astronomy

Sam Giles

Sam Giles is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sam Giles rather than just read about it. In short: Sam Giles is a palaeobiologist and Professor in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Birmingham. Her research combines modern imaging with fossils to understand the evolution of life, in particular that of early fish, and in 2015 "rewrote" the vertebrate family tree.

Key takeaways

Sam Giles belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sam Giles to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sam Giles from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sam Giles is a palaeobiologist and Professor in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Birmingham. Her research combines modern imaging with fossils to understand the evolution of life, in particular that of early fish, and in 2015 "rewrote" the vertebrate family tree. She was a 2017 L'Oréal-UNESCO Rising Star and won the 2019 Geological Society of London Lyell Fund.

Early life and education Giles studied geology at the University of Bristol, graduating in 2011. Giles completed her doctor of philosophy at the University of Oxford in 2015, where she was a member of St Hugh's College. She worked with Matt Friedman on early ray-finned fishes.

Career and research In 2015, Giles was appointed a junior research fellow at Christ Church, Oxford. Giles was awarded a L'Oréal-UNESCO fellowship in 2016, which would allow her to study the anatomy of vertebrate's brains. In 2017, Giles was awarded a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship to study the evolution of the Actinopterygii, otherwise known as ray-finned fishes, which comprise more than half of all living vertebrates. In 2018, she joined the School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham as a member of academic staff. Giles uses x-ray tomography to study the bone structure of Actinopterygii and is one of the leading experts on the evolutionary relationships and adaptations of early fish. In particular, she has been involved in research related to the origin of gnathostomes, or jawed vertebrates, and the relationships of early fishes, including various extinct groups such as placoderms and the divergence of chondrichthyans (cartilaginous fish) and osteichthyans (bony fish). She has also published on the early evolution of the dermal skeleton. A foundational component of her work is the use of computed tomography (CT) scanning in order to study the internal anatomy of fossils and to reconstruct the soft tissue structures that are not directly preserved. Giles is also a major contributor to research relating to equitable practices in academia and paleontology. Giles' research has been published in leading scientific journals, including Nature, eLife, Current Biology, and Proceedings of the Royal Society B and has been covered by numerous media outlets. She has contributed to naming numerous new species of extinct fish, outlined below:

She has written for the HuffPost and given several popular science lectures. In 2019, Giles was awarded the Geological Society of London Lyell Fund, which is awarded to researchers on the basis of outstanding published research. She serves on the council of the Palaeontological Association and the Palaeontographical Society.

Personal life Giles is gay and is included in 500 Queer Scientists.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sam Giles

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sam Giles claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sam Giles before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sam Giles ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sam Giles

In research: Sam Giles appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sam Giles in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sam Giles is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academics of the University of Oxford, Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford, Alumni of the University of Bristol, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sam Giles outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sam Giles in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sam Giles means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sam Giles out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sam Giles in simple terms?

Why does Sam Giles matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sam Giles?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sam Giles.