Category Archives: ScotBlogs Contributed

Muscle scars in tiny conical fossils: A new paper describing the musculature of Devonian tentaculitids from Armenia and what they mean for the biology and evolution of the group

A new paper on tentaculitid paleobiology and evolution has just appeared in its final form in the journal Historical Biology. The authors are headed by my Estonian friend Olev Vinn and include two new Armenian colleagues Tamara Hambardzumyan and Vahram… Continue reading

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Possible Linkages Between Climate and Human History in Ohio (the 4.2 yr. ka interval)

Nigel Brush and colleagues have assembled a record of human history in the Walhonding Valley of Ohio (see map below). Along with Jeffrey Dilyard and others, Brush has worked in the region for decades  examining the history of human occupation … C… Continue reading

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A spotty Middle Ordovician trilobite from Estonia: A new paper describing an ancient parasitic infection

One of the many reasons we need natural history museums is that they can curate large collections of specimens that can be examined for interesting features decades after they were bagged in the field. Recently my Estonian colleagues Olev Vinn … … Continue reading

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My First Patent

In last month’s blog post, I described my second patent, which raises the question, What was my first patent? In 1998, my colleagues and I were issued United States Patent No. US 5 789 961  “Nose- and coupling-tuned signal processor &#… Continue reading

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A new paper on James Parkinson’s neglected 19th century contributions to crinoid paleontology

About three years I became curious as to who the “Parkinson” was of Parkinson’s Disease. I found the Wikipedia entry for the man, and its first sentence is: “James Parkinson FGS (11 April 1755 – 21 December 1824) was an … … Continue reading

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A New Tree Ring Study from the Kashmir Valley, western Himalaya

The global tree-ring community is racking up the papers investigating the utility of the relatively new proxy using blue intensity of annually-dated tree rings. This latest effort is a blue intensity investigation followup of a recent study on ring wid… Continue reading

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A Beautiful Day at the South Wellfield

HYDRO25 the class. On a beautiful fall day the class investigated the South Wellfield – the mission was to take water levels from 15 observation wells and sample the groundwater, surface water and water emanating from the airstrippers. Isotopic a… Continue reading

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GSA – San Antonio 2025

At the alumni reception – a reunion. Elliot Miller (Wooster) presenting his IS work on geochemical analyses of palagonite and potential applications to Martian exploration. Mary Palmieri (Wooster) investigates the linkages of tree rings and cloud… Continue reading

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My Second Patent

Today, about six years after beginning the relevant research, my colleagues (and fellow inventors) and I have been issued U.S. Patent No. US 12,450,468 B2, “Physics augmented neural networks configured for operating in environments that mix order… Continue reading

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Fern Valley HYDRO25

Guest bloggers: Ihaja Metz and Cooper Norwell: On  September 29th, 2025 Dr. Wiles’s Hydrology class (along with Dr. Ison’s Field Botany class) took a trip out to Fern Valley, a College of Wooster monitering station on Wilkin run, a stream … Conti… Continue reading

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