[Rockhounds] Dirt Travels!

[Jim Daly]

I'm not sure if this is still done (I've been away from the industial chemical world for a while now), but when the first antibiotics were being developed, most were found in nature in trace amounts in dirt. They were then cultured and tested for effect on diseases. The pharmaceutical houses were paying people to collect dirt from strange places in the hopes of finding a new antibiotic in it- a very Edisonian approach. That's probably the origin of the name of one of the early antibiotics, Terramycin.
The industry may have gone to synthesis in recent times, but I don't know that for sure.
Jim Daly

--- On Mon, 10/20/08, John Cornish <cornish at tfon.com> wrote:

From: John Cornish <cornish at tfon.com>
Subject: [Rockhounds] Dirt Travels!
To: rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com
Date: Monday, October 20, 2008, 8:51 AM

Dirt Travels

10/20/2008

By John Cornish
cornish at tfon.com






Hi Everyone,

Life is funny sometimes, and most of the time, we never really know where
we'll end up or who or how we'll influence others. This posting relates
to this scenario and is one where I'd like to share a friend's, Brenda
Ridley's, website. It is called Dirt Travels and can be found here...

http://dirttravels.blogspot.com/

Brenda is a friend I met and made while staying in Orem, Utah over an extended
period last year. During one of our talks, Brenda shared that she collected dirt
samples from around the World. I was fascinated and inquired more. As
Brenda's story unfolded, I could see that I could share in the fun and that
I could help too! Not just by sending her samples (which I did and which I also
encourage you to do!), but by building her enthusiasm! Brenda had been busy and
had already acquired a large collection of samples, she'd just needed an
extra little push to take her samples to the next level of appreciation... and
thus her website was born! I was thrilled to learn this and quickly wrote and
complimented Brenda on doing an excellent job! 

Soon thereafter, as I was reading her newest blog, this showed up...

http://dirttravels.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-get-by-with-little-help-from-my.html

I was thrilled as I'm sure you can imagine and never in a million
year's had expected Brenda to write such a wonderful note. I just had to
share it with all of you!

So, end note, get out there and share your enthusiasm! All of us, we're a
fortunate group of folks to have found such a diverse and exciting
hobby/obsession to share! 

Thanks for coming along and please, consider sharing your World with Brenda, I
know she'd be thrilled to receive samples from you too! For more about her
requirements, please see...

http://dirttravels.blogspot.com/2008/10/faqs.html

Thanks everyone!

All the very best,

John

PS  I'll soon have some new reports coming, one on the big Denver gem and
mineral show, one on mining at our Rat's Nest claim and one on a special
treasure I dug this last weekend. Stay tuned....

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