Booking of exhibitors‘ booths is now open for Xiamen Stone Fair 2024 (March 16-19). News are: there will be a new hall for Design located across Huizhan Road, so in front of the main entrance; the domestic area will be extended; a new hall will be added to the machinery & tools area; the international area will return to its pre-Covid size; the natural stone varieties collection will be located in hall A1. In total, the fairground will have 191,000 m² (2019: 150,250 m²) (1, 2).
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx capsule has landed in the Utah desert with samples collected from asteroid Bennu’s surface in 2020. The rocks and dust from the celestial body will offer generations of scientists a window into the time when the sun and planets were forming about 4.5 billion years ago (1, 2).
Archaeologists have discovered a major Palaeolithic cave art site, arguably the most important found on the Eastern Iberian Coast in Europe.
A Chinese marble frog from the Shang dynasty dating back to 3,000 years ago sells for US$1.2m in an auction in New York. Only 3 such pieces are known.
The Hadal trenches (Japan Trench), with their deepest locations situated in the so-called Hadal zone, the deepest parts of the ocean in water depth of more than 6 km, link the Earth’s surface and its deeper interior. For the first time, a scientific ocean drilling team discovered dynamic carbon cycling in those ultra-deep waters.
The head of a statue determined by archaeologists to belong to Alexander the Great was unearthed during excavations in a theater in the ancient city of Konuralp in north-western Turkey.
„La Petite Centure“ (The Little Belt) is a circle of old railway lines running around the city center of Paris. Former stations have become bars, restaurants, and cultural venues. The biodiversity of plants and animals is striking. Manhattan has the famous Highline Park, a previous railway line on steel supports (1, 2).
(02.10.2023, USA: 10.02.2023)
