#fossil prep

[fossilprep]

Sisyphus, holotype of Daspletosaurus wilsoni is now on display at Badlands Dinosaur Museum! The cranial elements will be added after they undergo CT scanning.

[geeklywhimsical]

Along with all the new earring designs, I got some more charms to restock my fossil earrings! I’m trying to get ready for Summer Con in a few weeks. I’ll have a few new prints, a keychain, & the spiderman earrings all releasing that weekend. Can’t wait to show off everything!

✨ GeeklyWhimsical.com ✨

[vpofcookies]

UwU

[harmonious]

I wish applying for jobs in my field wasn’t literally a lottery. Gonna start casting spells on the other hundred+ candidates.

[hazelplaysgames]

uh. it ain’t February yet, Tyrogue. this ain’t even the game i wanted to hunt shinies in this year!

i got Catalog 100 in Splat 3 a few days ago, and i decided to get some prep stuff done for the monotype runs coming up, and... well, it’s a given since they look normal on the world map, but i wasn’t expecting this guy to pop up at me! no pokemon with status moves on this temporary team, i was pretty worried i’d actually miss catching him. thankfully, he cooperated about ball 20.

[dirkxcaliborn]

I thought it would be a really traumatic moment in the story but in actuality the real trauma was done unto me by the complete lack of preparation in that scene. Like not even an acknowledgement of any sort. Especially given the nature of the story you'd think there'd be some kind of consequence for doing absolutely zero prep but um. No.

[janeyseymour]

Love Thy Neighbor- pt 5

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4

Summary: Melissa helps you out. It's not helping the feelings that you have for her.

WC: ~2.15k

You’ve been teaching for a few weeks at Abbott a this point now, and you are eternally grateful for this job. You get to take Ellie with you to school, you don’t have to race around to pick her up after. The staff is nice enough, and your kids are wonderful. They absolutely adore you more than anything. Receiving drawings and cards is an almost daily occurrence, and it melts your heart- your students out in Utah never did things like this. 

You work closely with Melissa during your preps to make sure that your room is going well, and any questions that you have you’re able to ask her. She’s so willing to help you with both big problems (realizing that you have no teacher’s manual for the science unit that you’re set to start the next week) and the small (standing in between your classrooms when you have to use the bathroom so desperately you’re afraid you’re going to get a UTI).

( “Fuck,” you curse softly during your prep while you’re ripping every drawer and cabinet open in your room.

“What’s going on, hun?” She magically appears in your doorway. “You look frazzled, and I can hear the cabinets opening and closing over in my room.”

“Shoot, sorry,” you turn and sigh softly. “I can’t find the science manual that I’m supposed to be basing these science lessons off of.”

“That may be my fault,” the redhead admits with a smirk. “I hated it, so I burnt it and made up my own lessons. You have all the materials for what you have to get done, and I can help you out at home tonight if you bring your planner home.”

“I’ll make dinner.”

—

You’re squirming in your chair, desperate for the bathroom. But your kids are taking a test, and every time you pop your head out the door, there is no one there for you to pull into your room for a quick three minutes while you rush down the hall to relieve yourself.

Melissa appears in your door though to ask you a quick question, and she can immediately see the discomfort written into your face.

“Are you okay?” she asks softly as she makes her way over to your desk.

You shake your head. “I really have to-”

“Go,” is all she has to say for you to take off in the direction of the bathroom.

You come back a few minutes later, much more relaxed now. “Thank you. What’s up?”

“Just came to see if you needed any copies made- I’m sending Ashley to do some… woman’s driving me nuts lately.”

You roll your eyes fondly. “There’s a stack of papers there to be copied and filed if you want to send her in… and I can always come up with other ways to keep her occupied and out of your hair.”

“That would be great,” the redhead smiles at you softly. “Thanks.” )

All of these situations at school, combined with the ones at home are not helping the feelings that you have developed for the fiery redheaded second grade teacher.

At school, she’s sweet enough, but outside of school hours… it’s even worse.

You have your car now, but she still insists on carpooling with you.

( “It’s more cost efficient, and Jacob isn’t on my ass about burning too many fossil fuels now that we come in together,” she rolls her eyes.

“At least let me drive,” you sigh.

