In the past 10 years, Environmental Mineralogy has emerged as a multifaceted discipline, with applications in material science, soil science, biology, including geomicrobiology, medicine and health, atmospheric science and perhaps more. This special issue of Mineralogical Magazine reflects this breadth of disciplines in a collection of 13 papers. In a recent review, Hochella (2002) presented an overview of the role of mineralogy in assessing and solving problems linked to the environment and Earth sustainability, and highlighted mineral-microbe interactions and nanomineralogy as newly emerging sub-disciplines of increasing importance. The present volume follows from and expands on the ideas introduced in Hochella’s paper. Specifically on the theme of mineral-microbe interactions, Burford et al. (2003) and Hutchens et al. (2003) introduce fungal and bacterial interactions with minerals respectively. Burford et al. (2003) focus on fungi, the role of which is less well known than that of prokaryotic organisms ( Bacteria and Archaea ), and discuss the dual role of these microorganisms in mobilization and immobilization of non-essential metals, such as Rb, Cs, Al, Cd, Ag, Au, Hg, U and Pb. Some of the more environmentally significant functions of fungi include their role in building-stone degradation, carbon cycling, bioremediation of xenobiotic-, metal- and/or radionuclide-contaminated soils and wastes and metal/radio-nuclide recovery. The article reviews a number of interesting examples. The impact of bacterial activity on the stability of feldspars is addressed by Hutchens et al. (2003), who measured the rate of Al release as an indicator of feldspar dissolution rate in the presence of aerobic heterotrophs. One strain ( Serratia marcescens ), of several derived from a natural weathering profile on granite, proved particularly effective. Practical problems arising from the handling of microbial populations in experimental work are discussed, and the paper provides evidence of microbial attachment on feldspars exposed experimentally to soil bacteria for periods of 1 …