Crystals in the news

'Nanominerals' influence Earth systems from ocean to atmosphere to biosphere

from ENN Headline News

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: "Nanominerals, Mineral Nanoparticles, and Earth Systems." -------------------- Hmmm, these would be crystals. Glad I'm friends with so many of them!

Digging Out

After 2 days of snow and wind, the sun is shining (blindingly!) and the storm is over. We were lucky to have only piles of snow to deal with, no electric or satellite outages. John is still clearing the driveway, but it's good for both of us for him to be able to get outside. Check out the photos from yesterday and today that I've uploaded to my Flickr page. Some of them appear in the stream on this blog, over to the right. I hope everyone else made it through this storm without any problems. John had a rough ride home Saturday morning, but he took it slow. Luckily, at that time of the morning there isn't a lot of traffic anyways. He's really pleased with how his truck handles in this weather, even without any weight in the back. I'm just glad he made it home, since it kept snowing all day! Although this is nothing comparatively, it did remind me that the biggest blizzard I've experienced was 30 years ago in January. I can't imagine anything topping that one!

Now I Remember

The reason I didn't set an account up here was because it's not a news reader. On Bloglines, I can read news stories and then comment on them. Here, it's not so easy. I'll try to get the hang of it. Anyways, here I am!