Artificial Intelligence, and its rapid incursion into the (geo)sciences, was already impossible to ignore at last year’s EGU General Assembly. (you can read my reflections then in this blog post) This year, unsurprisingly, it felt equally present. On Thursday, I attended the Great Debate on “The ethics of using AI in Geosciences: opportunities and risks”, …[Read More]
Publish or perish? Or is publishing perishing? Reflections from a Great Debate at EGU26
There’s a particular kind of energy you get in a conference room when something is about to matter. You can feel it before anything starts: chairs filling quickly, people sitting closer than usual, no polite gaps left between strangers. This was the case for the Great Debate on The future of scientific publishing: do we …[Read More]
A trial by fire: Can we learn how to read a burning planet?
I grew up watching my dad come home covered in soot. For most of his life, he worked as a firefighter in a natural reserve in Galicia, in northern Spain, a region of green mountains and steep terrain, almost Lord of the Rings in its landscape, but also a place where fire moves quickly and …[Read More]
Mind your mind: surviving the conference rollercoaster
If you’ve ever been to Vienna’s Prater, you might know the ride. I can see it from my hotel window while I am getting dressed to head to the Austria Center Vienna for EGU26. It’s essentially a long, slightly questionable-looking couch, strapped on either side to cables that behave less like cables and more like …[Read More]
Unethical science: On gender, discomfort, and the stories we tell
Reflections following the discussions held in the EGU25 Great Debate “Gender in Geoscience” (available to watch online if you missed it). “Fairytales are the fossils of human culture.” […] said Francesca Cavallo, author of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, during the Union Symposium US8 on “Gender in Geoscience” on the final day of the …[Read More]
A Geoscientist’s Colorful Journey from Research to Children’s Books
In today’s blog we’re having a chat with our very own Dr Lucia Perez-Diaz. As Lucia put it at the start of this year’s General Assembly, us scientists get to wear many “hats”, and she lives up to that statement. Besides a brilliant geoscientist, she is an incredible artist – also featured as last year’s …[Read More]
AI: the good, the bad, and the forgotten
AI is here, and when I say here, I mean e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. For all you know, this blog may have been written by an algorithm (it wasn’t — I’m not a robot, promise. Or am I?). In what feels like the blink of an eye, AI has gone from a curiosity to a fully-fledged co-pilot in …[Read More]
The transformative worlds of EGU
About the unique trans-disciplinary exchanges EGU’s General Assemblies (GA) offer, and the far-reaching impact they can have.
Advancing diversity and inclusion at EGU: EDI Networking event recap
Yesterday, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) hosted a vibrant and impactful event focused on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) within the geosciences community. This networking session provided an open and welcoming space for participants to meet the dedicated volunteer members of the EGU EDI Committee and learn more about the initiatives implemented by the EGU …[Read More]
Poster safaris, wildcard talks, and other EGU25 adventures
If you’ve ever been to the EGU General Assembly, you know the feeling: everything, everywhere, all at once. Thousands of posters, hundreds of sessions, and approximately a million things competing for your attention (including the lure of the sunshine outside, if only for five minutes). Until someone invents a way to be in more than …[Read More]