“Her booster is already in my car,” Melissa retaliates. “Just get in.” )

Ellie insists on spending time with her whenever she can, and when you think that it’s getting to be too much for Melissa, she’s waving you off and telling you that having the two of you around is the best thing that’s happened to her. She helps Ellie with homework while you’re lesson planning, she insists on making dinner at least twice a week, your little girl is on her hip at dismissal everyday and falls asleep- only for the redhead to shush everyone around her before she carries her out to the car, the two watch cartoons together and snuggle… she’s really stepped up and stepped in for your daughter when she needed some extra love and care.

And with doting on Ellie the way that she does, she’s also doting on you.

( “You eating enough?” she asks you one day when she sees that you’ve hardly touched your meal. You’re instead pouring over your kids’ essays and grading them frantically.

“I’ll eat after I finish grading these and putting them in,” you wave her off. “You and Ellie eat.”

“We already did, Momma,” your daughter says from the couch, reaching for the television remote. How’d she get there?

Before you can respond, there’s a forkful of gnocchi being held up to your mouth, and Melissa is sitting there giving you a look that says not to argue.

“Thank you,” you sigh softly as you open your mouth. She feeds you the rest of your dinner, despite your daughter begging for attention from the redhead.

Only when you’re finished eating does the woman go and pull the little girl on the couch into her lap.

You continue to grade until you have both of them standing at your side. Or, Melissa is standing at your side while Ellie is clinging to her, settled on her hip.

“Momma, you have to come tuck me,” your little girl yawns out. “Miss Mel said it’s bedtime.”

You glance up at the clock to see that it is indeed Ellie’s bedtime. Your heart melts at the thought that the redhead has so seamlessly integrated herself into your life that she not only knows your daughter’s bedtime, but is able to implement it without your daughter making a fuss over it.

The two of you get the little girl into bed and read with her before flicking off the light. You make your way back to the kitchen table to continue grading, and when you expect her to leave, she instead sits down and takes a hefty portion of the grading that you still have to do. Her glasses are on her face, and her eyes are trained on the work in front of her. She grabs one of the pens that you have sitting on the table and opens it to mark a few things.

You’re so busy watching her that you forget to continue grading yourself. She nudges you gently.

“I’m tryin’ to help you, hun,” she chuckles. “You gotta do some work though too.”

You take the graded papers are start entering them into grade book with a sigh. With the two of you working together, grades get put in rather quickly. You can’t help but grin at her sleepily as she grades the last one for you, and you enter the number. 

“I think you just saved my life,” you sigh softly. You lay a gentle hand over hers and squeeze it gently.

“I think you need some sleep, hun,” she tells you gently. “Get to bed, and I’ll see myself out.”

“Or we could just hang out on the couch?” you suggest. “I like when you’re here with me… and I love when it’s me, you, and El, but having some adult time is nice.”

She chuckles but nods and leads you to the couch. She settles into the corner of it, and you slide in next to her, grabbing a blanket.

It’s warm, it’s domestic, it’s cozy. Her arm is draped around you lazily, your head nuzzled into the crook of her neck as you curl up and find a program to watch.

You doze off, and you’re not quite sure for how long because the next thing you know Ellie is climbing on top of you with tears in her eyes. Melissa is still there with you, eyes opening blearily.

“Momma,” the little girl whines and settles herself, half in your lap and half in Melissa’s. “Miss Mel.”

“What’s wrong, sweetness?” you ask her gently, teasing the little wisps at the base of her neck. You press a delicate kiss to her temple, and you see Melissa also move the arm not wrapped around you to soothingly rub your daughter’s back.

“Bad dream,” she mumbles as she lays against the two of you.

You sigh softly. “Do you want to talk about it, or try to head back off to dreamland?”

“Dreamland,” she yawns as she rubs her eyes. “But I want you and Miss Mel with me.”

At the mention of her, the redhead’s eyes widen just slightly.

“Please,” Ellie mumbles as she curls into your neighbor’s side. “Please.”

“Momma will come lay with you,” you try to placate softly. You attempt to pull her into your arms, but she desperately reaches for the woman next to you. “We won’t all fit in your bed, sweet girl,” you tell her.

