Scientists Waited Two and a Half Years to See whether Bacteria Can Eat Rock

Very recommendable! Sometimes patients pays off, but it is not dirt cheap! :-)

"Generally speaking, it sits at the nexus of geology, meteorology, and time. Rock becomes dirt via weathering. But it is a process that is necessarily difficult for humans to observe.
It’s long been assumed that life is somehow involved (on Earth, there is very little in which life is not involved), and scientists have demonstrated that it is theoretically possible."

Scientists Waited Two and a Half Years to See whether Bacteria Can Eat Rock - Scientific American Blog Network The mystery of dirt’s origins is a thorny experimental problem