Author: admin

THE SILENT LANDSCAPE in TV Development

22 April 2019 Delighted to announce that THE SILENT LANDSCAPE is now in development with a British-based TV production company. More information when I have it.

THE SILENT LANDSCAPE is the story of the world’s first long-term marine expedition to study life in and under the sea. It was gone for four years (1872-1876) and when it returned had founded the science of oceanography.

To buy the book click here.

Fiddling With Storm Glasses

Credit Wikipedia

15 April 2019 Am making a couple of Admiral Fitzroy storm glasses as I have on and off over the years. The recipe I am using is the so-called Perth Recipe as chronicled by Barry Holliday’s most excellent website. Interested to see the results!

Barry’s page led me to this hilarious blog by science guru Derek Lowe. It can be found here.

NB Storm glasses are easily purchased from many, many sites over the web (e.g. amazon). Probably best to go this route rather build one yourself unless you have had chemical training.

A Glimpse Into The Eocene – 55 Million Years Ago

Credit phys.org

12 April 2019. There is no doubt that that the images recently taken of the Messier Black Hole are amazing. But how many people realise that they are looking at a time when the Earth was undergoing a profound biotic crisis?

The Messier Black Hole is 55 million light years away, so what we are looking at is the Black Hole 55 million years ago. To a

Credit Dr J. Smith

palaeontologist 55 Million years ago is the end of the Palaeocene period of Earth history and the start of the Eocene, a time when the Earth warmed by up to ten degrees C. This is known in the literature as the Late Palaeocene Thermal Maximum, a subject on which I and many colleagues around the world have written trying to gauge the simalarities with our own global warming future.

As you can seen from the map above during the LPTM the northern hemisphere was virtually ice-free. A very different world to the one we know today.

 

Judgement Day in North Dakota – Really?

9 April 2019. Just been reading about this fossil death assemblage from the last day of the Cretaceous (the day the non-avian dinosaurs died out!) supposedly found in North Dakota.

Hmmm. A geological locality that has restricted access, a New Yorker editorial by the noted science fiction author Douglas Preston, a name – Tanis – where Indiana Jones found the Ark of the Covenant, and a publication date of April 1st.

Right.

PS Just looked at Nature this morning. Glad to see they share my reservations.