Putting new rocks in our pockets
Fall/Winter 2024
When my son was young, I read him Byrd Baylor’s 1974 children’s book, “Everybody Needs a Rock,” over and over and over again. “I’m sorry for kids who don’t have a rock for a friend,” the book says, before providing ten rules for finding the perfect rock to carry in your pocket.
We may not all have a rock for a friend now (I mean, I do), but we all have minerals that help us find our friends, and travel to our friends, and talk to our friends, and keep our friends and ourselves warm. So-called critical minerals, the subject of our cover story and of a new center being developed at Oregon State University, are the building blocks of modern technology, from smartphones to electric vehicles.
In a metaphorical sense, the researchers in the Center for Energy and Mineral Resources for Resilient Societies will follow Baylor’s Rule Number 3 for finding a special rock: “You may have to sit on the ground with your head almost touching the earth. You have to look a rock right in the eye.” The center will look these minerals in the eye, helping us learn about how and where they form, for example. And before we put these rocks in our pockets, personnel in the new center will consider the impact that mining for them has on the planet and on people.
We have more exciting stories to share here about CEOAS science, including explorations of the new wave energy test site under development off the Oregon Coast, and of Maria Kavanaugh’s work with the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network.
Please read, enjoy, and let us know what you think!
Nancy Steinberg
Editor
