The Southern Fried Scientist and Charlie enjoy a beer.
Andrew is a freelance marine biologist in North Carolina focused on population and conservation genetics in hydrothermal vent communities.
David is a graduate student in Florida. He studies the ecology and conservation of sharks. 
Amy is a graduate student in North Carolina studying local ecological knowledge within small scale fisheries. 
Chuck is a graduate student in North Carolina focusing on apex predators and how they interact with fisheries. 
Lyndell is a graduate student in North Carolina, studying the feeding ecology of cownose rays. 
Iris is a graduate student in Washington studying habitat use and feeding habits of juvenile Pacific salmon and herring in Puget Sound. 
Michael is a graduate student in Maryland investigating the visual systems of mantis shrimp. |
The Fried Team arrives at Science Online 2010 Part 3 of 3 in the series “Get to know your fry-entists” Many scientists believe that advocacy is not our proper role. They claim that scientists should instead focus on gathering data and solving scientific problems, and should leave advocacy to others. According to some, publicly advocating a position runs the risk of discrediting a scientist, discrediting a discovery and possibly even discrediting science itself. While I respect the opinions and concerns of my peers, I strongly disagree with them. At least with respect to my discipline of shark conservation biology, our worthy goals are doomed to failure without scientist-advocates.
Continue reading If you want something done right, do it yourself
It began with a few tweets by @SFriedScientist
Part 2 of 3 in the series “get to know your fry-entists” It’s easy to assume that the graphs and tables produced by scientists for use in policy briefs are meant to speak for themselves and that it’s the legislator’s job to interpret the data and make appropriate decisions as a result of the knowledge. In such realms, knowledge is power and more data distributed among scientifically literate legislators is the gold standard. I’m not disagreeing with that statement – it is a gold standard. However, the scientifically literate legislature is as yet still a dream and therefore translators are a necessary part of the picture in the life of a scientific study. One then asks whether that translation is more accurate when performed by a third party who’s sole job is to communicate scientific findings or by the scientists who produced the work themselves. Which brings us back to the question of the week – to what degree does a scientist play the advocate?
Continue reading Responsibility to creatures great and small Part 1 of 3 in the Series “Get to know your fry-entists”  It is impossible for a biologist, ecologist, environmental scientist not to think about conservation. The problems our planet is facing are so concrete, so quantifiable, so visible that to ignore them would be to betray the very thing we’ve dedicated our lives to studying. I always chuckle when scientists are portrayed as cold, calculating, and heartless, when the truth is that they’re more committed to understanding their system than any one else. Science is a labor of passion and scientists dig deeply into the inner workings of their world.
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