There's a new crop on the block and it's got scientists abuzz about its potential to be a new source of biofuel. No, it's not some rare ginseng-wolfsbane hybrid wonder plant that you find in the deepest bowels of Africa. It's actually much closer to home than you think, like on marginal farmland on eastern Washington to North Dakota. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the little plant that could, the Camelina plant!

What makes scientists excited about the Camelina? For one, Camelina can grow in dry, undesirable conditions. Another thing is that it can produce a significant amount of oil from its seeds, and it doesn't need heavy exposure to chemicals such as fertilizer and insecticides to flourish. Economic, hardy, and relatively low-maintenance - what's not to like?

With all these boons from the Camelina plant, it's not surprising that people have decided to ride the wave, so to speak. Targeted Growth, a Seattle biotech firm, is already making plans with the wonder crop, hoping to plant 1 million acres by 2009. Farmers in Montana have also taken action, with more than 50,000 acres already bristling with Camelina.

Certainly good news for the alternative fuel market, and with Camelina seeds yielding a very high amount of omega-3 fatty acids, a substance believed to reduce the risk of certain heart diseases. It probably won't be long before we're all cooking with Camelina oil. Updates about this new wonder plant as we get them!

About two centuries ago, people all over the world started reporting sightings of snowflakes as large as dinner plates plummeting from the sky. None of those sightings were verified until recently because the fragility of the flakes made it hard to document the phenomenon. The scientists of today, however, say that these stories may not be whoppers after all.

Meteorologists say that although the snowflakes are fragile and can easily be broken up by wind, there's a very slim chance that some actually make it to the ground.

"There is every reason to suppose that such instances might occur almost every day during winter somewhere in Europe or the maritime fringes of North America and Asia," he said. But, he added, such extraordinary snowfalls "are seldom reported or authenticated," said William Pike of the Royal Meteorological Society in Britain.

And Pike isn't the only one who thinks so. "Clearly, they exist, because people pull them out of their freezers. Some of these things can be very, very rare, but not impossible," says Kenneth Librecht of the California Institute of Technology. Librecht asserted that the laws of physics have not ruled out the existence, or the possibility thereof, of such flakes to exist.

The Guinness Book of Records says that the largest snowflake ever found was in a Montana snowstorm in the 1800's when a rancher captured a flake 15 inches in diameter. That record may soon be broken though. NASA and other space agencies are expected to hunt for these marvels by 2015 with weather satellites all at the low price of $1 billion.

There's a reason why the volcano over at Yellowstone is considered super. Apart from the fact that it spans parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, scientists recently discovered yet another super thing about it. Apparently, there is significant activity going on beneath its placid-looking surface -- and one that is increasing lately. Add to that little bit of news is the discovery that the nearby Treton Range is getting shorter.

So does this mean that the Yellowstone supervolcano is moving over the landscape, thereby affecting the expanse of the nearby range? Probably so. But that's only the tip of the iceberg -- er, volcano.

It's been said that researchers have been poring 17 years of their work just tracking the horizontal and vertical motion of the Yellowstone caldera. This is the huge volcanic crater that was created, thanks to the super-eruption of the supervolcano some super 60, 000 years ago.

According to lead study author Robert Smith of the University of Utah, "we think it's a combination of magma being intruded under the caldera and hot water released from the magma being pressurized because it's trapped." And while they still do not consider this as enough warning or evidence for impending doom, aka a supervolcanic eruption, "it would be prudent to keep monitoring the volcano."

Unwanted cats and dogs roaming urban communities don't  fall from the sky like rain. According to animal control experts, they often come from people who ignore the cardinal rule responsible pet ownership: spay or neuter your pets.

Controlling population control of unwanted pets is not cheap. It has been estimated that about 20% of the 36 million dogs and 36 million cats in the US end up in public and private animal shelters annually. About 85% are euthanized because no one wants to bring them home. Each animal put to sleep costs $7, bringing the total figure to somewhere between $60 and $100 million.

Unwanted pets also end up killed or dead outside shelters and pose real nuisance and public health problem to people, wildlife and livestock.

If you live in or around the City of Helena, Lewis and Clark County in Montana, you have the chance to do the right thing on September 16 - 17. The Montana Spay Neuter Task Force, The Foundation for Animals and the Helena Area Friends of Pets have teamed up to provide free spaying and neutering for those who cannot afford to take their pets to a veterinarian.

In the past two years, the animal medical mission has altered hundreds of cats and dogs. While there are millions of unwanted pets around the world, the sponsors of this event say this is bound to make a difference

Five years ago a mummified brachylophosaurus unearthed in Montana became the hottest thing in Paleontology since David Schwimmer's character in 'Friends'. Nicknamed Leonardo, this was considered the world's best-preserved dinosaur since it came with intact skin, muscles, internal organs and even his last meal is in his stomach.

Leonardo made it to the cover of Newsweek and graced the pages of National Geographic in June 2005. But Leonardo's  "15 million years" of fame isn't over. The Tribune featured a story about paleontologists using the latest X-ray technology to view the 77 million-year-old star's internal organs this summer. That very same story is now the Tribune's most read item, having attracted nearly 600 readers with very interesting questions.

One reader wondered if Leonardo's soft tissue could prove that dinosaurs are in fact only thousands, not millions, of years old and died in the great flood because Noah didn't want dinosaur in his ark. "After all, how could tissue still exist after 77 million years?" the reader asked.

Paleontologists believe after Leonardo died, it was able to dry out complete - apparently neither scavengers nor natural processes (earth movements and the like) disturbed it. The process preserved its tissue and skin, then it was covered by earth and then fossilized. In paleontology, "skin" refers to trace fossils. That is, the actual skin is replaced by minerals that look like the original skin.

Brachylophosaurus (brak-ee-LOH-fo-sawr-us) meaning "short-crested lizard" was mid-sized, plant-eating  member of the hadrosaurid family of dinosaurs that lived in present day North America.  Leonardo was a teenager when he died. Even then he was already 22-foot-long (seven meters) and weighed between 1.5 to 2 tons.