“Momma’s bed,” she mumbles as she wiggles out of your hold and into Melissa’s. The redhead glances at you, and you shrug.

Knowing that if you deny Ellie right now, she will have a meltdown, and you just don’t have it in you to deal with that. You nod, praying to God that your room is clean.

“Mel can stay for a little bit,” Melissa tells the little girl in her arms. “Until you fall asleep.”

The three of you make your way to your bedroom, Ellie sandwiched between the two of you in bed. Ellie clings to the redhead as she starts to fall back asleep. Melissa hums a sweet little tune before she quietly starts to sing a lullaby in a different language. You realize that it’s Italian quickly, and her voice is so gentle and smooth- even at the soft volume. While it lulls your daughter to sleep, it also lulls you to sleep. 

When you wake up again to your alarm, Ellie’s little head pops up from Melissa’s chest before flopping back down gently. If the redhead wasn’t already awake, she is now. “Oof.”

“You stayed,” Ellie whispers.

“I didn’t really have a choice when you decided to use me as your body pillow,” the woman chuckles softly.

You look over at your girl, who is in fact fully on top of Melissa the way that she usually lays on you after a nightmare.

“Oopsies,” Ellie grins. She doesn’t look sorry in the slightest. Then she jumps up. “Time to see Mrs. Howard?”

“Yeah, sweetness,” you chuckle. You love that she adores her kindergarten teacher. “After we get ready, and you have to let Miss Melissa up.”

She uses the two of you as launchpads to sprint into her bedroom, and the two of you fall back into the pillows gently. You turn your head to look at her.

“Thank you,” you say softly, a smile on your face.

“For?”

“Being here for El and me,” you sigh. “It’s made this adjustment to this new life a lot easier.”

Her eyes are so warm as they stare into your own, and she flits her gaze down to your lips.

As much as you want to kiss her right now, you know you shouldn’t. It would be unprofessional… and you have morning breath. Instead, you throw the blankets back on your side and roll out of bed.

She watches you. She’s thought you were gorgeous for quite some time now, but in the morning when you’re just you and not ‘Miss Y/N’ may be her favorite look of yours.

“Stop,” you laugh awkwardly as you feel her gaze while you try to pick out your outfit. “I look like a mess right now, and you should be getting ready for work too.”

“You’re stunning,” she tells you honestly. “But yes… I should probably head over to my apartment to get ready.” She rolls out of bed and starts to make her way out when you catch her arm gently.

“Thank you,” you say softly as you squeeze her arm.

“Of course.”

She heads for the front door, and you can hear Ellie yelling her goodbyes from her bedroom.

“I’ll be back in a little bit,” the redhead promises. “And then we’ll go to school together. I think your momma’s driving too.” The door closes after that, and as you get ready, you let your mind wander about what would change if you decided to just say fuck it and kiss her again. The two of you would probably end up together… 

But really, with her across the hall and practically being a part of your family already, what more would change? Not much. But if you were to date and then split? That would be… hell.

Maybe she’s worth the risk though. You shrug in the mirror and shake your head as you try to focus on what has to be done today.

Maybe with time… only time will tell. 

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

This Saturday we will have a special stream to help raise funds for a new prep lab in Peru, home of Perucetus and many more fantastic creatures yet to be described and discovered. Rewards are waiting!

The campaign tries to establish a new dedicated prep lab because recent discoveries have made it more and more difficult to house the ever growing collection. Peru doesn't have much funding for paleontology so it's up to the public to make this happen...#

If you pledge to the campaign and send me during the stream a confirmation of payment in DM's you are able to get a free wish for a 10 min sketch, except for humans and NSFW stuff I basically do anything that is doable within 10 min, here some examples:

As usual this will happen on Twitch.

[katsukiizmoon]

Katsuki BKG + Neurodivergent Reader

(random rambles and hcs)

Buys CLEAR glass containers to put leftovers in the fridge and puts a cute sticky pad on the fridge to remind you that they’re there !

Helps you label everything to avoid doom boxes

Biweekly clean outs to get rid of any clutter you’re getting anxious over !! Yea !!

Keeps big beautiful display cabinets for your favorite items (toys, figures, fossils, bugs, etc!)

