EGU Scientific Divisions

GeoTalk: meet Silke Asche, researcher of the origin of life on other planets!

Simon Clark January 16, 2026

Silke Asche

Hello Silke and welcome to GeoTalk! Before we dig into your topic of expertise, could you introduce yourself to our readers? Hello, Simon. My name is Silke Asche, and I am a chemist in astrobiology and part of the Agnostic Biosignature Collective led by Dr Heather Graham at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight enter. My Ph.D. focused on Origins of Life (OoL) research and the automation of such experiments. ...[Read More]

More than just a cat: How Schrödinger invented modern Earth science

Asmae Ourkiya January 5, 2026

Image by Luku Muffin. Source: Unsplash

Did you know that yesterday, Sunday, January 4, 2026, marked 65 years since Erwin Schrödinger passed away? While the internet loves him for his cat in a box thought experiment, Geoscientists love him for something much more practical: the equation. Many of us have spent decades debating the health of a hypothetical feline in a box (I remember watching this episode of the Bing Bang Theory and think ...[Read More]

Discovery to recovery: how international collaboration solved the ozone crisis

Hazel Gibson December 26, 2025

Early morning light at Manchester surface radiation monitoring station. Credit: Andy Smedley (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu). This is the optical dome of the ozone and spectral UV instrument at the monitoring station, Brewer spectrophotometer 172.

38 years ago, representatives from 46 countries around the globe came together to find a solution to the climate crisis. Alerted to an issue discovered by scientists 13 years previously, the representatives of these nations worked together swiftly and with purpose to create an international treaty to combat a major environmental issue. The treaty was signed by all 46 participant nations and would ...[Read More]

The prize that failed forward: How a 100,000-franc quest for aliens funded a century of astronomy

Asmae Ourkiya December 17, 2025

Photo by Leo Visions. Source: Unsplash

Today, 17 December, marks 125 years since the formal announcement of one of the most eccentric, ambitious, and ultimately consequential prizes in the history of science: the Prix Pierre Guzman. Announced by the French Académie des Sciences in December 1900, the award promised 100,000 francs, which is the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars today, to the first person who could successful ...[Read More]