I thought, I first read about these soils in ” Botany of Desire ” or “Guns, Germs, & Steel” but I could not find reference to them. I finely found the reference in “1491″, but I did not realize their potential .

Here’s the Cornell page for an over view:
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/biochar/Biochar_home.htm

The current issue of Nature has two [...]