Courtesy of Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD) , this spectacular “remix” of previous Hubble photos of the galaxy known as Messier 104 (M10...

All but one of you got the correct answer to last week's puzzler: the reason why one lighting technology is more pleasing to the eye tha...

David Mamet, playwright and former liberal, writes about his “conversion” to conservatism: I recognized that I held those two views of Ameri...

Monica Lin Brown is a real American hero : A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second fem...

Several of you have written to ask why I haven't commented on the Spitzer imbroglio. One email declared, a little testily, that if I wo...

This past week saw an interesting story emerge, one related to global warming. The elements of the story include a suppressed skeptic, a gl...

These photos are of some beauties that I was unable to identify. If anyone knows what these are, please leave a comment with the informatio...

I took these photos at various places on the desert floor yesterday. They each show multiple species, which I won't elaborate on here (...

When most people talk about the desert wildflowers, the Desert Sand Verbena ( Abronia villosa ), or just Sand Verbena, is what they're t...

The little Parish's Poppy ( Eschscholzia parishii ) is one of the most cheerful flowers you'll find out on the desert. It's so...

The Carrizo Badlands Overlook (and its immediate surrounds) is the place to go for the beautiful Desert Lupine ( Lupinus sparsiflorus ). On...

The fish-hook or strawberry cactus ( Mammillaria dioica ) is my favorite of all the cacti in the Anza Borrego. My best explanation for this...

We saw the desert dandelion ( Malacothrix californica ) in many places yesterday, sometimes in profusion (especially near the Carrizo Badla...

The desert chicory ( Rafinesquia neomexicana ) is a member of the sunflower family ( Asteraceae ), and is quite common in many places in the...

The creosote bush ( Larrea tridentata ) is not a plant that excites most people. It's the most common shrub in our desert, generally lo...