Paul Nathanail

Embedded on Earth - loving the journey.
Personal views only.

[History_of_Geology @Geology_History]

May 1, 1980, Mount St. Helens is steaming. A new #USGS observation post is established on a ridge east of Coldwater I, called Coldwater II, just 6 miles (10 km) north of the inflating side of the mountain
https://t.co/fbw1SqeCb5

[History_of_Geology @Geology_History]

May 1, 1820, George Bellas Greenough publishes the "Geological Map of England and Wales" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿⚒️
https://t.co/JwRfyRWJrH

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

@PNathanail @youngbuspros @CalSleeper Definitely the best way to get there!

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

@palaeokatie S**t - I missed it. Was it recorded?

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

@markorkoma @PhysInHistory Fellow humans who are as infallible as he was

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

@StevenBalbus @PhysInHistory He wasn’t much of a philosopher either it seems

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

@PhysInHistory He needed to get out a bit more and… meet some creative types - composers, sculptors, painters, children… and “never” say never

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

@PhysInHistory Even he wasn’t infallible.

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

@sachajonmooney Enjoy - and make a difference!

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

@N_T_S @StKildaNTS Iona - for the community, the history and the fact I haven't been there

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

To my surprise, I got 7/10 in this @bbcarts quiz where you have to sort out the genuine Picassos from the AI fakes. Can you beat that? https://t.co/06e2NjJz94

[Mushtaq Bilal, PhD @MushtaqBilalPhD]

Nature rejected her paper for not being original,

University of Pennsylvania (her employer) demoted her,

and yesterday Katalin Karikó won the Noble Prize in physiology.

In mid-2000s, Karikó and her Drew Weismann submitted their paper on mRNA (messenger Ribonucleic Acid) to Nature.

Nature desk rejected their paper for being "an incremental contribution" only. The paper was later published in another journal, Immunity.

Earlier in her career at the University of Pennsylvania, Karikó was demoted because her applications for grants kept getting rejected.
But Karikó persevered and kept on going.

In 2013, she joined BioNTech, a German company founded by two scientists, Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci. In 2018, BioNTech partnered with Pfizer to develop mRNA vaccines against the influenza virus.

When the COVID-19 hit the world, Karikó's research helped Pfizer to produce the first vaccine against the disease.

I don't know how the Nature editors who desk rejected Karikó's paper and the Penn administration who demoted her feel about Karikó Nobel Prize.

Takeaway: Many academics and scientists worry about getting published in "prestigious" journals. Instead of worrying about prestige, we should try to put our work out as quickly as possible like Karikó did.

Once you put your work out without caring about prestige, two good things happen:

1. Your work will lead to newer opportunities.
2. You will start getting feedback from the scholarly community, which you can use to iterate and improve.

Here's another interesting Nobel Prize story.

Peter Higgs, a British physicist, joined the University of Edinburgh in 1956. By 1964, Higgs has published his groundbreaking work about subatomic particles.

After 1964, Higgs published less than 10 papers.
When his department would ask him how many papers, he published in a given year, he would reply "None."

It happened so often that he stared feeling like an "embarrassment to the department."

The University of Edinburgh, however, never fired Higgs because in 1980 he had been nominated for the Nobel Prize.

Higgs retired in 1996 and stayed on as an emeritus professor at Edinburg.

In 2012, experiments conducted at the CERN laboratory confirmed Higgs work and the existence of Higgs Particle.

And in 2013, Higgs was awarded the Noble Prize in physics and the University of Edinburgh got rewarded for being patient.

[Geoscience EnvAgency @GeoscienceEA]

💧Turning a vision for #GroundwaterMonitoring into reality through Natural Capital Ecosystem Assessment programme #NCEA

We are in the process of recruiting 14 #groundwater technical specialists across England & the first 5 positions are now live. Deadline 23 October. Links⬇️
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[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

And huge kudos to the dynamic duo who made sure it all went so smoothly

[Geologists' Assoc @GeolAssoc]

Many thanks to the organising committee, the presenters, sponsors and @WestmorlandGeo1 for planning and hosting such a successful event in their 50th anniversary year.

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

@NottArchaeology It’s still my favourite outcrop when I take hydrogeology students on field trips …

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

@greenbelt What a legacy he leaves behind! Thank you and RIP

[Stockholm Resilience Centre @sthlmresilience]

MAJOR UPDATE: All planetary boundaries are assessed, and six are crossed.

For the first time ever, scientists have quantified all nine planetary boundaries. Six of them are already transgressed and we are increasing pressure on the others.

Read more: https://t.co/QkDpxH2BOl

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

What an amazing experience - would have loved to have been there live (but quiet) #Staffa #FingalsCave

[Staffa National Nature Reserve NTS @StaffaNTS]

Music in Fingal's Cave.

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

#WCEF2023 Just signed up!

[Paul Nathanail @cpnathanail]

The World Circular Economy Forum 2023 starts tomorrow and is online (and free) https://t.co/U26FMqxo1k