Benjamin Gill
@sedgeochem.bsky.social
870 followers 460 following 160 posts
Biogeochemist. Dad. Earth Historian. Gardener. Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. He/him.
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Reposted by Benjamin Gill
allochthonous.bsky.social
⚒️ The Proterozoic Earth had radically different ocean and atmospheric chemistry, was ruled by bacterial mats, and was possibly being shaped by not-plate-tectonics, or at least different-plate-tectonics.

Calling it boring is such a depressing failure of the imagination.
comptonscatter.bsky.social
“That name, man,” Riedman says of the boring billion. “We’ve got to kill it. Kill it with fire.”

Gave me a smile to see they interviewed you about your work too.
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
comptonscatter.bsky.social
“That name, man,” Riedman says of the boring billion. “We’ve got to kill it. Kill it with fire.”

Gave me a smile to see they interviewed you about your work too.
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
kiabugboy.bsky.social
The Crinoid hat video is up on my channel!
youtu.be/ZdPTYamnqQA
sedgeochem.bsky.social
I'm part of an online truck form were members will rely parts across the country to get them to you... I think we should set something similar here.
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
zzsylvester.bsky.social
Last week I was co-leading a field trip in Utah, to check out some fluvial and eolian rocks. It was exhausting but fun and forced me to think more carefully than before about complex bedforms. This is a 3D model of one of the many stunning exposures of the Navajo Sandstone near Escalante 🧪⚒️
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
benuveges.bsky.social
New co-author paper out today in @pnas.org led by the fantastic Dr. Lubna Shawar!

Lubna breathes new life into the sponge sterol hypothesis with her meticulous organic geochemistry, and the ID of two new sponge-derived C31 Steranes in ~600 Myr rocks. Check it out! 🧪⚒️

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Chemical characterization of C31 sterols from sponges and Neoproterozoic fossil sterane counterparts | PNAS
Putative metazoan body fossils from the Precambrian are curiously lacking morphological characteristics that link them unambiguously to extant anim...
www.pnas.org
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
methanojen.bsky.social
A reminder to please support non-profit publishers.

It’s good for science and scientists.

It’s a responsible use of taxpayer dollars.

It requires resisting peer pressure to submit to Nature journals.

Thanks @bacteriality.bsky.social for this helpful slide for microbiology journals.
Slide with text “Support Society Journals:
Society-based journals help build and advocate for our scientific communities” showing the logos for non profit publishers ASM, ACS, ASBMB. microbiology society, Science, and ISME. Underneath “for-profit journals do not” showing logos for Nature, Elsevier, Frontiers, CellPress, and MDPI.
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
klangin.bsky.social
Today was a hard day for Ph.D. students who found out that they can no longer apply for NSF's prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program. "Devastating“ was how one student described it to me. #GradSchool #NSFGRFP

www.science.org/content/arti...
‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry
The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded
www.science.org
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
volcanojw.bsky.social
For those anxiously awaiting it: the NSF GRFP solicitation is out, with a November 14 deadline for Geoscience applicants: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
planetdr.bsky.social
Everyone writing about Perseverance today should be asking how many of the scientists and engineers who were involved in this discovery no longer work for NASA bc of Trump.
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
sedgeochem.bsky.social
Gotta love silicates that congruently weather.
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
dizachster.bsky.social
Paleozoic fossil brachiopod sabotages the stony steps of my office building #FossilFriday
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
pjvphotography.bsky.social
"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"

Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
A pika sits on a mossy rock. Tighter crop of the same pika, focusing on its head. An even tighter crop, focusing more on the pika's eye. An extremely tight crop of the pika's eye, emphasizing their reflection of an early morning mountain scene.
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
izzyrbaker.bsky.social
More dead fish this morning #Chesapeake #Anoxia
sedgeochem.bsky.social
I can hook you up if you still need it.
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
clasticdetritus.bsky.social
I haven't had the opportunity to dive into this, but at quick glance this looks like a great resource –– especially for those teaching at the intersection of climate science and geoscience
thomasronge.bsky.social
🚨Looking for a Geoscience Perspective on Climate Change?
Exp403 co-chief Kristen St. John and former JRFB chair Larry Krissek just published this OPEN ACCESS book on it! Download it for free below!
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Climate Change
This book assesses past climatic change from a geoscience perspective and addresses common misconceptions on climate.
link.springer.com
Reposted by Benjamin Gill
felinecannon.bsky.social
If I wanted to spend a bunch of time building cool things only to see it burned down, I would have applied for a federal grant or helped build up a federal lab or sample depository.
sedgeochem.bsky.social
Ditto.Simply the worst way to start the day.