How to Build A Scientist

A Field Guide to being an Almost-Scientist

[howtobuildascientist]

"Just before Obama arrived, [geological engineer Margaret Darrow of the University of Alaska] had spent a week in the field with a research team seeking to better understand one emerging hazard caused by thawing permafrost: a massive, slow-motion landslide that threatens the Dalton Highway...arguably the state's most important road."

[howtobuildascientist]

Lessons from Attending My First Big Conference

Whew, I am exhausted.

This week, I was lucky enough to be able to attend a few days of the Ecological Society of America’s Annual Conference in Baltimore (Check out #ESA100 on Twitter!).  My awesome supervisor at NWF was nice enough to grant me a couple days to attend, in part because there was research being presented that was highly relevant to our work.  This was my first scientific conference, and I wanted to share my experience and the lessons I learned here for anyone else considering attending a conference. Now that I’ve had this experience, I feel much more prepared for the next big conference, and there are things I know I will do different next time around.

First of all, Conferences are expensive. Is it really worth it?

Holy balls, are cons expensive.  This is particularly annoying because any advice you hear about being an early-career/student scientist probably includes going to as many conferences as possible. But you are probably young and broke AF.

I feel you.  The advise is good: Cons are a great opportunity to see what’s happening on the forefront of your field and are a great opportunity to meet researchers of interest, because you can just walk right up to them and introduce yourself, and you’re not going to get ignored (unlike your email to them, which is sitting in their inbox along with 100 other identical emails).  But are these opportunities really worth the investment?  That depends a lot on your financial situation and your goals.  Here is my advice for deciding.

Figure out your Real Cost: i.e. the cheapest way you can attend including transport and housing.  The ticket price you see is not accurate. You can probably attend for cheaper, but don’t forget to consider transportation and housing in your budget. Knowing how much it’s ACTUALLY going to cost you is the first step for deciding whether to go or not. Don’t give up till you’ve explored all your options, and budget carefully.

There are almost always student rates. There are also member discounts.  If you’re not a member of the society putting on the con, consider becoming one. Sometimes the discount on the con price for members is larger than the membership fee itself.

Consider just attending a few select days.  There are usually day tickets for far cheaper, and attending one or two days might be better than not attending at all.

Talk to your school and/or employer. Your school might be able to offset the cost of attending the con, or be able to connect you with a professor or another student who is attending with whom you might be able to cost-share.  Your employer might consider attending the conference “professional development” and allow you paid time off to attend, or maybe even offset your cost of attendance.  You never know until you ask, and the worst they can say is no.  I expected a big fat no, full stop, from my employer because I was brand-spanking new there. I’ve only been in my job for 1 week before this conference and why would they allow me time off when I’m that new?  But I asked anyway. I researched what was going on at the conference, presented the opportunity to gather relevant knowledge to our work, offered to represent the organization there, and they said yes!!

Try contacting the conference itself and explaining your situation. Many cons have sponsorship attendee tickets which they may or may not advertise. These are held in reserve for people just like you who would benefit from attending but who can’t afford it.

Consider alternative housing options.  The con is probably associated with a hotel and a “special rate” for rooms there during the con. But it’s still likely to be expensive. Consider sharing rooms with a colleague or a rando – ESA had a public forum for people to find roommates. Think whether you know anyone who lives in that city (I stayed with Charise’s mom, whom I’d never met before, haha). And definitely check out AirBnB.Put all this together to understand your real cost.

Understand your goals. Define for yourself what you’re hoping to get out of this experience.  If your goals can only be achieved by attending this conference, that is a very strong reason to shoulder the financial cost.  Knowing specific goals going in will help you achieve those, and therefore feel like your money was well-spent when it’s over.  Are there specific people you want to meet in person? Are they planning on being in attendance? That’s a great reason.  Are you trying to get a good understanding of where your field is headed? This is a great opportunity for that.  Are you trying to sample a lot of different sub-disciplines to figure out where your interest lie? That’s another strong reason to go.

BUY EARLY.  The earlier you buy your ticket, reserve your housing, and buy your bus/train/plane ticket the cheaper it will all be. This is related to #1

Cons are great. Go if you can; I think they’re generally worth it. But remember that every discipline and every society has their own. There are also regional ones that happen between the big annual conferences that are generally cheaper and probably closer to you (unless you’re one of those fuckers who live in Cali, where everything is held). If you can’t go this year, just start saving for the next one. It’s no big deal.

