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Ancient Minerals: Which Gave Rise to Life?

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2013Scienceancient minerals, beryllium, clay minerals, curiosity rover, earth surface, hadean eon, hadean mineralogy, hydrothermal areas, life, lithium, magnesium silicate forsterite, mars today, metabolic energy, molecular building blocks, molybdenum, most abundant minerals, paleomineralogy, rare elements, rise to life, robert downs, robert hazen, ruff project, scientific models, synthesis, university of arizona

Washington, D.C.— Life originated as a result of natural processes that exploited early Earth’s raw materials. Scientific models of life’s origins almost always look to minerals for such essential tasks as the synthesis of life’s molecular building blocks or the supply of metabolic energy. But this assumes that the mineral species found on Earth today are much the same as they were during Earth’s first 550 million years—the Hadean Eon—when life emerged. A new analysis of Hadean mineralogy challenges that assumption. It is published in American Journal of Science.

Carnegie’s Robert Hazen compiled a list of every plausible mineral species on the Hadean Earth and concludes that no more than 420 different minerals—about 8 percent of the nearly 5,000 species found on Earth today—would have been present at or near Earth’s surface. (more…)

Atomic Weights of Ten Chemical Elements About to Change

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2010Scienceanalytical techniques, atomic weights, biological processes, boron, carbon, chemical, chemical elements, chlorine, elements, geological survey, hydrogen, isotopic abundances, isotopic measurements, iupac, lithium, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, stable isotope, sulfur, table of standard atomic weights, thallium, ty coplen

For the first time in history, a change will be made to the atomic weights of some elements listed on the Table of Standard Atomic Weights of the chemical elements found in the inside covers of chemistry textbooks worldwide.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s (IUPAC) Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights is publishing a new table that will express atomic weights of ten elements as intervals, rather than as single standard values. The new table is the result of cooperative research supported by the U.S. Geological Survey, IUPAC, and other contributing Commission members and institutions. (more…)

Afghanistan’s Natural Wealth Evaluated at $1 Trillion

By PravdaJune 18, 2010Economyafghan economy, afghanistan, american geologists, blackberrys, China, cobalt, copper, drugs, gold, hamid karzai, iron, kabul, laptops, lithium, Pakistan, soviet scientists, taliban, united states

In Afghanistan, American geologists have discovered deposits of iron, copper, lithium, cobalt, and gold worth $1 trillion.

Experts believe that these reserves may not only stop the poverty in one of the poorest countries in the world, but turn Afghanistan in a flourishing country and one of the largest centers of natural resources excavation.

(more…)

Tag Archives: lithium

Ancient Minerals: Which Gave Rise to Life?

Atomic Weights of Ten Chemical Elements About to Change

Afghanistan’s Natural Wealth Evaluated at $1 Trillion