Object of the month – Pallasite meteorite

Pallasite meteorite, Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia. Eötvös Museum of Natural History (BE24389, specimen width 10 cm, cut and polished surface).

This pallasite is a unique and rare meteorite type representing the transition between iron and stony meteorites, at the same time one of the most spectacular meteorite types, too. The space between the yellowish or olive green olivine crystals is filled with an iron-nickel metal alloy. Such olivine crystals are commonly used as gemstones called peridot, too.

The artefact is one of the oldest pieces in our collection, from the collection of Maria Theresa's eldest daughter, Archduchess Maria Anna. This collection was bought for the university in 1781, and it is the foundation and beginning of our current mineral and rock collection.

The specimen is a piece of the Krasnojarsk meteorite that was first studied in 1772 by Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811), the Prussian botanist-zoologist, during his stay in Russia. Ernst F. F. Chladni (German physicist and astronomer) was the first to recognise that due to its exotic look ‒ not known from the Earth ‒ this rock is extraterrestrial matter from space. The German physicist introduced the name pallasite in honor of the work of its first researcher.

Pieces of the Krasnojarsk meteorite are presumed to be the pieces of an asteroid, a small planet differentiated like the Earth. Differentiation means that the building materials of the asteroid got segregated and organized into layers throughout its evolution. The innermost part was the core (largely of metallic iron), followed by the mantle (predominantly of olivine), and the outermost layer was the crust. According to some theories, pallasites probably originate from the boundary between the core and the mantle. However, recent experimental research suggests that this texture formed in two stages. The asteroid differentiated first. Then part of the olivine-rich, but also metal-bearing mantle of the asteroid partially melted due to a collision with another celestial body, resulting in the exciting interwoven appearance of metallic iron and olivine.

The Citizens of ELTE have the opportunity to try out the following two databases that can be accessed from ELTE IP range or in case of remote access using Stunnel or VPN service.

ProQuest One Business

In addition to various scientific journals, the database also contains full-text magazines, case studies, SWOT analyses, business studies, country reports, dissertations, e-books and videos.

Period of trial access: between the 25th of February 2022 and the 19th of March 2022

Statista

Statista.com consolidates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources and makes it available on four platforms: German, English, French, and Spanish. ecommerceDB.com is the starting point for market analyses, benchmarking, and lead generation in the eCommerce sector. The database provides insights into detailed revenue information of 20,000 online shops worldwide.

Period of trial access: between the 1st of March 2022 and the 30th of March 2022

There is a unique opportunity for the ELTE Faculty of Economics' students to participate on a training that intend to share good practice of writing and editing thesis. The program is presented by the University Library and Archives’ professional librarian.

The training has two parts on different dates. There is time for Q&A during the sessions too.

The following subjects will be discussed:

4th March 2022; 17.00–18.00: „How to write thesis properly? – Part 1”

• Collecting resources – Catalogues and databases
• Organising resources, use of resources
• Plagiarism
• Creating in-text citation and reference lists – Zotero application

25th March 2022; 17.00–18.00: „How to write thesis properly? – Part 2”

• Characteristics of academic writing
• Structuring thesis
• Theorem, stylistics

The themes were developed on the experience of recent years, focusing on the most common problems and issues.

Place: Building R, Hall.

The ELTE Faculty of Economics' students may register to the training in the Neptun system.

In cooperation with the ELTE Botanical Garden, a large-scale gardening project took place in the inner courtyard of the University Library. Trees and bushes were pruned, fallen leaves and twigs were removed. The beautiful garden is waiting for the spring and readers, who would like to read outdoors. Explore this charming place!

The registration dates for the exhibition „Under the Enchantment of Accuracy – The Life and Work of Loránd Eötvös” are now available.

In honor of Loránd Eötvös, a former professor of our university, we opened our interactive exhibition in 2019. Throughout his life, the world-famous physicist and university professor admired nature, researching the nature of the world. At our exhibition, visitors can get a glimpse into the scientific methods of Loránd Eötvös, try out his experimental tools, view the landscapes he saws during his travels and the exciting world of the turn of the century.

For more information and registration, please, visit our website at https://orokseg.elte.hu/en/heritage/exhibitions?redirect=.

All visitors are welcome!

The online training on research data, research data management and data repositories was a great success organized by the colleagues of ELTE University Library and Archives in early February 2022.

There were four online sessions complied with the requests of the ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education and the Faculty of Humanities and 70 participants attended all together.  Although completing a data management plan was in the focus of the training, the possibilities and advantages of  data sharing were emphasised as well.

The presentation is available in the Institutional Repository (EDIT).

If you have any questions about this topic, please feel free to contact the staff of the Education and Research Support Department of ELTE University Library and Archives at oa@lib.elte.hu.

The historian, Dániel Cornides (1732–1787) was appointed to the University of Pest in 1784 as a teacher of historical auxiliary sciences and guardian of the university library. Although he took courses at the University of Göttingen the following year, from 1785 until his death he worked in the University Library and taught at the university. From 1767 he was in the service of József Teleki as secretary, and a close relationship developed between them. In view of their friendship, after the death of Cornides, Teleki bought his legacy of valuable manuscripts and books, which was later transferred to the manuscript archive of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences together with the Teleki library. However, the valuable correspondence between Cornides and Pray can still be found in the manuscript archives of the University Library, as well as the 16th-century Hungarian-language codex named after him, which was copied by the Dominican nun, Lea Ráskay.

Cornides codex: https://edit.elte.hu/xmlui/handle/10831/10540