For those of you attending our National Conference, taking place at the Geological Society in two weeks time (limited tickets are still available), we would like to draw your attention to some important reading material. A number of the articles we have selected are available to read online. Others may be found in your university libraries. Based on this reading material we are very keen to hear t ...[Read More]
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Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Conference diaries: Goldschmidt 2013
Following on from Mel Auker’s report on her visit to Japan for the The IAVCEI Scientific Assembly, Bristol PhD students Kate Hibbert and Sorcha McMahon tell us about their recent trip to Florence for Goldschmidt 2013. What? The annual Goldschmidt conference is a major geochemistry conference, alternating between Europe and North America each year. With over 4,000 delegates from all over the ...[Read More]
GeoLog
A sky-high view on pollution in the Himalayas: the science
Jane Qiu shares her experience of shadowing atmospheric scientists some 5000 metres above sea level after being awarded the EGU’s science journalism fellowship. To find out how she got there, see her last post, A sky-high view on pollution in the Himalayas: the journey. Lab with a view After six days of strenuous hike, the Pyramid was finally in sight. At the foot of the majestic Khumbu Glacier, ...[Read More]
Geology Jenga
Soliciting peer reviews from PhD students
This post does not discuss science per se but the topic is important from a personal point of view and hopefully useful to others in a similar position (i.e., PhD student currently putting together their first papers and hoping to learn more about the peer-review process). Feedback from those at a similar stage as well as more experienced members of academia is most welcome. The British Society fo ...[Read More]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Negative results, have no fear!
KT Cooper is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A carbonate geochemist by training, she is currently on a three-month secondment to Houston, Texas, USA working with Exxon Mobil. Not all research is successful and not all experiments have a positive outcome or even the outcome you first expected. When you are a young researcher, such as a PhD student, this ...[Read More]
Geology Jenga
10 Minute Interview – Life as a Museum Curator
Fridays are hard enough, so we thought we’d help you get through the day with a really interesting 10 minute interview, all you need now is a spare 10 minutes and your favourite hot drink! This week, we speak to Gillian McCay, assistant curator at the Cockburn Geological Museum at the University of Edinburgh. The museum is a fascinating place to visit, holding over 130,000 specimens as well ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
Blog Competition (1st Prize) – Philip Irwin: In Unity We Trust
For our Blog Competition 2013, we asked for people to submit articles addressing one of two topics. Philip Irwin’s article makes an argument for the inclusion of development education in geoscience courses, and it won first prize in its category. Philip did BSc Geology at Durham University where he developed an interest in environmental hazards. He then spent some time travelling to places ...[Read More]
Geology Jenga
Reporting on a recent visit to the NERC Radiocarbon Facility (East Kilbride, Scotland)
I (Daniel) recently had the opportunity to visit the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Radiocarbon Facility – Environment (NRCF-EK), hosted at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), a collaborative facility between the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. The lab is located in East Kilbride, a 30-minute train ride south of Glasgow city centre. The opportunity ...[Read More]
Geology for Global Development
The Long Life of Ruzi Mohammed
Ruzi Mohammed thinks that he is around 110 years old. He keeps track of the years using the changing seasons, and there is no missing them in Turtuk, where winters reach -20˚C, and summers are warm and pleasant. Too high for mosquitos, and low enough for a good harvest, Turtuk is a paradise in the summer. The winter is survived by shutting down, almost hibernating, and surviving on wheat mixed wit ...[Read More]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Abbreviated science
KFC, MTV, BP, BBC, NASA, NHS, UNICEF, FIFA…combinations of letters that are known the world over. These famous examples demonstrate the power of the acronym, a word formed from the initial components of a series of other words. You may have noticed that acronyms in science seem to be everywhere. No grant proposal, research group or society is complete without the obligatory ‘humorous&# ...[Read More]