Science
Earth Science
In this episode of Earth Science, we explore the fascinating world of geology and its interdisciplinary connections to other sciences. Our guest shares their journey into the field, highlighting the e...
Earth Science
Science •
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Interactive Transcript
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I must have seen Evolcano on a TV programme I thought, ah, that's quite interesting.
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I was big and fiery and I'd want to know more.
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I become a terrible bore at parties whenever people ask me what subject I do because I
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reel off all the wonderful things about my subject and then people like, yeah, she's
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a rock girl.
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I just always like the sciences and wanted to do physical geography but didn't really
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like the humans in it.
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I was just point where I went on the Oxford website and it was like, oh, science is
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I'll click on that and suddenly this world opened up to me and it was just very inviting.
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It's nice to be able to explain those things that people take for granted otherwise that
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people think are so beautiful and take pictures of and their inspirations to artists and
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to poets and things and you can say, well, there's some science behind it.
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So, to core study involves a broad application of a broad range of sciences towards understanding
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our home planet.
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Earth sciences is like geology plus so we do all the things about the rocks, we do the volcanoes,
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we do the earthquakes, we do glaciers, we do everything under the sun, quite literally
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under the sun and other planets.
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And what I think Earth sciences is it takes all those ideas from geologists that further
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and we apply ideas for maths, we apply ideas from physics, we apply ideas from chemistry
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biology and all these other sciences so it's really holistic subject.
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You spend your time not just doing, like, looking at old crusty fossils which wasn't what
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I was particularly interested in but looking at the oceans and the atmospheres and how the
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stars were formed so it was a wider course and maybe at other places which were quite
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attracted me.
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In the first two years there's very limited choice in what you can do.
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In the first year you will take compulsory courses in maths, physics, chemistry, biology,
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one which we call the fundamentals of geology, one in paleobiology and we have a capstone
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course in the first year called Planet Earth.
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I'm so glad they've made me take what I have to take because I've studied everything
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and I can really, like, I can make an informed decision about what I actually like and what
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I don't like.
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The thing I found most challenging at the beginning was potentially the geology that I hadn't
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done before and that's not to put people off.
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It's a big commitment as far as workload goes, it's quite heavy.
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It's kind of lecture intense but actually you get used to it very quickly.
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In the first year you will have around 11 or 12 hours of lecture as every week.
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You will have about 9 hours of practicals.
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You arrive in first year within a week, you disappear off to the south of Wales to
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Pembrokeshire which is incredibly good actually because you really bond with your tutors
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with the rest of your group.
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Field courses are an integral part of the course and particularly in the first and second
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years they involve some travel outside of the academic term.
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There's a Scottish trip to the Isle of Aron also in first year.
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Start a second year we go to Dorset, the Jurassic Coast.
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I'm sure lots of people have been there, walked along the beaches hoping to find a massive
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ammonite.
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In the fourth year half the year has taken up with the research project and that research
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project is actually a real piece of science.
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We don't come up with nody projects to fill half a year of your time.
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And the large amount of research project work in the course does really enable you to
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pick something and just go with it.
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In the third and fourth years there's much more scope for choosing options and going your
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own way.
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It's a really good opportunity.
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The department say we can fund you some money, the college say we can give you some money.
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I went to Italy, Northern Italy and maps and Ophiolite which is basically part of the
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sea floor that's been pushed up onto the land.
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It's so incredible, you really are, you're out there, you've chosen your area, you've
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worked out all the logistics, all the accommodation and you're out there in the field.
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Usually it's raining, usually your field slip is getting wet and you're holding your
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compass going where can I take a bearing to?
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How do I know where I am?
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We have the Oxford University, Georgia's start to use GS and everyone is given the option
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to join in the beginning and throughout the year we have amazing speakers, we have amazing
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workshops, we have different companies coming in and talking about prospective internships,
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perceptive careers.
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I mean we have geology nights out and we go and we go for meals and there's such an interaction
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between all the years.
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It's a really good thing is everyone in the department has a speciality and if you need
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to know something about somewhere or something you literally, you can knock on the door of
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that person's office, you have ten minutes now and they'll say yeah I have an hour now,
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what do you want to know?