Sees sensory overload from a mile away and offers to take over to let you cool down. Reminds you where the earphones/headphones are !! Also keeps weighted blankets, etc in the house

Speaking of sensory he memorizes your favorite sensory toys and remembers to buy a few here and there! Moon sand ! Slime ! Orbz! Whatever ! Yea!

Is not afraid to watch the same movie/shows over and over with you. He still gets time to watch his own shows with you, of course, you’re more than happy to but he doesn’t mind watching your favorites!

Reminds you to eat when he knows you’ve been fixated on something. Whether it be one of your favorite things or something new you’re obsessed with, he’s already prepared with easy to make, little prep meals in the fridge/freezer.

Keeps safe foods in the house at all times. Not negotiable, they stay in the house and if you run low he stocks back up immediately !!

Takes you on nature walks/zoos/aquariums/whatever your favorite thing is to do/ dates ! If he knows you’ve been struggling lately with motivation, it’s a no brainer to take you somewhere you’ll feel the happiest. Let’s you pick stuff from the gift shop easy!

GIVES U THE MENU BEFORE U GO ANYWHEREEEEEE!!! He’s literally got menus printed to hand you before you go so you’re not anxious!!

Always asks you if you’d like a booth or table !! Does the talking so you don’t feel awkward!! Ya!

Remembers what textures you like/dislike! Microfiber/microfleece he never makes u touch!! Cause what the fuck is with that texture making my teeth itch

Let’s you help make weekly meal plans so neither of you get too caught up and forget to eat ! Yup yup!

CARRIES FIDGET TOYS IN HIS POCKET!! I said what I SAID! In the center console of his car he keeps a spare of noise cancelling headphones, teethers for when you need to chew, fidget spinners/cubes/pop it’s/ etc!

[sincerely-sofie]

Concept: If you stray too far from the main path of a passage of time, you will end up in a completely different time period than intended.

Fact: Dusknoir has six sableye accompanying him on missions to get those meddling kids, and their little lizard, too.

Additional Concept: The sableye are horrible little menaces with major “Ooh! Shiny!” syndrome and are prone to running off after potential trinkets they spot.

Theory: There were so many instances while traveling through passages where the sableye strayed from the main path in the noble pursuit of Shiny Pretty Treasure that Dusknoir had to come up with a strategy to minimize all the times where they had to turn around and go rescue the sableye(s) who got stuck in the fossil Pokémon era again.

Idea: In a post-credits AU where the future trio are living in the present, the gang are all prepping to time travel somewhere, and he instructs them to use this strategy out of habit. What ensues is Dusknoir having a small heart attack when he realizes and Celebi getting the most beautiful teasing material she has ever seen.

[techno-dragon]

Literally cannot find melonsaurus anywhere. Please share the horror I'm so curious

Hi I just reblogged that post with an explanation but I'm happy to put a longer version here too lol

So like six years ago when I was a member of the Fossil Fighters Amino (hell app) I was looking at stuff about Frontier on YouTube when I stumbled across this video.

Birby here uses emulators and managed to find a lot of unused stuff for Frontier, including unused Paleo Pals (like Stryker, Professor Little, etc.) but they also found a bunch of "unused" vivosaurs. These were really placeholder vivosaurs cuz the assets/models of what they were supposed to be weren't actually made (unlike the Paleo Pals, which uses characters that already exist in the actual game.) These included the Dummy vivosaurs and what we refer to as "Melonsaurus."

And yeah these things are weirdly enough kind of creepy. First we have this "wooden dummy dino."

Yeah it's literally just a theropod with a wooden texture. Maybe these were originally going to be training dummies or animation testers but whatever they were they somehow move. Also it has a placeholder icon in the Battle Prep menu!

Now onto the famous "Melonsaurus." It's this thing.

Once I found this video of course I started talking about it on the Amino, and we sort of dubbed it "Melonsaurus" because its body kind of resembles a watermelon. It's also a better name than "pict_book_help." There's actually multiple of these which means there were probably going to be more vivosaurs in the game but were ultimately axed (if I had to take a guess I'd blame crunch time.)

So yeah. This creepy little thing even spawned some fan art that may or may not still exist. I still have my drawing of it from back in the day!

