In the future all scientific research will be funded by Taco Bell …
At my university, we recently received a missive from the academic powers that be that faculty research productivity (and thus promotion, raises and tenure) will primarily be measured by the “amount...
View ArticlePlaying against the slaughter rule
My middle school baseball team was bad. Really bad. Ball droppingly, bat throwingly, pitch ditchingly bad. It was a good inning if four of our batters made it to the plate. A great inning if the other...
View ArticleA year of 3D printing in the home: does it live up to the hype?
3D Printing. No new technology in the last decade has been heralded with as much hope and hyperbole as the promise of desktop replicators fabricating whatever object you need at the push of a button....
View ArticleSinging Science: Weather vs. Climate with lyrics for teachers
The month of February 2016 just broke a global temperature record, previously held by… January…2016. While the Trubama climate plans are being praised, the comments section of this Guardian article was...
View ArticleWhy scientists sometimes need to be a bit more Sith and a bit less Jedi
Being a scientist can be very frustrating, even infuriating. It might well be because of the inequalities and unfairness of academic life (such as incompetent administrators, a lack of funding, poor...
View ArticleMy favorite story about Craig McClain
Today marks the last day of Craig McClain week for our friends over at Deep Sea News. We’ve celebrated his science, his outreach, and his tremendous spirit. Over the last decade, I’ve been lucky enough...
View ArticleTrading blue collars for scarlet robes, my working-class experience of...
More people are going to college, graduate school, and obtaining PhDs in STEM fields than ever before (Figure 1), and a growing minority of these PhD candidates are non-traditional or not white...
View ArticleOcean Outreach in an Evolving Online Ecosystem: Transforming the Narrative
This is the transcript of the keynote I delivered at the Fourth International Marine Conservation Congress in St. John’s, Newfoundland. It has been lightly modified for flow. Read Act I: Science is...
View ArticleThe Worlds First Empirical ‘How-To’ Get Into Graduate School Book
Many years ago as a graduate student at the College of William & Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, my former officemate (Noelle Relles) and I came up with a novel idea: take all the...
View ArticleHow to spot a scam shark documentary producer
Many aspects of science-ing are not explicitly taught, and scientists become accustomed to mastering the deep end. While this tactic can make you stronger, there are situations where the deep end is a...
View ArticleThe many, many ways I screwed up my first science crowdfunding campaign.
It’s been over five years since Kersey Sturdivant and I launched Oceanography for Everyone – The OpenCTD, my first attempt at crowdfunding science. Over the years, that initial effort has grown into...
View ArticleSurviving a Double Hurricane (a first person report of the Puerto Rico...
Heather Cooke graduated with an environmental science degree from George Mason University and studied marine biology. She is now a dive instructor and runs Culebra Divers on Culebra Island. This...
View ArticleRepairing the world: How my Jewish faith informs my conservation philosophy
It’s easy to get discouraged or demoralized as an environmentalist in today’s world. It seems like every day brings more devastating news. Half of the world’s wildlife has died in my parents’ lifetime,...
View ArticleSciComm Infuses Science with Soul
TLDR: Try making your next talk, tweet, instagram post, etc. center on the vulnerability of data collection, and I guarantee your audience will have a better understanding of your work.
View Article10 sharks that mattered in the 2010’s
Just when you thought it was safe to read another decade-in-review listicle… As the 2010’s come to an end, it’s a time to reflect on the often-problematic decade that was as we plan for a hopeful...
View ArticleA decade of failures in Science Communication.
Eleven years is a long life for a science blog. Southern Fried Science was born in 2008, when the main writers were all graduate students. Over the last decade the online landscape has changed. Science...
View ArticleInauguration-induced landsickness: what you feel when the shaky world beneath...
For the past few days I, like many of you, have felt a variety of intense emotions. First and foremost I’ve felt an overwhelming sense of relief. No matter what happens next, Donald Trump is no longer...
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