Unlocking our ancient planet

Plate tectonics - you know what it is but have you thought about the continents that have come and gone as our planet kept spinning through time? In the 1960s, seafloor mapping off the coast of northwestern Australia suggested that a continent had broken off approximately 160 million years ago and drifted northwards to southeast Asia. But mysteriously, there are no major remnants of this lost continent in Asia. Perhaps some intensely deformed mountain belts can provide a clue? In this talk, I want to show you how scientists can restore lost oceans and continents to our maps.

Plant seeds are a vital source of food (and beer!), but have you ever wondered what’s in it for the plants? You gardeners know that getting plants to make seeds can be surprisingly tricky - this is because they are amazingly complicated things. So common today that you might think seeds have always been around, but they actually only evolved quite recently. How plants did this is still a mystery, but it has changed the face of life on earth. My research is trying to unpick that evolutionary enigma, and by doing so find out more about how modern seeds work to safeguard seeds for the future.

Fatty acids are tiny building blocks of cells. They can be preserved as molecular 'fossils' within sediments, providing tools for palaeoclimatologists to reconstruct past climatic conditions. Soil bacteria produce these fatty acids, adapting their chemistry in response to a changing climate. My PhD research explores the fatty acid distributions within soil and lake sediments across the USA to better understand the environmental controls on their production and how this can help us inform future climate change.