Why Geophysicists in Canada are freaking cool.

Geophysics ring with the tools of the trade and a seismic pulse

I guess it's no surprise that I have a profound love for paleontology which gave me a deep respect and admiration for earth sciences, among another things. I recently listened to the most recent episode of Talk Nerdy  with the wonderful Cara Santa Maria, and she had the pleasure of talking to a Canadian Geophysicist Mika Mckinnon.

Now, if you've never had the pleasure of listening to Cara Santa Maria, she's fantastic and just as big a dinosaur nerd as I am. Schooled in neuroscience, she is one of the best science communicators out there in how absolutely genuine and passionate she is about any field she is discussing.
Plus she has an archeopteryx tattoo, thus adding +50 to charisma and badassery.
In this episode, Mika gushes about how amazingly fascinating geophysics is, which to be very honest with you I had no idea about until this episode. The one thing that caught my attention in particular, was the mention of a Geo-science Ring awarded to scientists in the Association of Professional Engineers and Geo-scientists of Alberta.
Basically, only other Geo-scientists are awarded these boss silver pinky rings in a super exclusive, Science Mafia style club.
Researching into this further, I found out that Engineers in Canada get an Iron Ring as part of the same type of ceremony.

WHY DOESN'T THE U.S. HAVE THIS?!

A little about Geophysics from someone who knew 0 about it:

Geophysics is the study of the Earth's shape, gravitational pull, magnetic field and its dynamics. It also covers volcanoes, plate tectonics, and can sometimes branch into the moon cycles and how it effects the water on Earth. It overlaps geology quite a bit, and branches into the space around the planet as well which floats also into astrophysics. It's the study of the Earth and its place in the universe.

Geophysics is used in non-intrusive methods of archaeology and paleontology, such as ground penetrating radar. Now, that might sound familiar, as it was used in the very first scene with Dr. Grant in Jurassic Park.

And no, they can't just pull up the image of bones in the ground, much to my dismay. I found that out when I was in school and was heartbroken. If you're really interested in how exactly GPR works, you can check out this link to read about it.

You can find some lectures on YouTube about Geophysics, but I'm not going to lie to you...they are very dry as most lectures tend to be. Interesting, but not something I'm going to really dive head first into. Still, worth watching the basic intro courses just to have a better understanding of what all Geophysics is.

Not only is he field itself very interesting, I can't get over how amazingly cool it is that they have rings exclusively to those fields of study. We have class rings here in the US, but anyone can get those if you pay for them. Not the case when it comes to getting your silver or iron pinky ring.
In fact, part of the ceremony involved in getting this prestige is vowing to be a good scientist:

"I will not pass, ... false information or too casual interpretations in my work as an Earth scientist. My time I will not refuse, my thought I will not grudge; my care I will not deny towards the honour, use, stability and perfection of any project to which I may be called to set my hand. ... My reputation in my calling I will guard honourably .... I will strive my uttermost against professional jealousy and the belittling of my co-workers in any field of their labour." (Source: apega.org)

Beautiful.

Not only does that ring symbolize the work they do, but the standard in which they hold themselves for their publications, information, ethics and science.
I cannot express how elated that makes my heart. With so much pseudo-science and "woo" in the world today, seeing true honesty and respect for the truth, reason, logic and evidence gives me hope for the human race.

On a much more silly note, the concept of a science mafia made me squeal with delight. This should absolutely be turned into a comic series or an in depth, complex novel like the Song of Ice and Fire.
Think of the possibilities! I imagine the sciences, once a family bringing information to the masses and discovering the wonders of the universe, dashed apart by a blood feud over poor citations and plagiarizing. Or worse yet...going against the scientific method and plunging their lives in chaos!

Naturally the pinky rings would denote the higher ranked members of the family, and which field of science they follow.

Maybe next year NaNoWriMo?

Next post will be back to dinosaur related stuff, but I had to gush about how entertained I was by Canadian science pinky ring, and how absolutely wonderful it is. I think I'm going to try and start doing a "this week in dinosaur" post on Fridays with highlights of the cool stuff I read about on various blogs, podcasts and so on.

I'll hopefully start that this coming up week.