Where Do Tumbleweeds Come From?

The Plants We Think Epitomize the Untamed West Are Actually Foreign Invaders

Kevin de León, the new leader of the California State Senate, recently caused a stir when he said that it would be a bad idea to begin building a proposed high-speed train in the San Joaquin Valley, in part because “nobody lives out there in the tumbleweeds.”

The remark not only showed that de León needs a bit of education on the Valley (where 4 million people live) but also cast light on an oft-overlooked plant.

Tumbleweeds, like the San Joaquin Valley, are misunderstood and full of surprises. While the plants are …

by Douglas Main | August 8, 2014

LSD’s Long, Strange Comeback

The 1960s Counter Culture Soured America on Psychedelic Drugs. Now, They’re Returning to Our Laboratories (and Possibly Our Medicine Cabinets).

by Nate Greenslit | August 5, 2014

In March 2014, for the first time in over 40 years, a study of the therapeutic benefits of lysergic acid diethylamide—more commonly known as LSD—was published in a peer-reviewed medical …

Gravity Can Be Beautiful

The Art of Making Natural Forces Visible—and Making Art Out of Science

by George Geyer and Tom McMillin | July 16, 2014

The inspiration for our sculpture came from the vision of a set of crossed swords that solders walk beneath during military ceremonies. But what we ended up creating in Floating …

Saturn Is the Real Lord of the Rings

Hand-Picked Images from Our Solar System’s (Arguably) Most Photogenic Planet

June 21, 2014

by Linda Spilker

Neither you nor I could survive at Saturn. It’s cold and so far away (900 million miles) that the sun looks like a bright dot. There’s none of …

Scientists Need Luck, Too

Experiment All You Want, But Serendipity Goes a Long Way Toward Making a Great Discovery

by Robert M. Corn | May 2, 2014

What role does luck play in science? Are most scientific discoveries serendipitous—fortuitous happenstance—or the result of persistence and the need to understand why? Let me tell you the story of …

Did Isaac Newton Need Peer Review?

Scholarly Journals Swear By This Practice of Expert Evaluation. But It’s a New Phenomenon That Isn’t the Only Way To Establish the Facts.

by Melinda Baldwin | April 29, 2014

Last month, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced a finding that could be one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 21st century. BICEP 2, their microwave …

All California’s Problems Lead to the San Joaquin Valley

From Water Shortages to High-Speed Rail, the State’s Most Overlooked Region Is at the Center of Its Most Important Debates

America’s Most Productive Agricultural Region Is Also One of Its Most Diverse

Since the 19th Century, California’s San Joaquin Valley Has Drawn Farmers From Around the World

Why CRISPR May Be the Most Important Thing to Happen on the Planet in 4.5 Billion Years

This Gene-Editing Technology Promises to Revolutionize Medicine, Spark Ethical Debate, and Might Even Bring Woolly Mammoths Back to Earth

The Rise and Fall of the Gum Tree

How California Came to Love—and then Disown—Eucalyptus

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