Kersey Sturdivant

Fun Science Friday – BP Oil Spill Impacts Dolphins

January 3, 2014January 7, 2014 Kersey Sturdivant 2 Comments

Uncategorized

Happy Fun Science Friday!

Though this post does not present such a happy story, given the recent discussion about dolphin photobombing, this week’s FSF is topically related. In the spring of 2010 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig experienced catastrophic failure resulting in the worst oil spill in human history. The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) was the unfortunate host of this catastrophe and the GoM community is still feeling the ecological, social, and economic consequences of this disaster.

Pod of bottlenose dolphins swimming underneath oily water of Chandeleur Sound, La., May 6, 2010. Photo Credit: Alex Brandon/AP — Pod of bottlenose dolphins swimming underneath oily water of Chandeleur Sound, La., May 6, 2010.
Photo Credit: Alex Brandon/AP

One such impact that received little TV coverage during the spill was the uncharacteristic spike in dolphin deaths. A few months following the BP spill there was an unprecedented spike in dead dolphins washing ashore along the Gulf Coast; 67 dead dolphins by February of 2011, with more than half (35) of the dead dolphins being calves. This is in stark contrast to years preceding the spill when one or two dead dolphins per year were normally documented to wash ashore. Despite the spike in dolphin deaths, there was no definitive evidence linking the dead cetaceans to the oil spill as a number of other factors could have been responsible for the deaths, including infectious disease or the abnormally cold winter proceeding the spill.

Fun Science Friday – New Human Body Part Discovered

November 29, 2013November 29, 2013 Kersey Sturdivant

Blogging

Happy Thanksgiving Holiday. After hopefully stuffing your bellies with delicious food yesterday, take a moment to quench your curiosity with this addition of FSF!

If you thought that knowledge of the human anatomy was exhaustive, you would be wrong. Orthopedic surgeons, Steven Claes and Johan Bellemans, at the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium, recently discovered a previously undescribed ligament in the human knee now known as the anterolateral ligament (ALL). Knowing that I have one more extra anatomical structure in my body than was previously known for some reason makes me feel all warm and cozy inside… or that is the post holiday ‘spirit’ still coursing through my veins. 😉

Happy Fun Science Friday – Ice Cream!?

November 22, 2013November 22, 2013 Kersey Sturdivant

Uncategorized

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!!!!

Photo Credit: Sherbert Photography (from WikiCommons)

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, this FSF is about a childhood (or for some, adulthood) favorite, Ice Cream!

Some rather ingenious… or mad scientist-esque ice cream makers have invented a glow-in-the-dark ice cream flavor. That is correct, you heard right, glow-in-the-dark ice cream, welcome to reality! 🙂

Happy Fun Science Friday – Blinky, the 3-Eyed Crab

November 8, 2013November 10, 2013 Kersey Sturdivant

Conservation

Blinky! The three-eyed crab from the Simpsons. Photo Credit: Matt Groening — Blinky! The three-eyed crab from the Simpsons.
Photo Credit: Matt Groening

Happy FSF everyone, this week we bring you Blinky! For the Simpsons aficionados amongst you, we are unfortunately not referring to the affable 3-Eyed fish, indicative of the radioactive influence of Springfield’s nuclear power plant.

No Blinky is a real-life, 3-eyed crab, discovered and documented by German researcher Gerhard Scholtz and colleagues while working in New Zealand’s Hoteo River. Scholtz and co stumbled upon this 3-eyed organism, and must have wonder during their cursory inspection if they had discovered a new species, one that was defying the principles of bilateral animals. However, upon closer anatomical inspection Scholtz realized that the mystery crab was not a 3-eyed wonder species, but conjoined twins of the already identified Amarinus lacustris crab species.

Happy Fun Science Friday – First Venomous Crustacean

October 25, 2013October 28, 2013 Kersey Sturdivant 4 Comments

Science

Happy Fun Science Friday everyone! After a busy semester I hope to get into the regular groove of Fun Science Friday posts.

This week I bring you the first and only known venomous crustacean, the remipede Speleonectes tulumensis.

These crustaceans were first discovered in the 1980s and suspected to be venomous after documentation that behind their jaws, they had a pair of sharp, hollow-tipped fangs that were connected to glands. This was a strong indication that the fangs were being used to inject a chemical into prey, though it was never proven…. Until now! Step forward Bjorn von Reumont, from the Natural History Museum in London, whose team thoroughly described the fangs and characterized the cocktail of toxins in the venom of S. tulumensis.

Happy Fun Science Friday!!

August 16, 2013October 28, 2013 Kersey Sturdivant

Science

kerseysquae

HAPPY FUN SCIENCE FRIDAY.

Let me begin by imploring any readers who are interested in a more ‘Open Ocean,’ to help support our crowd funding initiative – #OpenCTD.

http://www.rockethub.com/projects/26388-oceanography-for-everyone-the-openctd#description-tab

So for a number of years I have been celebrating Fun Science Friday; a mini-holiday that originated years ago when I was in graduate school. Our professor would bring Smarties to class each Friday, and we students would have some fun science exercise before diving into the more intricate nuances of the course. I was thoroughly enamored with FSF, and not just because of those delicious Smarties, and endeavored to spread FSF wherever I went (some places were more receptive than others). I have finally been convinced by the Southern Fried crew to move my rather informal celebration of FSF, where I normally post a fun science fact each Friday, to generating a short blog about what I would normally post. So to all the Southern Fried readers, welcome to Fun Science Friday!!

What does an OpenCTD mean to marine ecologists?

July 26, 2013July 25, 2013 Kersey Sturdivant 1 Comment

Science

The OpenCTD–a conductivity-temperature-depth (or CTD) sonde is considered the ‘work-horse’ of oceanography. Three relatively simple probes constitute the CTD and allow researchers to make basic water quality measurements. These fundamental measurements are the foundation upon which marine science is built. As was aptly stated by Dr. Thaler, “Rare is the scientific expedition–whether it be coastal work in shallow estuaries or journeys to the deepest ocean trenches–that doesn’t begin with the humble CTD cast.” CTD’s are commercially produced by a number of companies, but the associated cost of purchasing one of these instruments (ranging from $5,000 to $25,000) is an unacceptable barrier of entry into marine science. Thus the OpenCTD project—an attempt to construct a low-cost CTD that is scientifically applicable—was born.. Our goal is to produce free blue-prints, instructions, and schematics for the physical construction and calibration of a low-cost, open-source CTD. The final cost of the device will be low enough (~$200) to be readily accessible to those interested in constructing one, regardless of financial limits.