Kevin's Photoblog

For the next several days we will have pictures from a trip to the
Berlin Museum of Natural History.  I have been to many science museums
around the world, but this one is in my opinion the best.  It helps of
course to have on display the world’s most famous fossil:  the Berlin
specimen of Archeopterix lithographica, the oldest well preserved
dinosaur that has very bird-like qualities.  (Those who have been in
some of my classes known that we still have flying about us dinosaurs
that we otherwise know of as “birds”).

The workshop is of course not all work.  On the Thursday I led a
walking tour of historic Szczecin, which ends at a pizza place.  Here
we are; countries included are UK, USA, Poland, Estonia, Greece, South
Africa, China, Russia and Sweden.

This is a picture of the workshop in progress.  I speak on Monday on
biostratigraphy and deep sea drilling and then do most of the Friday
program on silicoflagellates, ebridians and the nature of scientific
discovery (a talk called “Serendipity and Silicoflagellates”).  In
between are various programs on diatoms, radiolarians, DNA, sample
preparation and other subjects.

We are preparing for a week-long short course on siliceous
microfossils, with speakers from 5 and students from at least ten
countries.  I am here in Berlin to meet a colleague at the airport.

Halloween is just past – in the USA.  In Poland this is All-Saints
Day, and a very serious matter.  It is a holiday, and many people have
spent the previous days buying candles and flowers to put on the
graves of loved-ones (a display in my local grocery store is shown
here).  This is a day of remembrance; no tricks, no treats.

Two silicoflagellates!  I got some time on a scanning electon microscope while in Warsawa.  The sample was not a clean as I would have liked, but here are two silicos, a large Corbisema constricta and a three-sided silicoflagellate in the middle.  We will likely see more of these later.

Most of my time this first month is spend in sample preparation.  This is a laborious task, the samples go through many steps, everything must be carefully labeled, inventoried, measured.  Few appreciate how much work it takes to get data.

In 1970 there was a protest against the Russian occupation.  Shots were fired and 16 were killed, most aged 16 to early 20s.  This is a monument in downtown Szczecin to them.  Very evocative.

Hard to believe, but this the building in which Catherine the Great (Czarina of Russia, late 1700s).  When Catherine was born, Szczecin (then known as Stetine) was part of Prussia.  Catherine was none too great for the Poles, she split up the country between Russia, Germany and Austria and ruled harshly (using the word “Poland” was a criminal offence).  The building, obviously, has been renovated.

Ryan and I went up into the belfry – no bell there anymore – of the big church from yesterday’s photos.  Again, the weather is not very good but this is the view of the Stare Miasto (old city) area.  The Stare Maisto area is stores and restaurants, and I think the buildings are mostly of modern construction, but still attractive; this area was heavily bombed during the war.  The second picture is of Ryan and I, not great picture but something for my Fulbright colleagues who view this blog.