EGU24

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]

Soil bacteria that hunt like a wolfpack? Myxobacteria and their role in the food web

Maria Scheel April 16, 2024

A photo of a wolf in the middle and four microscopic images of colourful bacterial cultures around it.

Fig. 1 The resemblance between bacteria and a hunting wolf might not be obvious, but come take a dive into the weird ecology of Myxobacteria (Collage with photo credit Garcia et al. 2010 and Julien Riedel via pexels.com).

Picture this: bacteria that can slime their way around the soil, finding their prey, circling it, closing in on it and lysing it (or making their cell pop), just to feed on their prey. It sounds like a far stretch from a wolf to a bacteria, but even other soil predators, the comparably huge nematode worms ( up to 100 times bigger!), are afraid of these bacterial “wolves”. I went to the Soil System ...[Read More]

What’s beneath Tenerife? Innovative Monitoring Techniques Reveal the Island’s Volcanic Activity

Anna Katsigera April 16, 2024

The Pico del Teide / Mount Teide volcano on the canary island Tenerife. (Credit: Martin Wegmann, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Tenerife, the largest active volcanic island in the Canarian archipelago, encompasses a diverse landscape shaped by volcanic activity. This picturesque island of the Mediterranean not only boasts stunning vistas but also harbours a dynamic volcanic system that requires diligent monitoring. In recent years, an international team of researchers from Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias (INVOLCAN), In ...[Read More]

There’s something for everyone at EGU24: Education, Outreach and Science Communication sessions

Simon Clark April 12, 2024

Science is a bit like posting a letter – once you’ve written the letter it needs to be delivered to the right people and in the right way. At EGU24 attendees are invited to participate in the numerous and diverse selection of sessions which aim to improve how you deliver your research, how you understand the needs of different audiences – from policy-makers to school students – and whi ...[Read More]