Ben Abbott: Budding Scientist with Bad News

Some news the other day that has a father's heart beating proud, even while it scares the pants off me.


My son Ben is co-author of an article that just appeared in Nature. He let me know through his blog, which you can find here:


http://moosedent.blogspot.com/2011/11/first-scientific-pub.html


Here's the actual article:


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2226716/Schuur%20and%20Abbott%202011.pdf

There have been reports on the article in Time, The Washington Post, and lots of other places, including this one in Ben's local Fairbanks newspaper (with three nice photos of Ben at work):


Ben Abbott, a University of Alaska Fairbanks doctoral student at the Institute of Arctic Biology, poses in the ecology lab Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, where he tests soil and water samples for carbon content. Abbott, along with seven other UAF researchers co-authored with an international group of fellow scientists an article appearing in the scientific journal Nature. They believe greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost will be released at a much faster rate than previously estimated, which could have significant implications for climate change projections. Sam Harrel/News-Miner 


Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - New estimate boosts permafrost contribution to climate change 


So, we'll celebrate Ben's very first published scientific article while soberly contemplating the future of our fragile life on earth.


I had a student ask me if Ben believed in global warming. I don't know if he believes in it, I said, but he's studying it.