Category Archives: rocks & minerals

Lots of oxygen on the Archean Earth?

New evidence for the early evolution of photosynthesis: was the early Earth really as oxygen-free as we think it was?
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Categories: Archean, geochemistry, geology, paper reviews, past worlds, rocks & minerals

50 minerals to see before you die

I’m not sure I’m really wise in jumping on this meme (started by Chuck and taken up by Hypocentre, Silver Fox and Callan), because I have a feeling I’m going to end up feeling a little inadequate; my heavy does … Continue reading

Categories: geology, rocks & minerals

Scientists discover ‘Kryptonite’

The press office of the Natural History Museum must have been beside themselves with this one: asked to analyse an unusual mineral from a mine in Serbia, one of their scientists types the composition he’s determined into Google and discovers, … Continue reading

Categories: geology, rocks & minerals

Want to know about Monazite? Then phone a friend

At the beginning of the week, I came across this story, about the new ‘Ultrachron’ machine (developed by Michael Williams and Michael Jercinovic at the University of Massachusetts), which seems to offer some exciting possibilities for extracting the detailed tectonic … Continue reading

Categories: geology, links, rocks & minerals