as simple as he presumed. Varves have recently experienced a renaissance as methods and techniques of study have improved, and varves are now regularly used to calibrate radiocarbon timescales. In many ways, De Geer's concerns mirror that of modern Quaternary geologists and palaeoclimatologists, particularly his recognition of the need for high-resolution natural archives of past change, and the importance of testing whether global change is synchronous. De Geer's principle failing was his faith in teleconnections, where his findings were clearly influenced by his preconceptions. His belief that variations in solar radiation were the principal agent of all climate change has also since been shown to be incorrect. Nevertheless, De Geer asked all the right questions, and his errors can be attributed as much to over-enthusiasm and a single-minded passion, as they can to bad science. Selected English language works De Geer, G. (1912), A geochronology of the last 12000 years. Congr. Géol. Int. Stockholm 1910, C.R., 241–253. De Geer, G. (1940), Geochronologia Suecia Principles .K.Svenska Vetenskapsakad. Handl. References Sources Spjeldnaes, N. (1972) pp. 329–330 in Gillispie, C. C. (Ed.) Dictionary of Scientific Biography, American Council of Learned Societies, Charles's Scribner's Sons Publishers New York . External links Presentation Speech 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1858 births 1943 deaths 20th-century Swedish geologists Quaternary geologists Sedimentologists Wollaston Medal winners Scientists from Stockholm Uppsala University alumni Foreign Members of the Royal Society Honorary Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925) Swedish people of Dutch descent 19th-century Swedish geologists Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala