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Anthony
Alvarez Scott Wing, Ph.D. "Sometimes, finding nothing is more important than finding something, but it's rarely as exciting. With this project I not only found beautiful and amazing things, but I have left a legacy that will help others to find beautiful and amazing things in the future as well." |
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Using Computers and Fossils to demystify
global warming Global
warming is an area of growing debate in the world today. Scientists
disagree on what effects higher carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere and
rising global temperatures will have on living creatures. Scientists
at the Smithsonian are is working on this problem using evidence that
can be found in the fossilized remains of plants and animals. About
55.5 - 54.8 million years ago our planet extremely and rapidly heated
up over a short period of time under conditions very similar to those
of current global warming trends. These fossils are therefore able
to tell us about what we might have to look forward to if the current
trends continue. Since this was a geologically short event, it is
difficult to locate deposits where fossils from the correct time period
can be found. The deposits are a small volume of rock (generally a
few meters to a few tens of meters thick) along the very large face
of a hill or mountain (generally several kilometers thick). Inexperienced
people can spend days searching and find nothing and even seasoned
veterans sometimes come home from a day empty handed. This research
focused on solving this problem through computerization. Using state-of-the-art
computer programs, electronic maps and three-dimensional models were
produced. By applying this technology to more traditional methods
of discovery, scientist can now find fossil deposits in places that
they had never thought to look, places they had looked but missed
them, and save them time when looking in places they intended to look.
All of this leads to a faster and more accurate answer to the question,
"what are the effects of global warming." This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, Award Number DBI-0243512. |