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Cabinet of Curiosities #2: Apple pie for A.R. Wallace

You can still enter the naming contest and now this week cabinet of curiosities – links for a lazy afternoon… This Week Geohistory: November 9, 1934:  Birthday of a collection of organic molecules called Carl E.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


You can still enter the naming contest and now this week cabinet of curiosities - links for a lazy afternoon...

This Week Geohistory:

  • November 9, 1934: Birthday of a collection of organic molecules called Carl E. Sagan

  • November 8, 1895: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovers X-rays, not only useful to see bones, but also to identify the structure of crystals

  • November 7, 1492: The “thunderstone of Ensisheim” is the oldest documented (and preserved) European meteorite

  • November 6, 1910: Birthday of American zoologist, paleontologist, and geologist Everett C. Olson

  • November 5, 1955: Doc Brown invents the Flux-Capacitator, essential part of every DeLorean time machine


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On November 7, we celebrated naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace´s contributions to science, from biology to geology:

This Week Geonews:

This Week Geopapers:

This Week Geobooks:

My name is David Bressan and I'm a freelance geologist working mainly in the Austroalpine crystalline rocks and the South Alpine Palaeozoic and Mesozoic cover-sediments in the Eastern Alps. I graduated with a project on Rock Glaciers dynamics and hydrology, this phase left a special interest for quaternary deposits and modern glacial environments. During my research on glaciers, studying old maps, photography and reports on the former extent of these features, I became interested in history, especially the development of geomorphologic and geological concepts by naturalists and geologists. Living in one of the key area for the history of geology, I combine field trips with the historic research done in these regions, accompanied by historic maps and depictions. I discuss broadly also general geological concepts, especially in glaciology, seismology, volcanology, palaeontology and the relationship of society and geology.

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