Science: Polish Perspectives Cambridge 2019 - DAY 1 - Speakers Session 1: Physical and Applied Sciences


Watch one of our speakers - Anna Łosiak (University of Exeter) - giving a talk 'Death from Space: impact craters on Earth'!


Asteroids are constantly colliding with Earth. They can be very dangerous: just ask dinosaurs. Luckily for us, those gigantic planetary bodies arrive on our planet rarely; every 100 millions of years. Small bodies are more common: Chelabynsk-like object hits us every ¬100 years. I study places where small asteroids hit the surface of the Earth: impact craters. The aim of my study is to figure out what are the environmental effects of such collisions, to understand how dangerous they really are.


I travel all around the world to impact craters and with a hammer and shovel I do a lot of field geology. Later I bring samples to the laboratory in order to measure light reflected from dead bodies of organisms grilled alive by an asteroid. This info can be used to calculate how hot was the material within and around crater just after the impact. It is at least 550ºC.


My research will help to better prepare ourselves for the arrival of a small asteroid that will most probably hit us within the next 100 years. For example, we will be able to know how to organise evacuation of the area in danger. If we would like to avoid the fate of dinosaurs, we should study impact craters.


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#KeepCalmAndCurieOn

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What is SPP? Science: Polish Perspectives (SPP) is a series of events organised by Polonium Foundation to connect Polish scientific diaspora all over the world - with each other, and with other researchers all over the world. By bringing SPP events to this community, we hope to better understand it and give its members a platform for discussion with academia, policy makers and industry in Poland. All SPP events promote interdisciplinarity and encourage best outreach practices. Our annual SPP Conference happens since 2012 every autumn in Oxford or Cambridge and since 2017 in Berlin. The more local satellite events called SPP Meetups are being organised in different forms all over the world.

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Polonium Foundation is an independent NGO which brings together students, researchers and people associated with science. We address the negative phenomenon of emigration of highly skilled Polish researchers - "brain drain" - and transform it into a favorable two-way flow of people and ideas - "brain circulation". The Foundation’s activities are focused on linking and supporting Polish researchers working around the world, both in academia and R&D (research and development) sectors, as well as international researchers interested in research opportunities or collaborations with Poland. Regular contact and various types of initiatives have allowed the Foundation to build relationships with Polish scientific diaspora and many international scientists working in Poland and abroad.

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