Stories by Dana Hunter

‘Tis Darwin Day, the day Charles Darwin was born in 1809, fifty years before he would publish the book that launched evolution as science.

After the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, I got curious: did all those fervent fans I’ve been seeing painting the town blue and green for the last several weeks cause another BeastQuake?

So, Sochi! The Olympics are about to start, you’re going to see all sorts of shiny new buildings and ski slopes, and you’ll be so excited by the events you may not pause to consider how they got there.

Geologists did a lot of talking to trees in the aftermath of Mount St. Helens’s eruption. They had a lot of questions, and the trees had a lot of answers*.

In celebration of the return of our Mount St. Helens eruption series, let’s have a sing-song about eruptions. Make sure you’ve got your dancing shoes on – Mr.

If I told you the gods were rock gardening in southern Illinois, would you believe me? No, I know, I thought the same: American Midwest. Flat.

My dear friend and fellow science blogger Anne Jefferson has an excellent post up about sexism and racism in the scientific community. It deserves to be read in its entirety.

At long last, we return to our long-running series on the May 18th, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. When last we visited our raging volcano, it was busy roasting trees.

So I had reason recently to eyeball a geologic time chart closely, and ’twas the season where there happens to be a lot of choral music about, so I thought we’d have this little animated delight.

The universe is a funny ol’ place sometimes. You’d think a photographer would develop a roll of film shot while flying around an actively erupting volcano, but Reid Blackburn put this one aside.

That’s it, you think as you pile your weary bones into the car and leave Johnston Ridge. The End. Fini. As you reverse your course through the blast zone, watching that remarkable She-Hulk of a volcano with its gaping wound recede in your rearview mirror, as the volcanic desert is once again hidden by thick [...]

Some people consider this a threat: I never understood why getting a lump of coal instead of presents should be considered a problem. I’m a coal miner’s daughter (yes, really.

So. You’ve got people interested in geology to buy for. You’ve got limited time. You need books, stat! I am here to help, my darlings.

So here’s a band that needs no introduction, most likely. If you’re not hip to who They Might Be Giants are, however, Wikipedia can help.

After leaving Coldwater Lake and the Hummocks, you’ll wend your way out of the North Fork Toutle River valley. Vegetation is trying its best to return.

There are things that remain somewhat mysterious to me. You can read about things like strike and dip for months, years even, but they’re words.

It’s Thanksgiving, here in the States, and most of us are going to end up in a food coma by sundown. In many American households, football will reign supreme.

Planed off into two dimensions by erosion, geological features can be confusing. Some folks are talented at reconstructing the original three dimensions.

It’s the return of the Tuesday Tune! I figured we’d kick off with something catchy, maybe a nice sing-song about rocks from a husband and wife duo.

We’ve left the lovely breezes and rippling blue of Coldwater Lake; a road crossed, a tiny distance traversed, and we are in a rather grimmer place.

(Happy Halloween! This post originally appeared at En Tequila Es Verdad back in 2011, and I thought you all might enjoy having it reprised here.

I’ve chosen to publish my statement regarding Bora Zivkovic at En Tequila Es Verdad; you can read it there if you like. All I wish to say here is that I trust Scientific American’s staff to come to the appropriate resolution, as they did when they republished DNLee’s post.

Read this. Read all of it. If you’re very busy and must read it later, read this bit right now. These stories also remind us not to sit back and wait for some unseen hand to slowly right the wrongs of the past, because when we do, we allow those wrongs to be perpetuated and [...]

First word: unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. Here’s the story: Got back late from an action-packed day o’ costuming madness, curled up for a few moments on Freethought Blogs while I consumed some dinner, and discovered this:”Guest post by DNLee: Tell Someone ‘No’, Get Called a ‘Whore.’” The Blog editor of Biology-Online dot org asked me if I [...]