The Indiana Geological Survey, a research institute of Indiana University, is a member of a large, new U.S. Department of Energy project to assess the geothermal potential of most American states. The IGS, along with 40 other state geological surveys, have formed a coalition to populate a new National Geothermal Data System with relevant, state-specific geothermal data. Over the three-year life of the project, the Geothermal Data Consortium will receive $17.79 million from the DOE with the IGS receiving $300,000.

Indiana University dignitaries dedicated Multidisciplinary Science Building Phase II, the Bloomington campus's newest science building, in a special ceremony on Thursday. The dedication was part of October's month-long Celebrate IU initiative. IU President Michael A. McRobbie led a platform party that included members of the IU Board of Trustees, Provost Karen Hanson, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Bennett Bertenthal, School of Public and Environmental Affairs Dean John Graham, and Provost's Professor of Geological Sciences Lisa Pratt, who has also been chair of the MSB II Design and Oversight Committees. David Johnson, president and CEO of BioCrossroads, was the event's keynote speaker.

Indiana University Bloomington will join seven partners in Britain and the Netherlands to investigate early human settlements in Europe. The $1.81 million (1.1 million pound) Leverhulme Trust grant, spearheaded by the Natural History Museum in London, will be distributed to collaborators over four years. Paleontologist David Polly oversees IU Bloomington's participation in the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project.

More than 75 scientists, students and university administrators celebrated the opening of the Indiana University Research and Teaching Preserve's new Field Laboratory, an ecology and environmental sciences research station and classroom facility on the Bloomington campus. The field lab dedication was timed to coincide with Earth Day, April 22.

Scientists have recovered fossils from a 60-million-year-old South American snake whose length and weight might make today's anacondas and reticulated pythons seem a bit cuter and more cuddly. Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis by its discoverers, the size of the snake's vertebrae suggest it weighed 1,140 kilograms (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 meters (42.7 feet) nose to tail tip -- and that's a conservative estimate. A report describing the find appears in this week's Nature.

A classic experiment proving amino acids are created when inorganic molecules are exposed to electricity isn't the whole story, it turns out. The 1953 Miller-Urey Synthesis had two sibling studies, neither of which was published. Vials containing the products from those experiments were recently recovered and reanalyzed using modern technology. The results are reported in this week's Science.

The following news tips are based on presentations by Indiana University Bloomington geologists at the 2008 Joint Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America and four other professional societies in Houston, Texas, Oct. 5 - 9. The IU Bloomington scientists are presenting research that is still in progress.

The Geological Society of America has named Indiana University Bloomington geologist Maria Mastalerz the winner of the 2008 Gilbert H. Cady Award. Mastalerz, 51, is the youngest person ever to receive the award, and only the second woman to be so honored. Mastalerz is a senior scientist at the Indiana Geological Survey, a research institute of Indiana University, and is a graduate faculty member in IU's Department of Geological Sciences, where she advises graduate students.

Geologist Chen Zhu has received a Fulbright Scholarship to study underground carbon dioxide storage with Norwegian colleagues at the University of Oslo. Zhu's scholarship will last the duration of the 2008-2009 academic year. The Fulbright Scholar Program sends approximately 800 academic scholars and professionals abroad every year so that America's finest scholars may exchange knowledge with their counterparts in other countries. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Indiana Geological Survey scientists at Indiana University will participate in a new $67 million U.S. Department of Energy project to test the feasibility of storing carbon dioxide at underground sites in Ohio and Indiana. The evaluations are being carried out with the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, a research consortium of government, academy and industry researchers led by Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle Memorial Laboratories.

The asteroid presumed to have wiped out the dinosaurs struck the Earth with such force that carbon deep in the Earth's crust liquefied, rocketed skyward, and formed tiny airborne beads that blanketed the planet, say scientists from the U.S., U.K., Italy, and New Zealand in this month's Geology. If confirmed, the discovery suggests environmental circumstances accompanying the 65-million-year-old extinction event were slightly less dramatic than previously thought.

