Science and research. Mineral prospecting. Micro-fossils can play an important role in locating the proper spot to drill an oil well. A magnificent history of the flow of ancient seas, of climate, of the rise and fall of empires of primitive forms of life is preserved in stone. Students in defense training courses at a famous mining-engineering school learn to decipher and piece together for an engineering conclusion the facts contained in micro-fossils found in crushed rock. Here they are at work in the micropalenontological laboratory with binocular microscope using special lamps for horizontal illumination. A professor of the geophysics department stands at the far end of the table. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado