11 June 2008
And geology is…
Posted by Jessica Ball
(From http://xkcd.com/)
…way over to the right somewhere. Possibly off the screen. Yeah, we use ALL that stuff.
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About Jessica
Jessica Ball is a volcanologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, researching volcanic hydrothermal systems and stability, and doing science communication for the California Volcano Observatory. She previously worked at the Geological Society of America's Washington DC Policy Office, learning about the intersection of Earth science and legislative affairs. Her Mendenhall postdoc and PhD focused on how water affects the stability of volcanoes, and involved both field investigations and numerical modeling applications. Her blogging covers a range of topics, from her experiences in academic geosciences to science outreach and communication to her field and lab work in volcanology.
The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author, and do not represent those of her past, present or future employers.
As someone said on Pharyngula; “If you drew a bell curve over the line, you’d have a pretty accurate representation of popularity at parties.”So we can’t be way over on the right. If we’re combining everything we’d sit at the median point, smack bang in the middle and rockin’ the party! 🙂
Missed that one!Obviously geologists rock whatever party they grace with their presence. Plus we bring the best beer.
Who cares about purity? We just take all the useful bits from all of these loser disciplines, and use them to justify being paid to go on field trips. And drink beer.
To put it into another context, we’re like scientific ninjas, or jedis. Leaping from one discipline to another, going largely unnoticed (unless we’re at a party) but wielding great and terrible power over those who oppose us.Plus, we’re fantastic in bed.
Actually, I was at MoCCA this weekend, and Randall talked with a bunch of people, including me about this comic. When I mentioned geology, he said he’d put it about the same place as biology.
We are the “cowbowys of science” – never mind the gender there, please. 🙂
Yeah, well, somewhere somebody is designing satellites and/or robotic chimpanzees to do most of the middle of nowhere stuff that you do…you know, like taking photos, drinking beers, going to parties, and playing under the bedsheets…or whatever it is that geologists get paid to do there.
Psychology? How? 🙂 🙂
Psychology comes in handy when you have to do mapping on private property. As in, “You don’t really want to shoot me for trespassing when I’m just trying to improve our scientific understanding of the world.”