8 NEWS
Mercury's gooey center * Mars had explosive, watery past * Galileo still up in the air * Largest fossilized forest found in mine * African dust helps islands bloom * Ancient ocean burps * La Brea yields oil-eating bacteria * Affording the costs of climate change

15 GEOPHENOMENA
SPECIAL: Watching Our Stone Heritage Crumble
Researchers are trying to figure out just how much our historical buildings will degrade as the climate changes.
Megan Sever

18 ENERGY & RESOURCES
A blight on ethanol
Finding diamonds in your backyard?
Mineral Resource of the Month: Talc

7 A POLITICAL COMMENT ON...
The Life of a Bill
How bills become law is a complex process to say the least: Here’s a primer to make sense of it all.
Allyson K. Anderson

60 GEOLOGIC COLUMN
The Magic in Dirt
Geologists know there is magic in dirt, but so too, do locals in places such as Chimayó, N.M., where the soil takes on a spiritual, healing mystique.
Lisa A. Rossbacher and Dallas D. Rhodes

4 FROM THE PUBLISHER
6 LETTERS: Perspectives from readers
21 WHERE ON EARTH?

38 TRENDS & INNOVATIONS
Ice Voted off Warming Island
As the climate changes, new real estate is revealed, such as Warming Island off the coast of Greenland. Explorers and entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the situation and offering tours to the new locales.
Kathryn Hansen

44 EDUCATION & OUTREACH
On the Cutting Edge of Teaching About Early Earth
Geoscience faculty come together to learn the latest research in complex topics such as the formation of Earth — and to learn from each other how to best teach the topic to undergraduate students.
Cathryn A. Manduca

46 GEOMEDIA
SPECIAL: Sizing up Earthquake Damage: Differing Points of View
When earthquakes strike, researchers, emergency responders and the media all hit the scene. Their reports of the very same event may differ greatly, however. Researchers need to be aware of the so-called media bias when examining historical earthquakes.
Susan Hough with Anne Bolen

49 GEOMARKETPLACE
50 CLASSIFIEDS: Career opportunities

58 DOWN TO EARTH WITH...
Geophysicist Ross Stein

59 BENCHMARKS
July 10, 1962: Telstar launches age of satellite communications

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