Prof. Bruce Fouke and collaborators at the Mayo Clinic have teamed up to use geological reasoning and high-end microscopy to learn fundamentally new and medically important things about human kidney stones! The project involves both advanced petrography of the stones and research into the role of microbes in their deposition- a unique combination of approaches honed by the Fouke group over years of studying carbonate deposition in hot springs! The breakthrough results were reported in Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/kidney-stones-1119531  

And the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/health/kidney-stones-geology.html

The University of Illinois News Bureau published a detailed article on this work on Sept. 13th, 2018. The full article can be found at: https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/693531