[fossilprep]

With the completion of the cervical block, the holotype of Daspletosaurus wilsoni has been fully prepared. Approximately 350 hours shared between both Annamarie Fadorsen and I.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Noticed that none of the widely known Dino’s aren’t in the competetion…..which is honestly good cause the trex would have absolutely swept

So actually this is our 6th dinosaur march madness! (5th, technically, anyway). We've been doing this for ages, ever since I got inspired by a similar thing on twitter (mammals, not dinosaurs)!

Year one was way back in 2016 - we used to use google polls to run the competition! We had people narrow down their fave dinosaurs by general group (ie ones closely related to each other) and then duked it out. Believe it or not, T. rex didn't make it into the first year! That'll remain wild for me, but Yutyrannus was the tyrannosaur. Ultimately, the Common Raven won, which makes a significant amount of sense for tumblr

Year two (2017) we only allowed in contestants that hadn't made the bracket the year before - this was a weird year, because Maiasaura won, and I s2g, I don't think it should have, I think people just voted for it because it's my (Meig, the main ADAD guy) favorite dinosaur. What can ya do...

Year three (2018) we only allowed in things that hadn't been in EITHER bracket EITHER year - this allowed for a lot of weirdos to show up, and the ultimate winner was Halszkaraptor, the first known goose-raptor-thing (like Natovenator this year)!

Year four (2019) - DMM Allstars! It was a bunch of competitors that had made it into the bracket the other three years, but didn't win outright. Amargasaurus won that year! It's a close cousin of Bajadasaurus in this year's bracket

Year five (2020 - note all the prep happens BEFORE March...) we switched it up and did Triassic March Madness - not technically dinosaurs, just a bunch of really weird critters from one of the weirdest times in Earth's history - Postosuchus won though, even though its not that weird, because the art made it look like a puppy. What can ya do.

Then we took a break because I was starting grad school again, moving across the country, bunch of the rest of the team also doing literally the same two things to whatever extent it applied to them, and also that whole pandemic thing

And now we have DMM: Rising Stars, where we take the opportunity to highlight dinosaurs that had come out since the last competition new ones would have showed up in (2018) - hence its a bunch of dinosaurs y'all haven't heard of! What a great opportunity to share new science and make DMM even more interesting!

Plus it gave me and @albertonykus more opportunities to brag about the birds (Anachronornis and Asteriornis respectively) we've named during that same time period XD

We want to do Permian Madness eventually like we did Triassic, because the Permian is also super weird. Another year we might do Fossil Birds, because often the birds that got voted in those first four years were living species and a lot of fossil birds haven't had their time in the spotlight in my very biased fossil-bird-researcher opinion. We have a lot of ideas, and frankly the excitement that is not having to use a third party (google) with the addition of tumblr polls means prehistory-march-madness will continue for a while!

[changingplumbob]

Romero Household: Chapter 1, Part 9

Honeymoon continues as we check out the waterfall and beaches.

CW: Light dash of sim spice

Marta’s first language is Spanish so she is teaching Keira (and me) some common Spanish words/phrases Bueno: Good, fine, okay Gracias: Thank you Qué?: What? Si: Yes

Marta kisses Keira on the cheek, they’re both still chilled from the water battle.

Marta: Gracias for that, it felt good to play around

Keira: As old as we get, we should always make time for fun. And romance

Marta: Si, we sho-

Keira cuts her off mid sentence sweeping her around for another romantic kiss. Marta may be the romantic but Keira is completely in love with her wife and not afraid to show it.

The couple figure while they’re here they may as well have showers and immerse themselves in the water.

Keira: You know if you really want to be part of Sulani…

Marta: Si?

Keira: Then you woohoo in the waterfall

Marta: *giggles* That can’t be right

Keira: Oh no, we don’t accept anyone to the islands unless they’ve achieved that

Marta: So you’ve done it before

Keira: Well no, but maybe that’s why they kicked me off the islands

Marta giggles and leans forward to kiss Keira with unexpected passion.

Marta: You okay?

Keira: You know what they say, when in Sulani

Marta: Que?

Keira: Like when in Rome but- ahh

Marta pulls Keira back to the sheltered area behind the falls and the two share more adventurous woohoo.

