Microbes are living more than 500 feet beneath the seafloor in 5 million-year-old sediment, according to new findings by researchers at the University of Delaware and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Genetic material in mud from the bottom of the ocean — called the deep biosphere —revealed an ecosystem of active bacteria, fungi and other microscopic organisms at depths deeper than a skyscraper is high. The findings were published in Nature on June 12.

Nearly 42 million gallons of crude oil move through the Delaware River and Bay each day, carried by approximately 3,000 deep-draft vessels a year and off-loaded at the nation’s largest receiving port for very large tanker ships.

At this level of traffic, an occasional oil spill is virtually inevitable, even with the best safety practices in place. Large spills such as the Mystras spill (20,000 gallons) in 1997 and the Athos I spill (265,000 gallons) in 2004 have previously soiled Delaware shores.

So much has changed in Delaware since 1983, the last time a team of volunteers set out to assess the state’s breeding bird population. There are fewer farms, fewer forests and many, many more bald eagles nesting in the state.

Delaware officials are reviewing their decision to allow the Delaware City Refinery to build a massive crude-by-rail yard outside its Coastal Zone boundary, and have agreed to pay an expert private lawyer $325 an hour toassist the state as threats of permit challenges loom.

The tornado that downed trees and damaged homes in Newark on Monday evening, June 10, was uncommon but not unprecedented, according to Delaware State Climatologist Daniel Leathers, who is also a professor of geography in the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment.

When students in an interdisciplinary class at the University of Delaware set up a “Who’s Downstream” exhibit at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts (DCCA), they wanted to show the path that stormwater takes through urban and industrial areas -- specifically how the Brandywine River flows through the city of Wilmington -- and also find out what the city’s residents know about their drinking water and how concerned they are about its quality.

It seemed like an easy task: figure out the chemical that makes horseshoe crabs such a desirable attractant to catch conch and eel.

“Mother Nature was unwilling to give up her secrets easily,” said Ann Masse, global safety, health and environmental strategy leader with DuPont Co.

She is not the only one trying to unlock nature’s secret about the marine arthropod that dwells in and around shallow ocean waters.

“We looked at eggs, females, males, different baits, different presentations. I think I have a shelf full of notebooks,” said Nancy Targett, dean of the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean and the Environment.

White perch are a popular catch in the Delaware River and Delaware Bay, but contaminants can make the fish unsafe to eat. Officials advise against eating white perch caught north of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and limiting consumption of those from south of the canal. The trouble is, the fish can swim through that border.