Selected National and Global News stories
"Nanominerals" Influence Earth Systems from Ocean to Atmosphere to Biosphere
The ubiquity of tiny particles of minerals--mineral nanoparticles--in oceans and rivers, atmosphere and soils, and in living cells are providing scientists with new ways of understanding Earth's workings. Our planet's physical, chemical, and biological processes are influenced or driven by the properties of these minerals.
So states a team of researchers from seven universities in a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Science
NSF Awards Grants for Three Critical Zone Observatories
By National Science Foundation (NSF)
11/26/2007 --The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected sites for three critical zone observatories (CZO). The observatories are designed to provide scientists with an understanding of what has come to be called the critical zone--the region between the top of the forest canopy and the base of unweathered rock: our living environment--and its response to climate and land use changes. The CZOs represent the first set of systems-based observatories dedicated to Earth surface processes..
New Window Opens on the Secret Life of Microbes: Scientists Develop First Microbial Profiles of Ecosystems
By National Science Foundation
03/12/08 --Nowhere is the principle of "strength in numbers" more apparent than in the collective power of microbes: despite their simplicity, these one-cell organisms -- which number about 5 million trillion trillion strong (no, that is not a typo) on Earth -- affect virtually every ecological process, from the decay of organic material to the production of oxygen.