Southern Fried Science

New achievement milestones for academic life

February 5, 2017 Michelle Jewell

Academic life

Overall job satisfaction in academia has been steadily declining for many independent reasons I won’t get into here (see Nature 1 and 2). However, we do need to accept some ownership for this dissatisfaction. Our expectations and goal posts are understandable set very high. Indeed for many of us, our impossible standards and stubborn determination are the only reasons we got this far, so it can be painful – nigh impossible – for those who are hardwired to overachieve to step back and be happy with the big picture. We need to, because the stakes are as high as health, sanity, and relationships.

This inspired me to develop a new set of milestones to measure our academic careers by. Not only for our sanity, but especially for those younger scientists and students still fighting their way up the ladder.

Here are 12 new milestones of achievement I recommend we measure our career success by:

Thursday Afternoon Dredging: February 2nd, 2017

February 3, 2017 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet):

Watch how a goblin shark feeds in slow-motion. Footage originally from Shark Week’s “Alien Sharks.”
A goblin shark, from Shark Week’s “Alien Sharks”
Follow amphibian conservation biologist Dr. Wendy Palen on twitter!
The most wonderful pikes, pickerels, and muskies of the world! By Sasha Doss, for the Fisheries Blog.

No, there isn’t a UFO sitting in Antarctica.

February 2, 2017 Andrew Thaler

Popular Culture

One of my favorite things to do is browse through google maps looking for weird formations and places of historical curiosity. Apparently I’m not alone, as there are hordes of map hunters searching for the bizarre on this increasingly bizarre world. That’s right! It’s time for yet another installment of “this thing on Google maps is not a sea-monster/alien/UFO/ancient pyramid”.

This newest discovery comes from Antarctica, where monster hunters have found what looks like a perfect disc sitting on the ice. Could it be a UFO? The image is surprisingly compelling.

It’s very round for one, and it looks like it’s sitting on top of a glacier, partially covered by rock. The 60-foot-wide object looks remarkably like a classic flying saucer.

SPOILERS: It’s not a UFO.

Making global conservation conferences accessible in an world of increasingly restrictive travel.

January 31, 2017January 31, 2017 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

Conservation

We have a problem in conservation biology (ok, to be fair, we have a lot of problems, but this is one of them). The biggest environmental challenges–climate change, ocean acidification, over-fishing, agricultural runoff, species invasion, and myriad other emergent issues–are global challenges. They respect no borders and require a cohesive, multinational response. Researchers, stakeholders, and conservation managers, on the other hand, are increasingly impeded in their work by more and more restrictive barriers to travel.

This isn’t new. The Global South has often been excluded from major international conferences hosted in European and American cities, which are expensive and hard to get to. Onerous visa restrictions from and to a multitude of countries have been in place for decades, but the events of this week have made it clear that scientific societies need to plan for and provide alternatives to a membership that may not be able to travel to a conference yet still need to participate.

Monday Morning Salvage: January 30, 2017

January 30, 2017January 29, 2017 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Ensuring that our friends and colleagues who are legal residents of the United States of America, and those suffering under oppressive regimes who heard the promise of the Mother of Exiles and chose to find a better life in our country, can still trust us with the privilege to fulfill that promise.
Rejecting the triumph of cruelty.
Also, these incredible thousand-year-old windmills, still in use today, milling grain in Iran.

Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)

Thursday Afternoon Dredging: January 26, 2017

January 26, 2017 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet):

Watch this angel shark eat a horn shark!

A horn shark is consumed by an angel shark

Follow Connor Gervais, a Ph.D. student whose research looks at how climate change affects shark development, on twitter!
The proposed border wall will threaten more than 100 endangered species. By Wes Siler, for Outside Magazine.

Monday Morning Salvage: January 23, 2017

January 23, 2017January 23, 2017 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Come back to the Mariana Trench with me! I’ve taken the almost ten hours of assorted dive footage from our adventures in Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and Guam and edited it down to just the best four minutes. Share, subscribe, and enjoy!

Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)

Thursday Afternoon Dredging: January 19th, 2017

January 19, 2017January 19, 2017 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet):

Watch this basking shark breach!

Follow GreatLakesCisco, a freshwater fish restoration citizen science project run by Ph.D. student Ellen George, on twitter!
Remember when 2014 was the hottest year on record? Then 2015? Now it’s 2016. By Brad Plumer, for Vox.
Dozens of false killers whales mysteriously strand in the Everglades. By Merri Kennedy, for NPR.

How I talk about science in fiction.

January 18, 2017January 18, 2017 Andrew Thaler

Uncategorized

The science of Aquaman. How deep is Rapture? The ecology of Middle Earth. Here at Southern Fried Science, we love taking a hard-science detour into some of our favorite works of fiction. It’s good practice projecting known phenomena into hypothetical universes and figuring out how the mechanics of those worlds shape and are shaped by the principles of ours. And it’s darn fun, to boot.

But diving into “The Science of…” series comes with some pretty huge pitfalls. Not the least of which is the wet blanket nature of criticizing a work of fiction for scientific inaccuracy. Push too far in one direction and you’re left with a dry dissertation on why an obviously fictional world couldn’t work. It’s like being the kid in the room pointing out that professional wrestling isn’t real. No kidding?

There’s a craft to commenting on the science in fiction. After walking this line for a few years, here the simple set of guidelines I use when constructing a commentary.