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”
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”
This summer a team led by Dr Oscar Branson, including myself and fellow PhD students Winnie Fang and Alice Ball, headed to Taiwan for five weeks. We were on a mission to catch and culture open ocean plankton (specifically foraminifera) and our aim was to understand how they build their shells.
Continue reading “A Foray into Foraminifera”
This joint project between the Department of Earth Sciences and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) aims to constrain estimates of if, how and when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) retreated during the Last Interglacial (LIG), 130 to 115 thousand years ago.
Evidence suggests that sea level during the LIG peaked at between 6 and 9 metres higher than present, a range which necessitates at least some contribution from Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat, the WAIS being the most likely candidate. Antarctic temperatures during this time period were in line with projections for the year 2100. These figures warn of the potential for significant future sea level rise resulting from anthropogenic climate change.
Continue reading “An update on WACSWAIN: WArm Climate Stability of the West Antarctic during the last INterglacial”
Palaeontology isn’t all about adventuring into the desert to dig up rocks. Sometimes, the palaeontologists of the past managed to find so many fossil bones, they didn’t know what to do with them. These bones can lie forgotten in museum collection drawers for decades, until a PhD student comes along to study them.
Fortunately for me, some of the most commonly overlooked fossils are fragmentary, isolated bones belonging to tiny animals. As a palaeontologist who works on passerine birds, which are generally tiny (think robins and blue tits), I was very excited to go on my first museum trip to look at bird fossils. In December 2022, I visited several museums in southern Germany to poke through all the drawers that might contain some mystery bird bones.
Continue reading “Forgotten fossils: how museum collections can be a treasure trove”
Alasdair Knight, a second year PhD student in the Department of Earth Sciences, reports back from the 2022 Goldschmidt conference in the blog post below.
Alasdair can normally be found researching the chemical reactions that occur between greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere and the rocks at Earth’s surface. These reactions are thought to have been important for keeping Earth within the correct temperature range for life to exist.
