I came across an interesting story from NPR today, entitled “The Old And Mysterious Practice Of Eating Dirt, Revealed“. It’s about the ancient practice of eating soil (or mineral deposits), often called Geophagy. I’ve heard about this practice in a few of the soil science classes I’ve taken over the years, and in a “WorldContinue reading “Soil Science in the News: Eating Dirt”
Tag Archives: soil
Citizen Soil Science: Cropland Capture
If you’re looking for a fun game for your mobile device but want to help science at the same time, then I know the app for you. “Cropland Capture” is a fun game designed to help classify areas of land on our planet as either cropland or not cropland. With over 7 billion people onContinue reading “Citizen Soil Science: Cropland Capture”
Citizen (Soil) Science: Predicting 17 Yr Cicada Arrival
The 17 year cicada (genus Magicicada) will emerge on the American east coast again this year in just a few days. As nymphs (grubs) they feed on the xylem fluid of deciduous tree roots. The xylem in plants is basically the tubes through which water and nutrients flow as it moves from the roots to theContinue reading “Citizen (Soil) Science: Predicting 17 Yr Cicada Arrival”
SWCS: Time Well Spent
Tonight the Soil and Water Conservation Society at NCSU (the NCSU student chapter of the SWCS) held our 2013 officer elections. For the first time since 2006 (seven years) I am not an officer or board member of the SWCS, or any affiliated chapters, whatsoever. I’ve really enjoyed my time as a leader in this society, but it’sContinue reading “SWCS: Time Well Spent”
Happy World Soil Day!
Webster Soil Series. Photo courtesy of the Iowa State University Extension and OutreachHappy World Soil Day everyone! I’ll be honest, I kind of forgot about it until I opened up Twitter this afternoon and saw all of my fellow soil scientist’s happy tweets about it. However, I celebrated by looking up the soil classification ofContinue reading “Happy World Soil Day!”
Soil Science In The News: “The Dust Bowl” by Ken Burns
PBS is currently broadcasting “The Dust Bowl” documentary film series by Ken Burns. It’s a series of movies about one of the most tragic environmental disasters to ever face the United States. The description of the films on PBS’s website reads: THE DUST BOWL chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheatContinue reading “Soil Science In The News: “The Dust Bowl” by Ken Burns”
Unlocking Ancient Maya Secrets With Modern Soil Science
When I see an interesting story involving soil science in the news, I like to post them here for my reading audience. One story I’ve seen in a variety of places is about a research article posted in the Soil Science Society of American Journal entitled Upland and Lowland Soil Resources of the Ancient Maya atContinue reading “Unlocking Ancient Maya Secrets With Modern Soil Science”
The Soil Orders – Spodosols
This is the third of a series of blog posts where I will describe some of the interesting features of each of the 12 soil orders in Soil Taxonomy – the soil classification system developed for the US by the United States Department of Agriculture. Each order will be “profiled” (forgive the bad soils pun)Continue reading “The Soil Orders – Spodosols”
International EarthCache Day
Many of readers of this blog are outdoor enthusiasts. One “game” that has gained in popularity among outdoor enthusiasts is Geocaching. Geocaching is basically a high-tech treasure hunt where people get coordinates for a hidden geocache from a website called geocaching.com. They then enter those coordinates into a GPS receiver, or into their GPS-enabled smartContinue reading “International EarthCache Day”
Earthworm Invasion: Good or Bad for Soil
I came across a news article put out by the BBC. It was entitled Earthworm Invasion: Aliens Causing More Harm Than Good? by Jeremy Coles and Matt Walker. It is an interesting article, and an interesting soil science topic. I recommend going and reading that article first, then come on back to ColbyDigsSoil to read the restContinue reading “Earthworm Invasion: Good or Bad for Soil”
Colby Digs Soil 