Don't Panic Geocast

When and why did life diversify? This week we go WAY BACK to the Cambrian and hang out with hungry worms and trilobites to discover what happened. Fun Paper Friday Did you know that Wombats poop cubes? Now you do! Yang, Patricia J., et al. "Intestines of non-uniform stiffness mold the corners of wombat feces." Soft Matter (2021). Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! www.dontpanicgeocast.com SWU...

This week we look at the origins and science behind common weather proverbs, discuss the weather forecast rock found in every southern craft fair, and then play some video games! Fun Paper Friday Can playing video games teach us about volcanoes? Should it? McGowan, Edward G., and Jazmin P. Scarlett. "Volcanoes in video games: the portrayal of volcanoes in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) video game...

Shannon is teaching intro to field inside a ballroom and we grapple with what field skills students need in the real world. Fun Paper Friday Cats go wild over catnip - but why? Lichman, Benjamin R., et al. "The evolutionary origins of the cat attractant nepetalactone in catnip." Science Advances 6.20 (2020): eaba0721. Sciencemag Article Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! www.dontpanicgeocast....

This week it's all about permeability - how water flows through rocks! Fun Paper Friday Yam, Kai Chi, et al. "Association of high profile football matches in Europe with traffic accidents in Asia: archival study." bmj 371 (2020). Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! www.dontpanicgeocast.com SWUNG Slack @dontpanicgeo show@dontpanicgeocast.com John Leeman www.johnrleeman.com @geo_leeman Shannon D...

This week we talk about porosity - or what all of the empty space in a rock is and why it is important. Primary Porosity Secondary Porosity Fracture Porosity Vuggy Porosity Effective/Open Porosity Ineffective/Closed Porosity Dual Porosity Macroporosity Mesoporosity Microporosity Fun Paper Friday Hungry? Eat the same thing as others at the table to gain their trust! Woolley, Kaitlin, and Ayelet Fis...

This week we show 2020 out the door with our 2021 resolutions and yearly planning show! John be more decisive and reactive but in a good way less reflection on made decisions more forward focus work on something and focus get out of team task tracking get back into GTD, especially 2 min rule learn to fly leadership at work Shannon Didn't put her resolutions in the show notes! (Email her!) Fun Pape...

This week we update you on the 2020 status and that we'll be back in 2021! Fun Paper Friday We start our first ever two part fun paper! https://phys.org/news/2020-12-scientists-philosopher-team-categorize-minerals.html Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! www.dontpanicgeocast.com SWUNG Slack @dontpanicgeo show@dontpanicgeocast.com John Leeman www.johnrleeman.com @geo_leeman Shannon Dulin @Shann...

This week we talk about dust storms or haboobs and why they occur. Haboob Fun Paper Friday What's a monotreme? We take a biology 101 refresher and discover that the platypus was glow in the dark with this week's fun paper! Anich, P. S., Anthony, S., Carlson, M., Gunnelson, A., Kohler, A. M., Martin, J. G., & Olson, E. R. (2020). Biofluorescence in the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). Mamma...

This week Capt. Jeff Grass talks to us about being prepared for natural disasters! Fun Paper Friday Can a can of Coke make solar cells more efficient? Wang, Rui, et al. "Caffeine improves the performance and thermal stability of perovskite solar cells." Joule 3.6 (2019): 1464-1477. Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! www.dontpanicgeocast.com SWUNG Slack @dontpanicgeo show@dontpanicgeocast.com...

This week we talk about how conferences have adapted to covid, why John is building hands on learning tools, and about nutrient exchange in bogs for meat eating plants! Fun Paper Friday Carnivorous plants just eat flies right? Think again! Moldowan, Patrick D., et al. "Nature's pitfall trap: salamanders as rich prey for carnivorous plants in a nutrient‐poor northern bog ecosystem." Ecology 100.10...

This week Dr. Ryan May joins us to talk about life as a scientific software developer and his career path from radars to radiosondes and more! Ryan's Twitter Unidata Fun Paper Friday Vampires - a classic predator prey problem? Hartl, Richard F., Alexander Mehlmann, and Andreas Novak. "Cycles of fear: periodic bloodsucking rates for vampires." Journal of optimization theory and applications 75.3 (1...

This week National Weather Service Tulsa WFO Meteorologist In Charge Steve Piltz joins us to talk about a career in the weather service and finding unique ways to solve forecast problems! Fun Paper Friday Do ants count their steps to get home? Wittlinger, Matthias, Rüdiger Wehner, and Harald Wolf. "The ant odometer: stepping on stilts and stumps." science 312.5782 (2006): 1965-1967. Contact us: Sh...

