Saturday, August 15, 2009
A Pyramid and Return to Seattle
Summerhill Winery with its pyramid wine home, lovely view of the lake and sunset, and delicious food.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Walcott2009 Day Three Books and wiwaxia!
Place holding for reports on great day three:
More on eyes by two Chinese women scientists with great presentations! Hallucegenia eyes and connection to arthropoda!
New discoveries by JB Caron team in Stanley Glacier area, including "tulip" animal.
Fascinating geologic ideas about underwater mud volcanoes by local (metro Calgary, etc.) geologists and decay chemistry by scientists from Ohio.
Books signed by our favorite scientists.
Special wiwaxia reproduction aquired.
More on eyes by two Chinese women scientists with great presentations! Hallucegenia eyes and connection to arthropoda!
New discoveries by JB Caron team in Stanley Glacier area, including "tulip" animal.
Fascinating geologic ideas about underwater mud volcanoes by local (metro Calgary, etc.) geologists and decay chemistry by scientists from Ohio.
Books signed by our favorite scientists.
Special wiwaxia reproduction aquired.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Walcott 2009 day two
I can see I'm going to have to write a little tonight and post more later in the trip. These scientists go all day, even more than College Art, although they don't put the avant garde at 8:30 pm. We found the blogger from Nature: she is Nicola Jones, journalist, adjunct professor at UBC school of journalism and blogs here
Saving space here, I'm just going to mention the wonderfully inspiring keynote talks by Douglas Erwin and Nicholas Butterfield. Erwin, whom we have been reading in articles provided by Nicole Killebrew, one of our naturalist supervisors at the Seattle Aquarium, seems to be pulling together some ideas across the field regarding development, ecosystem engineering and niche construction.
Butterfield, who may have been easier for me to understand since he spoke after dinner, is interested in broad views of fossils, especially their microstructure to synthesize resolutions to taxonomic issues. We had absolutely no idea that wiwaxia was controversial. It's everywhere (that's comforting): almost no middle Cambrian shale which doesn't have it. Apparently wiwaxia is not a polychaete worm, nor a mollusk. Previously Desmond Collins showed a "frolicking" wiwaxia, and Butterfield had some really breathtaking images of wiwaxia and other fossils, many prepared to show their microstructure.
Saving space here, I'm just going to mention the wonderfully inspiring keynote talks by Douglas Erwin and Nicholas Butterfield. Erwin, whom we have been reading in articles provided by Nicole Killebrew, one of our naturalist supervisors at the Seattle Aquarium, seems to be pulling together some ideas across the field regarding development, ecosystem engineering and niche construction.
Butterfield, who may have been easier for me to understand since he spoke after dinner, is interested in broad views of fossils, especially their microstructure to synthesize resolutions to taxonomic issues. We had absolutely no idea that wiwaxia was controversial. It's everywhere (that's comforting): almost no middle Cambrian shale which doesn't have it. Apparently wiwaxia is not a polychaete worm, nor a mollusk. Previously Desmond Collins showed a "frolicking" wiwaxia, and Butterfield had some really breathtaking images of wiwaxia and other fossils, many prepared to show their microstructure.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Walcott 2009 day one!
It is so good to be surrounded by sensible people and rainy weather!
Two disclaimers: first this conference is really well organized. Jean-Bernard Caron of the department of Paleobiology at the Royal Ontario Museum and his staff did a terrific job organizing this with frequent emails, and an impressive, yet thrifty abstract volume with schedule, etc. There is also a beautifully produced "field trip companion volume", and we received copies, too. The Banff Centre really has excellent accomodations; the food is good and plenty; the coffee is very good and there is plenty at the Max Bell building where the presentations take place. It's kind of like an upscale college experience; Jim and I have a deliciously comfortable king sized bed. Second, we're really glad to be at a conference where we don't have to be "working." We're just fans of these people who seem careful about taking care of their junior faculty and graduate students.
The very first talk was given by Desmond Collins, also of ROM, about the discovery of the Burgess Shale in 2009 by Charles Walcott of the Smithsonian Institution. We are familiar with this story, but he had great historical photos, including Governor Burgess of the NW Territories (the government of the site at the time). Desmond Collins has led scientists and students up to the Walcott quarry for years and the hike is a major accomplishment for the enthusiast. The history continued with J. Stewart Hollingsworth discussing Walcott's insights on the Esmerelda Basin in Nevada and California, where he had hunted fossils before his Rocky Mountain adventure was so successful. The trilobites he'd found in Nevada are apparently similar to the ones in Siberia. David Bruton of the University of Oslo shared photos and connection to Harry Whittington having joined in the 1967 exhibition to the Burgess Shale. This began Whittington's fossil collecting for Canada since Walcott had removed his collections to Washington DC. David Bruton also relayed greetings from Professor Whittington who remains in England (he's 93!).
The very energetic and enthusiastic Keynyn Brysse of Princeton explained contemporary ideas about phyla and cladistic systemization. Before I get myself into confusion because her explanation as an historian of ideas was very clear, I will quote from her abstract: "Decisions about how to classify Burgess Shale organisms are not mere disputes over stamp collecting, but instead reflect such critical biological issues as how to define a phylum, and whether all animal species belong in this most fundamental of taxonomic groups." She also suggests that the controversies between naming and classification, and contingency and convergence reveal how scientists think about evolution. She had very cool graphics which I realized sadly were not reproduced in my iPhone tweets and cited a couple of references I plan to look for. She must be a wonderful teacher. Jim and I need to study up on the new nomenclature of "crown" and "stem" groups.
Jim and I were, we admit, expecting that much of this conference would really be over our heads. However, we were also able to follow the discussion Alison Olcott Marshall, of the University of Kansas on the use of new non-invasive spectroscopy techniques to analyse the biopolymer walls of microfossils known as acritarchs. Are they embryos or animals? Maybe microalgae? Dinoflagellates? Her clear presentation was a good introduction to us of some of the issues in Protereozoic fossil study. Most early lifeforms are assumed to be benthic, bottom dwellers, and it is during the Cambrian that animals start floating around inthe water column. The acritarchs might be a move from benthic to pelagic. Her working group expresses enthusiasm about these techniques for further study of preservation of the fossils.
Frank Corsetti of USC expressed interest in environmental considerations of fossil microorganisms of the Doushantuo formation (China). There's a connection between fossil retention of 10% of the world's phosphate resources and the fact that nowadays that sulfide oxygenating bacteria concentrate and rapidly release phosphate.
Our curiosity was piqued by the presentation by Guy Narbonne of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario of the "best preserved Ediacaran fossils in the world." These are rangeomorphs, found in Spaniard's Bay in Newfoundland. Professor Narbonne said these fossils are by the beach, in a beautiful spot, with B& B's nearby. However, they are also receiving UNESCO World Heritage designation, so we will have to look at them from a distance. The photos are beautiful: rangeomorphs ahave fractal like structures and seem to build up frond like structures. He spoke longer later in the day in a keynote, further expanding on these beautiful and intriguing lifeforms.
There was also a scientist from Russia we'd met briefly at breakfast. Ekaterina A. Serezhnikova of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences made an elegant digital presentation of the attachments Ediacaran biota make to the sea floor. She documented finds from Ediacaran deposits in the White Sea area of Russia. These attachments support the benthic location for these fossils.
If I review all my notes now, I'll be up all night. We definitely came away from the talks today understanding that Stephen Jay Gould opened up the world of invertebrate paleontology to the rest of us at the risk of making the Cambrian model of contingent evolution. Too much the myth of individual consciousness, I think! Scientists today work to find pre-Cambrian evidence of evolution and convergence so that the Burgess Shale is less singular and fits into models of richness, complexity and the fascination in the nexus of ecology and evolution.
At dinner, we met Marianne Collins whose illustrations, whether pen and ink or color, grace many texts accompanying these discussions and, we think, had shown some at the Tyrrell Museum when we went there both times with Robin. I asked her about her palette, which is very colorful and almost psychedelic, and she replied that she began when the Royal Ontario Museum wanted murals appropriate to a general audience, including children. As a scuba diver, she wanted to remain loyal to underwater limited vision, but didn't want everything to look like Bermuda, either. So she uses green and contrasting colors to distinguish the animals. She thinks others caught on later. You can sort of get an idea via this link; I'll try to update if I can http://www.rom.on.ca/exhibitions/nhistory/nhhighlights.php
Also, it was announced that a blogger from Nature was posting. I haven't found the link yet.
Two disclaimers: first this conference is really well organized. Jean-Bernard Caron of the department of Paleobiology at the Royal Ontario Museum and his staff did a terrific job organizing this with frequent emails, and an impressive, yet thrifty abstract volume with schedule, etc. There is also a beautifully produced "field trip companion volume", and we received copies, too. The Banff Centre really has excellent accomodations; the food is good and plenty; the coffee is very good and there is plenty at the Max Bell building where the presentations take place. It's kind of like an upscale college experience; Jim and I have a deliciously comfortable king sized bed. Second, we're really glad to be at a conference where we don't have to be "working." We're just fans of these people who seem careful about taking care of their junior faculty and graduate students.
