Author Archives: paleololigo

Scientist (Paleontology, Geochemistry, Geology); Writer (Speculative and Science Fiction, plus technical and non-technical Science); Mom to great boy on the Autism spectrum; possessor of too many hobbies.

Running TNT for Phylogenetic Analysis (on a Mac)

This blog post is meant to be informational. You can stop reading now if you don’t know what a cladistic analysis is and don’t care to ever know how to do one.

If you’re still reading, this post is written to provide what I’ve learned about getting TNT, a free phylogenetic analysis program, to work properly on a Mac. Bear in mind that I do not currently own a Mac. What I’m sharing with you is what we figured out as a class when I had my students use this program as part of a cladistics exercise.Continue reading “Running TNT for Phylogenetic Analysis (on a Mac)”

This Old Barn

Friday was a lovely day, and I caught myself surveying the property as I always do on the first reasonably warm and dry day of spring. Our house is old, built in 1835, and was once the primary farm house for a very large property. The property has since been divided, and we now own about two acres that includes the house, two out buildings and an old barn foundation.Continue reading “This Old Barn”

Random Science Poems Written on the Spot

Tonight, I was at a loss for what to blog about. The prompts I have available are not as inspiring as usual. So I asked the hive mind for suggestions:

Continue reading “Random Science Poems Written on the Spot”

What Can A Clam Teach Us About Climate Change?

One of the many projects I work on involves the study of climate change in the fossil record. I’ve put a bit of it on-line here. What I’ve published thus far deals mostly with interpreting general climatic and environmental factors using bulk geochemistry (all isotopes) from rocks and the fossil contained therein. That is to say, I take a big rock or fossil and grind it (or part of it) down into a single sample. I analyze that and call that a ‘average’ for that entire rock layer.

It turns out that clams (and mollusks in general) do a good job of recording environmental signals not just in bulk, but on a fine scale, such that we can see yearly, monthly, even daily records of weather.Continue reading “What Can A Clam Teach Us About Climate Change?”

Scene: An accident – Clint meets Enna

Clint huddled against the stiff wind. The twig and branch blind provided some shelter against the blowing snow, but the wind cut through readily and it was getting colder. His feet were wet. He was starting to shiver. The burrow would provide a warm reprieve from the bone-chilling weather. Yet he continued to stare down at the roadway below.Continue reading “Scene: An accident – Clint meets Enna”