14-11-24 Low Tide Alan Shapiro On the mud flats where Im walking each step pushes the wet out from beneath it to a dry halo of a heel and toe which as I lift it dampens to a trail of pools behind me as I walk -- I make them all along the flats and when I cir...

14-10-13 Mineral coatings on sand particles actually encourage microbial activity in the rapid sand filters that are used to treat groundwater for drinking, according to a paper published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. These findin...

13-12-05 Long long ago, there was a clam（蛤） raiser who wanted to make the biggest pearl in the world. He went to seaside to select sand grains. He asked the sand grains whether they wanted to turn into pearls , but in vain. Clam raiser despaired. Finally...

13-02-18 Ever wonder why sand can both run through an hourglass（沙漏） like a liquid and be solid enough to support buildings? It's because granular（颗粒的） materials -- like sand or dirt -- can change their behavior, or state. Researchers from North Caro...

12-11-07 Line in the Sand Ken McCullough What he said was vast, given his limits. At some mojave of the soul, we stopped to gas up, and I was inclined to bolt wrong look, wrong answer, might raise his demons（恶魔） , but what did I know, who was I to say? H...

12-05-10 Last year, images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured sand dunes（沙丘） and ripples moving across the surface of Mars -- observations that challenged previously held beliefs that there was not a lot of movement on the red planet's surf...

12-02-27 Linear dunes, widespread on Earth and Saturn's moon, Titan, are generally considered to have been formed by deposits of windblown sand. It has been speculated for some time that some linear dunes may have formed by wind-rift erosion, but this model...

10-09-05 蒙古国政府12位部长级官员上周五齐聚在南戈壁省一处被沙漠覆盖的山谷中参加内阁会议，讨论全球气候变化对蒙古国带来的影响。在一个小时的会议中，官员们讨论了全球变暖对蒙古国产生的影响，希望此举能够引起全世界各国对气候变化的关注。 A Cabinet meeting aimed at d...

10-07-28 Once upon a time a certain tradesman was leading a caravan（大篷车，旅行队） to another country to sell his goods. Along the way they came to the edge of a severe hot-sand desert. They asked about, and found that during the daytime the sun heats up...

10-03-01 Fears over rising sea levels have prompted planning authorities in southern Australia to reject a coastal development. 对于海平面上涨的恐惧促使澳大利亚南方规划部门否决了一项沿海发展计划。 About 80% of Australians live in coastal areas It is a decisi...