Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist
Combining Science and Joyful Creativity
#365papers for March 16, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper discusses in detail how isotopes of carbon and oxygen in carbonate minerals that form in soils are related to that of plant biomass (carbon) or local precipitation (oxygen).Continue reading “How Soil Carbonate Can Tell Us About Climate – #365papers – 2017 – 75”
#365papers for March 15, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper is a synthesis of over 100 years worth of research in the Uinta Basin, making a huge effort to sort out how the rocks and fossils correlate and to get everything in the correct chronologic order. Continue reading “Rocks and Fossils in the Uinta Basin, Getting it in Order – #365papers – 2017 – 74”
#365papers for March 14, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper discusses a spectroscopy method to explore what makes the flavors and aromas of different hop varieties distinct. They focus on the three most common components of hop essential oils: humulene, caryophyllene, and myrcene.Continue reading “The Relative Amounts of Essential Oils in Hops Gives Them Unique Flavor and Aroma – #365papers – 2017 – 73”
#365papers for March 13, 2017
What’s it about?
Modern forests of North America and Asia are remarkably similar in the species of trees present, but there is no obvious connection between the two. This paper discusses the lead hypotheses to explain the similaritiesContinue reading “Appearance and Spread of Modern Forests in Asia and North America – #365papers – 2017 – 72”
#365papers for March 12, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper takes a liquid chromatographic approach to determining where compounds important to the success of beer come from. Polyphenols (including flavanoids) can contribute to haze, coloration, and taste in beer. The authors describe methods to extract the polyphenols and analyze them.
This is just a methods paper, so they really don’t draw conclusions from the analyses that they did. Should such a paper be published today, there would have to be an important research question associated with it. Science has changed in the last 30 years…Continue reading “Conservation in Beer: Barley, Hops, and Finished Beer – #365papers – 2017 – 71”
#365papers for March 11, 2017
What’s it about?
The authors use gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GCMS) to determine what makes the aromatic nature of different varieties of hops so distinct. They use the similarities and differences to show which hop varieties are more closely related to each other.Continue reading “What Makes Aroma Hops So Fragrant? – #365papers – 2017 – 70”
#365papers for March 10, 2017
What’s it about?
The authors use isotopes of carbon, oxygen, and strontium, plus relative abundances of strontium and calcium in lake deposits to interpret water sources, connectivity of lakes, and general environmental parameters for the Uinta Basin during the Eocene (~55-~43 million years ago).Continue reading “Lakes Come and Go, 50 Million Years Ago – #365papers – 2017 – 69”
#365papers for March 9, 2017
What’s it about?
Autism is often accompanied with sensory hyper- or hyposensitivity. Synaesthesia (the perception of one type of sensory input from a different type of stimulus, like colors for text) is also a sensory sensitivity. Studies have shown that many autistic people are also synaesthetic, but the two sensory experiences so not always co-occur.
This paper assesses the degree of similarity between autistic individuals and non-autistic synasthetes compared to neurotypical, non-synastheic controls.
It turns out that synaesthetes and autistic individuals are most similar in “attention to detail” which is in part related to why many autistic individuals also possess savant characteristics like amazing memories.Continue reading “Synaesthesia and Autism Aren’t So Different… – #365papers – 2017 – 68”
#365papers for March 8, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper like others I’ve read recently discusses the abundance of single-celled organisms in the ocean called foraminifera (forams). The overall abundance of different species plus isotopic analysis of the fossils themselves can provide insights about climate during the middle Eocene. Continue reading “The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum in the Northern Hemisphere – #365papers – 2017 – 67”
#365papers for March 7, 2017
What’s it about?
These are the published results of an ocean drilling cruise that took place in Antarctica in the late 1980’s. A core from the ocean floor was drilled and various parts of it were studied. This paper discusses geochemical results from the skeletons (tests) of single-celled organisms called foraminifera (forams) found throughout the core. From these results, the authors discuss deep ocean currents from millions of years ago.Continue reading “Paleogene Antarctic ocean circulation from isotopes – #365papers – 2017 – 66”
Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist