Dirt Hills in Winter

Winter habitat selection patterns of Merriam's turkeys in the southern Black Hills, South Dakota

—In northern areas of their expanded range, information on Merriam’s turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo merriami) is lacking, specifically pertaining to wintering behavior and factors associated with winter habitat selection. Forest managers need detailed quantification of the effects of logging and other management practices on wintering habitats needed by Wild Turkeys and other wildlife. Therefore,...

Eating Dirt

Sign on the wall of El Santuario de Chimayo, New Mexico T his place feels old beyond human recollection. The carvings and paintings were surely done by human hands, but no one remembers whose hands those were. The work is striking, especially in the apse behind the altar. There, the colors of surrounding hills have been transferred onto nearly luminous wooden reredos full of Catholic symbolism....

Dig the Dirt

It seems kind of strange that eating parasitic worms causes a cure rather than a disease. Yet, this fact is no stranger than many other man-bites-dog stories about "real life" in contemporary times. Such stories arise at moments of changing equilibria in the processes of the social construction of reality. They are especially evident during periods of intense dialectic in which long held theses...

Bread and Dirt

Natural radioactivity in rock samples of Aravali hills in India

Background: Natural radionuclides in rock samples, primarily 238U (uranium), 232Th (thorium) and 40K (potassium), are the main source of radiation exposure to workers and general public and their measurement is of paramount importance from radiation protection point of view. Materials and Methods: Gamma spectrometry using HPGe detector was used to measure the radioactivity and assess the radiol...