Small drops make mighty oceans: 10 years as a scientist on Patreon

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Blogging, Conservation, Featured

Ten years ago, freshly married and freshly relocated to Vallejo, California, I found myself in the midst of reinvention. The cycle of post-doctoral fellowships and short-term contracts necessary for an academic career didn’t suit me. I wanted stability and, importantly, I wanted freedom. Crowdfunding was new. Earlier that summer, OpenROV had shook the crowdfunding world … Read More “Small drops make mighty oceans: 10 years as a scientist on Patreon” »

You probably don’t want to work for me: What you read on Southern Fried Science in April

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Blogging

April was a slow month. Most of our lead writers were tied up with classes, workshops, and other projects and we only managed to publish 6 articles this month. That’s about a third of our regular output. On top of that, we had a server outage that took us offline for a a few days. … Read More “You probably don’t want to work for me: What you read on Southern Fried Science in April” »

Canadian grad students won their first raise in 20 years. Here’s how Support Our Science made it happen.

Posted on By David Shiffman
Academic life, Featured

Canadian Masters students will now get up to $27,500 CAD a year, up from $17,500. Ph.D. students will get up to $40,000 CAD a year, up from as low as $20,000. Here’s how the leaders of Support Our Science did it. The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length. DS: Why was … Read More “Canadian grad students won their first raise in 20 years. Here’s how Support Our Science made it happen.” »

We Leased the Kraken! Catch up with the ongoing adventures of the Cephalosquad on Dugongs and Seadragons.

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Blogging, Featured

Dugongs and Seadragons is the only Dungeons and Dragons Podcast featuring actual marine science professionals playing D&D 5e while talking about marine science, conservation, and all things ocean. It’s been going for a long time, and jumping into the mid-point of an actual play podcast can feel like a daunting task. But we’ve got you … Read More “We Leased the Kraken! Catch up with the ongoing adventures of the Cephalosquad on Dugongs and Seadragons.” »

Here’s what I teach my students about finding jobs in marine biology and conservation

Posted on By David Shiffman 1 Comment on Here’s what I teach my students about finding jobs in marine biology and conservation
Academic life, Featured, Science

Our field is competitive, some job postings are confusing, and some career advice is contradictory or wrong. Here’s an exercise I have my students perform that I hope can help you. Graphic via Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see a heartbreaking post from a prospective marine biologist in … Read More “Here’s what I teach my students about finding jobs in marine biology and conservation” »

Charging the OpenCTD is annoying, so we fixed it.

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Open Science

Last month, I wrote a heartwarming little story about how doing a fun weekend hardware project with my daughter led to fixing one of the most annoying non-critical problems with the OpenCTD. After a month of testing, we have fully implemented the new power management system into the next iteration of the OpenCTD. Currently, there … Read More “Charging the OpenCTD is annoying, so we fixed it.” »

Space Crabs, Big Boats, and Fake Sharks: What you read on Southern Fried Science in March

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Blogging

After a trio of very widely read articles triggered a traffic surge in February, including David’s critical expert analysis of cross-order hybridization, our visitor count normalized a bit on the old ocean science and conservation blog. A little more than 19,500 people visited Southern Fried Science in March, a roughly 50% increase from January. You … Read More “Space Crabs, Big Boats, and Fake Sharks: What you read on Southern Fried Science in March” »