I’ve been reading up on the story about cometary material found in Libya (odd pebble is cometary material fallen to earth). My plan to write about it myself has run into the desert sands – I have nothing new to add. However reading the source paper has taken me off on a tangent, inspired by the… Continue reading Quintessence: echoes across science
What’s in a (geological) name?
The Earth Sciences are often about bringing order to the wonderful overflowing complexity of the natural world. The geological way of doing this is often to classify. A hill-side of rocks, often a bewildering mess to an amateur (or first year student) can with experience be tamed. It can be mapped as a series of… Continue reading What’s in a (geological) name?
The Great Ordovician meteor shower
Between Mars and Jupiter, 470 million years ago, there was a massive collision between two 100km-sized chunks of rock – this solar system’s biggest bang of the last billion years. It created a massive cloud of smaller fragments. Some of these landed on the earth, falling at a rate at least a hundred times greater… Continue reading The Great Ordovician meteor shower
Power and postboxes in Sonning-on-Thames
I live in the Thames Valley, an attractive area of England found to the west of London. It is generally an affluent place, but it contains little spots, clustered near the river, where you can almost smell the vast amounts of money and power. The Fat Duck (the “world’s best restaurant”) is in the little village of… Continue reading Power and postboxes in Sonning-on-Thames