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Scientists have extracted long-dormant microbes from inside the famous giant crystals of the Naica mountain caves in Mexico - and revived them. The organisms were likely to have been encased in the striking shafts of gypsum at least 10,000 years ago, and possibly up to 50,000 years ago. It is another demonstration of the ability of life to adapt and cope in the most hostile of environments. "Other people have made longer-term claims for the antiquity of organisms that were still alive, but in this case these organisms are all very extraordinary - they are not very closely related to...

Nestling up to a cauldron of pressurized, molten rock is almost never a good idea. But in Mexico's Naica mine, the payoff is worth the risk. About 900 feet below the surface, there is a chamber filled with gypsum. It's the same stuff that goes in the drywall in your house, only in Naica it spent half a million years parboiling in a chamber filled with magma-heated water. Suddenly miners showed up and started pumping the mineral-rich broth out to get at valuable silver and lead deposits nearby. The result is a cavern filled with crystals 36 feet long and...

Hi everyone. I'm thinking about taking a breather from Free Republic for a little while. Not long, I'm sure. But, I just don't want it to interfere with my job, and I already had that happen once. I'm reading and posting much too much. I think a short sabbatical should help me break this bad habit.See you all soon .... NOT DURING WORK HOURS!

Colorado Sens. Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard say they will push to have six helicopters permanently stationed at the unique military aviation training site in Gypsum. The Colorado Army National Guard’s High-Altitude Aviation Training Site, based at the Eagle County Airport, is the only place in the United States where pilots can practice flying in the high-altitude conditions they see in Afghanistan and Iraq. Salazar said the military has to bring in helicopters whenever it sends pilots to use the site. He said more pilots could get the training if aircraft were based there. He hopes to add to add...

Where can you go to see a cool example of nanotechnology? Well, just about everywhere. A new study reveals that plain old concrete, the most common human-made material on the planet, owes its properties to its nanoscale structure. Down the road, this new understanding could lead to novel forms of concrete that require less energy and CO2 to generate and might allow researchers to engineer its properties much as they have done with advanced steel alloys. Concrete isn't what comes to mind when most people think of nanomaterials. It's the oldest engineered construction material and was first used by the...

There is an internet vandal who defaces Free Republic with very gross pictures (homosexual sex and stuff from rotton.com) as well as posting "ALL YOU F***** N*****S & JEWS SHOULD BE LYNCHED".He pings a variety of people to his post, ensuring that the trash is still in their My Posts lists.To me, this isn't the milder form of harassment that Eschoir engaged in so many years ago. The very worst he would do is ask if you ever committed sodomy, and he once used the screen name "Paula Jones Tw*t". This is mild.What this sick piece of work is doing...

Link post: Geology Picture of the Week, April 20-26, 2003

Ghost Pool, Lechaguilla Cave, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico Source: Lechaguilla Photo Map Natural Resources: Lechuguilla Cave Lechuguilla Cave was known until 1986 as a small, fairly insignificant historic site in the park's backcountry. Small amounts of bat guano were mined from the entrance passages for a year under a mining claim filed in 1914. The historic cave contained a 90-foot entrance pit which led to 400 feet of dry dead-end passages. The cave was visited infrequently after mining activities ceased. However, in the 1950s cavers heard wind roaring up from the rubble-choked floor of the cave. Although there...