geologist

This research was led by an international team of archaeologists, geologists, and paleoanthropologists from institutions in Kenya, Ethiopia, the United States, Brazil, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

"These guys were extremely astute geologists. They knew how to find the best raw materials and these stone tools are exceptional. Basically, we can cut our fingers with some of them."

"Getting a subduction zone started is like trying to push a train uphill -- it takes a huge effort," said Brandon Shuck, a geologist at Louisiana State University and lead author of the study.

Curiously, the samples' signature isn't a precise match with any other meteorite in geologists' collections.

Why would a brilliant chemist and geologist the youngest scientist to be elected to the Royal Society of London, in 1787—leave a fortune to a nation he had never seen?