Section
Climate
Climate change and California: drought, wildfire ecology, snowpack, sea level rise, desalination, and the science behind the environmental challenges facing the Golden State.
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The Places We Thought Would Last
On the Southern California coast, the ocean is reshaping familiar ground.
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The Night a Tidal Wave Erased Downtown Crescent City, California
Why California’s most northern town is a magnet for deadly tsunamis.
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Giants Fallen: The Destruction of Converse Basin Grove and its Giant Sequoias
The true tragic story of one of the worst environmental crimes in California history.
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The Moon May Help Drive California’s Next Flooding Crisis
An 18.6-year lunar cycle is expected to amplify tides just as rising seas push more of California’s coastline toward flooding thresholds.
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How the Jones Act Strangles California Innovation and Keeps I-5 Packed with Trucks
California’s highways are clogged with trucks moving goods that could travel by sea, but the Jones Act makes coastal shipping too costly to scale, locking freight onto crowded roads and limiting a cleaner alternative.
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The Man Who Saved the Owens Pupfish
Less than 2.5 inches in length, the Owens pupfish is a silvery-blue fish in the family Cyprinodontidae. Endemic to California’s Owens Valley, 200 miles north of Los Angeles, the fish has lived on the planet since the Pleistocene, becoming a new species when its habitat was divided by changing climatic conditions, 60,000 years ago.
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California’s Daily Tidal Wave of Life
Every day, trillions of marine animals migrate up and down through the ocean in the largest daily movement of biomass on Earth. California’s exceptionally productive waters, and research hubs like MBARI near Moss Landing, make the state one of the best places in the world to observe and study this vast, invisible pulse of life.
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Upwelling, the Ocean’s Engine Beneath California’s Waters
Few marine processes are as impactful on the abundance of sea life off the coast of California as upwelling. It may not be a term you’ve heard before, but the natural oceanic process of upwelling is one of the most important engines driving climate, biological diversity, and the ocean’s food web.
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The Happy Nut: California’s Rise to Pistachio Power
California now grows more pistachios than any place on Earth, generating nearly $3 billion in economic value in the state. Nearly every nut sold in the United States, and most shipped abroad, comes from orchards in the Central Valley.
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Ten Essential Books About California’s Nature, Science, and Sense of Place
I’m an avid reader, and over the past decade I’ve dedicated a large section of my bookshelf to books about California—its wild side, its nature, and its scientific wonders.
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California Is a Nobel Powerhouse
The University of California system now counts 74 Nobel Prizes among its faculty and researchers. 23 in physics and 16 in chemistry. Berkeley leads the list, with 26 laureates, followed by UC San Diego, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and UC San Francisco. Even smaller campuses, such as UC Riverside, have ties to winners like Barry Barish, who shared the 2017 Nobel in Physics for detecting gravitational waves.
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Corals Revealed as Never Before Through a Groundbreaking New Microscope in California
A groundbreaking underwater microscope developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography is giving scientists their first up-close look at coral stress before bleaching begins.
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A Tiny California Seaweed Could Make a Big Dent in Livestock Methane
Because methane is so potent, trapping more than 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, the livestock industry’s footprint has become a central focus for climate scientists searching for solutions.
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Riding Wave Energy in Los Angeles
Turning the steady motion of the Pacific into clean electricity, Eco Wave Power’s pilot at the Port of Los Angeles tests whether wave energy can become a real piece of California’s renewable future.
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The Story of Southern California Sand from Mountains to Surf
It turns out most of the grains between your toes actually began their journey high in the mountains above LA, on craggy slopes far from the shore. Mostly, we are talking about the San Gabriel Mountains and other peaks in the Transverse Ranges that run east-west across Southern California.
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California’s Precarious Future and the Promise—and Limits—of Desalination
As drought becomes California's new normal, desalination offers a tantalizing solution — but the technology comes with serious costs and limits that could reshape the state's water future.
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Bring Human Exploration Back to California’s Deep Ocean
California's deep ocean remains one of the least explored places on Earth. Here's why it's time to send humans back down into the sea. And what we stand to discover.
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How California Has Revived Its Groundfish Fisheries
How Smart Policy and Collaboration Brought Groundfish Back From the Brink
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The Salton Sea Was California’s Strangest Catastrophe
In California’s southeastern desert, the Salton Sea stretches across a wide, shimmering basin, a lake where there shouldn’t be one. At about 340…
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Manzanitas are California's Sculptured Survivors
With twisting, terra-cotta limbs and bark polished smooth by the sun, manzanita doesn’t just grow in California’s chaparral, it sculpts itself into the landscape.
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Can California Drink the Pacific? The Promise and Problems of Desalination
California’s Carlsbad plant turns 100 million gallons of seawater a day into drinking water. How desalination works, why it’s so expensive and where new plants are planned.
