Tom Gill alerted us to this study, saying “I’ve been a geology nerd for fifty-plus years. I was today years old when I learned that a type of rocks exists which is officially named… rauks.” The study is: “Limestone Sea Stacks (Rauks) Record Past Sea Levels and Rocky Coast Evolution in the Baltic Sea (Gotland […]
The Bergamo Science Festival this year has a pre-festival which includes: “a competition created in collaboration with the Caffi Museum, dedicated to rocks and minerals and conducted on the BergamoScienza Instagram profile. Two rocks will be presented by a geologist each week. The aim is to reproduce the study that won the IgNobel prize for […]
What are the sounds that come from trees when those trees are hit by rocks thrown by chimpanzees? A new study addresses that question: “Chimpanzees use tree species with a resonant timbre for accumulative stone throwing,” Ammie K. Kalan, Eleonora Carmignani, Richard Kronland-Martinet, Sølvi Ystad, Jacques Chatron and Mitsuko Aramaki, Biology Letters, 18 December 2019, […]
“Many archaeobotanists say never pre-sieve the sediment sample, since they think sieving may break up the charred material. I think it can be equally bad to let large rocks and sherds bang around in the flotation tank.” —So writes Naomi F. Miller [pictured here] in “Recovering Macroremains by Manual Flotation and Sieving.”