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17 December 2009
Much-Needed Ecological Sensors Will Probably Reduce Fieldwork…
I’m an ecologist by training—I spent my undergrad years and summers running around on mountains and in fields, counting plants. Ecology was about being a naturalist, about recognizing species and understanding the subtleties of unique systems. But the power in ecology is in extrapolating from the fine-scale to the broad, in looking at the spatial distribution of plants in particular plot of land, and understanding how that pattern might be …
Get Your FREE AGU Coloring Book!
This year, AGU has a new special publication: Exploring Earth and Space, a 16 page coloring book that you can get for free at the AGU booths in Moscone South. I can’t wait to give one to my nephew–he is a smart and inquisitive kid who is always peppering me with questions about the Earth after he found out that I’m a geoscientist. I remember his first set of questions: …
Would Finding ET Collapse Religions?
Earlier this year, the Vatican Observatory at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences published a report saying that astrobiology offers many important philosophical and theological implications. With this in mind, I was eager for the second half of P33C. Astrobiology and Society: Challenges and Opportunities session, which presented three talks from theologians about the impact that finding life outside Earth would have on religion. It was one of the most interesting …
Exploration Station–A Family Science Event!
How did Bay Area parents keep their rampaging children occupied and excited on last Sunday? By attending Exploration Station, AGU’s family science event. This year’s Exploration Station attracted 331 parents, children, teachers to spend four hours discovering how much fun you can have with, for example, infra-cameras (as seen in the picture to the right), Slinkys, ice, mud, miniature planetaria, and radio waves. For anyone interested in volcanology and seismology, …
16 December 2009
The Science of Extraterrestrials
Astrobiology is an emerging multidisciplinary field that asks one large question: Are we alone? In a particularly thought-provoking session, P33C Astrobiology and Society: Challenges and Opportunities, scientists presented the search for extraterrestrial life from many perspectives. The first half of the session was devoted to scientific projects and data involved in this search. NASA scientist Michael Meyer gave an overview of our ever-changing perspective of life on Mars. Back in …
Get Published!
AGU publications are available in more than 135 countries and nearly 2000 libraries, reaching each of AGU’s more than 50,000 members and beyond. What can you do to improve your chances of having your paper accepted by an AGU journal? Find out at a session on Thursday, 17 December at 2 pm in the San Francisco Marriott Marquis (on Fourth Street) Sierra A meeting room. This session will be especially …
Dukin’ out the Younger Dryas Boundary
The session PP33B. Younger Dryas Boundary: Extraterrestrial Impact or Not? II was standing room only. The question: What caused the thousand plus year Younger Dryas cold snap that likely killed off the mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and other iconic ice-aged creatures ~12,000 years ago? In one corner were those who believe that impact from a swarm of comets caused the cooling event. In the other: the skeptics. Wallace Broecker of the …
Mural on Governance Changes!
On Sunday evening, AGU members got together with leadership to talk about governance changes approved by the membership in November. President Tim Grove, President-Elect Mike McPhaden, General Secretary Carol Finn, and Interim Executive Director Bob Van Hook also gave updates on the development of AGU’s new strategic plan and the Executive Director search. Take a look at the recently produced summary of the discussion captured by Julie Stuart of Making …
Awesome Projects = Awesome Eos Manuscripts
I’ve seen some incredibly awesome presentations so far this week. Everything from climate change to tectonophysics to hydrology (just to name a few!). I’m hoping that many of these will be written as Eos features and brief reports. Eos is the bridge that unifies all of the disciplines that AGU covers. As such, we’re looking for pieces that put into perspective interesting science that has broad appeal across geosciences. For …
Life as a Game of Chance
How will we recognize life on other planets? Scientists don’t yet know how to address this tricky question but at the P32B Sagan Lecture; Life at the Common Denominator: Mechanistic and Quantitative Biology for the Earth and Space Sciences, biogeologist Tori M. Hoehler presented a different way of thinking about the answer. Hoehler—who much like the lecture’s namesake, Carl Sagan, is both a gifted scientist and communicator—feels that we are …
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.