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Camp Pendleton’s Wild Landscape as a Natural Refuge
Covering approximately 200 square miles in north San Diego County, the base has served as a critical training ground for the U.S. Marine Corps since 1942. However, its restricted access and limited development have inadvertently preserved some of Southern California’s last remaining wild coastal terrain.
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The Mountain Pass Mine, America’s Only Rare Earth Mine, May Be the Key to Breaking China’s Grip
The Mountain Pass Mine in California’s Mojave Desert is America’s only rare earth mine, and it may be the key to breaking China’s near-total grip on the minerals powering the modern world.
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How a Lancaster, California Company is Giving Old EV Batteries a Second Life on the Grid
By harnessing the power of old electric vehicle (EV) batteries to store renewable energy, B2U is giving these aging batteries a productive second life and helping enhance the viability of green energy grids. The effort could pave the way for not only improving solar storage but also reusing old batteries that might otherwise end up in landfills or pose environmental hazards.
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Understanding the Impact of Santa Ana Winds in the Eaton Fire
One fact is indisputable: the fires were unusual in their ferocity and destruction. While studies, debates, and expert analyses following the disaster are inevitable, the immediate aftermath offers one clear conclusion—this fires were driven, in large part, by the extraordinary winds that descended on Los Angeles that night.
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John Isaacs, the Maverick Oceanographer Who Wanted to Tow Icebergs to California
California’s water crises have always inspired bold solutions, but few ideas rival the sheer audacity of John Isaacs’ proposal to tow a giant Antarctic iceberg to San Diego.
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Cadillac Desert Is Still the Book to Read About California Water
Marc Reisner’s 1986 Cadillac Desert tells how the American West moved its rivers to grow, and what it cost. Nearly 40 years later, it’s more relevant than ever.
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The Forgotten New Year’s Flood of 1934 Reshaped Los Angeles
A forgotten New Year’s disaster killed dozens, swept hundreds of homes off their foundations in the foothills, and forced California to invent the modern playbook for flood control.
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Ivanpah, the Glowing Solar Towers Off I-15, Was a Bold Bet That Didn’t Pay Off
Those three blinding towers near the Nevada line are the Ivanpah solar plant, once the future of solar power. Here’s how it works, why it struggled and what it means for California’s clean energy push.
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Santarosae, the Lost Ice Age Island Off California, Had Pygmy Mammoths and Some of America’s First People
During the Ice Age, four of the Channel Islands were one big island called Santarosae, home to pygmy mammoths and some of the earliest people in the Americas. Rising seas drowned most of it.
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Squid Pro Quo: The California Market Squid Feeds the Ocean and the State’s Biggest Fishery
The California market squid lives fast, dies young and supports the state’s largest fishery by volume. Here’s how they live, how they’re caught and why climate change is pushing them toward Alaska.
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Unraveling the Geology Behind Palos Verdes’ Ongoing Landslide Crisis
For decades, geologists and engineers have been aware that the Portuguese Bend region of Palos Verdes is prone…
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The Monterey Formation, the Layered Rock Behind California’s Oil and Its Crumbling Cliffs
Those stacked, cream-colored cliffs at Crystal Cove and Montaña de Oro are the Monterey Formation, an ancient seafloor built from tiny algae. It’s the source of most of California’s oil and a big reason the coast keeps sliding.
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Why bringing back California’s kelp is so important
Sea urchins have devastated kelp forests in California. Support California Curated by buying us a coffee? Two centuries ago, the waters off the California coast were home to a vibrant ecosystem of…
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California Sea Lions, the Barking Comeback Kids of the Coast
California sea lions were once hunted for oil and hides. Now there are about 300,000 of them barking from buoys and docks. How they live, what eats them and why some years they starve.
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How Theodore Roosevelt’s 1903 trip to California gave birth to modern conservation
Theodore Roosevelt’s 1903 trip to California gave birth to modern conservation.
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The Mighty Oaks of California Are a Keystone of the Golden State’s Ecosystem
California has about 20 kinds of oak, and they feed and shelter more wildlife than almost anything else that grows here. A look at the trees that hold the state's landscapes together.
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The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH): Icon of American Scenic Roadways
The Pacific Coast Highway — California's iconic Highway 1 — winds 655 miles along one of the most dramatic coastlines on Earth. Here's its history, geology, and what makes it legendary.
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Black Gold Beach or How Oil Transformed Long Beach and Built the Southern California Economy
How early oil discoveries turned Long Beach into one of Southern California's wealthiest cities — and permanently shaped the region's economy and coastline.
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Julia Platt was the Unwavering Force Behind Monterey’s Ecological Conservation
In the 18th century, when Spanish and French explorers ventured along the northern California coast they encountered…
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Bear Divide, Near Los Angeles, Is One of the Best Bird-Watching Spots in America
Every spring, tens of thousands of migrating birds funnel through Bear Divide, a low pass in the San Gabriel Mountains 45 minutes from downtown LA. Occidental’s Moore Lab is counting them.