This week John and Shannon agree to talk about playas, only to discover that they think about very different things. Fun Paper Friday Man eating deer? Looks like it! Meckel, Lauren A., Chloe P. McDaneld, and Daniel J. Wescott. "White‐tailed deer as a taphonomic agent: photographic evidence of white‐tailed deer gnawing on human bone." Journal of forensic sciences 63.1 (2018): 292-294. Contact us: S...

This week we talk about machine learning - what is it exactly and how can we leverage it as geologists? Will it be as useful as the horta? Fun Paper Friday How do we know about Earth's past climate? Well, here are a few unusual ideas! Five Weird Climate Archives Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! www.dontpanicgeocast.com SWUNG Slack @dontpanicgeo show@dontpanicgeocast.com John Leeman www.john...

This week we talk about analog experiments, what they are, and how you can do them! Geologists' Squeeze Box Squeeze Box Core Tubes Fun Paper Friday This week we do the worm! Find out how worms dance on speakers in this week's Fun Paper! Maksymov, Ivan S., and Andrey Pototsky. "Excitation of Faraday-like body waves in vibrated living earthworms." Scientific Reports 10.1 (2020): 1-11. Contact us: Sh...

How did the Earth get its magnetic field? Why do we still have it? Find out that and more this week! Chris Finlay's Research Fun Paper Friday Can animals sense earthquakes? Can we sense animals sensing earthquakes? Wikelski, Martin, et al. "Potential short-term earthquake forecasting by farm-animal monitoring." bioRxiv (2020).   Contact us: Show - Support us on Patreon! - www.dontpanicgeocast...

This week we talk about fronts and the warm air conveyor belt! Fun Paper Friday Do you think you have a good sense of direction? Maybe it's the magnetite in your brain! Researchers put brains in a magnetometer to find out! Human Brains Have Tiny Bits of Magnetic Material Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! www.dontpanicgeocast.com SWUNG Slack @dontpanicgeo show@dontpanicgeocast.com John Leeman...

This week we talk about why we go to Antarctica and what kinds of work happens there each year! Fun Paper Friday What happens if you hold a cat in your dating profile photo? This important question answered by this week's fun paper! Kogan, Lori, and Shelly Volsche. "Not the Cat’s Meow? The Impact of Posing with Cats on Female Perceptions of Male Dateability." Animals 10.6 (2020): 1007. Contact us:...

This week we talk about derechos - what are they and why did one sweep across the upper midwest bringing wide spread distruction? Find out that and how sword swallowers do what they do in this week's show! NWS Derecho Page Fun Paper Friday How to sword swallowers do it? Do they ever get injured? We touch on this pointy topic with a fun paper! Witcombe, Brian, and Dan Meyer. "Sword swallowing and i...

This week we interview Shannon about her career path to becoming a dual degree student and professor in geology! Fun Paper Friday Barnett, Adrian, Inger Mewburn, and Sara Schroter. "Working 9 to 5, not the way to make an academic living: observational analysis of manuscript and peer review submissions over time." bmj 367 (2019). Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! www.dontpanicgeocast.com SWUN...

Hot spots - what are they? We don't know either! Explore with us on this week's show. J. Tuzo Wilson Pele Searches for a Home Pele Honua Mea Fun Paper Friday Nawroth, Christian, et al. "Goats prefer positive human emotional facial expressions." Royal Society open science 5.8 (2018): 180491. Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! www.dontpanicgeocast.com SWUNG Slack @dontpanicgeo show@dontpanicgeo...

Comet NEOWISE is in the sky - learn all about it and comets in general! Fun Paper Friday The Earth hums with normal modes - learn how scientists are picking them up with seismometers on the bottom of the ocean. Deen, M., et al. "First observation of the Earth's permanent free oscillations on ocean bottom seismometers." Geophysical Research Letters 44.21 (2017): 10-988. Contact us: Show Support us...

This week we learn how searching for a downed aircraft may have helped us better understand how plate tectonics work... we think... maybe. It's not an exact science. Fun Paper Friday Fans - hot or not? Find out by sticking undergrads in a thermal chamber! Ravanelli, Nicholas M., et al. "Heart rate and body temperature responses to extreme heat and humidity with and without electric fans." Jama 313...

This week we talk about why we don't believe that a rock ID app is a possibility now or potentially ever. Fun Paper Friday How do you convert human years to dog years? Turns out it is a bit more complicated than we thought. Wang, Tina, et al. "Quantitative Translation of Dog-to-Human Aging by Conserved Remodeling of the DNA Methylome." Cell Systems (2020). Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! w...

This week it's all about rainbows, light, reflection, refraction, and how it's just like an earthquake! Fun Paper Friday Have you seen products marketed as "chemical free"? This weeks paper looks at those claims with an analytical eye. Goldberg, Alexander FG, and C. J. Chemjobber. "A comprehensive overview of chemical-free consumer products." Contact us: Show Support us on Patreon! www.dontpanicge...