compositions

The late great improviser/composer Kenny Wheeler once reported to the Guardian that what he liked doing best was “writing sad tunes, and then letting wonderful musicians destroy them”. The New York guitarist and new-music original Mary Halvorson (who, like Wheeler, was once a receptive disciple in the challenging bands of veteran boundary-buster Anthony Braxton) has also made a home in the turbulently dreamlike spaces where composition and the whims of improv meet. Lessons learned as a live improviser and off-stage as an…

The δ56Fe isotope variation among different boninite sampling suites. Credit: IOCAS Subduction-zone magmas are characterized by high fluid contents and Fe3+/ΣFe ratios, which are closely associated with slab-derived fluids during subduction. However, instead of a heavier iron isotope composition preferred under an oxidized state, arc magmas have lighter iron isotope compositions than seafloor basalts, including mid-ocean ridge…

You want to know something funny? We don't actually know how our planet formed. We have a broad general idea, but the finer details are a lot trickier to unravel.We do have a model that is currently accepted as the most likely explanation so far: that Earth formed from the gradual accretion of asteroids. However, even here, there are some facts about the formation of our planet that are challenging to explain.  A new paper, combining experimentation with modeling, has revealed a new formation pathway that much more…