The clash between renewable energy and wildlife conservation; the hidden information in hummingbird song; and how collecting and cooking impede turtle conservation: These are just a few of the tantalizing talks in the NRS’s Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center 2013-14 lecture series. The lectures are facilitated by Dr. Allan Muth, director of the NRS’s […]
Archives for October 2013
The aliens have landed
Native plants cherished in Europe can become big problems abroad, and vice versa by Paddy Woodworth, Irish Times Bodega Bay, north of San Francisco, has got pretty used to living with threats of one kind or another. Most obviously, this natural harbour sits on top of the San Andreas Fault, where the Pacific and North […]
High Tech in the High Sierra
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– As the legend holds, a violent escape from Nevada State Prison in 1871 concluded in a true-life Wild West shootout in California, not far from Mammoth Mountain. The immediate surroundings were renamed accordingly –– Convict Creek, Convict Lake and Mount Morrison, after a slain member of the posse that ambushed the […]
Conifer Endophytes: The Microbe Partners of Pines
The human body is awash in microbes. They live a top our skin, within our guts, between our teeth, below our fingernails. Unnerving as it may seem, many play a key role in maintaining human health by producing vitamins, helping digestion, and edging out nasty pathogens. It should come as no surprise, then, that plants […]
Hastings Reservation Celebrates 75 Years
Hastings Natural History Reservation is celebrating 75 years of science research into California ecosystems. Located among the rolling oak hills of eastern Carmel Valley, Hastings became the first biological field station of the University of California in 1937. Hundreds of students and scientists have worked there since, advancing the study of subjects such as bird […]