Tinted detail of a photo: Wet sand on a beach rippled into many small wavy ridges, with a shallow channel of water behind and grassy land below sharp, dark, partly snow-dusted peaks under white clouds.
GD
Geodynamics

Geodynamics

What can we learn from geodynamic failure?

Artwork reading "All my faults are stress related"

In this week’s post, Mohamed Gouiza discusses the challenges of living under constant stress, paralysed by the possibility of failure and self-perceived inevitability of impending breakup. Continental rifting, of course! Oh… did you think I was talking about life as a researcher? Under tensile stress, the lithosphere stretches, the asthenosphere rises, the crust fails, and …[Read More]

The Sassy Scientist – The Philosopher’s Stone

The Sassy Scientist – The Philosopher’s Stone

Hermione has finally completed her graduate studies, with some extra-curricular training that will remain unnamed here and with activities which some will not remember. Now the time has come to use that newly acquired title for good although demands, desires and duties meander through the realm of possibilities, leaving Hermione in a perpetual plight: What …[Read More]

And the solution to your lock-down-related sadness is…

Phat Thai!

Cooking of course! Let me explain. This week, instead of doing his job, Antoine Rozel (senior researcher in ETH Zürich), shows that all your life problems will instantly disappear if you start cooking. Warning, this introductory paragraph is not going to cheer you up, skip it if you are already feeling blue unless you want …[Read More]

The Sassy Scientist – Join the Club?

The Sassy Scientist – Join the Club?

With his dazzling wit, charm and handsome moustache, Groucho has an engagements calendar that would make the most sparkly socialite jealous. He therefore asks: Should you ever turn down an invited presentation? Dear Groucho, If being dead since 1977 isn’t enough to get you out of an awkward invited spot, I recommend you follow your …[Read More]

A love letter to science fiction

A love letter to science fiction

You know what has been missing from this blog so far? Book reviews! This week, Maeve Murphy Quinlan, PhD student at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom studying meteorites, comes to our rescue and discusses the science fiction genre with a review and recommendation of the novella To be Taught, if Fortunate. I know what’s …[Read More]

The Sassy Scientist – Diamonds Are Forever

The Sassy Scientist – Diamonds Are Forever

Jade feels uncomfortable as she glides across the multi-faceted piazza of Earth sciences. Sometimes parents should think a tad longer about prospective names for their progeny, especially in case they push them into the world of minerals, rocks and equations-of-state. With all the facts on jade in her back-pocket, Jade wonders whether she should brush …[Read More]

The Sassy Scientist – Only Time Will Tell

The Sassy Scientist – Only Time Will Tell

Being a geophysicist, Eocenia is well aware of the fundamental cyclical rhythm of life – inbox time, coffee time, lunch time, nap time, scream-at-the-cluster time, tea time, pub time, late-night-coding time. But apparently stratigraphers just don’t accept this universal cycle, leaving us all with the question: When will geologists figure out time? Dear Eocenia, Ma …[Read More]