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Highlights

GeoLog

GeoRoundup: the highlights of EGU Journals published during April!

GeoRoundup: the highlights of EGU Journals published during April!

Each month we feature specific Divisions of EGU and during the monthly GeoRoundup we put the journals that publish science from those Divisions at the top of the Highlights roundup. As April was the month we held the General Assembly we are not highlighting any specific Division, so this month our GeoRoundup Journals will be alphabetical!   Highlights Atmospheric Measurement Techniques: Quant ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Predators or gardeners: how penguins fertilise Antarctica’s biodiversity

Predators or gardeners: how penguins fertilise Antarctica’s biodiversity

On the desolate Antarctic peninsula, a colony of penguins creates a hub of biodiversity. One may ask, how exactly do those aquatic birds help maintain and enrich the variety of different kinds of organisms from plants and animals, to a wide range of insects and micro-organisms that live on our planet? The answer is quite intriguing. Scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China ...[Read More]

GeoLog

The EGU Great Debate: About the Anthropocene, scientists and comfort zones?

The EGU Great Debate: About the Anthropocene, scientists and comfort zones?

  EGU has hosted a Great Debate with world-renowned climate scientists and activists about the growing human impact on our natural and social environment for many years. There are many aspects to the debate, from voting bad politicians out, to communication duties of scientists, the interconnection of a need for social equity and decarbonization, and more. In this blog post, I want to focus o ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Congratulations to the winners of the EGU24 Photo Competition!

Congratulations to the winners of the EGU24 Photo Competition!

For this year’s Photo Contest, EGU received a number of amazing images capturing a broad spectrum of the geosciences. Since the selection committee whittled the field down to 10 finalists, you have been voting for your favourites throughout EGU24’s week-long conference, both on-site in Vienna at the EGU booth, and online. After an enthusiastic response from voters, we are now ready -and very ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Looking for answers towards the stars: stone tools and nuclides unveil the earliest solid evidence of humans in Europe

Looking for answers towards the stars: stone tools and nuclides unveil the earliest solid evidence of humans in Europe

When stars explode, supernova-style, the explosion sets off streams of high energy particles across the universe, mainly protons and alpha particles, that after millions of years reach us here on Earth. Secondary cosmic rays pass through our bodies and almost everything around us, and they penetrate a few meters into the ground where they interact with atoms in soil and rock. This produces new iso ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Turning adversity into opportunity: mapping plastic pollution in rivers

Turning adversity into opportunity: mapping plastic pollution in rivers

In July 2021, the Benelux area, Germany, and France experienced heavy rainfall followed by mass flooding, causing widespread damage. Along the vast quantities of plastic swept along the riverbanks, Rahel Hauk, a researcher from Wageningen University, conducted fieldwork to assess the impact of the flood event on plastic deposition. Amidst the debris, Hauk and her colleagues noticed a large volume ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Past ice and future predictions – scanning and drilling the changing Antarctic ice

In front of the blue EGU press conference background, Olaf Eisen (left), Robert Larter (middle) and Emma Pearce (right) are engaged in discussion.

Did you know that some of the scientists of each General Assembly get invited to a press conference to face a group of curious journalists? I did not – but as press assistant for the #EGU24, I had the unique chance to attend the press conference “Unveiling Antarctica’s secrets: new research brings us one step closer to predicting the future of the icy continent”. Prominent scientists (Fig.1) ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Beyond the output

Beyond the output

The EGU General Assembly provides ground for formal presentations and sessions conveying a body of knowledge. However, science is so much more. It is a social process driven by shared values, such as openness and integrity, and established customs, like peer review. As such, working in science is inherently a collaborative effort, and the EGU supports that by giving participants plenty of opportun ...[Read More]

GeoLog

Soil bacteria that hunt like a wolfpack? Myxobacteria and their role in the food web

A photo of a wolf in the middle and four microscopic images of colourful bacterial cultures around it.

Picture this: bacteria that can slime their way around the soil, finding their prey, circling it, closing in on it and lysing it (or making their cell pop), just to feed on their prey. It sounds like a far stretch from a wolf to a bacteria, but even other soil predators, the comparably huge nematode worms ( up to 100 times bigger!), are afraid of these bacterial “wolves”. I went to the Soil System ...[Read More]

GeoLog

What’s beneath Tenerife? Innovative Monitoring Techniques Reveal the Island’s Volcanic Activity

What’s beneath Tenerife? Innovative Monitoring Techniques Reveal the Island’s Volcanic Activity

Tenerife, the largest active volcanic island in the Canarian archipelago, encompasses a diverse landscape shaped by volcanic activity. This picturesque island of the Mediterranean not only boasts stunning vistas but also harbours a dynamic volcanic system that requires diligent monitoring. In recent years, an international team of researchers from Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias (INVOLCAN), In ...[Read More]