My name is Rachael Acks, and I'm a nerd. I'm also a writer and a geologist.

The two are not mutually exclusive. My kind of geology - sedimentology/stratigraphy - is a science, no mistake, but it's all about looking at the rocks and telling a story. What did the world look like when those soils formed? What plants lived there? How did the rain fall? I'm currently studying climate change that occured during the Paleocene and Eocene, which was strongly related to atmospheric carbon input. Rocks have a lot of stories to tell us about the climate of the past, and that in turn may inform of us on some unwelcome truths about our own future. 

When I'm not being a good grad student, I write, practice kung fu, and roleplay. I have a husband, two furry little bastards, and a hat.

Actually, I'm really just the life support system for that hat.