The great unexplored inner space. Rushmer s tour schedule begins this month. The Society for Organic Petrology elected new officers in September for the year 2000. The new chairperson of the Paleobotanical Section of the Botanical Society of America is James Basinger of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Made up of tidal marsh, shallow-water open bay, wet pine savanna, and coastal swamp habitats, Grand Bay is the 24th site in NOAA s nationwide network of research reserves dedicated to the study and preservation of estuarine environments and is the first of these sites in Mississippi.
Grand Bay supports productive oyster reefs and seagrass habitats.
Obituary The July 31 crash landing of the Lunar Prospector brought to rest the ashes of one legendary for his contributions to planetary geology. Eugene M. Shoemaker pioneered the field of astrogeology within the U.S. Geological Survey. His dream of conducting field geology on the moon s surface was stymied by health problems but he helped train the Apollo astronauts, provided the geologic commentary for the evening news during the moon walks and helped lead NASA studies on the moon s history and structure. His discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy, with his wife Carolyn and colleague David Levy, lead to new insights when fragments of the comet, broken up by tidal forces from Jupiter, collided with the jovian planet in 1994. Shoemaker, who died in a 1997 car accident at the age of 69, became the first person to receive a lunar burial.