Home for the summer is the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. I’m living in Paradise, which is a small cabin built in 1935 and not much-renovated since then. It is a beautiful place to be, but sometimes it can be difficult to sleep. The reason: porcupines. Last night this one found its way into the shed…

Time travel is hard, which makes learning about the earth’s past climate difficult. For example, what happened to the earth’s temperature at the end of the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs went extinct? To find out, we have to use proxies – ancient objects whose form or composition indicate the climate at the time they were made.…

This week I am working in the paleobotany collections at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. A good place to work becomes an even better one if one’s visit aligns with the transit of Venus across the sun. I spent the evening at the museum, watching the one immense object hurtle past another even…

The foresummer has arrived, bringing hot and dry conditions to the desert. Despite the adverse conditions, many species are moving through the reproductive stage of their life cycles. Saguaro cacti are in full bloom – the flowers are especially beautiful at dawn and dusk. This year’s weather has been very favorable, with dozens of flowers…