Abstract Soil examination can provide useful forensic information about the spatial location and human activities of a suspect. Soil is widely used in criminal investigations. In a case that occurred in the countryside of Jilin Province, in the NE of China, soil was found adhering to clothing on a body. Examination of plant debris in the soil using plant DNA barcoding technique found it to be ginseng root, which indicated that the soil might have come from a ginseng plantation. In the first instance, it helped in finding the place where the body was initially buried. Then a comparison was made between the soil recovered from the body and from the ginseng plantation. Composite analysis of minerals, pollen types and elements provided additional information to assist in making comparisons. Trace amounts of soil located on the body played an important role in locating the burial site and was regarded as the most valuable evidence in convicting the suspect of murder even without the suspect's DNA being available.

Abstract The record of fossil plants in China can date back to the year 1086 during the Chinese Song Dynasty. The subject of palaeobotany was transplanted into China in the early 20th century. The rise of Chinese palaeobotany had direct connections with the world. V.K. Ting played a major role in the establishment of academic organizations and English journals for Chinese geological sciences, which also received support from foreign experts. A geological approach for palaeotanical studies was once popular in China because of practical use. H.C. Sze is usually called ‘the founder of Chinese palaeobotany’. Sze was a disciple of W. Gothan and made a great contribution to the development of Chinese palaeobotany using a geological approach. Hu Hsen Hsü followed Asa Gray and thought that palaeobotany might be considered as a plant science subject. Hu’s study on Metasequoia enhanced his reputation: the discovery of the living plants of Metasequoia is believed to be one of the most important discoveries in the 20th century. Hsü Jen majored in plant morphology and anatomy, and obtained palaeobotanical training in Birbal Sahni’s laboratory in the 1940s. Hsü preferred to employ a biological approach to work on fossil plants.

Abstract The last uranium cycle started in late 2004 with an unprecedented rise in the uranium spot price from a long-established spot price of <US$20. This period corresponded to a massive increase in exploration spending. More than 50 major uranium deposits were explored and extensively drilled and about 20 of these could produce uranium in the next 5 years. Despite this enormous increase in spending, this last boom led to limited grassroots exploration success, with 14 new discoveries in the Athabasca basin, but only two significant new discoveries elsewhere. Much exploration, particularly junior company activity, concentrated on brownfield areas with delineation of 43-101 or JORC compliant resources at sites with previously known mineralization. In many cases, leases had been allowed to lapse after the uranium price collapsed in the early 1980s. Thus many projects with defined resources were available through acquisition and, in some cases, by staking open ground. On a more positive note, the availability of financing during this period allowed several companies, such as Paladin and Uranium One, to fast track deposit development in less than 5 years (e.g., Langer Heinrich, Kayelekera, South Inkai). In terms of development of new genetic models and research on uranium deposits, activity was limited because with the flurry of new activity, explorationists had little time to advance models and conduct relevant research as most were too busy relearning or reinventing older and existing concepts. Interest by academia, as well as industry support for academic research in uranium mineralized systems, also waned, with a few notable exceptions and the cycle was a little short to rekindle interest. The one exception is the progress in understanding of the Athabasca basin ore genesis, where research kept pace with the times, and a rigorous and well-constrained model was established and then very successfully applied, leading to a rash of new discoveries in the past 15 years. Unfortunately, applying this model to other areas with unconformity-related uranium potential has been much less successful. There were also some major advances in the understanding of sandstone- and volcanic-hosted uranium deposits, mainly as a result of the newly available literature and knowledge from Russia, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, China, and Mongolia. Volcanic-hosted deposits with new critical information for model development included the Streltsovskoye, Xiangshan, Johodna, and Saddle Hills and/or Dornod deposits, and a greater understanding of roll-front sandstone-hosted mineralization resulted from new information on uranium deposits in Kazakhstan. Rigorous application of these updated metallogenic models has just begun. Except for these deposit types, uranium research and the model development have not advanced substantially in the past 15 years. The exploration and mining business will remain cyclical, so now is the best time to prepare for next high-price cycle(s). New research efforts focussed on developing process-driven models that stress the mechanisms of uranium mobilization from source, and its transport and accumulation, are required for all uranium metallogenic models, but particularly volcanic, sandstone-, and calcrete-hosted deposit types, to give explorationists in the next cycle the edge to explore efficiently and effectively. It is important to develop these models to provide a solid geologic context for exploration programs, as development of new geophysical techniques (e.g., improved airborne electromagnetic EM, radiometrics and gravity techniques, three-dimension seismic surveys, downhole instruments for downhole Prompt Fission Neutron (PFN) detection, Induced Polarization (I.P.), and gravity) and geochemical techniques (e.g., partial extractions techniques, handheld field X-ray fluorescence (XRF) units) is continuing at a rapid pace.