This is a story about how a brilliant hypothesis proposed in the evening can go down in flames the next morning, and also a cautionary tale about technology.
Cryptogamic crusts seem to grow in…
They say here "The Mojave is the rain forest of deserts." Even though the rains were disappointing this year, the desert is in bloom!
I found these growing in a basalt cliff
Yellow and purple…
We went to this place near Baker called Little Red Hill. It is a Mars analog site.
It looks a lot like Mars!
The rocks are all dark red, like Mars.
It's not quartz, so you wouldn't expect much…
On the way back from Death Valley we stopped at an outcrop of rocks from the Crystal Springs formation. These rocks are Precambrian in age, over a billion years old! They are mostly marble.
Looking…
Today we went to Death Valley National Park and stopped at Badwater, which is the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere.
282 feet below sea level makes it the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere…
Near the top
Nothing can live in sand that's being blown around by the wind. There's too little moisture, nothing to eat, and constantly varying temperatures and light levels as the grains get…
So, the undersides of my quartz rocks are green - but how do we know it's chlorophyll? Some minerals are green.
It looks green, but is it chlorophyll?
University of Nevada graduate student Lauren…
**The desert and the arctic have a lot in common:**
Both are extreme environments that appear hostile to life at first, but are full of hidden surprises,
Both have beautiful, other-worldly…
In January and again today we were visited by Dr. Pascal Lee, Chairman of the Mars Institute, NASA scientist and polar explorer. He spoke to us about the challenges and opportunities of Mars…
<img class="standalone-image" src="/files/members/michael-wing/images/img4263.jpg" alt="Gift shop" title="He didn't seem to have any hours posted, but I could see through the window that…
This afternoon I paid a call on **Pat Holloway**, Professor of Horticulture at the University of Alaska and Director (and founder) of the Georgeson Botanical Garden. I wanted to ask her advice on a…
