Thank you, Bruce Railsback

I love the periodic table.

I've mentioned my love before, but this time I'm mentioning it in conjunction with a nice little coincidence.

The Girl is a couple of weeks away from heading to Saint Louis for the graduation of her (ok, our) niece from high school. From there, the niece is heading to the Missouri University of Science and Technology (in Rolla, MO). There she is planning to major in geological engineering with a focus on explosives.

How geeky is that?

I'm all down with supporting somebody - especially a girl, especially in my family - heading into the sciences, and if she's got explosives in the specialty, that's even better.

So I'm looking to order an Earth Scientist's Periodic Table of the Elements - created by UGA prof, Bruce Railsback - for her graduation present. One of my former co-workers, a petroleum engineer by training before becoming a teacher, commented that he would have loved to have had this periodic table when he was in college, that there were a bunch of relationships that made more sense presented visually (as they are on the table) than they had ever made before.

So maybe it'll be helpful.

The poster's available from the Geological Society of America's online bookstore, but I have a few questions before I order it there (is it in color? is it a single, big poster? can I get it rolled rather than folded?). If ordering it online is the choice, I'll probably add in a geologic time scale poster...and maybe some wallet cards, too.

She'll be the favorite geek in her freshman classes.