Southern Fried Science

Monday Morning Salvage: December 12, 2016

December 12, 2016December 11, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Mr. Trashwheel, who has the best social media game in town. How can anyone compete with a garbage-eating floating waterwheel who’s Reddit AMA is this on point?

You can read more about Mr. Trashwheel and the awesome, new, Prof. Trashwheel here: ‘Professor Trash Wheel’ makes its debut in Canton.

Thursday Afternoon Dredging: December 8th, 2016

December 8, 2016 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet):

Rays chew. Who knew? From this paper by Kolmann and friends
From Kolmann and friends 2016, “Always chew your food. Freshwater stingrays use mastication to process insect prey.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Follow Dr. Leanne Currey @LeanneMCurrey, a postdoc working on the Global FinPrint project, on twitter! Follow her for great videos of sharks and other marine life approaching baited underwater video stations around the world.
Our friends at the Fisheries Blog surveyed their readers about their peer review habits. Do these results match your experience?

The Organism is Always Right.

December 6, 2016December 6, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Science

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Monday Morning Salvage: December 5, 2016

December 5, 2016December 4, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

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).

Fun Science FRIEDay – Water to Wine? Close, CO2 to Alcohol (ethanol)

December 2, 2016 Kersey Sturdivant

Open Science, Science

Science brings us many wonderful things (honestly if you enjoy the benefits of the modern era, go out and hug a scientist). One of humanities age old desires is the ability to convert something invaluable, or a nuisance, into something desirable. The old midas touch if you will. Recently some scientist stumbled onto the process of converting CO2, a primary culprit of anthropogenic climate change, into alcohol… though not the kind you drink, the kind that humanity could use as fuel.

Producing fuel from CO2 is huge because it lets us take a nuisance compound, and converts it into a productive one. This was accomplished by scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee by using common materials (copper and carbon), but arranging them with nanotechnology. The researchers were attempting to find a series of chemical reactions that could turn CO2 into a useful fuel, such as ethanol. They figured they would go from CO2 to methanol, and then work out the logistics of going from methanol to ethanol, when they realized the first step in their process managed to do it all by itself. Science for the win!

Thursday Afternoon Dredging: December 1, 2016

December 1, 2016December 1, 2016 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet):

How a sawfish uses its saw, from this paper by Wueringer and friends.

How a sawfish uses its saw, from Wueringer and friends (2012), the function of the sawfish saw, Current Biology

Follow Kim Bassos-Hull @MsHullRay , a spotted eagle ray researcher at Mote Marine Laboratory, on twitter! Follow her for news (and awesome pictures) of her spotted study subjects.
A call for more scientists and engineers to run for public office (by Sheril Kirshenbaum). Would you consider running for public office?

Do you see the deep sea?

November 29, 2016November 27, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Science

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Monday Morning Salvage: November 28, 2016

November 28, 2016November 28, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

This GIF of a swimming crinoid:
The original video by Els Van Den Eijnden can be found here: Dive in Bali by Els Van Den Eijnden

Now, More Than Ever, America Needs an Ambassador for the Deep Sea.

November 25, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Conservation, Education

That ambassador is Bathynomus giganteus, the giant, deep-sea isopod.

A giant deep sea isopod on the sea floor. Photo via NOAA Photobank.

Conservation has long had the concept of Flagship Species—popular, charismatic species that serve as rallying points for conservation awareness and action. Formalized within the framework of conservation marketing, flagship species are focused around particular goals and audiences. Think of the WWF’s Giant Panda, Polar Bears and a thousand different arctic or climate change campaigns, or even the American Bald Eagle, whose decline galvanized the country into action. These animals are iconic. They connect people to species and ecosystems in crisis. They are Flagship Species.

The Giant Deep-sea Isopod is not a flagship species. The Giant Deep-sea Isopod addresses a much more fundamental issue: despite being the largest, most diverse ecosystem on the planet, most people have no direct connection, no frame of reference, for the deep sea.