Ok, I’m going. What should I wear?

Whatever you want! No, really!! Now, take this with a small grain of salt, because it may be that cons in other fields are different, but I know at least MOST cons are pretty casual.  Maybe not, like, a medical conference; for some reason I imagine their cons to be more formal.  But yeah for the natural sciences – relax.  I saw all different levels of dress, and literally no one cared.  Some people wore sandals, shorts, and a baggy t-shirt; others suits and ties.  This was even true for presenters. Some were dressed in straight business attire, while others wore a button-up (but not tucked in!) shirt with casual pants.  To be honest, the more casually-dressed presenters also tended to speak the most conversationally, which made their presentations more dynamic and interesting as compared to the formalized speech of the fancier-dressed.

How do I talk to people?? They’re so cool, and I’m so insignificant.

WHEN I SEE MY FAVORITE BIG WIG AT THE CONFERENCE

Source:WhatShouldWeCallGradSchool.tumblr.com

Once again, I feel you, hypothetical-reader.  But let me tell you: Presenters expect this.  It’s common practice for people to approach a speaker after their presentation and ask them questions or chat about their work.  It’s also totally common for students to approach principal researchers to start a conversation about coming to their lab.  My two pieces of advice are this: Have a networking card or something of the like to give them (and others) with your name, contact info, and discipline or current educational status/job position on it.  But mostly, just prepare a little elevator speech beforehand so you don’t get flustered and don’t waste their time (or feel like you’re wasting their time, actually).  My example: “Hi, I’m Nicole! [shake their hand] I’m a student interested in climate change and other disturbance affects on the landscape level, and I really enjoyed your talk.”  [If there is a particular point they made that made you go “Ahaaa!” or a question that you have, mention it now.] Then, “Well, I will let you go, but is it ok for me to email you with some more questions/so we can talk about this more? Thanks!” [Give card/get card.]

Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. You’re in, you’re out, you’re done. Interaction success.

What other advice do you have?

Ok listen up – this is my biggest lesson: PACE. YOURSELF. If you’re like me, you don’t yet have a super-specific sub-area of interest. If you’re at the con to hear about, like, this one type of bacteria and how it relates to the Phosphorus Cycle in tundra ecosystems in the Eastern hemisphere on Tuesdays when the moon is full, your schedule is gonna be pretty straight forward.  Otherwise, there might be many different talks that catch your interest.  These con schedules are pretty packed – there were about 4500 talks offered this week, about 40 going on concurrently every 20 minutes at the ESA conference.  Plus there are constantly poster sessions up to browse, optional field-trips, and evening workshops. YOU CAN’T DO IT ALL. TRUST ME. I exhausted myself by trying to pack in every little thing, determined as I was to get my money’s worth out of this conference.  The result: I was too physically and mentally tired to fully absorb everything that was being presented to me, and ended up enjoying myself less.  And I was only here 2 days! The conference lasted a week! Here are my rules to avoid this:

Plan ahead. The minute you get the full schedule, sit down with that thing, make yourself a time table, and identify your “CANNOT MISS” events.  Then, fill in some “Would like to attend” events around these, but don’t pack your schedule. Leave some time for decompression and reflection; getting food (VERY important); and maybe even a nap!

Don’t stress. If you miss a talk, that paper WILL come out sometime later and you can just read it then.  You have the names and institutions of everyone presenting in your schedule packet.  Just email them later, if you want.

Take care of yourself. This bears repeating: Get enough sleep. Get enough food.

Finally, cons of all sort are always more fun with friends who share your interests.  Bring a nerd-buddy, and have fun :)

[huffpost]

New Octopus Is So Adorable It Might Be Named Opisthoteuthis Adorabilis

The most adorable little octopus in the world looks like a cross between a Pac-Man ghost and a Pokemon creature.

Just don’t ask for its name because it doesn’t have one yet. But the octopus is so cute that “adorable” might become part of its scientific identity.

[sciencefriday]

An early Cephalopod Week treat! Watch the original video:

[kny111]

precious baby

[howtobuildascientist]

[sciencetylia]

#GirlsWithToys hashtag - part 60

What is this hashtag about? In short: the hashtag was born out of casual sexism by a male scientist. To read more about what spurred this response, read Kate Clancy’s (creator of the hashtag) article below:

Girls With Toys: This is what real scientists look like.

