IUSS Alert - 41 (September 2008)
Information for and from the global soil science community
National Geographic - cover story on soils
The September issue of the National Geographic Magazine has a cover story on soils, entitled: Where food begins. Inside the magazine there is a long article: 'Our Good Earth - The future rests on soil. Can we protect it?' with stories from Nort and South America, Africa and China and as always, with nice pictures. There is also story on soil degradation in Haiti. Both the article and pictures can be viewed online for free at www.nationalgeographic.com. The website contains also a little interactive quiz, click here. The English edition of the National Geographic is read by 40 million readers - but there are editions in many languages and all have the Soil story on the cover!
World Reference Base for Soil Resources - Now in German
The World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) became in 1998 the official soil classification system of the IUSS. In order to improve access of the WRB for German speaking scientists and administrators, it was proposed during the 18th World Congress of Soil Science in 2006 to provide a German edition. The Bundesanstalt for Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR) decided to prepare such a German version and the translation was done by Peter Schad of the TU Munchen. The German WRB edition is available here, and for a paperback, please send an e-mail to or
Deadline next IUSS Bulletin - end September
The next IUSS Bulletin will appear in October - please send your contributions before the end of September. We welcome short articles (up to 1,000 words) on new research, announcements for meetings and awards, polemics, book reviews, reports of meetings, and send all brilliant and unusual ideas to the . The IUSS Bulletin has been professionally restyled and we work on an increased distribution. The complete minutes of the intercongress meeting in Brisbane (30 June, 3 and 4 July 2008) are now online, click here for the PDF.
iPodsol casts
This informative and entertaining weekly series of audio podcasts puts the spotlight on the high-impact work of the National Academies. Focusing on a wide range of critical issues in science, engineering, and medicine, these short 10-minute episodes are a quick and easy way to tune in to the all the key findings and important recommendations made by the Academies.The US National Academies has an entertaining series of podcasts that puts the spotlight on high-impact work and focuses on a range of critical issues in science, engineering and medicine. A ten minutes podcast on soil highlights the importance and use of soils and includes an interview with Sally Brown. Regrettably the d**t and soil are tabled again; no other scientific discipline would use such word for its object of study and passion. Anyway, for the podcast click here. There are also several podcasts on of the Soil Association, click here. For some other podcasts on soil click here and here. And if you like the speediest lecture in physics go here and listen to Michael van Drempt in 'A fundamental misunderstanding'. Keep listening folks.
www.iuss.org
IUSS Alerts are e-mailed to more than 12,000 people in over 100 countries. If you have information to share please send it to
Please forward the IUSS Alerts to your friends and colleagues.