Morlocks, beware. The National Science Foundation has chosen a gold mine near Lead, South Dakota—the deepest in the Northern Hemisphere—to become the world's largest underground science and engineering laboratory. The winning proposal, from the University of California at Berkeley, includes plans for a variety of lab facilities up to 8,000 feet below the surface, the equivalent of more than six Empire State Buildings. At these depths, the Earth's crust would block out most cosmic radiation, allowing scientists to detect extremely faint particles, such as neutrinos, that are often lost in background radiation on the surface. Scientists can also study organisms similar to those living in deep-sea hydrothermal vents at temperatures of 248°F, or investigate carbon-sequestration plans to bury global-warming gases underground. Construction could begin by 2010.
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