To borrow shamelessly from Benjamin Franklin, guacamole is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. The Agricultural and Natural Resources people at the University of California-Riverside would seem to agree. In this Web site devoted solely to the lovely avocado, readers can learn all about the history and horticulture of this subtropical fruit (that's right -- fruit). Features include...

This current feature from NASA's Earth Observatory focuses on the use of a new type of vegetation measurement called the leaf area index (LAI). The four page article describes how trees moderate climate, and how scientists think the LAI will be useful in modeling global climate change. The text is written for a general audience and includes images showing what LAI data actually looks like. When...