There are many things that don’t go well together. Water and cellphones. Superman and kryptonite. Bare feet and LEGOs. Art and science? At first glance it might seem art and science are polar opposites too. According to the Oxford Dictionary, art is defined as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically […]
Read More Where wonder existsDo you like random facts about animals? Do you like watching YouTube? Then you should definitely check out “True Facts” by zefrank1 This series of videos is the product of what is clearly some pretty rigorous research. They chronicle the lives of many of the overlooked species that aren’t as ‘charismatic’ as a whale or […]
Read More True FactsNow that our summer season of sharks, fieldwork, and exploration is beginning to wind down, many of the ASLC researchers are retreating to their offices like bears to their dens. There, we find a never-ending conveyor belt of new papers and information that has piled up over the summer, waiting to be read. While reading […]
Read More Pick up a good bookWhen we’d discussed the idea of having questions and answers from our exhibit room this summer, I was happy to act as a Google search for simpler questions about animals because curiosity is amazing, and many of these questions make me smile (“Do Fish Yawn?” Yes, Evan R. they do!!). But, I also had really […]
Read More What can we do?Last month I took leave from my internship at the Alaska SeaLife Center and traveled to Anchorage to attend the 137th Annual Meeting of the American Ornithological Society from June 24th through 28th. Taking place in a different U.S. locale every year, Anchorage was the northern-most conference in AOS history! As an undergraduate student and […]
Read More AOS 2019: Celebrating Women in OrnithologyOpposite ends of our country, but science knows no bounds I currently work in Northwest Florida, which in many ways is the polar opposite of Alaska. Our Gulf doesn’t have majestic marine ecosystems littered with unique marine mammals and diving sea birds. We don’t have grandiose mountains and glaciers. And the only ice you’ll find […]
Read More AMSS 2019: Florida to AlaskaLast week was a whirlwind of presentations, talks, and workshops. It was a lot of information to take in over four days, but I managed to leave Anchorage with many new ideas, thoughts, and reflections bouncing around in my brain. Some of those ideas are going to manifest as changes on sleepersharks.org, but others will […]
Read More AMSS 2019: Looking back at Jargon and Social MediaIf you followed our blog over the summer, you might remember my series of posts on outreach and communication. Helping audiences understand and be inspired by science is something I spent a lot of time thinking about, so I was very excited to attend this morning’s Communicating Ocean Sciences Workshop, led by Hakai Magazine’s Jude […]
Read More AMSS 2019: Communicating Ocean Sciences WorkshopGood enough for government work Etymology: This idiomatic expression was originally used in World War II to indicate that a product satisfied the high standards of quality demanded by the US government and could therefore be accepted towards efforts to win the war. However, since the early 1960’s the conversational use of the phrase has […]
Read More The shutdown chronicles 2: good enough for government work?Synchronicity and the butterfly effect are wreaking havoc with marine science. Synchronicity – syn.chro.nic.i.ty – /ˌsiNGkrəˈnisədē/ Definition: ‘meaningful coincidences’ – the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear related but have no discernible causal connection. Butterfly effect Definition: ‘an African butterfly’s wing-beats can lead to hurricanes across the Atlantic’ – In chaos theory, the butterfly effect […]
Read More Friday Frontiers: “The shutdown chronicles”A co-worker recently said to me, “I don’t know what you do on an average day”. It isn’t uncommon in an organization of our size not to know the day-to-day happenings of all your co-workers. That was partially why we started this blog, to share with our ASLC family and all of you the highlights, […]
Read More A look back at 2018To hearken back to Philina’s post from a few weeks ago–in my family I do sometimes fill the role of a ‘Nerd of Trust‘. I’ve had conversations about the scaling potential for a basement humidifier to solve droughts, and I’ve been asked to give talks on seals for my friend’s kindergarten class. There is one […]
Read More Shark Week: To watch or not to watch?Traditional ideas of scientific outreach and communication usually refer to press releases, news articles, public talks, formal and informal education, and public demonstrations. These are all valid (and excellent!) choices for outreach. But what about less traditional means? Social media and science communication Many people think of social media management as a light, fluffy, fun […]
Read More Social Media and OutreachWhat is outreach? Part 2 In my last post, I covered some of the immediate and small scale benefits of outreach: researchers who participate in public engagement and outreach develop better analytical and research skills while also helping to dispel myths and stereotypes about scientists. While certainly important, these justifications are not the primary goal […]
Read More Shrimp treadmills and nerds of trustIn my last post, I introduced myself and mentioned that I’m at the ASLC to work on outreach. But that begs the question: What exactly is “outreach” and why should we care? No one can agree on a single, “official” definition of outreach (and if you go searching, you will in fact find many different […]
Read More What is outreach? Part 1If you really pay attention to these animals, you will notice there are a variety of gender roles within these processes that are far from heteronormative relationships.
Read More Animal AttractionsGreetings! My name is Philina Richardson and I am a science outreach fellow at the Alaska SeaLife Center this summer. My primary objective this summer is to develop an outreach website for the Pacific Sleeper Shark Project. To help support this objective (and to shed some light on the nature of outreach and why it’s […]
Read More From the Fellow Series: IntroductionsI’ve got my coffee, a delicious white chocolate biscotti from the cafe up the road, and all my emails from overnight have been checked. It is 7:30 am, technically a good half hour before my day starts, but I finally have a few moments to check through my bookmarked sites and see what my fellow […]
Read More Reading RecommendationsHard to believe that it has been a year since this blog started!! In the past 365 days, we have shared stories about what we can learn from scooping sea lion poop how we are teaching girl scouts about science research how smartphones can help prepare communities for climate change new papers unexpected company in […]
Read More Happy Anniversary to 60° North Science!As an Informal Science Educator (ISE – yep that’s a real job) I come to these kinds of conferences with a bit of a different perspective. As a practitioner of the “soft” sciences (social and human dimensions) we don’t often have presentations here. Instead, we are looking to refresh relationships, build new connections, go to […]
Read More AMSS 2018: Education perspectiveLet’s face it 2017 was a tough year for many – in particular, those of us who work in the field of science – but some amazing things also happened this year: There was the March for Science (we had a great turn out right here in Seward)! There were technology breakthroughs advancements in green […]
Read More A look back on 2017The nights are getting longer, the snow is falling softly, and holiday music has been playing for at least a month already. That’s right, it is Scientific Proposal Season! Here at the ASLC, many of us in the Science Department have been hunched over our computers since Thanksgiving, typing away as deadlines for some marine […]
Read More Tis the SeasonAttending conferences is vital to advancing science–Shea Steingass, a PhD student at OSU shares with us her experience at BLS6 and what it means to an early career researcher to have this opportunity.
Read More BLS6: Why do scientists attend conferences?You’ve probably heard stories about how scientists get ideas that might include ‘it came to me in a dream!’. This blog post shares a different kind of story–one about how scientists take an idea, design a scientific study, discover an answer, and excitingly, end up with more questions!
Read More How we get research ideas