Johannes as a friend, they always found themselves in some sort of trouble.

Part 4

Johannes Kepler, the muddy buffalo, who is always the catalyst for trouble.

Johannes is a water buffalo grew up in South America near the Amazon floodplain. Floodplains are areas of shallow ground adjacent or ground level to a river, formed mainly of river sediment debris and are subject to flooding. Because Johannes lives in such a wet area, he's always muddy and getting himself in to trouble, especially when growing up. He met Newton in High School, and went to college together as well. The four best friends continue their stories ahead...