Blog
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The Missing Gold of the Cheviots: Tracking an Ancient Epithermal System
This blog post accompanies the 2-part video “The Missing gold of the Cheviots” now available on YouTube. Over three visits, we explored the area of Kingsseat Burn in the Scottish Cheviots. We didn’t cover all of the science in the video; this blog post offers a deep dive into the geology and mineralogy of the…
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Uranium at Harden Edge: Why Otterburn is Radioactive
This post accompanies our latest YouTube video: “Uranium Hunting in a Military Zone: The Forbidden Radioactive Hotspot.” The “Three U’s” and the Haslam Challenge In 2025, I took on Dr. Haslam’s “Three U’s” challenge. In his Geochemical survey of stream waters and stream sediments from the Cheviot area, he named three locations with uranium mineralisation:…
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Reduction Spheroids – The Metal-Eating, Uranium-Enriching Microbes from Mars* (*Possibly)
What are reduction spheroids? These metal-eating, uranium-enriching microbes from ancient Earth might hold the key to finding life on Mars. Learn how reduction spots form and why they matter for nuclear science and astrobiology. The Mystery of the Bleached Spots While hunting for new areas to find radioactive minerals, we stumbled across a paper about…
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There Be Gold in Them Caldbeck Hills (Maybe)
The Caldbeck Fells are a wild, desolate, and strikingly beautiful corner of the Northern Lake District. Known to geologists as a “mineralogical box of delights,” this landscape has spent centuries as a playground for industrial grit and scientific curiosity. We should know – we spent three videos exploring above and below Carrock Mine. We found…
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The Nuclear Heart of the Cheviots: Tracking the Carlcroft Radioactive Anomaly
(This blog accompanies our video – “How Radioactive Springs Form – Uranium Deep Underground” on YouTube) Did you know that there are radioactive radium springs in the Cheviot Hills, Northumberland? Back in 1970, Dr. Hugh Haslam’s pioneering work for the Institute of Geological Sciences (now the BGS) discovered 12 of these and published his paper. …
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Geordie Gold: The Glowing, Radioactive Legacy of George Davidson
This post is to accompany our latest YouTube video – The Geordie Butcher whose Radioactive Uranium Glass Conquered the World – where we explore major locations around Tyneside to discover the legacy of the Geordie Glassmaker – Geo Davidson. The Butcher with a Radiant Secret Picture this: a primrose‑yellow sundae dish on a kitchen table,…