Evolve or Die

Several years ago, on a soggy but majestic mountain afternoon, I hiked into the Yosemite backcountry to meet UC-Berkeley mammalogist Jim Patton. Patton and his colleagues at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology were retracing the steps of renowned naturalist Joseph Grinnell, who surveyed California’s wildlife early in the last century — and obsessively documented his work in […]

Battling the Beetles

On a cold, clear June morning high in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains, Jesse Logan stopped on a snow-covered hillside and pointed with his ski pole to a large pine tree. A few of its needles were turning red, a sign of trouble. About a dozen people gathered around him on the snow to listen. “We […]

Notice: Smart Virginia

Virginia wrote one of Nature‘s (very prestigious outfit) ten best features last year.   Nature‘s editors said so.  The feature, “Science in Court: Head Case,” was about the dicey use of MRI in death sentences for psychopathic murderers.  Fascinating science, real-world implications.   Go read it. Photo: Gabriel Pollard