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Author Archives: Chris Rowan
Why does a compass point north? A mystery at the heart of the story of science (book review)
Strange as it might seem, I’m finding North Pole, South Pole, paleomagnetist Gillian Turner’s newly published account of “the epic quest to solve the great mystery of Earth’s magnetism”, a difficult book to review. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy … Continue reading
Stuff we linked to on Twitter last week
Announcements Anne’s wonderful post, ‘Levees and the illusion of flood control‘, has been nominated for the 2011 3 Quarks Daily Prize in Science. There is currently a round of public voting, with the 20 most popular of the 79 entries … Continue reading
If you’re waiting for an earthquake warning, you’re doing it wrong
The magnitude 6.3 earthquake that stuck central Italy near the city of L’Aquila in April 2009 killed more than 300 people, made tens of thousands more homeless, and caused billions of Euros’ worth of damage. No-one could have predicted exactly … Continue reading
New at Erratics: Chalk is weird
The theme for the upcoming Accretionary Wedge is ‘weird geology’. In his contribution, Simon Wellings takes a look at what might superficially appear to be an unlikely subject: the chalk that forms the rolling hills of southern England: No texture, … Continue reading
Earthquake ‘precursors’ and the curse of the false positive
Whenever you read a story that describes some phenomenon that preceded a large earthquake, and dangles the carrot of true earthquake prediction, don’t just look at the headline event. Check for false positives. Continue reading