Category Archives: History

December 20: Light Up Day

Posted on December 20, 2016 by

What are the odds that three important electricity developments should all occur on December 20th? Probably, statistically, rather good. So I’ll not make much of the coincidence. Impending winter darkness was not a likely motivator – in the case of … Continue reading →

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Naming Schools after Nobel Laureates

Posted on December 9, 2016 by

The Washington Post recently ran a story about the late Abdus Salam, a physicist who won the Nobel Prize almost 40 years ago. The piece concerns the politics of naming a building at a Pakistani university in honour of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Culture, History, People, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Going on Four (Billion)

Posted on September 4, 2016 by

A paper published last week in Nature, claims that life began at 3.7 (billion years ago). This is the latest in a rather faltering progression of our best guesses of the date life started on Earth. Biblical literalists are still … Continue reading →

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Into Big Valley

Posted on August 10, 2016 by

A few days ago, I lamented that the lovely town of Big Valley is blessed with a Creation Science Museum. The museum is a single-room curio shop with a fossilized Teddy Bear and not much more. It’s a disappointing destination … Continue reading →

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Mantle Plumes May Be Real (or maybe not)

Posted on May 24, 2016 by

Geophysicist Tuzo Wilson had a creepy daydream. He imagined himself lying at the bottom of a creek, looking up at water flowing overhead. He blew bubbles. They rose, were caught by the current, and drifted away. He came back from … Continue reading →

Posted in History, How Geophysics Works, Non-drift Theories, People, Plate Tectonics | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cuba, America, and Oil

Posted on March 21, 2016 by

With America’s president visiting Cuba this week, I thought it might be helpful to re-post my story “Has Cuba Got Oil?” which I wrote in 2014.  It’s still valid. Cuba still has oil. But I argued that I doubt oil … Continue reading →

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Broken Crystals

Posted on February 28, 2016 by

Every now and then, I write a short post on a long-dead geologist whom I had never heard of before, but have discovered that it’s their birthday anniversary. I do this because it forces me to learn something about someone … Continue reading →

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100 Years of Drift: Part 4

Posted on February 6, 2016 by

Today, we continue with Alfred Wegener and his continental drift theory. Today’s piece will not be pretty. At times, suppression of Wegener’s idea was ugly. There are a lot of reasons for the vilification. He was an outsider, a meteorologist … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Culture, Geology, History, People | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

100 Years of Drift: Part 3

Posted on February 5, 2016 by

In today’s blog post, we continue our story of the development of the theory of continental drift – an idea which just celebrated its 100th birthday. Before Alfred Wegener’s 1915 book on contintents in motion, a few others had the … Continue reading →

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100 Years of Drift: Part 2

Posted on February 4, 2016 by

It’s been 100 years since Alfred Wegener proposed his idea of continental drift. Today’s blog continues the story we began yesterday – the tale of Wegener’s life and the development of his grand idea of mobile continents. This time, we’ll … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Geology, History | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments