Say hello to Research Ideas & Outcomes (RIO), a new open access journal, formally open for business today! The new journal represents a useful addition to traditional publishing, in that it will publish research from all stages of the research cycle, across a broad suite of disciplines, from humanities to science. Traditionally, journals accept articles that are the final product of the resear ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
Dinosaur Britain airs tonight!
A fantastic new series on Dinosaurs of the British Isles airs tonight on ITV! It stars Dean Lomax, a professional palaeontologist based pretty much everywhere in the UK. It seems to be based off a book of his, published via Siri Press. I’ve seen a copy, and it’s pretty much the best illustrated guides to dinosaurs ever. Here’s a preview below, so at 9pm GMT, kick off your shoes, ...[Read More]
GeoSphere
Geology Photo of the Week #46
This week’s photo brings us back to the world of geochemistry. I don’t have much information on this photo beyond that it was taken in Italy. However, if I may speculate a little it looks like these crystals may possibly be volcanic in origin and the fact that it was taken in Italy, which is famous for its volcanic sulphur deposits. I say this because such crystals are often found nea ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
Welcome to guest blogger Dr. Sabine Lengger!
Hi readers of “Green tea and Velociraptors”, my name is Sabine Lengger, I am a scientist, and I am an avid reader of Jon’s blog too. I started out my scientific career as a chemist / biochemist, and became more and more fascinated by the fields of environmental chemistry and molecular palaeontology. Since Jon spends all day [apparently] writing his thesis these days and asked for a guest writer, I ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
GfGD Annual Conference 2015 – Speaker Introductions (Session 1)
Our 3rd Annual Conference, with the theme Fighting Global Poverty – Geology and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) takes place on Friday 30th October, hosted by the Geological Society of London. Here we will be introducing some of the speakers, starting with Session 1 (DFID, Science and the SDGs)… Professor Tim Wheeler (Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for Internationa ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
Lizard lizard on the wall
When you think about fossils, lizards might be not be one of the first groups that springs to mind. However, they do have a pretty neat fossil record, stretching back over 150 million years. One group of lizards, iguanians, are still around today and comprises about 1700 different species! One sub-group of these iguanians, acrodonts, are thought to have originated in east Gondwana – part of ...[Read More]
Geology Jenga
How to survive your PhD – A free online course
“The Ph.D. is an emotional roller coaster, and how well students react to these emotional pressures is crucial to their success, ” says Inger Mewburn, of The Thesis Whisperer fame and Director of research training at the Australian National University. With the emotional and personal strain a PhD can cause, I couldn’t agree with Inger more. During my PhD journey, this was an aspect that I fe ...[Read More]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
A fond farewell
Since August 2013, Elspeth and Charly, editors of Between a Rock and a Hard Place, have contributed a range of interesting and thought-provoking posts to the EGU network blogs: from a broad volcanology and petrology theme, through to sharing valuable insights they picked up during their journey towards completing their PhDs. However, the PhD theses are now submitted and defended, and Elspeth and C ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
SVPCA 2015
This year, the 63rd Symposium for Vertebrate Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy is taking place alongside the 24th Symposium of Palaeontological Preparation and Conservation with the Geological Curators’ Group (what a mouth-full..), at the National Oceanographic Centre in Southampton. I don’t have much to say about this conference, as I’m heading to it’s international co ...[Read More]
Green Tea and Velociraptors
A thought on impact factors
OK, bear with me on this one. It’s a bit of a thought dump, but it would be interesting to see what people think. You can’t go anywhere in academia these days without hearing about impact factors. An impact factor is a metric assigned to a journal that measures the average number of citations per article over the preceding two year interval. It was originally designed to help libraries ...[Read More]