Archive for September, 2009

My walk to work

Since I broke off my stay at UC Santa Cruz have been a guest researcher at “Leibniz-Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Stable Isotope Research”. Yiming & I are so fortunate to live in an apartment less than 2 km from the lab and usually I prefer walking there. Although Kiel is considered a dull and uninspiring town in terms of its architecture (80% of the old town was destroyed during the last war) it has many green areas with beautiful trees that I happen to pass through on my way to work.

I have not yet made much progress on my ongoing projects  partially because I’m waiting for new funding and partially because I’m getting trained in operating instruments in the lab. Right now I’m helping Yiming measuring hydrogen isotopes in plant waxes extracted from ocean sediment cores. Climate researcher are working non-stop these days to acquire such data because are informative of precipitation records in the past and how terrestrial plant communities have changed. This can lead us to a better understanding of the changes in temperatures and weather patterns we’re experiencing.

We live on this street

We live on this street

Farmer's market on Blücherplatz - next to where we live

Farmer's market on Blücherplatz - next to where we live

Kiel's old water tower has kind of a Bismarck inspired style to it

Kiel's old water tower has kind of a Bismarck inspired style to it

Green area next to Westring

Students from the nearby vocational training school in the background

Fall is coming

Fall is here

The lab has the long and rather cumbersome name "Leibniz-Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Stable Isotope Research"

The lab has the long and rather cumbersome name "Leibniz-Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Stable Isotope Research"

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