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The lost civilization of Atlantis may just be legend, but way down below the ocean (to quote the folksinger Donovan) there are some things that are very real — namely, bacteria and archaea. By some estimates, sub-seafloor prokaryotes may account for two-thirds of the biomass of these types of organisms on Earth. The latest evidence for such a huge undersea biosphere, and a depth record of sorts, is reported in Science by R. John Parkes of Cardiff University and colleagues. They have found living prokaryotes 5,335 feet below the ocean floor off Newfoundland, about twice as deep as the previous...

What do the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall, and Monticello have in common? The average American with a smattering of historical knowledge might say that those historic sites are all symbolic of America’s unique heritage of freedom. Monticello, of course, was the home of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence. That document (as well as the U.S. Constitution, later) was signed in Independence Hall. The Statue of Liberty memorializes the free nation under God that those founding documents created. What about the Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone Park, and the Grand Canyon? Well, these priceless natural resources are...

Other consequences of gas emissions are the dangerous and misleading indications that the flight instruments would provide. Air speed indicators and air pressure altimeters would give quite false and fluctuating readings. The autopilots, programmed for air, may have totally erroneous responses in the light gas, as indeed may the pilots themselves, who would be perplexed by a situation they had never encountered or contemplated before.

Papers have been flapping with new headlines about the latest in a long line of alleged dinosaur ancestors of birds. This one is claimed to be a sensational dinosaur with feathers on its hind legs, thus four ‘wings’.1 This was named Microraptor gui—the name is derived from words meaning ‘little plunderer of Gu’ after the paleontologist Gu Zhiwei. Like so many of the alleged feathered dinosaurs, it comes from Liaoning province of northeastern China. It was about 3 feet (1 meter) long from its head to the tip of its long tail, but its body was only about the size...

Chief among the pessimists is the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, a group of European scientists who estimate that maximum oil production around the globe will peak in 2008 as demand rises from developing economies such as China... Others believe, like Maugeri, that the number of glasses is virtually limitless. John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute, argues that peak oil- production estimates are so far off that for all practical purposes we might as well act as if oil will flow forever. "Ever since oil was first harvested in the 1800s, people have said...

Link post, to alert interested FR members to the post in the "chat" section, where any posted discussion should take place: Geology Picture of the Week, June 6-12, 2004: Pinacates Volcanic Field/Biosphere Reserve

Columbia University said yesterday that it would cut all ties with Biosphere 2, casting into doubt the future of the $200 million ecology experiment that Edward P. Bass, the Texas billionaire and oil heir, built in the Arizona desert. Martin C. Bowen, vice president of Decisions Investments Corporation, the company that owns Biosphere 2, said in a statement that it was exploring the center's future and that in the coming months it would try to determine "the most viable options for its use and operation." The company and the university said they had settled a lawsuit that Decisions Investments brought...