The very first talk was given by Desmond Collins, also of ROM, about the discovery of the Burgess Shale in 2009 by Charles Walcott of the Smithsonian Institution. We are familiar with this story, but he had great historical photos, including Governor Burgess of the NW Territories (the government of the site at the time). Desmond Collins has led scientists and students up to the Walcott quarry for years and the hike is a major accomplishment for the enthusiast. The history continued with J. Stewart Hollingsworth discussing Walcott's insights on the Esmerelda Basin in Nevada and California, where he had hunted fossils before his Rocky Mountain adventure was so successful. The trilobites he'd found in Nevada are apparently similar to the ones in Siberia. David Bruton of the University of Oslo shared photos and connection to Harry Whittington having joined in the 1967 exhibition to the Burgess Shale. This began Whittington's fossil collecting for Canada since Walcott had removed his collections to Washington DC. David Bruton also relayed greetings from Professor Whittington who remains in England (he's 93!).
The very energetic and enthusiastic Keynyn Brysse of Princeton explained contemporary ideas about phyla and cladistic systemization. Before I get myself into confusion because her explanation as an historian of ideas was very clear, I will quote from her abstract: "Decisions about how to classify Burgess Shale organisms are not mere disputes over stamp collecting, but instead reflect such critical biological issues as how to define a phylum, and whether all animal species belong in this most fundamental of taxonomic groups." She also suggests that the controversies between naming and classification, and contingency and convergence reveal how scientists think about evolution. She had very cool graphics which I realized sadly were not reproduced in my iPhone tweets and cited a couple of references I plan to look for. She must be a wonderful teacher. Jim and I need to study up on the new nomenclature of "crown" and "stem" groups.
Jim and I were, we admit, expecting that much of this conference would really be over our heads. However, we were also able to follow the discussion Alison Olcott Marshall, of the University of Kansas on the use of new non-invasive spectroscopy techniques to analyse the biopolymer walls of microfossils known as acritarchs. Are they embryos or animals? Maybe microalgae? Dinoflagellates? Her clear presentation was a good introduction to us of some of the issues in Protereozoic fossil study. Most early lifeforms are assumed to be benthic, bottom dwellers, and it is during the Cambrian that animals start floating around inthe water column. The acritarchs might be a move from benthic to pelagic. Her working group expresses enthusiasm about these techniques for further study of preservation of the fossils.
Frank Corsetti of USC expressed interest in environmental considerations of fossil microorganisms of the Doushantuo formation (China). There's a connection between fossil retention of 10% of the world's phosphate resources and the fact that nowadays that sulfide oxygenating bacteria concentrate and rapidly release phosphate.
Our curiosity was piqued by the presentation by Guy Narbonne of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario of the "best preserved Ediacaran fossils in the world." These are rangeomorphs, found in Spaniard's Bay in Newfoundland. Professor Narbonne said these fossils are by the beach, in a beautiful spot, with B& B's nearby. However, they are also receiving UNESCO World Heritage designation, so we will have to look at them from a distance. The photos are beautiful: rangeomorphs ahave fractal like structures and seem to build up frond like structures. He spoke longer later in the day in a keynote, further expanding on these beautiful and intriguing lifeforms.
There was also a scientist from Russia we'd met briefly at breakfast. Ekaterina A. Serezhnikova of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences made an elegant digital presentation of the attachments Ediacaran biota make to the sea floor. She documented finds from Ediacaran deposits in the White Sea area of Russia. These attachments support the benthic location for these fossils.
If I review all my notes now, I'll be up all night. We definitely came away from the talks today understanding that Stephen Jay Gould opened up the world of invertebrate paleontology to the rest of us at the risk of making the Cambrian model of contingent evolution. Too much the myth of individual consciousness, I think! Scientists today work to find pre-Cambrian evidence of evolution and convergence so that the Burgess Shale is less singular and fits into models of richness, complexity and the fascination in the nexus of ecology and evolution.
At dinner, we met Marianne Collins whose illustrations, whether pen and ink or color, grace many texts accompanying these discussions and, we think, had shown some at the Tyrrell Museum when we went there both times with Robin. I asked her about her palette, which is very colorful and almost psychedelic, and she replied that she began when the Royal Ontario Museum wanted murals appropriate to a general audience, including children. As a scuba diver, she wanted to remain loyal to underwater limited vision, but didn't want everything to look like Bermuda, either. So she uses green and contrasting colors to distinguish the animals. She thinks others caught on later. You can sort of get an idea via this link; I'll try to update if I can http://www.rom.on.ca/exhibitions/nhistory/nhhighlights.php
Also, it was announced that a blogger from Nature was posting. I haven't found the link yet.
