On a humid morning in Augsburg, Germany, on August 10, 1893, a ten-foot iron cylinder roared to life for the first time. The engine belonged to Sir Rudolf Diesel, and running through its veins was not the petroleum distillate we associate with his name today, but in fact, peanut oil! Diesel’s early experiment proved something revolutionary for the late Industrial Revolution: the engines driving hu ...[Read More]
This Sunday, July 26, marks the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem. We are currently experiecing critical crossroads globally, where groundbreaking data on global forest recovery collides with the immediate threats of an escalating climate crisis.El Niño is pushing Pacific sea surface temperatures toward levels that rank among the highest on record, and climate specia ...[Read More]
Many people exhibit a strong visual orientation, as a significant portion of human neurobiology is dedicated to processing light; however, this reliance is usually as much a product of our visually-centered environments as it is our biology. Science, however, reminds us that important information can come from different senses as well: sound, smell and tactile information all have something to say ...[Read More]
Hello Elsa & welcome to GeoTalk! Before we dig deeper, could you introduce yourself to our readers? Hi! I’m Elsa (they/them). I’m a microbiologist/biogeochemist, and I just started a permanent position at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) one month ago. I work with one PhD student, Elisa Richard, and two postdocs, Mathilde Bourreau and Thomas Cortier, on my ERC Starting ...[Read More]
Today marks World Wetlands Day, and this year, the theme is Wetlands and traditional knowledge: Celebrating cultural heritage. Each year, February 2 is a day dedicated to recognising wetlands as places that store carbon, protect water, and hold complex cultural meaning. Wetlands such as mangroves, salt marshes, seagrass beds, peatlands, and floodplains are extremely good at taking carbon out of th ...[Read More]
Next time you’re outdoors, in a park or anywhere where there is no pavement, look down at the patch of earth beneath your feet. To many people, it’s just mud, dirt, or maybe soil, something passive that things grow in. But to a soil scientist, that handful of soil represents a dynamic ecosystem that supports an incredible 95% of all the food we eat, filters every drop of our drinking water, ...[Read More]
Mangrove forests, rare tidal woodlands at the interface of land and sea, are extraordinary ecosystems that bridge freshwater and marine environments. These forests support rich biodiversity and invaluable nursery habitat for fish and crustaceans, while also providing food, shelter, and cultural resources to millions of coastal communities. Think of mangroves as sea walls: their dense, prop-root ne ...[Read More]
Annegret, welcome to GeoTalk! You’re a researcher who focuses on abiotic-biotic environmental interactions. Can you tell us how the implications of your research extend to sustainable management practices? The United Nations, European Union, and national governments require us to restore landscapes to a ‘natural’ state. However, European landscapes have been shaped by human activity for thousands ...[Read More]
When I was thirteen years old, my family and I almost lost our lives due to a carbon monoxide (CO) leak. I never stopped thinking about that incident even though it happened over twenty years ago. Not only because it was a premature realisation of my own mortality, but also because of how sneaky it was: We did not smell it, see it, hear it, or feel it. It was a subtle and slow killer that could ha ...[Read More]
Hello Kara. Thank you for joining this edition of GeoTalk! Could you tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your background? Thank you, Simon. I am excited to join you for the interview. I grew up in the middle of Germany in Bad Homburg, close to Frankfurt. After school, I travelled through Australia with occasional jobs, and after one year, I decided to return to Germany to study chemis ...[Read More]