EGU Scientific Divisions

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

Maria Scheel April 19, 2024

Are we as scientists still in an elitist bubble, or do we need to glue ourselves to streets and buy tractors for protest? Somewhere along the lines of finding and leaving comfort zones versus the need to become uncomfortable while many globally already are, is the setting of this year’s EGU great debate (Image Credit: Maria Scheel).

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]

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

Anna Katsigera April 18, 2024

This false-color image from three of NASA's Great Observatories provides one example of a star that died in a fiery supernova blast. Called Cassiopeia A, this supernova remnant is located 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/CXC/SA

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]

Turning adversity into opportunity: mapping plastic pollution in rivers

Jakub Stepanovic April 17, 2024

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]

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

Maria Scheel April 17, 2024

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

Fig. 1: Olaf Eisen (AWI, Germany), Robert Larter (British Antarctic Survey) and Emma Pearce (British Antarctic Survey) during the #EGU24 press conference “Unveiling Antarctica’s secrets: new research brings us one step closer to predicting the future of the icy continent” (Photo credit: Jakub Stepanovic).

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]