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SLAC, the Two-Mile Machine Behind Stanford That Changed Physics
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, near Stanford, helped discover quarks, hosted the first U.S. website and built the world’s largest digital camera. Today its X-ray lasers film chemistry in action.
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The Joshua Tree Isn’t Really a Tree, and Its Future Isn’t Certain
The Mojave’s signature plant is a giant yucca that depends on a single moth to reproduce. Here’s how Joshua trees got their name, why they’re so hard to age and why fire and heat threaten them.
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Underground Fury: The 1985 Methane Blast That Rocked Los Angeles and Rerouted Its Subways
When an unseen pocket of methane ignited under a Ross Dress for Less in 1985, it didn’t just injure 23 people, it forced Los Angeles to redraw the future of its subway.
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Why the Eastern Sierra Turns Gold Every Fall
Every October, aspens across the Eastern Sierra turn gold, orange and red. Here’s the chemistry behind California’s best fall color, and why the timing is starting to shift.
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The Barreleye Fish Has a See-Through Head, and It Lives Off Monterey
With a transparent head and glowing tube-shaped eyes that swivel, the barreleye fish looks like science fiction. MBARI scientists filmed it in Monterey Canyon and solved the mystery of how it sees.
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Navigating the Unseen Current: How the California Current System Shapes Our Ocean, Climate, and Future
The California Current, originating from the colder regions up near British Columbia, sweeps its way down toward Baja California, extending laterally several hundred miles offshore into deep oceanic waters off the continental shelf.
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Davidson Seamount and the Unseen Mountains and Hidden Treasures Off California’s Coast
Perhaps the most astonishing discovery at Davidson Seamount occurred in 2018, when scientists discovered the “Octopus Garden,” the largest known aggregation of octopuses in the world. The garden is about two miles deep and was discovered by researchers on the research vessel (RV) Nautilus.
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The Eucalyptus Tree’s Twisted Path to Californian Soil
The California landscape is dotted with numerous plant species, many of them native , but few have a story as…
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Baja California Is Slowly Breaking Away from the Mainland and May One Day Become an Island
The Baja California Peninsula is slowly being pulled away from mainland Mexico by powerful tectonic forces. As the Pacific Plate moves northwest, it is tearing the peninsula from North America, opening the Sea of Cortez and reshaping the landscape in a geologic process that continues today.
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Where the Sand on Southern California’s Beaches Comes From
Beach sand, particularly in Southern California, is primarily composed of quartz and feldspar mixed with silvery mica and milky quartz. These minerals originally existed in the granite of the local mountains, miles from the shoreline.
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The Long Life and Accidental Death of Prometheus, One of the World’s Oldest Trees
Prometheus, a Great Basin bristlecone pine, was nearly 5,000 years old when a young scientist cut it down in 1964 to count its rings. The story of the tree, the mistake and the ancient bristlecones that still survive.
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The Desert Tortoise: A Resilient Survivor of the Mojave
a close-up of a desert tortoise The Mojave Desert, a harsh yet strikingly beautiful landscape that extends across four western U.S. states, is home to an equally fascinating and resilient creature:…
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The return of Lake Tulare - once the largest lake West of the Mississippi
Lake Tulare was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi — until it was drained for farmland. Here's the remarkable story of its brief and surprising return.
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Why are California’s redwoods and sequoias so big and tall?
California’s coast redwoods and giant sequoias are the tallest and most massive trees on Earth. Here’s the science behind why they grow so enormous — and why they only grow here.
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The Majesty and Mystery of California’s Bristlecone Pines
Bristlecones are the longest living organism on earth. Gnarled and oftentimes squat, especially when compared to the majestic coastal redwoods and giant sequoias living near the coast further west, they hardly seem like mythical beings. But to scientists, they are a trove of information, offering clues to near immortality and to the many ways that the earth’s climate has changed over the last 5,000 years.
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Ancient Bristlecone Pines by Drone
The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in California's White Mountains is home to the oldest living trees on Earth — some over 5,000 years old. Here's what a drone reveals from above.
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This is how we’re going to solve climate change
The Resnicks’ $750 million gift to Caltech is a bet that the climate crisis won’t be solved by cutting emissions alone — and that California’s labs will lead the search for what comes next.
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Towing an iceberg from Antarctica isn’t a new idea.
It was proposed 70 years ago by a maverick California scientist at Scripps. Sign up for the California Science Weekly newsletter . Fresh California science every Friday! Annie Spratt…
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How California Companies are Leading the Effort to Save the World with Microbes
Synbio startups like NovoNutrients are developing novel products to help feed the world and stop climate change. Wikipedia - CC BY-SA 3.0 (Sign up for the California Science Weekly newsletter ,…