Fumio Inagaki was awarded the 2015 Asahiko Taira International Scientific Ocean Drilling Research Prize at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 16 December 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. The Taira Prize is a partnership between AGU and the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU), and is made possible through a generous donation from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International (IOPD-MI). The prize honors an individual for "outstanding transdisciplinary research accomplishment in ocean drilling."
CC-BY-NC 2016
Claudia Joan Alexander (1959–2015)
Alexander is remembered for her leading role in the Galileo and Rosetta missions and her efforts to encourage women scientists from underprivileged and underrepresented groups.
Where Curiosity Has Taken Us
The Curiosity rover, one of NASA's flagship missions, analyzes Martian geology, geochemistry, climatology, and radiation to assess whether Mars could have supported microbial life.
Sandi Doughton Receives 2015 David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism – News
Sandi Doughton received the 2015 David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism – News at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 16 December 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes "a journalist for a news story or series in any medium except books that makes information about the Earth and space sciences accessible and interesting to the general public."
New Technology and Teamwork to Tackle Ocean Color Radiometry
International Ocean Colour Science Meeting; San Francisco, California, 15–18 June 2015
Ancient Start of Animal Evolution Wasn't Delayed by Low Oxygen
New research finds that Earth had sufficient oxygen 1.4 billion years ago for animals to evolve. Therefore, low oxygen levels probably didn't hold back evolution, as scientists have long thought.
New Step Toward Finding Earth 2.0
Researchers unveil a way to tease out the wobble of a star caused by unseen planets despite the confounding effects of star spots, which are the sunspots of distant stars.
Douglas Fox Receives 2015 Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism – Features
Douglas Fox received the 2015 Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism – Features at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 16 December 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes "a journalist for a feature story or series in any medium except books that makes information about the Earth and space sciences accessible and interesting to the general public."
Focus on the Future of Polar Research
The First World Summit of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists; Sofia, Bulgaria, 6–8 June 2015
AGU Opens Its Journals to Author Identifiers
The society is incorporating into its publications new identification codes akin to the digital object identifiers used for journal articles, but for field samples, funders, and more.
