The word "megadrought" isn't new in the science community. It's been in use since the early 1990s.

But new findings from research conducted at UCLA have the word making headlines in the Western U.S. this week.

According to the study, the last 22 years are now the driest out of the last 1,200 years in the Western U.S. That kind of statistic has earned the last two decades the classification of "megadrought".

But what does that mean?

A megadrought is a period of 20 to 30 years where conditions are drier than average. There may be some wet years sprinkled in, but drought impacts remain throughout the period. These are much longer in scale than droughts you typically hear meteorologists talk about, which typically last months or years.

Climate scientists can identify megadroughts using tree ring data that stretches back over a thousand years.

“Every year a tree grows an annual growth ring and in a wet year, the ring will be really wide because the tree grows a lot," said Park Williams, one of the study's authors. "In a dry year, the tree grows a little bit because it’s really dry.”

Those rings reveal patterns that climate scientists can use to track megadroughts. They have identified four of them in the Western U.S. since the year 800. They all range between 23 and 30 years in length but vary in severity. Each megadrought ended with a 10-to-15 year period of wetter-than-average conditions, showing evidence of natural climate variability over long timescales.

But that natural cycle is likely trending drier in both droughts and rainy periods because of human-caused climate change. Increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide from human activity are causing Earth's average temperature to rise. As the atmosphere warms, it pulls more moisture out of the ground, exacerbating drought conditions and making rainy periods weaker and further between.

So while this latest megadrought cycle is expected to end in the next five to 10 years, the wetter period that follows may be less pronounced than in previous cycles.

Watch the video above for the full story.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Vital to life on earth, mushrooms are magical. But not necessarily in the way most people think.

“There are gazillions, and most of them are not psychedelic mushrooms," said Dr. Gordon Saxe, a preventative medicine physician and epidemiologist at the University of California San Diego and director of the Krupps Center of Integrative Research. “Most have no mind-altering effect whatsoever but may be really helpful for our health.”

While used medicinally for thousands of years, researchers say there's been a lag in modern science to study their potential today. But a first-of-its-kind study assesses whether medicinal mushrooms and Chinese herbs provide therapeutic benefit in treating acute COVID-19 infection.

“Often, these things would be dismissed as quackery, even though there’s such a long history of their use by folks like Hippocrates and his contemporaries," said Dr. Saxe. "Some of our best Western medicines are derived from fungi. Think penicillin.”

From fending off viruses to boosting our immune systems, Dr. Saxe is among researchers trying to harness the potential of medicinal mushrooms.

MACH-19 (Mushrooms and Chinese Herbs for COVID-19) — a multi-center study led by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UCLA — is among the first to evaluate these specific integrative medicine approaches using the gold standard of Western medicine: the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Working with two mushroom species, turkey tail, and agarikon, Dr. Saxe says they're also studying whether medicinal mushrooms can bolster immune response after vaccination.

To understand science, you must go way back in time.

“We co-developed for over a billion years together. Much of our genetics is very similar to that of fungi and mushrooms," said Dr. Saxe. “The same things that would prey on us – viruses, bacteria – preyed on fungi. And so a billion or more years, they evolved all kinds of exquisite defenses against those pathogens.”

Medicine created by Mother Nature that can benefit humans.

“Many of the substances they produce, will bind, have specificity for cells in our immune system, for receptors on those cells, and so when we ingest them, they can activate or enhance our own immune responses.”

Their rigorous clinical trials are supported by the Krupp Endowed Fund.

“Very few natural products undergo FDA-approved research, and even fewer make it to the point that they receive FDA approval for use," said Dr. Saxe. “Unfortunately, natural products don’t have the same level of patent protection that pharmaceuticals do, so the financial incentives are less.”

Receiving FDA approval would be historic for fungi, which are already having a moment in today’s wellness culture. Varieties like reishi, chaga, and lion’s mane can be found in fancy lattes today and are available over the counter as health supplements.

“And we don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We can use pharmaceuticals but also, when appropriate, use natural approaches,” said Dr. Saxe.

Relatively dirt cheap and easy to produce, Dr. Saxe believes unearthing their superpowers could be a critical tool for the world.

“COVID and other diseases are global problems. We have to be thinking globally, not just locally, about these things. It makes sense to use things such as mushrooms to help in this fight.”

The New York attorney general is trying to break up the National Rifle Association over allegations of mismanagement and the abuse of member money.

Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor who specializes in the Second Amendment, says this is just the start. The legal battle could go for another year or two.

If the NRA dissolves at that point, it would have a huge impact on American politics, but that doesn't mean the end of the gun debate.

“What happens is the resources of the NRA would be distributed in a way that is designed to match the donors' intent,” said Winkler. “And that means that money would go to gun rights organizations and would go towards fighting against gun control in most, most circumstances.”

Winkler says the NRA dissolving isn't the only potential outcome. The attorney general is also seeking less drastic repercussions, like removing certain in-house lawyers or board members. That includes Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president.

We don't yet know exactly what evidence there is. Winkler says the AG’s case has at least one advantage, the NRA’s former public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen, is cooperating.

“And so, the attorney general is going to have on her side an insider who's seen everything that's happened in the NRA for the last three decades,” said Winkler. “I think the NRA is in big trouble.”

He says the lawsuit could also impact the November election by energizing pro-gun voters looking to support the NRA and the Republicans.

Winkler says it's also likely to mean less NRA spending compared to 2016.