Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- Are you represented by a climate change denier? Motherboard has put together this amazing guide to every climate change denier in congress. Check your state and give your congressperson a piece of your mind. Congressman Andy Harris may be sick of hearing from me, but I guarantee he’ll be gone from my district long before I am.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Anthropocene. No, not the epoch. The magazine that launched late last year as a spiritual successor to Conservation. I got a copy of issue 1 last week at the Earth Optimism Summit and devoured it in one sitting. An amazing, rich production. Well worth you time.
- Some of my favorite recent articles: Fingerprints of climate change are detectable in wild weather around the globe and Connected regional grids are the key to low-carbon electrification of Africa.
- I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Jorge Appiah in Chile last month where he presented a version of this article: Open Science Hardware: A tool for propelling Africa’s innovation and Development.
Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)
- oceanbites! I really love oceanbites. They’ve done such great work this year. Here’re my favorites from this week: What lies beneath: A Gargantuan Volcanic Crater in the Arctic Ocean and Suffocating crabs and a one-way street for carbon and Benthic biology on a thermally boring deep-sea ridge.
- Divers capture 100 pounds of party beads in waters off Tampa. Seriously, folks? Seriously?! Next time try to have your fun and not trash the ocean.
- This thread from @empathywarrior on the value and importance of mediocre scholars in science is great. As a mediocre scholar, I salute you!
- If you told me 5 months ago that Teen Vogue would lead the resistance, I’d have said… “No shit! Teenage women know what the heck is going on.” Why We Should Fear Environmental Destruction Under Trump.
- Shaving Manatees—for Science! Also, for some reason, my completely unrelated thread on why cartridge razors are pretty much terrible at every level.
- “Due to fiscal uncertainty under the new incoming administration, we will not be renewing your contract in 2017.” Science Beyond the March.
- So a major dolphinarium in Singapore closed last summer. 3 Pink Dolphins are still mysteriously unaccounted for.
- What Trump’s Budget Means for the Filet-O-Fish.
- This post, from Adrian Stier, about the Royal Society’s ban on puns in publication titles had me questioning the value of clever titles. Check the next section for the answer!
Lagan (what we’re reading from the peer-reviewed literature)
- Sagi and Yechiam (2008) Amusing titles in scientific journals and article citation. DOI: 10.1177/0165551507086261.
- Zheng and friends (2017) Insights into deep-sea adaptations and host-symbiont interactions: a comparative transcriptome study on Bathymodiolus mussels and their coastal relatives. DOI: 10.1111/mec.14160.
- Crerar and friends (2017) Illegal Trade of Marine Mammal Bone Exposed: Simple Test Identifies Bones of “Mermaid Ivory” or Steller’s Sea Cow (Hydrodamalis gigas). DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2016.00272.
Driftwood (what we’re reading on dead trees)
- Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are by Paul Robbins. Amy and I were just talking about how this particular book managed to break out of the academic bubble. A fantastic example for super-wonky, incredibly engaging science communication.
- Aquaman Showcase: Volume 1 and Volume 2. Relive the classic Aquaman comics. These were the stories that helped connect me to the ocean. Also, for the first four months, they were literally the only thing that would get my newborn to fall asleep.
Derelicts (favorites from the deep archive)
- How cyborgs are like old wooden ships.
- What Star Wars can teach us about the ecology of a Type I civilization.
- Gliding on starlight: Celestial Navigation for Martian Explorers.
- Technocracy and the Sea.
- The future we wanted to build.
Feel free to share your own Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Driftwood, and Derelicts in the comments below. And, of as always, if you enjoy Southern Fried Science, consider contributing to my Patreon campaign to help us keep the servers humming.