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If you look at any of the global rankings you'll find that we are way up there in the top
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five or ten degree courses in the world.
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We've got a fantastic building up in slightly north of Oxford, we've got our own library
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which is an incredible resource to have.
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If we didn't have the libraries that we did I would have spent hundreds of pounds on
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books by now just because you learn that the internet and Wikipedia isn't enough anymore.
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We have a massive mass spectrometer that must be tons, what weight of an elephant that
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has been cramed in through the wall and you can just see it but at the same time I get
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to use a microscope which is something I've had a proper geological microscope before.
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We have to resource that is the tutorial where you will again be taught in very small groups
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two or three by again some of the leading scientists in the world.
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None of us at Exeter College have done geology before so we walked in and there were just
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rocks on the desk and it's like I'll choose to pick up the rock and he says do you have
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any idea what this is and the blank faces around the room was very impressive but by the
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end of that one hour we were you know picking rocks up and going oh that's from this
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part of the earth that's that rock.
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You go into a tube it's a little first year and sit there and quizzes you and you have
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no idea what to say and you come out at the end of the hour and I can't do anything
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for the rest of the day because I'm just exhausted.
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First year you will normally have two tutorials a week and we would expect you to do anywhere
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between six and eight hours of preparation per tutorial.
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Later on in the course you can have tutorials from experts in that field so if you're struggling
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a bit in igneous petrigenesis for example your college tutor will recommend a postgraduate
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or lecture who's willing to take tutorials covering whatever it is you're struggling with.
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You never don't know anything you just need to work to the artist never black and white
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it's never our our know where or you don't know it you know something and they just help
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you to help you to get there.
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What we try and do at interviews we try and go beyond what's what's told at A level
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and we'll try and get you to look at problems in a new way we'll get you to look at a problem
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that you should be able to address using what you already know.
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Sit down and they ask you a question and they just want to see how you work you don't have
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to get the right answer that's that's not what the whole interview price is about.
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The thing we're really looking for beyond academic excellence is a natural curiosity and a passion
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for science and a passion for understanding the natural world.
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These people in front of you are just there to really coax out the scientists in you.
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What we're going to try and do pretty much straight away is we're going to hit you with
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a problem and we're going to try and see how you think it way around that particular problem.
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They're not there to trick you out and so I had some nasty problems and there was one
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that I didn't know the answer to and they sort of worked me through and helped me through
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it so it's supposed to be like a mini tutorial they don't want to see how much you know
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now they want to see what they can get out of you and the potential and your willingness
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to learn and your willingness to take on new ideas.
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It's not all about just getting heaps of AES at GCSEs and heaps of AES at AS level.
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It's about taking what you have learned and then applying it a new way to a completely
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new problem.
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You can't tell in an Oxford interview how well you're doing, whether you think you've
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done well, I came out practically crying, convinced I'd done appallingly and then the next day
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they said no you don't need a second interview and I thought oh well that's it then they've
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decided I'll completely rubbish.
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I received one letter from the college I'd applied to saying they unfortunately couldn't
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take me and but it was a special sign letter saying that another college would give me
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an office that was really exciting.
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When you get the notice through UCAS that there is an offer log in to see it and then
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for me Oxford had said yes and I was astonished, thrilled.
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And my advice to you is if you're interested in the subject and you think you have a good
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academic standard then you should apply.
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What employers tell us one of the things that they greatly value from our course is the
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fact that people who graduate from this course are actually very good at lateral thinking.
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I'm off to work for BP over the summer which I was lucky enough to get as it was 11
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weeks after an Aberdeen, sunny Aberdeen.
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I'm hoping to maybe continue on further education to a postgraduate degree in some topic I haven't
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quite decided yet.
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Number of students who leave here get jobs in completely different fields but will always
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heart back on about how their own science is to be prepared done for any job they've got.
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You can take gel as you go anywhere you like, I think.
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I know it sounds very choosing and very cliché but to honestly feel this induced about
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that as a subject is something that I think Oxford has been a part of.
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I think my department has been a part of and I think if you just enjoy a subject then
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Oxford is definitely the case because this is a place where things get done.