Located 75 minutes from Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite – the “Three Sisters” as Dr. Robert B. Lull calls them – Fresno sits in the lush agricultural land in between and serves as a gateway to three iconic national parks.
The United States is home to 63 national parks, attracting about 300 million visitors each year to experience their natural wonders. Beyond the beauty, the unspoiled and protected land provides scientists with pristine ecosystems for experimental controls and unique geology supporting rare lifeforms.
Lull’s new book, “Our Natural Lab,” published by Oxford University Press, reveals these parks are the birthplaces of some of the most significant scientific discoveries in human history.
The book highlights how samples taken in Yosemite and Olympic national parks built climate science’s famous Keeling Curve, demonstrating increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. Other examples include how findings at Pinnacles and Mauna Loa led to an understanding of plate tectonics, how Lassen’s volcanic mud may reveal secrets of life’s origin and how a Channel Islands canyon yielded some of the continent’s oldest human bones.
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