County fairs are opportunities to bring in those handsome Holsteins competing for Best Bessie, to sample foods that don’t normally belong on sticks and definitely shouldn’t be deep-fried, and to enjoy carnival rides and games with unfavorable odds. They’re also opportunities to get the attention of a lot of people. Just ask the exhibitors who rent space to hawk their wares — everything from kitchen knives to leaf-free gutters. And in some locations, those exhibitors include creationists asking, “Why do thousands of scientists believe Darwin was wrong?”
Press Release By Date
Go online today to view a new webcast detailing three new contests that are being conducted as part of Earth Science Week, the annual worldwide celebration of the geosciences! Find the “Contests of Earth Science Week 2014” webcast online now for viewing at your convenience.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - 09:47
“Hello World.” Upon hearing that brief message, scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) and followers around the world sent up a collective cheer. Rosetta — the ESA spacecraft currently on a 10-year mission to orbit and land on a comet — awoke in January after a three-year hibernation, and was ready to get to work.
Friday, June 27, 2014 - 11:23
The Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) announces an unusual paper in their journal PALAIOS that combines ‘forensic’ paleontology and archeology to identify origins of the millstones commonly used in the 1800’s. While all millstones were used similarly, millstones quarried in France were more highly valued than similar stones quarried in Ohio, USA.
Monday, June 23, 2014 - 15:06
Earth Science Week 2014 will be celebrated October 12-18. To learn more, please visit http://www.earthsciweek.org/. To order your Toolkits, please visit http://www.earthsciweek.org/materials/index.html. You may also call AGI Publications to place your order at 703-379-2480.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 - 11:18
Last November, fossils were put on the block at Bonhams auction house in New York City — but they did not sell. Had the set fetched the nearly $9 million it was expected to, it would have set a record for a fossil sale. For now, the Dueling Dinosaurs remain locked in an unidentified warehouse somewhere in the United States — along with any scientific information the unique specimens may reveal.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 - 15:12
In celebration of Earth Science Week 2014, the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is sponsoring three national contests honoring this year’s theme, “Earth’s Connected Systems.” This year’s competitions will feature a photography contest, a visual arts contest, and an essay contest.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - 15:57
The existence of seafloor sediments containing valuable minerals and metals has been known since the late 19th century, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that the earliest attempts to recover mineral wealth from the deep sea were made. Technical challenges, as well as discoveries in the 1970s of more economical and previously unknown terrestrial mineral deposits, shelved the idea until the 1990s. Today, the surging demand for rare minerals, driven largely by their use in modern electronics, along with technological advancements and the discovery of mineral-rich seafloor massive sulfides, has now made the high cost of extraction worthwhile.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - 14:12
When author John-Manuel Andriote returned to his hometown in New England after years away, he noticed something that had been invisible to him while growing up there — the old stone walls tumbling off into the forests. The realization that the crumbling and overgrown walls meant those forests had once been cleared farm lands set Andriote on a years-long journey of discovery that highlights the intersections of geologic and human history.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - 14:07
The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) gladly welcomes Edward Robeck as its new Director of Education and Outreach.
Thursday, May 15, 2014 - 05:54
In the American Geosciences Institute’s newest Status of the Geoscience Workforce Report, released May 2014, jobs requiring training in the geosciences continue to be lucrative and in-demand. Even with increased enrollment and graduation from geoscience programs, the data still project a shortage of around 135,000 geoscientists by the end of the decade.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - 12:04
This publication is volume 11 of the Society’s Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology Series. The book, authored by by Arthur J. Boucot, Chen Xu, and Christopher R. Scotese, is now available in print or digital (CD) formats at the Society’s Bookstore. Review copies can be requested from Howard Harper (hharper@sepm.org).
Thursday, May 8, 2014 - 13:36
Since hydraulic fracturing operations began in the Marcellus Shale region, debate has raged over whether drilling operations are causing high levels of methane in drinking-water wells. But few systematic scientific studies have been published to date, so it’s unknown if high methane levels are natural or the result of contamination from nearby gas wells. Now, a new study is adding some much-needed baseline data for methane levels in groundwater in New York. The results suggest that at least in some cases methane occurs at naturally high levels in groundwater.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014 - 13:36
Each year the Society recognizes excellence in several areas of sedimentary geology with the awarding of honors to scientists selected by special committees made up of specialists in that topic. The awards are presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society, which will be in Denver, Colorado, May 31-June 3, 2015.
Thursday, May 1, 2014 - 15:07
Prior to the quake, geoscientists had placed GPS markers in and around the San Francisco area. Immediately after the quake, researchers converged on the area to collect and compare the pre- and post-quake GPS data, which revealed the direction and speed of surface movements, allowing scientists to infer the pattern of slip on the fault plane that had ruptured far underground.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014 - 14:57
The American Geosciences Institute would like to congratulate Princeton Ph.D. candidate, Joseph Majkut, on his recent selection as the 2014-2015 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow. He will spend a year in Washington, DC, working as a staff member in the office of a member of Congress or with a congressional committee.
Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 14:21
On a muggy day in mid-July 2009, a lone seven-story condominium complex northwest of Kobe, Japan, was violently shaken by an earthquake. Onlookers watched the 23-unit, wood-frame tower sway and bounce while, inside the building, furniture toppled and plates clattered to the floor. No one was hurt during the highly localized event and there was only minimal damage, in part because the building’s wooden skeleton had been augmented to better resist earthquake shaking, but also because the whole event — from the seismicity to the partially furnished building — was just a test.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - 11:28
The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) proudly announces that it has begun to use the domain name americangeosciences.org to better reflect both its heritage and changes in the science in recent decades.
Thursday, April 3, 2014 - 14:45
Answering a community-wide call from geoscience societies and employers, an American Geoscience Institute inter-society ad hoc committee examined the issue of academic geosciences program accreditation. The committee has concluded its two years of study, and released a report that details three observations regarding the classification of college and university geoscience programs.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014 - 14:36
Turtles are the last major living vertebrate group to be placed firmly on the tree of life, and the arguments are getting messy.
Monday, March 31, 2014 - 14:50