#somepapers

The past few months I've started following a lot of geologists on Twitter. Some are students in some stage of their education. Some are in the same boat as me, toiling away down in the mines (or mine offices, anyway). Most of them have my dream job, stressing out about funding, writing, and teaching loads, while trying to learn about and help others get excited by the world around us.

Some of these geologists (and planetary scientists, biologists, and other science-types) have a goal of reading 365 scientific papers this year. I frequently think I should read more. Some of that impulse to read more science is driven by the desire to keep my geo-knowledge up to date for my job. But it's mostly because I love that stuff. I love to see what people can learn from looking at rocks at all scales. What can we learn from a few summers' of field work and hundreds of outcrops? What can minerals tell us about the deep earth when we point an electron beam at them?

Long story short, I love geology. And whether I stay in mining or make the jump into the academic world, I want to learn more about the earth. I don't have time to average a paper a day. I have long work days, long commutes, and I drive four hours to get home to my family every weekend. So I'm no jumping on the #365papers bandwagon. Instead, I'm starting a project I'm calling #somepapers.

I'll be reading some papers, with the goal to read one a week. Afterwards, I'm going to write down some thoughts about what I've read here on this blog. I'm going to borrow the format of my entries from someone else who is reading a paper a day (Paleopix). I might change my mind as I go, but I will start by summarizing what the paper is about, why it matters, and why I read it.

That's the plan. Welcome to #somepapers.