Does anybody know if the encroaching desert sands are a problem? If they are, could a solar concentrator be used to melt sand at 1700°C, and so make banks of rocks to stop the sand moving?
@NASAPersevere I do not know if MRI (magnetic resonance imaginibg) is usable on rocks, but if it is a 3D picture of the internals might be a wonderful thing?
Too many ifs? In the BBC program "The blob: a genius without a brain", show a mucus left by a blob was a repellant to itself i.e. don't grow there. Perhaps 'cancer' grown outside a body, can make its 'slime repellant', then a coating around the cancer will stop its growth?