From the New York Times’ obituary of the great science journalist Malcolm Browne: “After a time, a news writer may begin to sense a kind of sameness in most of the events that pass as news,” he wrote. “When that happens a lucky few of us discover that in science, almost alone among human endeavors, …
From the morning paper: With drought draped across all of New Mexico and much of the United States to our east and west, it’s an interesting time to think about the prehistoric Mayan city of Chichén Itzá. Its fate is a reminder that drought isn’t simply something climate does to us. Drought’s effects are defined …
Henri Grissino-Mayer and his colleagues have been doing some neat work using tree ring dating as a historical tool – in this case to clear up who really built the buildings on the old McDonald Farm* in Virginia: We found cutting dates for the collapsed cabin ranged from 1809 to 1810, making the likely builder Samuel …
Is this Michelle Nijhuis piece on the Colorado River terrific because she’s willing to go against the grain and argue for an optimistic future? [D]eputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior David Hayes, ecologist Osvel Hinojosa Huerta of the Mexican conservation group Pronatura Noroeste and University of Arizona paleoclimatologist Jonathan Overpeck all described …
John Upton asked for suggestions about “your favorite plant, animal, pathogen or natural phenomenon” as blog topics. I suggested pigeons, and John did not disappoint: [N]ew research suggests that pigeon racers could be constantly fueling the wild populations with physical prowess-imbuing genes, helping to spawn today’s urban super-pigeons. University of Utah researchers studied the genes …
It’s no exaggeration to say my understanding of climate and desert ecosystems would be much the poorer without the many hours Julio Betancourt has generously shared, the many times my questions have been met with “Have you read this paper yet?” followed by an emailed pdf. Just saw Julio’s been awarded this year’s Farouk El-Baz Award …
Smart Mark Lubell on why a better scientific understanding of our groundwater foibles – even “perfect science” – isn’t enough: But there are many policy-makers and citizens who will take that perfect science (even when presented in a very simple manner) and flick it away like a bothersome mosquito because they don’t trust the scientists, …
The residents of Lubbock use more cocaine on the weekend. How do we know this? Science! Influent to the Lubbock (Texas) Water Reclamation Plant was sampled twice a week to assess weekly variations in estimates of cocaine consumption over a 5-month period. BE was extracted from influent wastewater samples using solid phase extraction and analyzed …
I went back two weeks ago to the Las Conchas fire zone, where an unprecedented blaze tore through New Mexico ponderosa forests that will never be the same – “Not in our lifetimes,” as one forester put it. My story: During a daylong hike last week across an area that once was dominated by ponderosa …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I wrote elsewhere: Las Conchas, 10 months on’ »
A: When April 1 falls on a Monday. That’s the conclusion of a clever bit of work by Tom Pagano, former NRCS forecaster who used to do the Rio Grande forecasts before he went on to bigger and better things. “Bigger and better” has included a stint in Australia and a current world tour of …
Continue reading ‘Q: When is an April 1 snow survey not an April 1 snow survey?’ »