News
July 21st 2010- I spoke on “Are GM crops necessary to secure global food supplies at affordable prices?” at the summer conference on GM Crops and Food Security 2010-2050 put on by the ASSOCIATE PARLIAMENTARY FOOD & HEALTH FORUM at the House of Commons, London. My talk is available to download HERE.
November 12th 2009- I spoke on "Meat, methane and climate change" at the annual conference of Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC), the red meat promotion agency for Wales. This was a successful meeting and I shared the platform with the Welsh Minister for Rural Affairs.
November 2009- The publication of our review of silicon isotopes in biogenic silica: LENG, M.J., SWANN, G.E.A., HODSON, M.J., TYLER, J.J., PATWARDHAN, S.V. & SLOANE, H.J. (2009) The potential use of silicon isotope composition of biogenic silica as a proxy for environmental change. Silicon 1, 65-77.
October 31st 2009- My wife, Margot, and I led a day conference on the Bible and the Environment for Interserve, Switzerland in Bern. A report (in German)
August 2009- My wife, Margot, and I returned to Austria to take a seminar for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) on Bible and Environment: Christians in the 21st Century for the Bible and Culture course at Schloss Mittersill in Austria. We followed this up with a great holiday in Salzburg.
March 2009- The publication of the long-awaited DVD, arising from the Christian climate change tour, Hope for Planet Earth. As on the 2008 and 2009 tours, I contributed the section on the science of climate change: HODSON, M. (2009) The Problem. In Hope for Planet Earth. A Christian Response to Climate Change. A multimedia DVD resource for churches. (eds E. Morrice & F. Moffat). SJI, London. Copies can be purchased HERE
March 2009- The publication of the third edition of our best selling book on environmental impact assessment. As in the previous two editions I contibuted to the chapter on soils, geology and geomorphology: STAPLETON, C., HAWKINS, K. & HODSON M. (2009) Soils, Geology and Geomorphology. In Methods of Environmental Impact Assessment. The Natural and Built Environment Series (eds. P. Morris & R. Therivel). Routledge, Abingdon, UK. (3rd Edition) pp. 201-234.
February 2009- In January my wife, Margot and I moved out to Haddenham (about 18 miles from Oxford) where Margot became priest-in-charge of the benefice of Haddenham, Cuddington, Kingsey & Aston Sandford in February 2009. See St Mary's, Haddenham.
January 2009- The latest in our long series of papers in mineralization in conifer needles is now out: SANGSTER, A.G., HODSON, M.J. & LING, L.E.C. (2009) Biomineralisation / environment interactions in conifers: illustrated by hemlock, Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr. Quaternary International 193, 3-10.
August 2008- My wife, Margot, and I took a seminar for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) on Bible and Environment: Christians in the 21st Century for the Bible and Culture course at Schloss Mittersill in Austria. It was wonderful!
June 14th 2008- I was invited to speak on World Environmental Problems for a Tearfund meeting in Cambridge.
April 18th 2008- I attended the third meeting of IBiS at Oxford Brookes University, UK. The meeting mostly concerned the application of isotopes in biogenic silica to palaeoecology and biogeochemistry. I helped Adrian Parker a little with the organisation, chaired the morning sessions and gave a talk: Martin J Hodson & Adrian G Parker- Silicon isotopes in plants- where are we now?
April 2008- The publication of the first ever paper to simultaneously look at silicon, oxygen and carbon isotopes in phytoliths:
HODSON, M.J., PARKER, A.G., LENG, M.J. & SLOANE, H.J. (2008) Silicon, oxygen and carbon isotope composition of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) phytoliths- implications for palaeoecology and archaeology. Journal of Quaternary Science 23, 331–339.
Monday 18th February to Friday 14th March 2008- HOPE FOR PLANET EARTH. Share Jesus International, the John Ray Initiative, A Rocha, Tearfund and others put on a major national tour at 20 venues for schools and church groups looking at climate change. In total 5,000 teenagers attended the sessions in the day, and 3,000, mostly adults came in the evenings. I was the resident scientist on the tour, and gave all of the presentations on the science of climate change. It was exhausting, but very worthwhile! It is not impossible that there will be another tour next year!
February 2008- The publication of probably my most complex paper ever! Another in my series of papers in collaboration with Frederic Gerard: GERARD, F., MAYER, K.U., HODSON, M.J. & RANGER, J. (2008) Modelling the biogeochemical cycle of silicon in soils: application to a temperate forest ecosystem. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 72, 741-758.
November 2007- Continuing our long series of papers on mineral deposition in the conifers:
October 9th 2007- I spoke on "Human Population, the Environment and Faith" in a special session on "Faiths, Culture and the Environment" at Global Challenges, Global Solutions, The Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management annual conference. See http://www.ciwem.org/events/annual_conference/
June 2007- Coming out of the Prague meeting last year is my first ever publication in the field of environmental theology (well possibly my chapter is more theological education that anything!):
HODSON, M.J. (2007) Environmental Theology Courses in Europe- Where are we now? In "The Place of Environmental Theology: A guide for seminaries, colleges and universities." (eds. Weaver, J., Hodson M.R.). Published jointly by the Whitley Trust, UK and IBTS, Prague. pp. 107-120.
April 18th 2007. I attended the second meeting of IBiS at the British Geological Survey in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, UK. The meeting mostly concerned the application of isotopes in biogenic silica to palaeoecology. I gave a talk: Martin J Hodson, Adrian G Parker, Melanie J Leng & Hilary J Sloane-
Silicon and oxygen isotopes in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) phytoliths- implications for palaeoecology and archaeology. We are now writing this work up for publication next year. The conference was excellent, and we made some useful contacts.
March 2007. This month my latest paper in our series on mineral deposition in conifer needles was published in the special volume from the Prague "Acid Rain 2005" conference, and in collaboration with scientists from Canada and France:
SANGSTER, A.G., LING, L., GERARD, F. & HODSON, M.J. (2007) X-ray microanalysis of needles from Douglas fir growing in environments of contrasting acidity. Water, Air and Soil Pollution: Focus 7, 143-149. Abstract
13 Dec 2006. It is interesting that the site is one of only 86 UK sites catalogued under "Religion", one of 36 under "Life Sciences" and one of 94 for "Environment". Very few personal sites seem to be archived so far, and it is possible that we were selected for archiving because of the relatively "serious" nature of the material on hodsons.org. Not quite sure what historians will make of us!
January 22nd 2008- Cherishing the Earth. How to care for God's Creation. by Martin & Margot Hodson is now in Oxford, and we have some copies! This project has been 11 years in the making. Now we just have to sell some books!