Beatnik goes Geek:part 1

This is the first post of many concerning my trip to Iowa, because, frankly, i went camera crazzzy, thus; i have a plethora of beautiful geek pictures for you.

Preface: I am currently a geology major, and taking a paleontology class, which is inherently interesting. We focus on invertebrates, so any sea creature you can think of that lived more than 300 million years ago, i am studying it. Lets get on with the pictures:

The first stop we made was at the ever-lovely Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois where we met the man who led an expedition to Antarctica and stubbed his toe on this:

In 1990, Dr. Bill Hammer (i met him!) found this full skull, along with various other body parts and named it crylophosaurus, and its 200 million years old.

Then, the curator of the Fryxel Museum led us into Augustana's repository where they keep specimens they use for teaching purposes, score!

tiny sea horse.

This is how they make pearl buttons....

and one of my personal favorites:

the original tye dye.

this is actually petrified wood that has had many minerals flow through it, giving it its quite distinctive reds, yellows, and blues (sorry the picture makes it look black)

this concludes part one of the beatnik goes geek series, but i have a giveaway planned for the end of the ioway posts, for sure.

check back with me

peace for tomorrow