Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Bobbit Worms (terrible name, amazing polychaete). This video of a fisherman catching bobbit worms for bait is just a little bit unnerving.
- Chris Mah did some deep digging to determine how the Bobbit Worm got its name (spoilers: It’s exactly what you expect).
Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)
- “Ghost Forests” Are, Surprisingly, a Sign of Resilience. Nature is fighting back against sea level rise, and Hakai has the scoop.
- Remember when pharmaceutical executive, indited securities fraudster, and lead heel for for the drug industry Martin Shkreli bought the rights to anti-malarial drug Daraprim and raised the price by 5000%? Students in Australia just synthesized Daraprim for $2 a dose. Bonus: I just discovered the Open Source Malaria Project, and they are my new heroes.
- Looking for ecology jobs and post-docs? Ecologist Allison Barner is curating a list of open positions.
- Southern Fried Science has a standing policy that we don’t accepted embargoed science papers. If the science is important, it’s still important a week after publication when peers and researchers have had the opportunity to discuss the results. Ivan Oransky writes at Vox on why science news embargoes are bad for the public.
Lagan (what we’re reading from the peer-reviewed literature)
- Copley and friends (2016) Ecology and biogeography of megafauna and macrofauna at the first known deep-sea hydrothermal vents on the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge. Scientific Reports (in press).
- Vermeij (2015) Gigantism and Its Implications for the History of Life. PLOS One. 11: e0146092.
Driftwood (what we’re reading on dead trees)
- Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop by Nick Offerman. In addition to all the ocean stuff, the robot stuff, and the conservation stuff, I’m also a woodworker. For anyone that feels the chisel’s call, Offerman’s insight into a life of woodworking is a delight.
Derelicts (favorites from the deep archive)
- All The Best, Scientifically Verified, Information on Fukushima Impacts. One of the most important community services we can do as websites run by practicing marine scientists is provide rapid, thorough debunkings of emerging crises; debunkings that would take the traditional press much longer to pull together and sift through the data for. Kim Martini’s article on the impacts of the Fukushima disaster in 2014 is one of the best examples of that.
- Middle Earth could have been saved by the Endangered Species Act. When we nerd, we nerd hard.
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.