Southern Fried Science

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: Elasmobranch Genetics

August 19, 2012August 17, 2012 David Shiffman

Science

The American Elasmobranch Society is a non-profit professional society focusing on the scientific study and conservation of sharks, skates, and rays. AES members meet each year in a different North American city, and this meeting is the world’s largest annual gathering of shark scientists. AES recently met in Vancouver, British Columbia for the 2012 meeting, and for the first time the event was live-tweeted by meeting attendees, including myself. I’ve organized the best conference tweets by session using Storify. If anyone has any questions or comments about the research presented below, please feel free to share it in the comments section of this blog post.

Here are selected tweets from the Elasmobranch Genetics session.

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: Anatomy, Development, and Physiology

August 18, 2012August 17, 2012 David Shiffman

Science

Here are selected tweets from the Elasmobranch Anatomy, Development, and Physiology session.

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: Elasmobranch Behavior

August 18, 2012August 17, 2012 David Shiffman

Science

Here are selected tweets from the Elasmobranch Behavior sessions.

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: Deepwater Chondrichthyans Symposium

August 18, 2012August 17, 2012 David Shiffman

Science

Here are selected tweets from the Deepwater Chondrichthyans Symposium.

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: President Ferry’s plenary “Elasmobranchs in Biological Research”

August 18, 2012August 17, 2012 David Shiffman

Science

Here are conference tweets from AES President Lara Ferry’s plenary talk, “Elasmobranchs in Biological Research”.

A selection of primary literature on the ecology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents in Manus Basin

August 7, 2012August 7, 2012 Andrew Thaler

Science

Deep-sea mining is once again in the news. As Kevin Zelnio frustratingly points out on twitter, news articles often fail to mention the primary research that has been conducted at these sites or make more than a cursory statement concerning their ecology. This has the effect of marginalizing an entire ecosystem and makes it difficult for the public to grasp the richness and diversity of deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities, some of which may face commercial exploitation. Here is a selection of recent primary literature, with abstracts, on the ecology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents at the center of the mining debate, Manus Basin (you may recognize some of the authors).

The importance of being Aquaman, or how to save the Atlantean from his briny fate

July 30, 2012September 14, 2012 Andrew Thaler 2 Comments

Popular Culture, Science

Aquaman has an unpleasant lunch. From New 52 Aquaman #1 DC Comics.

Two weeks ago, I challenged the world to consider how the greatest hero in the DC Universe would fair if forced to survive in the real world. The result was a hypothermic, brain-dead lump of jerky with brittle bones forced to suffer through constant screams of agony even as he consumes sea life at a rate that would impress Galactus. In short, the ocean is a rough place, even for Aquaman.

Since that post made its way across the internet, several people have asked me to discuss what adaptations Aquaman would need to survive in this, science-based, ocean. So I went back to my comic books and my textbooks to assemble an Aquaman with a suite of evolutionary adaptations that would allow a largely humanoid organism to rule the waves, trident triumphantly raised.

Read More “The importance of being Aquaman, or how to save the Atlantean from his briny fate” »

Update on Blue Pints

July 27, 2012October 27, 2013 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

Uncategorized

Last month we launched the video component of Southern Fried Science–Blue Pints. Blue Pints was designed to be an informal conversation among marine scientists about current issues in marine science and conservation. Our first four episodes covered topics ranging from shark finning to Japanese kelp fishing to Sea monsters and hoax UFO’s. Thanks to Google+, we could broadcast these discussions live while recording them for posterity. It took several episodes for us to hit our stride and I’m certain that we’ll continue to perfect and change the formatting as we continue, which leads us to the big question on everyone’s mind:

What is next for Blue Pints?

A weekly episode proved a bit too much for our current schedules, so we’re cutting down on the number we produce every month. On top of that, as many of you know, I’m defending my doctoral dissertation next month, so my southern fried schedule is pretty much completely packed until then. Finally, as much as you all love to see mine, David’s, and Amy’s faces, I’m sure you’d much rather we mix up the hosts a bit.

Two things are happening between now and the end of August. First, we’re soliciting guests to join in on our broadcasts. If there are issues in marine science and conservation that you’d like to talk about, or you just want to hang out online with us talking about the ocean, drop us a line or leave a comment on this post and we’ll start assembling a schedule of ocean communicators. Second, we’re launching a complementary program–A shot of Blue–which will be a short (5 minutes or less) discussion covering a single topic. This will help round out the schedule with out demanding too much of our time. We may continue to run episodes during this month, but will not be sticking to a regular schedule.

Check out the first 4 episodes of Blue Pints:

Live from Dayton: Using twitter to shed light on the Scopes Monkey Trial, 87 years later

July 23, 2012July 23, 2012 Andrew Thaler

Science

Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, 1925

Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve taken to twitter to “live-tweet” the Scopes Monkey Trial, as it happens, 87 years after the event. Through the news reports of H.L. Mencken and several historical documents, I attempted to capture the atmosphere of 1925 Dayton, Tennessee, the tension of the trial, the exciting, and sometimes irreverent, nature of the proceedings.

To accomplish this, I drew from several publications, most notably Mencken: The American Iconoclast by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers and A Religious Orgy in Tennessee: A Reporter’s Account of the Scopes Monkey Trial a collection of Mencken’s Scopes Trial reports assembled by Art Winslow. The website The Evolution-Creationism Controversy: A Chronology was very helpful in establishing the dates for various events during the trial State v. Scopes: Trial Excerpts provided access to the public testimony for several key trial events.

Below the fold is the entire archive of my Scopes Trial tweets, with added resources and additional content. Enjoy!

Books reviews: read up on sharks and grouper before the AES/ASIH meeting

July 23, 2012July 23, 2012 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

In just three weeks, the American Elasmobranch Society and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists will hold their annual meeting. This year, it will take place in Vancouver, British Columbia as part of the World Herpetology Congress. I’ll be presenting, and I’m looking forward to seeing many of our readers there. Those of you who will be attending this conference, as well as anyone with an interest in sharks and other marine fishes, may be interested in these great new marine science books!

1. Groupers of the world: a field and market guide (by Matthew Craig, Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson, and Phillip Heemstra). Grouper are some of the most economically important fish in the ocean, and it’s important that scientists, managers, and eco-conscious consumers have access to the latest scientific and conservation information about these fish. As fisheries landings have increased greatly in recent years (the 300,000 tons landed in 2008 are 10 times the landings from the 1950’s), many species are rapidly declining in population. Recent research showed that 12% of known grouper species are Threatened (Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered according to IUCN Red List standards) and another 13% are Near Threatened. Mating behaviors like spawning aggregations and the tendency to change sex further complicates management.

In addition to introducing readers to the field and summarizing the latest scientific discoveries, this book serves as a detailed reference guide to the 163 known species of grouper. The authors demonstrate how to identify each species using more than 300 beautiful color photographs and line drawings, and detailed maps show where each can be found. The population status (including major threats and some proposed solutions), IUCN Red List conservation status, life history information and known feeding behavior is also reviewed for each species. $79.95, CRC Press.