The Geological Society of London | www.geolsoc.org.ukf |o Volumellow u22s Noon 5 twitter | June 2012 [www.twitter.com/geoscientistmag GeoscientistThe Fellowship magazine of ] IN THE NEWS Geology outstrips chemistry and physics SMITH MAP Takes a trip Tateside FOSSIL COLLECTORS How early humans first reached for the stars Not Just Software. RockWare. For Over 29 Years. 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The PGRCS conference showcases the business challenges addressed by $URHAM5NIVERSITY collaborative research projects, enables researchers to demonstrate societal and economic benefits from their research, and provides an early-stage forum for post-doctoral and postgraduate presentations. Chris A-L Jackson This “conference within a conference” format was successfully launched at PETEX 2010 and proved Imperial College London an excellent opportunity for industry and academia to meet, to get inspired and to develop future collaborative research links. There will be ample opportunity for graduates and potential future Nick Lagrilliere employers to connect. Maersk Oil Preference will be given to joint presentations by industrial sponsors and student/post-doc/academic researchers. This “buddy system” is intended to frame the industrial problem before technical results Douglas Paton are reported and/or to conclude by showing the applied, economic benefits of the research. We also 5NIVERSITYOF,EEDS welcome overview presentations from the principal investigators of major Joint Industry Projects (JIPs). Ben Sayers 35''%34%$4(%-%3).#,5$% Lynx s 0ETROLEUMSYSTEMS s 3TRATIGRAPHYANDSEDIMENTOLOGY s 2ESERVOIRGEOLOGYANDENGINEERING s 3TRUCTURALGEOLOGYANDBASINEVOLUTION s 'EOPHYSICALIMAGINGANDINTERPRETATION s 5NCONVENTIONALENERGYANDCARBONSEQUESTRATION s !NALOGUEANDNUMERICALMODELLING s .OVELTECHNIQUESANDAPPLICATIONS s %NVIRONMENTALIMPACTSOFPETROLEUMACTIVITIES s #ASEHISTORIESOFJOINTINDUSTRY ACADEMIARESEARCHANDKNOWLEDGETRANSFER Abstracts should be no more than 2 sides of A4 and can include a colour diagram. Prizes will be awarded for the best oral and poster presentations, which includes the recipients’ attendance at the Petroleum Group’s annual dinner at the Natural History Museum in 2012. For further information and registration, please contact: Steve Whalley, Event Co-ordinator: +44 (0)20 7432 0980 or email: [email protected] At the forefront of petroleum geoscience www.geolsoc.org.uk/petroleum ~ EDITOR’S COMMENT GEOSCIENTIST FOSSIL ECHINOIDS USED AS GRAVE GOODS. WHAT WAS THE MAGIC ALLURE OF THE FIVE-POINTED STAR? Front cover image ~ MENTE - NON MALLEO ou can’t tell me that it isn’t mostly about the gear; and for Earth scientists that traditionally meant the trusty hammer – our badge of office. Crossed hammers Geoscientist is the F 01727 893 895 Fellowship magazine of E enquiries@centuryone have long been our universal guild sign. the Geological Society publishing.ltd.uk IUGS indeed used to boast a hideous of London W www.centuryone publishing.ltd.uk logo featuring our beloved planet The Geological Society, apparentlyY impaled on a hammer; while the tag Mente Burlington House, Piccadilly, CHIEF EXECUTIVE London W1J 0BG Nick Simpson et malleo – ‘by thought and hammer’ - became T +44 (0)20 7434 9944 T 01727 893 894 enshrined in society and survey mottoes worldwide. F +44 (0)20 7439 8975 E nick@centuryone Well, if you want to use a hammer these days you’d E [email protected] publishing.ltd.uk (Not for Editorial) better watch out. ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE Way back in the late Miocene, when I was doing my Publishing House Jonathan Knight The Geological Society T 01727 739 193 PhD on Gotland, my colleague and I had special Publishing House, Unit 7, E jonathan@centuryone permission to use hammers on that hallowed ground; Brassmill Enterprise Centre, publishing.ltd.uk Brassmill Lane, Bath though this did not stop one importunate radio BA1 3JN ART EDITOR journalist from running news pieces about infidels T 01225 445046 Heena Gudka F 01225 442836 conducting illegal raids on the patrimony, and putting DESIGN & PRODUCTION the island on alert. Thirty years on, such refined Library Sarah Astington sensibilities (as they seemed to us then) have spread to T +44 (0)20 7432 0999 F +44 (0)20 7439 3470 PRINTED BY the most unlikely quarters. E [email protected] Century One Publishing Ltd. Recently, a Bristol University undergraduate set off EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Copyright an avalanche of bad publicity when spied by climbers Professor Tony Harris FGS The Geological Society of using a hammer to obtain a hand specimen of Hay Tor London is a Registered Charity, EDITOR number 210161. in Dartmoor, an SSSI. To quote an email sent by local Dr Ted Nield NUJ FGS ISSN (print) 0961-5628 climber George Coiley to the website rustypeg.co.uk: E [email protected] ISSN (online) 2045-1784 “we heard a rapping and turned round to witness one EDITORIAL BOARD The Geological Society of London of [the students] hacking at the top of Lowman with a Dr Sue Bowler FGS accepts no responsibility for the views pick (literally part of the actual tor!). ... Next followed a Mr Steve Branch FGS expressed in any article in this Dr Robin Cocks FGS publication. All views expressed, heated exchange .... The group informed me that it was Dr Joe McCall FGS except where explicitly stated acceptable because they were geologists and had to Prof. Peter Styles FGS otherwise, represent those of the author, and not The Geological take samples.” Oh dear oh dear – and thus we add Dr Jonathan Turner FGS Society of London. All rights reserved. Dr Jan Zalasiewicz FGS No paragraph of this publication may special pleading and arrogance to our sins. be reproduced, copied or transmitted Trustees of the Geological save with written permission. Users As a result of this unfortunate incident Bristol was Society of London registered with Copyright Clearance engulfed in angry e-mails from climbers, as well as one Dr J P B Lovell OBE Center: the Journal is registered with CCC, 27 Congress Street, Salem, MA from Natural England, asking them to account for (President);