astronomy

Stanley Awramik

Stanley Awramik 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 Stanley Awramik rather than just read about it. In short: Stanley Awramik (born 1946) is an American biogeologist and paleontologist. He is best known for his work related to the Precambrian.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Stanley Awramik (born 1946) is an American biogeologist and paleontologist. He is best known for his work related to the Precambrian. In 2013, he was inducted as a fellow of the Geological Society of America.

Career Born in New England, he first studied stromatolites as a graduate student under famed paleobotanist Elso Sterrenberg Barghoorn at Harvard University. In 1979, he became a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was a contemporary of Preston Cloud.

Stromatolites Awramik is known for his long standing expertise on stromatolites. His 1971 discovery of a link between a loss in stromatolitic diversity and the appearance of the first metazoans was published in Science. In 1974, he and Lynn Margulis gave an often-used definition of "stromatolite".

Origin of life In 1983, he discovered what was then considered to be the oldest evidence of life on earth, located in Western Australia. His and others' work provided credence to the notion that life was likely as old as 3.5 Ga.

Recent research Awramik remains a faculty member at UCSB, where he continues to teach. He continues to study stromatolites. Recently, he has begun studying Neoproterozoic deposits in eastern California. In 2003, he, Frank Corsetti and David Pierce published evidence in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of fossilized microbiota in Cryogenian rocks, a revelation which has cast doubt on the notion of the near elimination of life during potential equatorial glaciation during that period (commonly referred to as Snowball Earth).

Selected works

Notable articles Awramik, S. M. (1971). "Precambrian Columnar Stromatolite Diversity: Reflection of Metazoan Appearance". Science. 174 (4011): 825–827. doi:10.1126/science.174.4011.825. PMID 17759393. S2CID 2302113. Corsetti, F. A.; Awramik, S. M.; Pierce, D. (2003). "A complex microbiota from snowball Earth times: Microfossils from the Neoproterozoic Kingston Peak Formation, Death Valley, USA". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 100 (8): 4399–404. doi:10.1073/pnas.0730560100. PMC 153566. PMID 12682298. Awramik, S. M.; Barghoorn, E. S. (1977). "The Gunflint microbiota". Precambrian Research. 5 (2): 121. doi:10.1016/0301-9268(77)90025-0. Awramik, S. M. (1992). "The oldest records of photosynthesis". Photosynthesis Research. 33 (2): 75–89. doi:10.1007/BF00039172. PMID 24408570. Awramik, S. M.; Schopf, J. W.; Walter, M. R. (1983). "Filamentous fossil bacteria from the Archean of Western Australia". Precambrian Research. 20 (2–4): 357. doi:10.1016/0301-9268(83)90081-5.

Other works In addition to his journal articles, Awramik has written on a variety of topics related to biogeology. He co-authored a textbook on microbial sediments with Robert E. Riding, titled Microbial Sediments. Additionally, he is interested in astrobiology, and has given several talks regarding the topic, including one titled "Astrobiology and the Origins of Life", at the National Health Museum in Atlanta.

References

External links Website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stanley Awramik

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stanley Awramik 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 Stanley Awramik 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 Stanley Awramik 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 Stanley Awramik

In research: Stanley Awramik 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 Stanley Awramik 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: Stanley Awramik is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1946 births, American paleontologists, Boston University College of Arts and Sciences alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stanley Awramik 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 Stanley Awramik in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stanley Awramik 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 Stanley Awramik out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stanley Awramik in simple terms?

Stanley Awramik (born 1946) is an American biogeologist and paleontologist. He is best known for his work related to the Precambrian.

Why does Stanley Awramik 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 Stanley Awramik?

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 Stanley Awramik.