When they emerge Keira is giddy but she notices Marta seems more pensieve.

Keira: Hey, you alright?

Marta: That was a bit different and I just worry… I was too loud, si?

Keira: Oh hey sweetheart, no. No. I love your voice, do you hear me? I love it. Plus if there’s a time to break molds and be loud it would definitely be when beside a raging waterfall

Marta: Gracias. Te amo. What should we do now

Keira: I’m feeling a bit hungry-

Marta: Let’s go back to the house, I’ll make fruit salad for lunch! I saw some pineapple somewhere around here

Of course we had to do a tiny bit of collectable grabbing. Marta caught some Monarch butterflies that she’s going to magically get through customs. She also found a fossil that she’s planning on giving to Keira as a gift. Keira meanwhile was harvesting some pineapple and kava.

Keira: You sure you don’t want help cooking

Marta: Si. I want to cook for you. Not that I’ll be cooking fruit salad

Keira enjoys having a moment to sit down and write. She hasn’t had time since starting work and she’s got a lot to get out of her head. In the kitchen Marta sings to herself while prepping the fruit. I wish she wouldn’t play fruit ninja quite so much (wait, are some of you too young to get that reference *stares into the distance horrified at the possibility*)

Marta gives the fruit salad some finishing touches and calls Keira to come eat.

Keira: You really like cooking huh

Marta: Si, food is important. It brings people together

Keira: Is that why you like being a barista so much

Marta: Si and no. I do heat some pastry but it is mainly coffee. The people ordering may be grumpy at times but I like knowing something I’ve done has made their day better

Keira: *chuckles* Just when I thought I couldn’t love you any more

The couple head to Ohan’ali Town for the afternoon. The Island Celebration event has been running since the early morning so there is already a smattering of sandcastles about. The girls head for the swing set where they swing gleefully.

Marta: Swings are fun. I feel like I’m flying

Keira: I reckon you’re never too old for swings

Marta: Si! I like this idea. I bet I can go higher than you

Keira: Wait, you’re lighter because you’re short, it’s not a fair contest

Marta: *giggles* Hard to hear you up here

When they start feeling sick they decide it’s best to head for solid ground and build a sandcastle.

Marta: Carino, have you thought more about your parents offer

Keira: You mean them paying so we can have an infant? I guess the Staples infants are pretty cute

Marta: Si, they are

Keira: And I’ve got to remember you’re older than me

Marta sticks her tongue out at this.

Keira: But an infant or two would be something I can handle I think. It’s just… how do we do it

Marta: Que?

Keira: It may have escaped your notice but we’re both women

Marta: Si, and?

Keira: Two cis women can’t have a baby by themselves. We’d need a sperm donor

Marta: What about a science baby

Keira: I don’t know. I’m a scientist sweetheart, I don’t easily trust technology I can’t understand and they haven’t published any papers on the results yet. What if they give us an infant with two heads

Marta: Carino, we’re not living in your cloning show

Keira: I know and I’m not talking about an Orphan Black situation but- can we trust them?

Marta: Would you rather look for a donor

Keira: I don’t know. What if we get a donor and in 18 years the kid decides we’re not their real family and leave to find the donor

Marta: However we get our kids, science or donors or adoption, there will be the risk that they’ll leave us. We just need to raise them the best we can

Keira: I suppose. I just wish I understood more

Marta: We can do more research first, we don’t have to rush into anything carino. There Mr gnome, do you like your shark suit

Keira: I thought he was being eaten by the shark

Marta: I... vote shark suit

Keira: *smiles* gnome in a shark suit it is. Shall we go see what’s left of the festival?

They leave the beach and take the steps up to the community space. There’s not much left by this time. Keira is annoyed that there aren’t many shells left but Marta enjoys the smells of the food. Quick romantic selfie time!

Previous ... Next

[mineralsrocksandfossiltalks]

Fossil Friday: Utahraptor!

Remember this chimera? So, it may not be a real Velociraptor but there was a real dromaeosaur this size. It's called Utahraptor and it lived in, well, Utah during the early Cretaceous Period 135-130 million years ago.

It was found in the Cedar Mountain Formation near Moab in 1975 but it didn't get much recognition until 1991. There is currently a "Utahraptor block" that is in the process of being prepped out and has yielded remains of baby to adult Utahraptors (along with two iguanodontids).

