It began with a painting, a biologist and an idea to disprove the widely-held axiom that trees are static. The biologist first affixed a paintbrush to a tree branch, set it to a canvas and watched it sketch. She then multiplied the length of that tree’s stroke by every branch in its crown. In the course of a year, the biologist learned, the tree would move 187,000 miles — or seven times across the globe. This seemingly immobile thing was actually in constant motion.

The drawing and its implications would ultimately spark a program that has infiltrated some of the most impenetrable prisons in the nation, attracted international attention, and earned a spot on TIME Magazine’s list of best inventions. Called the Nature Imagery Project, it transports the soothing elements of nature into supermax prisons to help ease the psychological stress of solitary confinement.

The project is rooted in an idea that even the most static entities — like trees, like inmates in solitary confinement — have the capacity for change. “Prisoners seem to be these people who will never change,” said the biologist, Nalini Nadkarni, a professor at the University of Utah. “They will always be violent, always a burden on society. But if we can change our perspective, we can see that people can move even if they seem stuck.”

A general consensus has emerged among politicians, academics and prison officials that something is seriously wrong with the way we isolate tens of thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement. But solutions to this seemingly intractable problem have been in short supply. Solitary confinement remains one of the most widely-used tools to punish or protect inmates, even amid overwhelming evidence linking isolation to mental illness and suicide.

It began with a painting, a biologist and an idea to disprove the widely-held axiom that trees are static. The biologist first affixed a paintbrush to a tree branch, set it to a canvas and watched it sketch. She then multiplied the length of that tree’s stroke by every branch in its crown. In the course of a year, the biologist learned, the tree would move 187,000 miles — or seven times across the globe. This seemingly immobile thing was actually in constant motion.

The drawing and its implications would ultimately spark a program that has infiltrated some of the most impenetrable prisons in the nation, attracted international attention, and earned a spot on TIME Magazine’s list of best inventions. Called the Nature Imagery Project, it transports the soothing elements of nature into supermax prisons to help ease the psychological stress of solitary confinement.

The project is rooted in an idea that even the most static entities — like trees, like inmates in solitary confinement — have the capacity for change. “Prisoners seem to be these people who will never change,” said the biologist, Nalini Nadkarni, a professor at the University of Utah. “They will always be violent, always a burden on society. But if we can change our perspective, we can see that people can move even if they seem stuck.”

A general consensus has emerged among politicians, academics and prison officials that something is seriously wrong with the way we isolate tens of thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement. But solutions to this seemingly intractable problem have been in short supply. Solitary confinement remains one of the most widely-used tools to punish or protect inmates, even amid overwhelming evidence linking isolation to mental illness and suicide.

A magnitude-3.0 earthquake is small, but most people can feel it. Historically, Oklahoma got less than two of those a year, but in 2013 it became two a week.

It's only gotten more active since then — last year, the state had three times as many earthquakes as in the entire seismically active state of California.

This morning, the U.S. Geological Survey will issue its first comprehensive assessment of the hazard posed by earthquakes linked to oil and gas drilling. In the preliminary report, the survey details oil and gas-related quakes in eight states.

The earthquake surge is strongest in Oklahoma, where the state government has formally acknowledged the link for the first time earlier this week.

Ahead of the Democratic debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders became the first 2016 presidential candidate on Tuesday to pay six-figures to take over Twitter’s top trending topic.

Twitter users watching the debate via their smart phones will see the hashtag #DebatewithBernie at the top of the national trending topics – above the hashtag for the debate and other popular items for the day.

A spokesman for Twitter confirmed the Sanders campaign purchased the top trending hashtag, but declined to say the exact cost. In the past, Twitter has charged $200,000 for similar campaigns.

The promoted hashtag is one of Twitter’s most expensive ad options. It allows the campaign to choose which links users see when they click on the hashtag – in order to avoid spam or unsavory tweets “taking over” the hashtag. In this case, the Sanders campaign chose a tweet from Mr. Sanders’ account that asks users to sign up to say good luck to the candidate.

Conclusion: Hands raised for O'Malley, 3, 6, 9, 13, it was unanimous, Martin O'Malley. "He stuck to the issues the most", the group said, "and he probably changed the most minds." " I don't think anyone who was not going to vote for Hillary before is voting for Hillary now. I think the same thing happened for Bernie. I think the only person who made any relative gains was Martin O'Malley."

Conclusion: Hands raised for O'Malley, 3, 6, 9, 13, it was unanimous, Martin O'Malley. "He stuck to the issues the most", the group said, "and he probably changed the most minds." " I don't think anyone who was not going to vote for Hillary before is voting for Hillary now. I think the same thing happened for Bernie. I think the only person who made any relative gains was Martin O'Malley."

I am very very grateful to be on this stage with this distinguished group of candidates tonight. And what you heard tonight ... was a very very different debate from the sort of debate that you heard from the two presidential republican debates. On this stage you didn't hear anyone denigrate women, you didn't hear anyone make racist comments about new American immigrants. You didn't hear anyone speak ill of another American because of their religious beliefs. What you heard was an honest search for the answers that will move our country forward, to move us to a 100 percent clean electric energy grid by 2050.

To take the actions that we have always taken as Americans, so that we can actually attack injustice in our country, employ more of our people, rebuild out cities and towns, educate our children at higher and better levels, and include more of our people in the sociopolitical and economic life of our country. I truly believe that we are standing on the threshold of a new American progress, unless you become discouraged about our gridlock in Congress, talk to our people under 30. You'll never find among them people who want to bash immigrants, people who want to deny rights to gay couples. That tells me we are moving to a more connected, generous, compassionate place, and we need to speak to the goodness within our country.

Twenty years ago, a group of researchers began tracking the personalities of 1,420 low income children in North Carolina. At the time, the goal was simple: to observe the mental conditions of kids living in rural America. But then a serendipitous thing happened.

Four years into The Great Smoky Mountains Study of Youth, the families of roughly a quarter of the children saw a dramatic and unexpected increase in annual income. They were members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and a casino had just been built on the reservation. From that point on every tribal citizen earned a share of the profits, meaning about an extra $4,000 a year per capita.

For these families, the extra padding was a blessing, enough to boost household incomes by almost 20 percent on average. But for the fields of psychology, sociology and economics, it has been a gold mine, too. The sudden change in fortunes has offered a rare glimpse into the subtle but important ways in which money can alter a child’s life. The dataset is so rich that researchers continue to study it to this day.

Not only did the extra income appear to lower the instance of behavioral and emotional disorders among the children, but, perhaps even more important, it also boosted two key personality traits that tend to go hand in hand with long-term positive life outcomes.