Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: October 27, 2013

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REAL LIFE NEWS: GOLD GROWS ON TREES

by Hazed

How can you tell if there’s gold buried under the ground? Traditionally, you have to dig holes to find out if it’s worth setting up a full-scale mining operation. This is expensive and messy, and it can be a bit hit or miss.

But now researchers in Australia have come up with an easier way: they examine the trees. It turns out that the leaves of the eucalyptus tree contain minute particles of gold that indicate there are deposits buried below.

They used a synchrotron, a vast machine that uses X-rays to probe things in fantastic detail. The results showed traces of gold in the leaves, twigs and bark of some trees.

The amount of gold found in the foliage is so tiny that it would take 500 trees to yield enough gold for a ring, but the point is that it points to the presence of gold more than 100 feet below the ground.

One of the scientists said, “We believe that the trees are acting like a hydraulic pump. They are bringing life-giving water from their roots, and in so doing, they are taking smaller dissolved gold particles up through the vascular system into the foliage.”

They think this technique could be used to find other minerals such as iron, copper and lead, too.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24628241

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