Category Archives: Environment Network

The driving force behind the Environment Network initiative is our belief that the geosciences are at the very heart of the critical environmental problems facing humanity in the 21st century, and that geoscientists should be setting the agenda in these matters. We look to Fellows to help with ideas and actions to promote the Environment Network – including blogging about this most bloggable of subjects. And, Fellow or not, we would love to hear your views and ideas.

Keeping an eye on ocean microbes

Posted on May 17, 2013 by

A guest post from Dr Helen Bridle, Royal Academy of Engineering and EPSRC Fellow at Heriot-Watt University. Her blog can be found here. What’s the issue? New tools to detect ocean microbes have recently been developed by researchers at the … Continue reading →

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Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems: Event Summary

Posted on May 10, 2013 by

A guest post from Dr Valerie McCarthy, Assistant Lecturer at Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland. Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDEs) are geologically and physio-graphically complex and are recognised as an important but, nevertheless, poorly understood set of habitats. At a recent … Continue reading →

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Mercury rising

Posted on April 25, 2013 by

Minamata has become a word synonymous with disease. ‘Minamata disease’ was first identified in 1956, after years of chemical company Chisso discharging methyl mercury into Minamata Bay, Japan. It was a process that continued until 1968, and left over 2,500 … Continue reading →

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Precipitating a crisis?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by

Hosepipe bans are becoming a familiar feature of summer, and with claims that 2012 could see ‘the worst drought in 30 years’, they are here again. Well timed, then, that the theme of a recent Geological Society conference was “Water … Continue reading →

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Geology with added microbes

Posted on January 16, 2012 by

One of the fastest growing areas of research in the geosciences is what is now called ‘geomicrobiology’. Although bacteria and other microbes have long been used in industrial processes such as bioleaching, where  metals are extracted from their mined ores, … Continue reading →

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Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink – the future for water?

Posted on November 9, 2011 by

The problem Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner faced, becalmed in the middle of the ocean, was that despite ‘water, water, everywhere’, none of it was suitable for drinking. The average human can survive for only a few days without access to clean … Continue reading →

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