Utahraptor is the state dinosaur of Utah and Utahraptor State Park was officially created in 2021 where the block was discovered.

[justforbooks]

Stephen Salter, who has died aged 85, was the inventor of the Salter’s Duck, a wave-power device that was the first of its kind and promised to provide a new source of renewable energy for the world – until it was effectively killed off by the nuclear industry.

In 1982, after eight years of development under Salter’s direction at Edinburgh University, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) was asked by the government to see if the duck might be a cost-effective way of making large quantities of electricity. To the great surprise of Salter, and others, the UKAEA came to the conclusion that it was uneconomic, and that no further government funding should be given to the project.

A decade later it emerged that thanks to a misplaced decimal point, the review had made Salter’s duck look 10 times more expensive than the experiments showed it was likely to be. The UKAEA claimed this was just a mistake, but Salter, who had never been allowed to see the results of the secret evaluation, put it another way: asking the nuclear industry to evaluate an alternative source of energy was like putting King Herod in charge of a children’s home, he suggested.

By then, however, Salter had become interested in other projects, and as a result his duck has never been tested at sea – although wave-power devices using some of his technology are now in development in the Orkneys and off the coast of Portugal.

The prototype ducks, developed in a multidirectional wave tank of Salter’s invention, are now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, where there are a number of other exhibits with links to him, including the only remaining Black Knight rocket, a UK ballistic missile from the 1950s, and Freddy the Robot, from the 60s, the first machine to have artificial intelligence that could “see” and had a sense of touch. He also invented the Dervish, a low-cost method of clearing landmines, by using a revolving three-wheeled mechanism with a constantly changing path.

Perhaps the range of those projects sums up Salter’s mind better than anything else. Colleagues who worked with him said that while other scientists concentrated for years on one subject to the exclusion of all others, Salter was fascinated by new problems.

Although it was the oil shock of 1973 that first stimulated his interest in renewable energy, he later became one of the first scientists to realise the dangers of climate change. Doubting that the slow pace of cutting fossil-fuel use would be enough to save the planet from dangerous overheating, at the turn of the 21st century he set up a scheme to develop marine cloud brightening – an idea to produce more and brighter clouds in the middle of the oceans in order to reflect sunlight back into space, thereby keeping the oceans cooler and reducing sea-level rise.

He designed a project to build a large number of automated ships spraying aerosols from sea water into the atmosphere to create and brighten clouds in the middle of the world’s oceans and – having made a considerable fortune by selling some of his inventions – was able to set up the Lothian School of Technology just outside Edinburgh for £2.4m. The centre provides premises for up to 60 of his students to work on inventions and develop them commercially beyond their time at university.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Stephen was the son of British parents who had emigrated there, Rachel (nee Floyd) and Willoughby de Carle Salter. His father joined the Royal Navy as a meteorologist during the second world war and afterwards the family moved to Britain, where Willoughby became head of a prep school in which Rachel also taught. Stephen attended two boarding schools and then Framlingham college in Suffolk.

By that time he was designing, building and flying model aeroplanes, and his ambition was to take an engineering degree at Cambridge University. But he failed to get good enough grades, instead becoming an apprentice at Saunders-Roe, an Isle of Wight aero- and marine-engineering company, where he was involved in the Black Knight rocket project. After studying at night classes he was finally accepted at Cambridge to study natural sciences including metallurgy.

He moved to Edinburgh University in 1967, aged 29, to become a research fellow working on artificial intelligence in robots. Within six years he was also a lecturer and had begun his work on wave energy. In 1984 he became professor of engineering design.

Perhaps Salter’s left-leaning politics and his willingness to take on the London establishment prevented him from being showered with the honours he deserved, but he was elected to a fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1991, made MBE in 2004, and inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame in 2021. He never stopped working, becoming an emeritus professor at retirement age and continuing to research, advise companies and refine his inventions until the end.

He married Margaret Donaldson, a professor of development psychology at Edinburgh University, in 1973. She died in 2020. He is survived by his younger brother, Edmund.

🔔 Stephen Hugh Salter, inventor, born 7 December 1938; died 23 February 2024

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