Public Outreach
- Jaganmoy Jodder (University of Göttingen/ University of Johannesburg) received an invitation from TEDx Johannesburg and Genus Palaeosciences in July to deliver a talk about the science he is conducting on the Archaean record of India, South Africa, and elsewhere. His talk was part of the first ever Palaeosciences talk series organized by TEDx. TED stands for nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks. TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment, and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 110 languages. In his talk, Jaganmoy Jodder presented snippets from his research conducted on the early Earth processes and how the earliest microorganisms emerged on planet Earth. See the talk here…
- Eric Runge was given the prestigious Paul-Ramdohr Award of the German Mineralogical Society (DMG), which distinguishes outstanding contributions by young scientists. Eric received the award for his excellent talk at the GeoMinKöln 2022, entitled "The taphonomic fate of biominerals in hydrothermal sulfide systems – implications for the reconstruction of microbial life in deep time".The research is part of a DFG Emmy Noether Research Project led by Jan-Peter Duda (now W3 Professor of Geobiology at the University of Göttingen), which is associated with the Geomicrobiology Group in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Tübingen (Prof. Andreas Kappler).
- The “Micro-Macro Life Sciences” project in Jena aims to connect researchers from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, who are investigating Life in any forms, with the broad interest of the citizens of Jena. Therefore, an exhibition was organized within the city mall (Goethe Galerie Jena) at the beginning of the summer. The contribution of Sebastian Reimann, who was selected to represent the department of Geology with the topic “Origin of life”, is now only visible online. He presents his recent work from the Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt (Eswatini), in which they report the findings of stromatolites associated with fluid-escape structures in a shallow marine environment.
- A detailed article in the “Kölner Universitätsmagazin” presents several projects of the SPP 1833 in Cologne. It summarizes the latest findings of Carsten Münker, Jonas Tusch, Daniel Herwartz and Florian Kurzweil about tungsten-isotopes and their relation to the onset of plate tectonics, the evolution of the oceanic redox state and the link between atmospheric CO2-contents and ocean water temperatures. Read the article here…
- Michelle Gehringer, University of Kaiserslautern, was invited to give a presentation for the CyanoWorld Online Seminar series. Her talk "How Cyanobacteria changed the world" about her early earth research within the SPP 1833 is available here
- The "Informationsdienst Wissenschaft" reported about the research paper of Herrmann A.J., Sorwat J., Byrne J.M., Frankenberg-Dinkel, N. and Gehringer M.M.: „Diurnal Fe(II)/Fe(III) cycling and enhanced O2 production in a simulated Archean marine oxygen oasis“ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22258-1 (doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22258-1). Read the press release here
- The Quanta Magazine reported about the study of Jonas Tusch et al. how plate tectonics drove the evolution of complex life. (Tusch, J., Münker, C., Hasenstab, C., Jansen, M., Marien, C.S., Kurzweil, F., Van Kranendonk, M.J., Smithies, R.H., Maier, W., Garbe-Schönberg, D. (in press): Convective isolation of Hadean mantle reservoirs through Archean time. PNAS). Read the report here
- A newspaper article in the "Weserkurier" on March 23rd, 2021, reported about the project "Non-detrital Gallium and Aluminum in Early Precambrian Marine Chemical Sediments and the Potential Use of the Ga/Al Ratio as a Geochemical Proxy for Metal Sources and Relative Fluxes to the Early Ocean" of Prof. Michael Bau. Read the article here...
- In a study within the SPP 1833, biologically-relevant organic molecules have been detected in Archaean fluid inclusions, which most likely served as nutrients for early life on Earth. The scientists examined about 3.5 billion-year-old barites from the Dresser Formation in Western Australia. Helge Mißbach et al. published their results in Nature Geoscience, see the press release here.
- Writing in PNAS, scientists from Cologne university present important new constraints showing that plate tectonics started relatively slow, although the early Earth’s interior was much hotter than today. (Jonas Tusch, Carsten Münker, Eric Hasenstab, Mike Jansen, Chris S. Marien, Florian Kurzweil, Martin J. Van Kranendonk, Hugh Smithies, Wolfgang Maier, Dieter Garbe-Schönberg (2021): Convective isolation of Hadean mantle reservoirs through Archean time. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118(2):e2012626118) Find the press release here.
- Dr. Michelle Gehringer and Achim Herrmann presented their research in a television report as part of the Sat1-Regionalmagazin. On November 26th, they featured in "Algen – die Superstars von morgen?" See the video here...
