From the 9th to the 11th of September the Solar Energy and Buildings Physics laboratory is hosting the CISBAT conference. This international meeting is seen as a leading platform for interdisciplinary dialog in the field of sustainability in the built environment. More than 250 scientists and people from the industry will be at EPFL in Lausanne to talk about topics from solar nanotechnologies to t ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Imaggeo on Mondays: Electron cloud gone wrong
Deciphering the past history of rocks and what they might reveal about the Earth’s future is a key part of geology, and tools such as Ion Probes can be used by Earth Scientists to extract valuable information about a rock’s past. Today’s Imaggeo on Monday’s image was acquired by Sarah Glynn, a researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand, in South Africa, who was analysing a potential calcite ...[Read More]
Soil System Sciences
Turning unproductive soil into profits
Preeti Roychand La Trobe University AgriBio Centre for AgriBioscience Melbourne, VIC, Australia Sandy soils in Western Australia are bad soils for growing plants due to their poor nutrients and water holding capacity (see an example in Figure 1). In general, these soils are water repellent, which leads to land degradation by increasing soil erosion risk and run-off rates. Nevertheless, these soils ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Guest Blog: Micronutrients, Hidden Hunger and Geology
In January 2015, GfGD took a small group of members to a discussion event hosted by the British Geological Survey, on best practice in international development. Ben Clarke and Eleri Simpson, then final year undergraduates at the University of Leicester (UK) joined the event to share about their fantastic work in Vanuatu. Here they write a guest blog about one presentation that caught their intere ...[Read More]
Cryospheric Sciences
Image of the Week: Greenland Ice Streams
This image is from the west coast of Greenland and it shows several glaciers flowing towards the sea (upper part of the image), transporting ice into the ocean. The colours show the velocity of the ice. As the ice gets nearer to the coast it speeds up reaching speeds over 15m/day. The velocities were calculated using two Sentinel-1A radar scans from 3 and 15 January 2015. You can download a high r ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Meet the EGU’s new Science Policy Fellow
I seem to have moved to Munich at the perfect time – glorious weather and three weeks before Oktoberfest! My name is Sarah and I’ve joined EGU as their Science Policy Fellow – a position created to implement science-policy related activities for EGU scientists. Before Munich, I studied a Masters in Chemistry at the University of York, which included my final year being spent in industry working in ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Geosciences Column: The Oldest Eurypterid
The name of a newly found fossil of sea scorpion draws inspiration from ancient Greece warships and is a unique example of exceptional preservation, shedding light on the rich life of this bygone sea critter, explains David Marshall of Palaeocast fame. To learn more about the importance of giving new fossils names and what Pentecopterus decorahensis (as the new fossil is formally called) teaches u ...[Read More]
GeoLog
Imaggeo on Mondays: Mola de Lord
From the easterly Atlantic waters of the Bay of Biscay to the Catalan wild coast (Costa Brava) in the west, the Spanish Pyrenees stretch 430 km across the north of the country. At the foothills of the Catalan Pyrenees you’ll find the Pre-Pyrenees. Despite not reaching the soaring heights of the peaks of the Pyrenees, they nonetheless offer important insights into the geology of the range and stunn ...[Read More]
Energy, Resources and the Environment
Living with water: A closer look at deltas
Costal deltas often host large cities due to their prime location of where rivers meet the sea. In many cases these areas have been protected from rising sea levels and flooding rivers by engineered ‘gray’ infrastructure. However, this infrastructure appears to only protect these cities on short timescales. Engineered deltas contribute to relative sea level rise, caused by shrinking land masses in ...[Read More]
GeoLog
GeoEd: A Framework Too Far?
In this month’s edition of GeoEd, Sam Illingworth, former ECS PC representative and Lecturer of Science Communication at Manchester Metropolitan University, talks about a new framework introduced by the UK government to measure the quality of teaching at higher education institutions. Although Sam explores the issue from a UK perspective, there is no doubt cross over within the European realm. Als ...[Read More]