I just have to face the fact that I’m a scibling redshirt

Posted on July 16, 2007 by Chris Rowan

Just like Sam Rockwell’s character in Galaxy Quest, I fear that my role in Scienceblogs:The Movie will probably involve being vaporised within the first five minutes, probably as an anonymous victim of cross-fire in the opening flame-war (Religion? Framing? Maybe religion and framing…). An internet poll once told me so. So, even if I looked like anyone famous, I doubt they’d want to play me.
Feel free to add your casting suggestions (sarcastic or otherwise) here, there or over there.

Categories: bloggery

In defence of the scientific paper

Posted on July 14, 2007 by Chris Rowan

Janet brings us some rather vitriolic criticism by Sir Peter Medewar:

The scientific paper in its orthodox form does embody a totally mistaken conception, even a travesty, of the nature of scientific thought.

The argument seems to be that the usual structure of a scientific paper reinforces the notion of science as a purely inductive process: we start with an empty mind, collect the data, and then proceed to deduce theories and models which explain them. This, people like Medewar argue, plays down the importance of generating ideas as a first step to doing science, by pretending that we use data to generate hypotheses, rather than also using hypotheses to design our experiments (and decide what the hell we’re going to research anyway). These are deep philosophical waters for an innocent geologist to swim in, but it seems to me that this criticism, whilst valid in a sense, misses an important point: we don’t write scientific papers for historians and philosophers of science. We write them for other scientists.

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Categories: academic life, public science, publication

Where the Moon was at, 3.2 billion years ago

Posted on July 13, 2007 by Chris Rowan

It may not look particularly cosmic, but the rock below not only tells us that the Moon was present back in the Archean, but also that it was orbiting the Earth at a much closer distance than it is today.

Moodiestidalite.jpg

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Categories: Archean, geology, paper reviews, past worlds

What is a greenstone belt?

Posted on July 12, 2007 by Chris Rowan

I’ve spent the last two weeks towing students around the Barberton Greenstone Belt.

Barbertongreenstone.jpg

The belt consists of a sequence of volcanic (Onverwacht Group) and sedimentary (Fig Tree and Moodies Groups) rocks which have been heated up to around 400 degrees Celsius at some point after they formed, prompting the growth of new metamorphic minerals such as chlorite (which provides the ‘green’ in ‘greenstone’), and which are folded in and around a number of large granite intrusions. The Barberton region is a place of great importance to Archean geology, because it is one of the very oldest greenstone belts we know of (the lowermost volcanic rocks are almost 3.5 billion years old), and is therefore one of the oldest pieces of contiguous crust on the planet. More importantly, the processes which formed and deformed greenstone belts seem to be intimately associated with the formation of the first cratons, or stable continental interiors.

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Categories: Archean, fieldwork, geology, past worlds

A recommendation from your friendly neighbourhood field trip instructor

Posted on July 11, 2007 by Chris Rowan

Dear geology students everywhere,
Should you be out on a field mapping exercise, and one of the teaching staff does any of the following:
(1) Sits pointedly on or near a particular outcrop as you wander past;
(2) Deliberately wanders off in a different direction to the one you’re taking;
(3) Spends several minutes closely examining a particular part of the outcrop you’re currently working on;
(4) Says, “aren’t you going to look at that outcrop up there?” or, “maybe you should check what’s over the over side of that ridge…”;
or (5) Jumps up and down and shouts, “Look at this!”;
it might be worth your while to take the (increasingly unsubtle) hint.
I’ve just had, an interesting, if tiring, couple of weeks in the Barberton region. Lots of things to talk about in the next few days. First, though, I need to reacquaint myself with proper coffee.

Categories: ranting