A BIG FAMILY
By Georges Calas | December, 2014
Since their foundation in the early 19th century, the mineral sciences have been concerned not only with natural minerals but also with their numerous synthetic counterparts. These materials exhibit a large diversity of structures and properties and find countless applications. Such continuity between natural, synthetic and sometimes technological materials is good for research: breaking boundaries between scientific fields has always been positive. This continuity is also good for our students, and it is a good reason to attract students to mineralogy: these students often show excellence in mastering complex systems, even in fi elds outside of the Earth and environmental sciences. Elements is an excellent illustration of how some subjects require interdisciplinary thinking.
WRESTLING WITH REPRODUCIBILITY IN RESEARCH
By Trish Dove and Skips Reaction at home in Virginia | October, 2014
With a mounting sense of alarm, the life sciences community has noted an increasing number of formal corrections to scientific papers. This trend, combined with a highly publicized report stating that only 25% of preclinical studies could be validated to the extent that projects could continue (Begley and Ellis 2012), has motivated discussions about how to improve reproducibility in research. Insights from recent workshops to examine the reproducibility of cancer and genetic research suggest that the “lessons learned” provide a timely opportunity for all scientific areas to review and update best practices.
NATURAL GAS IN THE EMERGING GLOBAL ENERGY LANDSCAPE
By Patricia M. Dove | August, 2014
Energy was not on the mind of Heraclitus of Ephesus (circa 500 BCE) when he wrote “The only constant is change.” However, his words ring true as you read this issue of Elements. Within a decade, the energy world has witnessed a tectonic shift that is roiling the international economic, political, and environmental landscapes. Technological advances, made largely by the Canadian and United States oil and gas industries, have converted North America from a gas-importing to a gas-exporting continent. Had the “shale boom” never happened, the US would currently be importing more than 280 million cubic meters of natural gas per day (New York Times, April 2014). Today, the US is poised to export an equal amount as liquefied natural gas (LNG).
KAOLINS: NANOMINERALS WITH A PROUD HERITAGE
By Gordon Brown | June, 2014
Imagine that you were one of the early Homo sapiens agriculturalists living during the Upper Paleolithic period near what is now called Kauling (or Gaoling) in Jiangxi province of China. Roughly 25,000 years later, Chinese geologists would discover that the local kaolin deposit was derived from the alteration of a granite stock of Middle Jurassic age (Chen et al. 1997). Further imagine that your small band of agriculturalists had established a village near a stream. While playing along the stream’s bank, your children noticed a soft, malleable material they could form when wet into small objects resembling some of the local wildlife. To their delight, these small objects hardened into a brittle material when exposed to sunlight, preserving the shapes of the model squirrels and foxes they made.
PLAYTHINGS VERSUS THE KILLER ROCK?
By John Valley | April, 2014
What could be stranger than a rock you can weave into cloth and liquid metal you can hold in your hand? Both of these useful materials were common playthings for children (and adults) not long ago, but we know more about their health effects now. Mercury chemistry is complex and methyl-mercury can do more than make you “mad as a hatter.” It can kill you. Likewise, “asbestos” refers to a range of minerals, some forms of which are more harmful than others and can be lethal if inhaled in sufficient quantities.
ASTEROID WHAT?
By John Valley | February, 2014
Asteroi ds have a PR problem. The name, ending in -oid, connotes being sort of like something else, but not quite. Aster means “star” in Latin; so what is an asteroid? There are no constellations of heroic warriors immortalizing asteroids because the Greeks couldn’t see them. Most were only found in the last decade. Today, the popular dream of space travel might mean going to the planets or beyond, but probably not to YP139. Most people, if they think about asteroids at all, consider them either far away and obscure or nearby and menacing, perhaps coming to end civilization.