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23rd February 202223rd February 2022

The Sedgwick: Museum on a mission – Part IV

PART IV of our blog series explores how the Sedgwick Museum is challenging perceptions and changing experiences, continuing with a peak into the archives.

Sandra Freshney’s work aims to bring the archive closer to the public and challenge assumptions about what geology and geologists traditionally look like. Her work includes allowing quieter voices in the department’s history to be heard. Here she gives us a greater look into the work she is doing.

11th February 202217th February 2022

Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2022

Today is International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February), a celebration of women and girls in science led by UNESCO and UN-Women.

In this blog post, we bring together stories from women researchers across our Department to highlight the variety of roles within Earth Sciences.

To mark this day, we asked our researchers what pieces of equipment or items they rely on for their everyday research – whether they spend most of their time collecting data in the lab, field or via computer models.

25th January 202231st January 2022

WACSWAIN: Time and ice

My last blog about the WACSWAIN project was in February 2020. We had just started the chemical analysis of our 651-metre-long ice core from Skytrain Ice Rise (Antarctica). The theme of this article is time – the first aspect being that a lot of time has since passed. Soon after I wrote last, our labwork was completely shut down by the pandemic, some of the team went back to their families in other countries, and we all learnt what Zoom meetings were.

24th November 202129th November 2021

Updates from Nick Tosca and the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission

Nick Tosca, Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology, is a member of the core science team for the Mars Perseverance 2020 mission. In this blog post Erin finds out how Nick has adapted to life as a researcher with NASA and gets the inside scoop on the first tantalising results.

27th October 20218th November 2021

Corals on climate, and why they are even cooler than you already think

There is a lot to be said about corals: their diverse beauty, their importance for marine ecosystems and, of course, their plight against climate change and warming oceans. And yet this only begins to scratch the surface of these complex, mesmerizing and somewhat alien animals.

26th August 202127th August 2021

Emma Perry zooms in on the hidden depths of nuclear waste breakdown

Nuclear energy is a low-cost and reliable source of energy with a very low carbon footprint, and for these reasons is likely to be a key player in the green energy transition. But, in order to include nuclear energy in our investment plans, we need to ensure the small amount of nuclear fuel waste generated can be stored safely. I am halfway through my PhD project, which is looking at how nuclear waste, stored in geological disposal facilities hundreds of metres below the surface, dissolves when groundwater seeps in through multiple barriers of protection.

22nd April 202123rd April 2021

Meet the PhD student using tree leaves to mitigate air pollution

Image of smoggy skies in Lahore, above a busy road

Hassan Aftab Sheikh is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Earth Sciences, researching air pollution mitigation. Erin caught up with Hassan and heard more about his interest in climate science in the following blog post.

24th March 202124th March 2021

Masters student gets detailed snapshot of earthquake tremors in Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland

Just hours after Dan Roberts, Masters student at Cambridge Earth Sciences, handed in his dissertation on the seismicity of Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland, the volcano in his study area erupted… Here Dan reflects on how his work, which employs Cambridge-developed earthquake mapping software, is helping inform our understanding of seismic and volcanic hazards in Iceland.