The "Natural Mojave" galleries simulate flash floods and expose the variety of native wildlife that calls this desert home, from Gila monsters to big brown bats.

BBC: Discover life in the Nevada desert

Or how about this: The military has a runway deep in enemy territory that it wants to keep from getting blown up, so it changes the color of the landing turf to brown to blend in with the surrounding desert.

FORBES: Field of Screens

The desert here is a ruler-edge sheet of mute brown dirt, studded with the occasional spiky yucca tree, and goes on and on and on, much in the same interminable way as a pub bore.

BBC: New Mexico��s alien nation

Twenty miles outside the small town of Taos, New Mexico, the dry, flat landscape is interrupted momentarily by a small brown-colored dome that appears amid the low, desert scrub.

FORBES: Tiny Desert Dome Home for Sale $74,000

Right here on the flight line in crash landings, the helicopters landing in what are called brown-out conditions, meaning the dust on the desert floor rises up and engulfs the helicopter and it is very difficult for the pilot to see the ground in those conditions and very easy to mess up the landing.

CNN: Ryan Chilcote: First deep attack