At the start of August, ten sixth form students from schools across the UK visited Cambridge Earth Sciences as part of a summer school programme aimed at widening participation to top universities. Having myself graduated from the University in June, I was thrilled to come back to the Department and give the students an insight into studying Earth Sciences at Cambridge.
Continue reading “New Kids on the Rock: Sutton Trust Summer School 2024”
It’s hard to move these days for the number of AI-powered chatbots: including the now-ubiquitous ChatGPT. The possibilities are endless, from replying to emails to looking for recipe inspiration to end your four-day pasta streak. But the algorithms underpinning these bots can also classify information. Take a movie review, for instance: ChatGPT can distinguish between positive or negative feedback.
In my PhD research, I’m using the same algorithmic architecture that underpins these bots—also known as large language models, or LLMs—to classify decades of environmental data. Specifically, I’m asking: given historic and forecasted physical conditions in the ocean, which locations would get a positive review for their long-term ability to support coral and other reef-building organisms?
Continue reading “Speaking the language of coral: using machine learning to predict future distributions of reefs”
Emilie Ringe, Professor of Nanomaterials, has held a dual appointment between the Departments of Earth Sciences and Materials Science & Metallurgy since 2017. Emilie reflects on her research at the intersection of two disciplines with Erin Martin-Jones.
Continue reading “In Conversation with Emilie Ringe”
The Ediacaran biota pose a riddle that scientists have grappled with for decades. Found in three distinct biotic assemblages – the Avalon (575–560 million years ago; Ma), White Sea (560–550 Ma), and Nama (550–539 Ma) – these peculiar Ediacaran organisms may hold the key to unlocking the secrets of early animal evolution. Conventional studies tie diversity and ecological changes across these assemblages to biological radiation and extinction events. Can a closer look at the preserved paleo-environments that contain the fossils, using our sedimentology and stratigraphy toolkit, offer a fresh perspective?
Lisanne is in the first year of her PhD on sea level extremes, working with Cambridge Earth Science’s Dr Ali Mashayek and Dr. Andrea Marinoni (UiT the Arctic University of Norway). Lisanne’s project is hosted by the AI4ER (Application of Artificial Intelligence to the study of Environmental Risks) Centre for Doctoral Training programme. Lisanne talks to Erin about her research below.
Continue reading “Meet the PhD student using AI to improve forecasts of sea level extremes”
Walk into the Sedgwick Museum and you are instantly immersed in a realm of fossil beasties: from the iconic Iguanodon from which the Museum derives its logo to the recently-discovered giant millipede, Arthropleura.
The Museum is perhaps less well known for its rock and mineral collections, which are of international scientific value and also serve as a key resource for teaching and research in the Department of Earth Sciences and elsewhere.
Continue reading “Behind the scenes of the Sedgwick Museum’s Petrology Collection, with Robert Seidel”
Dorothea is a fourth-year PhD student and polar ice core scientist based jointly between Cambridge’s Department of Earth Science and the British Antarctic Survey, where she investigates the characteristics of melt layers in ice cores and their potential for paleoclimate reconstruction. In Autumn 2023, Dorothea spent three months on an internship with the Government Office for Science. In this blog post, she talks about her experience.
Continue reading “Stepping from Science into Policy – Dorothea Moser on interning with the Government Office for Science”
Nick Reynard is a postdoc in the Centre for Climate Repair in Cambridge, working with Ali Mashayek’s research group at the Department of Earth Sciences. Here, Nick recounts his experience of boarding a five-week scientific cruise in search of the deep Antarctic waters that rise in the Madagascar Basin.
Continue reading “The deep ocean is closer than you think: scientific research and life at sea”
