Befuddled by the yearly returning celebration of science during the Nobel award ceremonies, and heavy-heartedly noticing the absence of Earth sciences at this ball time after time, Pippi pulled herself out of her rationally induced depression and asked: Shouldn’t there be a Nobel prize in Earth sciences? Dear Pippi, Well, isn’t that a particular poignant question? Earth sciences simply being denie ...[Read More]
Starting to teach a course at a university can be an exciting but daunting experience. In today’s post Menno Fraters shares his experiences of starting to teach a class of 100+ students during the challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic. He provides three quick tips for when you start teaching, that may be useful for teaching in academics. During your time as a PhD student, you may have al ...[Read More]
As frustrating as it seems every once in a while, Dara is confident still that his student will prevail and work out their troubles somehow. He contemplates his options, and seeks help to discern the correct approach: I am disappointed that my PhD student is going in circles. How shall I put pressure on them to finally get results? Dear Dara, Ah yes. The ol’ disappointing student. Life’ ...[Read More]
A new year, a new blog team! During the virtual EGU, we managed to find a lot of new people for the blog. In addition, some oldies but goldies will stay on, and, unfortunately, some editors also resigned (but they might still pop up every once in a while with a cheeky post). So, without further ado, here are the superstars of the blog team for the 2020-2021 EGU blog year who will provide you with ...[Read More]
Blanka was scouring the field for evidence, collecting samples and making do with the supplies for a short field trip expeditiously. And then she couldn’t travel back home anymore: I am stuck at my fieldwork location due to closed borders and social distancing. What to do? Dear Blanka, That must be very inconvenient. I do hope that you can manage with the restrictions placed upon your moveme ...[Read More]
This week, Jac van Driel, PhD student at UCL shares with us his deepest thoughts on how to write the manuscript of his PhD thesis. Hoping you will enjoy: “An Ode to the Coffee House”. Like many cordial expressions of civilised society, Covid-19 has plunged café culture to into stasis with the permanence of its condition not yet known. Pre-crisis, my hedonistic consumption of coffee use ...[Read More]
No physical assembly. A digital sharing platform. EGU reinvented. Valeri needed some time to process all this and is still deliberating his opinion: What did you think about the digital version of the EGU GA? Dear Valeri, It was great. Just. Great. There were loads of presentations with brand new science available online. Greatly readable, enjoyable and clear. So many new insights there, it was ey ...[Read More]
Now that the craziness of the first online EGU ever is over (it was great, wasn’t it?), it is time to sink back into our lazy lockdown routine. Essential part of this routine? Watching bad science movies of course! So here is the top 5 geodynamic movies you should watch this lockdown! Get some popcorn, video call some friends, and laugh while all the geodynamic principles you hold dear are b ...[Read More]
This week, the EGU General Assembly is taking place. As it was announced a long time ago: More than 16’000 scientists from all over the globe are meeting and sharing their science in sessions that cover all disciplines in Earth, planetary and space science. But still, everything is a little bit different this year: The EGU General Assembly 2020 takes place online Due to the ongoing coronavirus pan ...[Read More]
In response to the growing concerns over the COVID-19 epidemic, EGU has cancelled the physical General Assembly in Vienna and will instead host EGU 2020: Sharing Geoscience Online (#shareEGU20), a week-long series of online activities during which attendees can remotely interact, discuss and share research. With the virtual GA looming in less than a week, it’s time for all attendees to finis ...[Read More]