Author Archives: Chris Rowan

A primer on the origin of the Earth

I heartily second Lab Lemmings recommendation of the Skepchick’s series on ‘The Origin of the Earth’, an opus in five parts: I: Introduction, the Scientific Toolbox, and Cosmic Starstuff II: Crustal Chemistry, the Solar Nebula, and the Solar System III: … Continue reading

Categories: basics, links, planets

Lusi flows on

The latest from Lusi It’s been a couple of months since I’ve posted about Lusi, the Indonesian mud volcano, mainly because I hadn’t found anything significant to report. Sadly, in this case, it seems that no news was bad news, … Continue reading

Categories: geohazards, Lusi

Tony Blair liked science, but he didn’t understand it

Why an interview with Tony Blair about science was so very disappointing
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Categories: public science, ranting

Bumpy ice: proof of a Martian water cycle?

Some interesting data from Mars Odyssey about the distribution of sub-surface ice on Mars were published in Nature last week by Joshua Bandfield at Arizona State University (see also here and here). Mars Odyssey had already detected the presence of … Continue reading

Categories: geophysics, paper reviews, planets

To PhD and beyond!

A view from the bottom of the academic food chain.
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Categories: academic life