Geobulletin alpha

Links: Earthquake Detectives, Origin Of Life, India Water Act 

Reading from the past few weeks- 1) How earthquake scientists solved the mystery of the last “Big One” in the Pacific Northwest. The American northwest is a tectonically active region. About 150 km west of the Pacific coast is the Cascadia subduction zone. Here, the Juan de Fuca, Explorer, and Gorda tectonic plates slide underneath the continental plate of North America. Large

Readings: Measuring Sea Levels, Human Evolution, Elements 

 Some interesting articles from the past few weeks:1) What is global mean sea level? What is relative sea level? Is sea level rising or falling along the India coastline? Science writer Shreya Dasgupta explains how scientists measure sea level change with special reference to the Indian coast.The Surprisingly Difficult Task of Measuring Sea-Level Rise Around India2) A long thought human

Buttercream: The Icing On Our Delicious Cake Experiment! 

  So.  Buttercream. I make one heck of a delicious buttercream frosting. Only problem is that it isn’t technically buttercream because I don’t use eggs. If you are a real baker, you might recognize my frosting as a delicious abomination called “American Buttercream”.  If you’re good, I’ll give you the recipe at the end of

Revealing The Science Behind Baking With A Geode Cake Experiment! 

  I like to bake. I really, really like to bake.  But I don’t have a problem. I can stop whenever I want…..   I have no formal training other than my mom was a Home Ec. Teacher and I have access to the internet.  I do, however, come from a long line of people

Gin and Tonic and Malaria and Fluoresence 

   At the age of 17, George Washington was diagnosed with malaria. The disease, then referred to as the “ague”, came and went over the years. Although it was known at the time that quinine was a successful treatment, … Continue reading

‘Shaken, not stirred’ is more bond than you think! 

Since HMNS is one of the featured charities at Okra Charity Saloon in September (read about it here), we’re doing a series of blog posts about cocktail chemistry this month. Get to know your drinks on a more molecular level. … Continue reading

Educator How-To: Cross-curricular Education Gets Cheesy 

As educators, we all want students to understand the world holistically, but we still tend to teach each subject independent from all other subjects. Food is an effective way to capture the attention of students and provide a useful tool … Continue reading

Processing samples 

We have had a busy few days working in the lab to process the samples we collected at Biscoe Point. First, we spent a day at Palmer Station. We were supposed to only be there overnight to drop off passengers and cargo, but the wind picked up. We can’t use the cranes to offload cargo when it’s windy, so we had to wait overnight until the wind died down. That gave us the time to use the lab facilities at Palmer, which has more equipment than the LMG. It also meant we could visit with the [...]

51: More than just a number. 

by Kaylee Gund What’s in a number? They’re symbols we use to quantify the world around us, the basis for astrophysics and time measurement, and among the first things we learn in language. 5: right angle meets curve. 1: straight … Continue reading

Born This Day: Williard Libby, Father of Carbon 14 Dating 

Dec 17, 1908 – Sept. 8, 1980 Libby was an American chemist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1960 for developing the technique of carbon-14 dating. Duing WWII he worked on the Manhattan Project. Libby was responsible for the gaseous diffusion separation and enrichment of the Uranium-235 which was used in the atomic bomb. On 18 May 1952, he determined that the age of Stonehenge was

Holiday How-to: Chocolate Leaves 

My mom was a chemistry and home-ec teacher, so I grew up in a home where ingredients were carefully measured and food items were attractively arranged. While I got to help out in the kitchen as much as I wanted, … Continue reading

The Great Valley Museum at Modesto Junior College is Seeking a Director 

The Science Community Center at Modesto Junior College is a monument to the importance of science education, with state-of-the-art labs and classrooms for biology, astronomy, chemistry, physics, and the earth sciences, as well as a fully equipped observatory, and the most technically advanced planetarium projector in the United States (seriously, it's the newest generation, and we were

With Soil, Make Me Wine: The Dirt on Growing Great Grapes 

I like wine. And I make my own. Not huge batches, mind you. Just about 30 bottles per month in the winter months. I learned the hard way the chemistry of wine. If you let the wine get too hot … Continue reading

Diesel and Urea - the chemistry behind the recent controversy involving diesel powered cars 

DNA Spell Checker (2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) - Periodic Table of Videos 

Iron oxide sweat stains in sandstone 

What do a sweaty baseball cap and fractured sandstone have in common? Episodes of absorption of dirty liquids that pile up material such as iron oxide at the soaking

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Hosts New MPA Students 

On Monday, June 22, the newest Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science & Policy (MPA-ESP) candidates spent a beautiful, sunny day touring Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, just a short bus ride away in Palisades, NY. Led by Environmental Chemistry professor Benjamin Bostick and Climatology professor Jason Smerdon, the students were exposed to many different areas of groundbreaking research that the world-class facility has to

Ice cream science: Make a cool treat to beat the summer heat 

It’s getting to that time of year when it’s so hot and yucky outside that everything cold is better. It’s also a time for telling kids about how, when you were their age, if you wanted ice cream you had … Continue reading

We can’t ignore the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: World Ocean Day aims to raise concern for plastic pollution 

I once heard there is an island of plastic the size of Texas floating in the North Pacific. Turns out this is just a myth. The truth is much, much worse. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not an island. … Continue reading

May 15, 2015 

Natural Gas Imports & Exports 2014Energy Information Administration USGS: The Chemistry of Marcellus Shale Produced WatersUnited States Geological Survey Nepal Landslide ConcernsBBC Drillers Answer Low Oil Prices With Cost-Saving InnovationsThe New York Times Video: Eight Days of Cave Diver Training in 44 MinutesCavingNews.com Small Eruptions at Telica Volcano, NicaraguaStuff.co.nz Nepal’s Earthquakes and China’s Dam-Building BingeQuartz