Sunday, December 20, 2009

New Natural History Exhibition Reveals the Impact of Soil on All Life on Earth

There are added active creatures in a shovel-full of clay than animal beings on the planet, yet added is accepted about the aphotic ancillary of the moon than about soil. These are just a brace of the alluring facts visitors can apprentice from the new acting exhibition "Dig It! The Secrets of Soil," accessible July 19 through Jan. 3, 2010 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The 5,000-square-foot exhibition reveals the circuitous apple of clay and how this hidden ecosystem supports about every anatomy of activity on Earth. The exhibition is sponsored by the Soil Science Society of America and the Nutrients for Life Foundation, which is underwritten by The Fertilizer Institute.

-- There are added active creatures in a shovel-full of clay than animal beings on the planet, yet added is accepted about the aphotic ancillary of the moon than about soil. These are just a brace of the alluring facts visitors can apprentice from the new acting exhibition "Dig It! The Secrets of Soil," accessible July 19 through Jan. 3, 2010 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Dig It! The Secrets of Soil Dig It! The Secrets of Soil This is the a lot of aggressive exhibition anytime committed to soil, a ability as important to activity on Earth as baptize and air Matters of Life and Death Theater. The mission of this exhibition to brainwash millions about the accent of soils absolutely aligns with the Soil Science Society of America's own purpose of advancing soils as accepting axiological to life The exhibition paints a arresting account of soils and their role as a backlog of life Preserving the bloom of soils about the apple is analytical to our adeptness to aftermath alimental foods for approaching generations. Dig It! The Secrets of Soil The 5,000-square-foot exhibition reveals the circuitous apple of clay and how this hidden ecosystem supports about every anatomy of activity on Earth. The exhibition is sponsored by the Soil Science Society of America and the Nutrients for Life Foundation, which is underwritten by The Fertilizer Institute.

"Dig It!" includes alternate displays, hands-on models, videos and clay samples. Curious visitors will get the clay on this abstruse accountable through audiovisual and alternate components, from a set of alternate clay stratigraphy blocks to a abomination arena analysis video absorption on the processes of adulteration to a computer kiosk area visitors can apprentice about their accompaniment soil.

Visitors can aswell analyze clay begin in their own backyard and in abstruse locations, with 54 clay samples apery anniversary U.S. accompaniment and area and the District of Columbia, as able-bodied as clay maps and concrete clay models from about the world. In accomplishing so, visitors will ascertain a apple teaming with life. In fact, so abounding bacilli accord to the bloom of clay that scientists accept not even called them all.

"This is the a lot of aggressive exhibition anytime committed to soil, a ability as important to activity on Earth as baptize and air," said Patrick Megonigal, clay scientist for the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, which is amid in Maryland abreast the Chesapeake Bay. Megonigal is the exhibition's advance curator.

"Dig It!" shows how every blazon of clay is unique. Visitors can beam the way baptize moves through altered soils in aerialist tubes absolute sand, silt, adobe and loam. The breeze of baptize through clay can affect minerals and gases and all activity that depends on soil. Soil blush tells alluring belief about mineral compositions and clay accumulation or history. "Dig It!" blush cards advice visitors to bare the belief abaft clay samples. Visitors aswell can get in blow with their close detective and apprentice about the clay aliment web in the "Matters of Life and Death Theater."

"The mission of this exhibition to brainwash millions about the accent of soils absolutely aligns with the Soil Science Society of America's own purpose of advancing soils as accepting axiological to life," said SSSA President Gary A. Peterson. "Soil has an appulse on altitude change and our carbon footprint, a allotment of added important ecology issues.

After analytical clay abutting up, exhibition visitors can footfall aback and see the "big picture" with a apple map and alternate stations that present the affiliation amid clay and all-around systems. Models authenticate the roles of clay about the abode and the accumulation of clay in bartering and residential construction, dams, arena fields, neighborhoods, anchorage and in aliment production. An evocative video explains soil's role as a "secret ingredient" in such domiciliary appurtenances as medicines, food, wine, textiles, paint, cosmetics and pottery.

"The exhibition paints a arresting account of soils and their role as a backlog of life," said Ford West, The Fertilizer Institute and Nutrients for Life Foundation president. "Preserving the bloom of soils about the apple is analytical to our adeptness to aftermath alimental foods for approaching generations."

Following its assuming at the National Museum of Natural History, "Dig It!" will biking to 10 museums above the country through 2013 beneath the advocacy of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. For added advice about the traveling exhibition, appointment www.sites.si.edu/soils. Additional advice about "Dig It! The Secrets of Soil" is accessible at http://forces.si.edu/soils.

The National Museum of Natural History, amid at 10th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W. in Washington, D.C., accustomed added than 7 actor visitors in 2007. The building is accessible circadian from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. through Aug. 31 and from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. thereafter. Admission is free. More advice about the building is accessible at www.mnh.si.edu or by calling Smithsonian Information at (202) 633-1000, TTY (202) 633-5285.

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