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During the "GeoUtrecht 2020 - Virtual conference" (21-26 August 2020), C. Heubeck (Jena) and P. Mason (Utrecht) coordinated a session with the topic "Early Earth and Life: Insights from recent research in the Barberton Greenstone Belt". Contributions from our SPP were e.g.:
Heubeck, C., Janse von Rensburg, D., Reimann, S., Zametzer, A., 2020, Quartzofeldspathic Moodies Group sandstones (Barberton Greenstone Belt, ~3.22 Ga, South Africa and Eswatini) are derived from intra-BGB felsic igneous rocks, not from extra-BGB granites: Annual Meeting DGGV Utrecht, 24-26 August 2020, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Schmitz, M., Heubeck, C., 2020, Which tectonic model of the Barberton Greenstone Belt compares best with regional stratigraphic and structural data ? A review: Annual Meeting DGGV Utrecht, 24-26 August 2020, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Reimann, S., Heubeck, C., Janse van Rensburg, D., Fugmann, P., Zametzer, A., 2020, Syndepositional hydrothermalism selectively preserves one of the earliest photoautotrophic ecosystems, Moodies Group (3.22 Ga), Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa: Annual Meeting DGGV Utrecht, 24-26 August 2020, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Janse van Rensburg, D., Reimann, S., Heubeck, C., Zametzer, A., Fugmann, P., 2020, Did volcanoes erupting in estuaries (Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, BGB) serve as microbiological cradles during the Archean? : Annual Meeting DGGV Utrecht, 24-26 August 2020, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- Writing in Nature, SPP 1833 scientists present important new findings regarding the origin of oceans and life on Earth. Measurements on the oldest preserved mantle rocks from Greenland show that – contrary to previous assumptions – the elements necessary for the evolution of life were not delivered to Earth until very late in the planet’s formation (Mario Fischer-Gödde, Bo-Magnus Elfers, Carsten Münker, Kristoffer Szilas, Wolfgang D. Maier, Nils Messling, Tomoaki Morishita, Martin Van Kranendonk & Hugh Smithies (2020): Ruthenium isotope vestige of Earth’s pre-late-veneer mantle preserved in Archaean rocks. Nature 579, 240–244). Find the press release here.
- In July 2019, researchers of the SPP 1833 in Cologne published their work about lunar age determination in Nature Geoscience. (Maxwell M. Thiemens, Peter Sprung, Raúl O. C. Fonseca, Felipe P. Leitzke and Carsten Münker (2019): Early Moon formation inferred from hafnium–tungsten systematics. Nature Geoscience DOI: 10.1038/s41561-019-0398-3) For a feature about the first landing on the moon 50 years ago, the University of Cologne filmed a video about the work for this article. Furthermore, the "Deutschlandfunk" broadcasted an interview with Carsten Münker.
- On November, 15th, 2018, Dr. Inga Köhler presented her children‘s book „How Earth became habitable - a journey through the Precambrian“ on invitation by the SPP 1833 at the University of Cologne. More than 150 children and parents attended the lecture and carefully listened to the adventures of the time travelling cat Portas meeting the first bacteria on Earth, learning, how water was delivered to Earth and why the oceans had various colours during Earth‘s history. From the accretion of Earth to the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere, the book covers the most important steps in creating an environment not only suitable for bacteria and other simple life forms, but also for mankind.
- A video about the field workshop 2017 in Australia was published by the coordination office. Watch it here:
- Dr. Sami Nabhan was invited to talk about his early earth research for the TV-programme BR-alpha. See his lecture at "Campus Talks" here
- Dr. Benjamin Eickmann and Professor Ronny Schönberg (both University of Tübingen) together with international collaborators published their latest work about Earth's oldest known oxygen in Nature Geoscience: "Isotopic evidence for oxygenated Mesoarchaean shallow oceans". Evidence for this early oxygen stems from 2.97 Ga old microbial carbonates of the Pongola Supergroup in South Africa, which were sampled by a co-author of this study, Professor Axel Hofmann of the University of Johannesburg, with the intention to investigate the redox-conditions during deposition of these sediments. Professor Hofmann was also one of the main leaders of the SPP1833 field trip to South Africa in August 2016, during which this outcrop - amongst many others - was visited. The article has been discussed at "Science Daily" and the TAZ commented that "stale air" can be worse: "Dit is die Baliner Luft!"...
- Prof. Sumit Chakraborty (RUB) published his work on the onset of plate tectonics in Nature Geoscience: "Emergence of silicic continents as the lower crust peels off on a hot plate-tectonic Earth". See the press release here...
- Press information: Klimaforschung: Extreme während der Frühzeit der Erde - 20.01.2016 DFG fördert geowissenschaftliche Forschungsprojekte an der Universität Göttingen
- EAG-blog November 30, 2014: Making Hability a Priority by Elizabeth D. Swanner
If you have or had any publicly available interviews, articles or general press releases related to the SPP 1833, the community is interested in it. Please send your media publications to spp-1833@uni-koeln.de.