Geology, my own field of inquiry is like all great science, based on simple curiosity. A drive or interest in figuring something out and running through a series of tests and experiments that will yield an answer to your question. Good science is driven by this quest, a never-ending interest in finding out the mysteries…

From a city skyscraper in downtown Salt Lake City, a small staff of workers has been orchestrating the dismantling of Utah’s 13 national monuments and parks. This urban setting, 400 miles from Bears Ears National Monument is the home to the Sutherland Institute. Their social media accounts (Twitter, Instagram and YouTube) stand out as the…

1) Try to trap every moment, before they all run off into the dark wilderness. 2) Be caged not by bars, but the pillar held up to prevent the collapse upon those you love. 3) When passion leaves your life, replaced it by the sweetness of your offspring. 4) Depression may stab at you with…

There is no deigning that the United States has a gun problem. High levels of gun deaths make our country a unique outliner among other developed countries, and undoubtedly the United States is seen as the most pro-gun culture in the world. After the tragic shooting in Los Vegas yesterday, there was a broad condemnation…

There has been a lot of discussion of balancing the federal budget, and the importance of funding for science and technology, but I don’t think many of us here in the United States understand how science is funded, and how much of that science funding comes from federal taxes. On April 22nd, scientists are planning…

I don’t post political commentary, and that is because I don’t want to deal with the political fall-out that comes from professing one’s allegiances to political parties, or even to positioning oneself along a political spectrum. I often struggle when people are criticized for holding opposing view-points. For example, supporting gun rights, while supporting same…

After all the turmoil of the Nov. 2016 election this year, I retreated away from Social Media for two weeks. It was to clear my own thoughts from the thousands of hordes of voices that were filling my stream with indignation, fear and worry. I retreat into the solace of my own head space, and…

It has been a while since I wrote a blog post to my website. I have several excuses on why I’ve not written lately, 1) I have not had a really good idea to write about, 2) I’ve been really busy teaching. (Most of my students don’t take as many classes as I teach) 3)…

Why I art? A year ago, I was going through some of my old papers, and came across a series of sketches and paintings that I made back when I was in my 20s. I remembered the joy that I felt when I made them, and started to think about picking up my pencil and…

Tyrannosaurus rex is the quintessential dinosaur. However, its discovery and initial description have been clouded by legends and fanciful stories. Letters, field notebooks, reports, published descriptions, field photographs and even receipts, have been consulted to reveal to a true as possible story about the discovery and subsequent description of the first Tyrannosaurus rex. In 1897,…