Marble canyon hike and Walcott 2009 reception
Just a quick post as we will add more photos and commentary from our hike later.
We arrived in Banff Sunday night and after checking in and fussing had a very beautiful dinner in the Centre dining hall. This was a high end special in the Three Ravens Restaurant, on the same floor as Vistas hall and open to the views of the mountains. It's 360 glass, and lovely even when there's atmosphere surrounding in the form of clouds. It was very hot and we ran the fan all night.
Unlike other conference goers, we didn't arrange to go on any conference hikes. We had already done the Mt. Stephen one, and just are not up to doing the one to the Walcott quarry, though it is the trip of a lifetime. Instead, we had arranged with Joel Hagen who runs Great Divide Interpretation [http://www.greatdivide.ca/] to take a short hike with little elevation so Alice could get used
to the heights in the Rockies. That thankfully didn't end up being the problem: there was too much sun because we hiked in a part of the Kootenay (koo' tun ee) Forest that had burned in 2003. We had heard about this fire because it was actually several fires which joined and burned hot over an extremely large area. Driving from Cranbrook to Banff, we viewed the devastation from the road and were shocked by the immensity of the burn. However, our hike helped us understand the fire ecology and we were impressed that it was more than 5 years ago that the fire had occurred.We had taken a hike with Joel in 2002 when we were here before with Robin. Alice had already sprained her ankle and had indifferent physical therapy; so limited hiking was our goal. And a few years before, in 1999, we had taken th
e Mt. Stephen hike to the trilobite site, Ogygopsis bed; so doing contemporary natural history was also welcome. Joel was a great guide and we were spoiled at having him all to ourselves. This time we learned about the succession of plants following the fire and the geology of the limestone (not really marble) canyon.The sun was really too much for Alice despite covering, hat and tons of sunblock and water. However, after a nap, we went to the reception/icebreaker at the Whyte museum where there was a terrific small exhibition of artifacts surrounding Walcott's discovery. Notably there wasn't anything from the Smithsonian, where Walcott took his hoard of fossils. His panoramic photographs of the mountains were lovely, and it's always great to see the mountains, even though we had just seen them.
We decided to get supper and go to bed early; so had a comfortable Japanese meal at Suginoya: beautiful sushi with that gorgeous Japanese pearly rice and a noodle broth bowl with preserved wild vegetables. Not sure whether it was wild mustards, but it could have been dandelions: they just pick what's around. Also pickled radish, plum and a delicious cabbage pickle. Seems as if Banff has more chain eating (the Keg and Tony Roma's) than we remember. Early to bed in anticipation of 8:30 plenary!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Nelson and Kootenay Lake
Alice likes the stone buildings in Nelson: art school and Selkirk College. Nelson was once a big railroad town.On Saturday, in the Seattle-like heat of Nelson, after packing up and having lunch at the historic Hume Hotel, we visited the town museum. This beautifully air conditioned facility, in one of the many historic buildings, had some interesting historical photographs and objects, and psychelic oil paintings of various older houses in the town, definitely in the tradition of the Canadian Group of Seven. More ic
ed coffee at Oso Negro, where Alice added food reviews of Nelson to Odaria on Twitter, a last visit to the Otter book store, and we were ready to head east. One last stop was to a BC liquor store to buy a bottle of Havana Club rum, unavailable in the US and said to be far superior to the contemporary productions of Bacardi.We drove along the West Arm of Kootenay Lake for about a half hour, heading to the ferry dock for the ride across the huge and beautiful lake, naturally occurring and miles and miles long, and seemingly as wide as Puget Sound, as the ride took about as long as from Edmonds to Kingston. We thought it more beautiful than Lake Tahoe
, in an area not so dry and surrounded by mountains and evergreen trees. The intense heat had moderated, and afternoon clouds, which later led to another spectacular thunder and lightning storm, shielded us from the sun, so we could fully enjoy the views from the little car ferry. Picture: Riding on the MV Balfour.Once across, we stopped in the small community of Crawford Bay, which has an outstanding array of craftspeople, especially broom makers and a blacksmith. We bought a find hand broom attached to an iron handle for Wanda, and learned that the broom makers, whose workshop was closed for the day, had made brooms for various movies, as well as the Canadian publisher of Harry Potter books.
http://www.northwovenbroom.com/
The road trailed south along the east shore of the Lake for miles, with many gorgeous views, and we began to spot peaks from the higher Rocky Mountains to the east as we headed for Cranbrook, where we slept well but didn't see much other than the thunderstorm, the fast-food lined strip along the highway, and the vast parking area of our Best Western motel.
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