LOS ANGELES (CBS) 53; USC is getting a 25 million dollar grant to study the "world of life" below the earth's surface.
The grant is from the National Science Foundation and it will help the university create a new science and technology center called The Center For Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations.
The center will study life forms that live below the earth's surface including soils, aquifers, and rocks underneath the ocean's floor.
Among the center's goals are to advance the tools needed for sea sub- seafloor biosphere research; train and educate a new and diverse generation of undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral deep sub-seafloor researchers and translate knowledge of the deep sub-seafloor biosphere and ocean sciences to a broad and diverse community that includes K-12 children.
Poster Comment:
The NSF is funded by the US tax payer through government mandated re-distribution of tax dollars; hence, so is USC.