In the wake of the earthquake that shook the Midwest early last Friday, there have been a series of aftershocks associated with the event. Much can be learned about the processes of seismically active zones in the Midwest by studying these aftershocks. Indiana University Professor of Geological Studies Michael Hamburger answers some commonly asked questions regarding the aftershocks, how they are being studied, what can be learned from them, and the area and event from which they originate.

The Indiana University Department of Geological Sciences has quickly mobilized, sending two field teams to deploy instruments in the region of Friday morning's earthquakes. The seismographs and Global Positioning System (GPS) units being deployed will record aftershocks, half a dozen of which have already occurred.

Geologists have long thought muds will only settle when waters are quiet, but new research by Indiana University Bloomington and Massachusetts Institute of Technology geologists shows muds will accumulate even when currents move swiftly. This may seem a trifling matter at first, but understanding the deposition of mud could significantly impact a number of public and private endeavors, from harbor and canal engineering to oil reservoir management and fossil fuel prospecting.

The Geological Society of America gave its highest service award to Indiana University Bloomington Geological Sciences Department Chair Abhijit Basu at the professional society's annual meeting last week. The award specifically acknowledges Basu's expansion of the society's publications program. The number of books published by the GSA has doubled during Basu's 10-year editorial term. Basu has also been on GSA's publications committee for 10 years.

Researchers from Indiana University Bloomington and eight collaborating institutions report in this week's Science a self-sustaining community of bacteria that live in rocks 2.8 kilometers below Earth's surface. Think that's weird? The bacteria rely on radioactive uranium to convert water molecules to useable energy.

Lake and watershed management professionals from around the world will meet in Union Station, in Indianapolis, on Nov. 8-10 for the 26th Annual International Symposium of the North American Lake Management Society (NALMS). Bill Jones, who is chairing this year's program, is a professor at Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). The theme of the conference is "Making Connections -- Land, Water, People." The Opening Plenary will feature talks by Todd Thompson of the Indiana Geological Survey, a research institute at Indiana University, who will discuss the geological history of the changing Great Lakes' shorelines.

Fossilized embryos predating the Cambrian Explosion by 10 million years provide evidence that early animals had already begun to adopt some of the structures and processes seen in today's embryos, say researchers from Indiana University Bloomington and nine other institutions in this week's Science. James Hagadorn of Amherst College led the multi-disciplinary international collaborative project.

A space on Indiana University Bloomington's campus once occupied by nothing but students rushing to class soon will be home to 750 scientists and support staff busily mixing reagents, inoculating cell cultures, and typing up replies to fly mutant requests.

Despite having once told Indiana University's Research & Creative Activity magazine, "I tend to be a little leery of technology," IU Bloomington structural geologist Jeremy Dunning makes liberal -- and effective -- use of technology in his classes. Now the professor of geological sciences has received two awards from the International Conference on College Teaching and Learning for bringing technology to traditional classroom activities.

Much of what scientists learn about the evolution of Earth's first animals will have to be gleaned from spherical embryos fossilized under very specific conditions, according to a new study by Indiana University Bloomington and University of Bristol researchers in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Indiana University will receive a $4.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help improve TeraGrid -- a network of advanced computing, storage, visualization systems and instruments connected by high speed conduits. The grid allows scientists across the nation to share data, collaborate and accomplish difficult computing tasks.

The Indiana University Board of Trustees voted in favor of two new building projects today, including a life sciences research building in Bloomington.

Two of the eight instruments selected to go on a Mars rover have Indiana University Bloomington geologists behind them, NASA announced yesterday. One of the devices will provide scientists with a closer look at Mars -- literally. The other will tell us, for the first time, what Mars is actually made of.

Holiday story ideas for science journalists include greenhouse gas-thwarting "carbon sequestration" and immunity-boosting weight gain.