The city of Florence is intimately tied to the Renaissance, when innovations in thinking and art drove Europe out of the dark ages intellectually, artistically and culturally. At the heart of this revolution, especially for art, was the Medici family. The patronage of this banking family helped develop art as we know it in modern […]
After four days of Goldschmidt 2013 my brain had reached geochemistry saturation state, so I figured it was time for some tourism. Earlier this week I had only ventured into the city in the early morning, and I only now realised how peacefully quiet it had been. Florence is a virtual ants nest of tourists […]
This Goldschmidt has been kinda crazy for me. It has been great, but almost too much. The multiple parallel sessions, the excellent science presented across the board, the opportunities to discover new things as well as discuss the latest results in the familiar. At some points I have felt delocalised across the isolated lecture rooms, […]
For many of us being an early bird becomes progressively more difficult as conference fatigue takes its toll. I was glad to see a sizeable crowd managed to be there for the start of our session on the role of biominerals in biogeochemical cycling, which happened to be about birds and worms, and some other […]
Day 2 of Goldschmidt 2013 is done and what a great day it was. Hectic, but conferences always are. There is just so much to see and do, so many people to talk to and so many people to meet for the first time that it can be a bit overwhelming. The best thing to […]
After 2 days of talks I have just about got into conference mode. What does that mean? Well, before now I have found it very difficult to ‘switch on’ and pay attention within the first 15 seconds of each presentation. This also means that I haven’t taken many of the talk concepts away with me […]
There is no lack of science occurring during official sessions this week at the Fortezza da Bosso, but much of what we get from being at a conference is the opportunity to connect informally to other scientists during lunch, a glass of wine at the poster session, or dinner. As one scientist put it to […]
Triple oxygen isotope compositions of dinosaur egg shells can be used to reconstruct past atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Four different geochemical societies were incapable of finding a single woman to award any of their ten prestigious medals to. Copper and iron isotopes vary with AB0 blood types. Copper isotope values in blood are a more […]
Wow! I have finally arrived at Goldschmidt 2013 and it is so, so great to be here! Day 1 was already a whirlwind. Unfortunately, I missed the icebreaker last night and arrived a bit late this morning due to scheduling conflicts so I missed a few talks, but I am here now and ready to […]
I like it when people show how a proxy works, or how it doesn’t. Today at Goldschmidt I enjoyed several presentations doing exactly that. The day started with Johanna Noireaux showing that boron isotopes can only function as a pH proxy in aragonite, and not in calcite. Anders Meibom presented work by Nehrke et al. […]
