With the mammoth task of Storifying #EGU2013 this week, I’m wondering just how useful social media, particularly Twitter, has become at conferences. While having a hashtag for a conference with 4,684 oral, 8,207 poster, and 452 PICO presentations (#EGU2013) won’t give you an insight into what’s going on in all the sessions – there’s simply too much science – it provides a guide to what’s happening ...[Read More]
General Assembly
Reaching up High – Aerosol Concentrations at EGU 2013
For those with a keen eye, you may have spotted a red balloon soaring high above the EGU Centre this week. The little white box attached underneath is the Light Optical Aerosol Counter (LOAC), a device that has been measuring the aerosols it the air around the conference. Aerosols are air borne particles that can be liquid or solid, natural or manmade. Salt, fog, sand, plaster and carbon are commo ...[Read More]
Winners of the Imaggeo Photo Competition Announced!
Congratulations to Philipp Stadler, Yiming Wang and Eva van Gorsel, winners of this year’s Imaggeo photo competition! Imageo photos are distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence and are available in Imaggeo, the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these ph ...[Read More]
Meet Future Earth
This week at the EGU General Assembly, we’ve heard how the global environment is changing before our very eyes. As the Earth warms, sea levels rise, and weather patterns shift, the food security, health, and economic prosperity of societies around the world has come under threat. In the Anthropocene, an era dominated by human impact on the natural world, it seems that environmental and development ...[Read More]
Friday at the General Assembly
Welcome to the final day of EGU 2013! As ever, there are many many great sessions on today – here’s our final selection of highlights. Be sure to complement this information with EGU Today, the daily newsletter of the General Assembly, available both in paper and for download here. After you’ve settled into the day and had your morning coffee, why not pick up some skills to show off your talents t ...[Read More]
Bioengineering Could be the Answer to Dirt-Free Dams
Scientists are building walls of willow trees in the Southern French Alps gullies to trap dirt that blocks hydroelectric dams downstream. Sediment in rainwater washes off the steep valley slopes in the Francon marly basin into gullies. These smaller waterways then feed larger rivers. When the water reaches the slower-moving reservoirs above dams, the sediment drops out and settles behind the barra ...[Read More]
Visit the Exhibition at the General Assembly
Today is the last full day to visit the Exhibition at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2013! Exhibition booths for companies, publishers, research facilities, scientific societies, among others, are scattered throughout the blue (basement), yellow (ground floor), and green (first floor) levels of the Austria Center Vienna. Make sure you don’t miss the EGU Booth in the Blue Lev ...[Read More]
Thursday at the General Assembly
Welcome to the fourth day of General Assembly excitement! Once again the day is packed with great events for you to attend – be sure to complement this information with EGU Today, the daily newsletter of the General Assembly, available both in paper and for download here. Short courses! Today there’s a whole host of them, including a panel discussion on using blogs and social media in scientific r ...[Read More]
Bookends on Planetary Atmosphere
New results presented this week at the EGU General Assembly have scientists adjusting the assumptions that have longed acted as bookends on the way we understand the evolution of planetary atmospheres. On one side, researchers have identified a previously unrecognised greenhouse effect that could have warmed the early Earth. On the other, the Curiosity rover has uncovered evidence that Mars has lo ...[Read More]
GeoTalk: Sylvian LeDuc on Why Woody Biofuels Wouldn’t be the Best Plan for the EU
Biofuels are set to replace 10 per cent of EU transportation fuel by 2020. Yet, the long-term sustainability of first generation biofuels, made from grains and vegetable oils, has raised concerns as production starts to compete with food supplies. Attention has now turned to second generation biofuels, produced from non-edible sources such as wood or waste plant residual like straw. In the next de ...[Read More]