Mr Owen, of the Geological Society of Glasgow, said the museum was important to promoting greater public understanding of geology and science.

BBC: Calls to save geology hero's home

One IGCP project in 2000 was even at the origin of a new field: medical geology, the science dealing with the impact of our natural environment on human and animal health.

UNESCO: Open Access to Scientific Information

Andy Tatem, a reader in the Geology and Environmental Science department at the University of Southampton is the developer of vbd-air.com, a web tool developed for the Transportation Research Board to help track the spread of mosquito-transmitted illnesses via air travel.

CNN: Breathe easy: Frequent flyer health tips

Like John McPhee's books on American geology, it's an extraordinarily comprehensive volume of natural science, written in a confident, dare we say, fluid style.

FORBES: The Story Of Eau

Kepler is searching for Earth-like planets around far-flung stars, and the Mars Science Laboratory will sample the Red Planet's geology looking for the building blocks of life - though it will not explicitly look for life itself.

BBC: 'No evidence' for extraterrestrials, says White House

The Scientific Ice Expedition '99 is part of a five-year scientific mission between the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Navy to learn about the geology, physics, chemistry and biology of the Arctic.

CNN: Nuclear sub dives under the ice to explore climate change