Polar explosions: Carbon dioxide geysers on Mars
James Lewis, fellow PhD student at Imperial College, wrote something about exploding geezers..
How do the chemical ghosts of dinosaurs help their preservation?
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1093 For some years now, Mary Schweitzer and her team have been researching the idea that organic molecules can be preserved for millions of years, specifically within dinosaurs. They have used a plethora of chemical and biotechnological techniques to demonstrate that, within animals like Tyrannosaurus rex, it is possible to find […]
Where did all the mammoths go?
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1037 Let’s go meta. Recently, ecologist extraordinaire Dr. Jacquelyn Gill (or is it Professor cos of that weird American system?) wrote a wonderful review article on the extinctions that affected many large mammal species during the last 50-10,000 years. This period is known as the Quaternary, and was a time when […]
Citizen science in ecology and evolution? Sounds apps-olutely fantastic.. *tumbleweed*
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1036 There’s a lot of talk these days about science communication. Some people spend their lives debating the differences between outreach, public engagement, and science communication, and how they all mean different things. As a scientist, and I’m quite sure I can speak on behalf of the entire community, we don’t […]
What are the key questions in palaeoecological research?
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1032 Last year, a throng of palaeoecologists from the world around descended into Oxford to discuss what the 50 most pressing questions in palaeoecology are. I was happy to see some great scientists and communicators among them, including Anson Mackay, Jacquelyn Gill, and Gavin Simpson, which gives me real hope that […]
Your poop or mine?
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1023 Back in the Mesozoic, lavatories probably didn’t exist. In fact, dinosaurs and other animals were probably pretty poorly mannered and just pooped wherever they felt like. But what or who cleaned up after them? In modern biomes, poop is decomposed by insects and bacteria of all breeds, and actually forms […]
Absolutely no sniggering – the dinosaur that looked like a cock
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1008 Dinosaur skeletons are a thing of pure beauty. Being able to see and touch something that has been dead for millions of years instills a sense of wonder; what did they look like, how did they behave, were they like anything we see today? Palaeontology is a science that raises […]
Were dinosaurs the masters of social integration?
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=996 Back in the Late Cretaceous, the USA was divided. Not politically, but by a vast continental sea called the Western Interior Seaway, splitting the continent into two separate landmasses. The western one of these, known as Laramidia, played host to some of the popular dinosaurs like Parasaurolophus, or ‘Elvis’ in […]
My year in 2013
Inspired by Martin Eve, I decided to make a documentation of academic-related stuff I’ve achieved in 2013. The last year was mostly occupado by the first year of my PhD, but other academic-ish stuff too as complimentary activities to research. This is kinda like a personal diary of ‘achievements’, as well as a documentation of […]
The 12 Days of PhD Christmas
Twelve Dinners Delivered (to the lab) Eleven Papers Prepping Ten Bugs-a-Bugging Nine Ladies Dancing (but not with you) Eight Bunsens-a-Burnin’ Seven Dance Solos Six Words a Minute Fiiive Grants Rejected Four Calling Mates (“I’m busy“) Three Absent Supervisors Two Days off a Year (maybe) And a h-index of nooought. Merry Christmas everyone! Originally published at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=974