A new explanation of how gypsum forms may change the way we process this important building material, as well as allow us to interpret past water availability on other planets such as Mars. The work is reported in Nature Communications*. Gypsum (CaSO4?2H2O) is an economically important mineral, extensively used as the commercial construction material Plaster of…

A new series of measurements of oxygen isotopes provides increasing evidence that the Moon formed from the collision of the Earth with another large, planet-sized astronomical body, around 4.5 billion years ago. This work will be published in Science on 6th June, and will be presented to the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in California on 11th…