GRAT SCIENCE OR GREY GOO?
By David J. Vaughan | December, 2008
In the spring of 2003, “Prince Fears Grey Goo Nightmare” banner headlines appeared in the popular press in Britain and elsewhere. The Prince referred to was HRH Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, who was warning about the possible risks of nanotechnology. The “grey goo” concerned a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario in which out-of-control self-replicating nanoscale robots consume all matter on Earth in order to build more of themselves. The resulting mass of nanomachines, lacking large-scale structure, would be goo-like. This picture has far more in common with science fiction than with science. Indeed, a grey goo catastrophe is the subject of the novel Prey by Michael Crichton, bestselling author of Jurassic Park.
The CO2 CHALLANGE – A CALL TO ACTION
By Susan L. S. Stipp | October, 2008
Since we first walked upright and contemplated our destiny, humankind has recognised its struggle with Nature. Humans were fragile, at the mercy of wind, sun, water, hunger and disease. Our ancestors soon began to engineer their world, to build, to cut forests and plough, to rearrange water and rock, and to make ever more dramatic changes to the face of the Earth. Civilisation developed, but people were still at the mercy of the elements. Even as late as the mid-eighteenth century, when Rousseau, Voltaire and other philosophers were debating Man and Nature, human existence was fragile. Now, our engineering has improved the quality of life, but has also triggered unexpected consequences that put humankind and the biosphere at risk. Nature has become fragile.
QUIET REVOLUTION IN THE GEOCHEMICAL SCIENCES
By E. Bruce Watson | August, 2008
I am writing these words on my way home from the 2008 Goldschmidt Conference in Vancouver, so it’s possible that I’m writing in a state of overstimulation: by any measure it was an extraordinary meeting that lived up to its promise to cover science “from SEA to SKY.”
SCIENTIFIC FRONTIERS AND RISKY VERSUS SAFE SCIENCE
By E. Bruce Watson | June, 2008
The thematic content of Elements is devoted to describing the forefronts of mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry (“MPG science”) as perceived by our scientific community and by the editorial and advisory boards. Each issue contains articles written at a level that we hope will make the science accessible to a broad readership. From Elements’ inception, however, the intent has been not so much to provide a well-digested review of the state of affairs in a given subdiscipline, but rather to convey—somewhat “anecdotally”—the essence and excitement of research occurring on the frontiers of our science. Naturally this means that the editorial board must struggle with the question of what con stitutes a frontier in MPG science. In some scientific fields the question “Where is the frontier?” might elicit a consistent answer from the major ity of practitioners. In theoretical physics, for example, the nature of dark matter and dark energy might predominate; in biochemistry the majority might concur on protein folding and/or molecular self-assembly.
DEPLETING RESOURCES, ETHICS AND INNOVATION
By Susan L.S. Stipp | April, 2008
In this issue, we see how important phosphorus is in our lives. It is an essential ingredient of our bones and teeth, it is a limiting element for plant growth and it is the culprit in fouling our environment through eutrophication of lakes, but it can be our environmental saviour when used to immobilise heavy metals and radioactive species. Considering the importance of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) as the energy “currency” for metabolism in all life, I find Figure 7A in the article by Filippelli (page 94) particularly thought-provoking. Phosphorus pollution of the ocean is projected to stop only when we run out of phosphorus as fertiliser. Can the world’s population justify over-fertilising, which both fouls the sea and depletes global resources? Certainly it does not make sense to dump an element that is critical for life, at the bottom of the world’s oceans.
How Are We Doing?
By Ian Parsons | February, 2008
Elements is beginning its fourth year of publication, a milestone both for the magazine and for me, because I am the last of the first group of Principal Editors, and this is the final issue with which I shall be associated. It seems a good moment to review our progress. Of the original four editors only Pierrette Tremblay remains, as our dynamic and superefficient Managing Editor, our corporate memory and the anchor for the whole operation. When Rod Ewing (who kick-started the enterprise), Mike Hochella, Pierrette and I met in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in April 2004, we began with a clean sheet, named the magazine, discussed our target audience, the level at which articles should be pitched and all manner of detailed things.