“Is there any tea on this spaceship?” Arthur Dent, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I’m sitting here with a steaming cup of inspiration at my side. An Englishman drinking tea from a porcelain cup stirred by a spoon: what could be more ordinary than that? But dig carefully into what led to this scene and you… Continue reading All the tea in China
Wooden layers through time
As I chopped my first tree down it was wonderful to realise that – of course – counting the rings would tell me how old it was. Traversing through the layers of wood and so through time is one of the ways in which trees stimulate the imagination. As with wood, so with woodland. Layers of life… Continue reading Wooden layers through time
North American Arctic – icy beauty
Look at this. As an abstract pattern, it looks like something Gustav Klimt might paint. View Larger Map But drill down into it in more detail and it changes into an uncomfortably close view of a reptiles skin. View Larger Map All images in this post come from the North American Arctic – a place… Continue reading North American Arctic – icy beauty
Beyond plate tectonics
Plate tectonics is the core unifying concept that has underpinned our understanding of the solid earth for over 50 years. To describe your research as moving “beyond plate tectonics” is quite a claim, but Trond Torsvik and the group he leads have some remarkable science to back it up. By tracking the movement of the earth’s plates… Continue reading Beyond plate tectonics