View my other posts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, part 13, part 14, part 15, part 16, part 17, part 18, part 19, part 20, part 21, part 22, part 23, part 24, part 25, part 26, part 27, part 28, part 29, part 30, part 31, part 32, part 33, part 34, part 35, part 36, part 37, part 38, part 39,part 40, part 41, part 42, part 43, part 44, part 45, part 46, part 47, part 48, part 49, part 50, part 51, part 52, part 53, part 54, part 55, part 56, part 57, part 58 and part 59.

[howtobuildascientist]

80Recycling is an extremely complicated and expensive process. And when I say ‘expensive,’ I mean in all ways: financially and environmentally. It takes a lot of energy and a literal shit ton (yes, that’s a scientific term) of water.  

So why do we do it?

Well, it’s generally accepted that the process of recycling is still more sustainable than creating new items from raw materials. By recycling, we avoid the most environmentally costly part of any production - the harvesting of raw materials.  For plastics, that would include the drilling and pumping of oil, the transportation of the oil, and the many processes that turn petroleum into plastic, with all the associated environmental costs that come with each of those steps.  For paper, that would mean the logging of existing forests (and the cost to biodiversity, soil health, erosion control, and climate control that comes with that), the transportation of logs an then all the many steps that it takes to turn a log into a paper product.  You get the idea.

Compared to the energy and emissions cost of using virgin materials to create a product:

Recycling aluminum takes 95% less energy

Recycling glass takes 50% less energy

Recycling paper takes 60% less energy (and 80% less water)

Pollution (air, water, land) is reduced significantly by recycling. And the amount of land dedicated to waste dumps can be limited by routing more materials to recycling.

Anything can be recycled.  But not every municipality or contracted company will accept, or has the capacity to process, every material. 

It is this confusion that I believe is the main barrier to increased recycling habits in the United States.  

When people have to give a lot of thought to where/how/if every tiny thing they use can be recycled, it becomes frustrating and an investment of time and energy that most people won’t make, even when they have the best of intentions. 

Research what can be recycled in your city; use online sources like www.Earth911.com to find out where/how to recycle any other waste object in your area, and push your local, state, and federal representatives to improve recycling services.

The best situation would be one in which every citizen has single-stream curb-side recycling available, and that every recyclable object could be put into this stream; eliminate the need to think and research whether an object can be recycled in one’s area. Everything Recycled Everywhere. 

Source: EPA

[micdotcom]

These are the women breaking barriers in STEM all over the world

American women are severely underrepresented in STEM fields. But female scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians worldwide are breaking barriers and making incredible contributions to their fields despite the odds. Here are just a few women doing so all over the world.

[smilesandvials]

And all this science, I don’t understand It’s just my job, five days a week

Elton John, Rocket Man me and every other research assistant in the world (via thatssoscience)

[exotericenvironmentalism]

‘Audio ecology’ map of the (contiguous) United States- by the National Park Service, source Scientific American.

Unsurprisingly the major cities are hubs of noise pollution, but it is furthermore notable that quietness is apparently at a premium in large swathes of the mid-west and south. It seems the wilderness regions of the west are the best for really getting away from noise pollution…

[howtobuildascientist]

How did I become an Almost-Scientist?

What the hell do I have to offer the world?  This is the question that has been nagging me in the back of my brain since my partner in crime, Charise, and I nerd-gasmed over the idea of co-authoring a science and conservation blog.  It’s a thought I have been ruthlessly squashing every time it pops up.  I refuse to examine this question. I know how it will end; I will inevitably tally up my strengths and weaknesses in my head and come to the conclusion that I am unworthy for this task.  It’s a scenario that has played itself out enough times in my life already and has given me so much undue anxiety, and I am not really willing to let it crush this idea before Charise and I have really even put ourselves to it and tried.  Instead, I tell my brain, “Shut up! There is value in my experience, in my perspective, and in my journey.” If nothing else, I know there are many other Almost-Scientists like Charise and I out there who can relate to our struggles and experiences, and who will nerd out with us over the same things.  I hope this blog brings them a little comfort that they are not alone (what I would have given to have had that through my own journey) and a little joy. That will be enough for me.  But hopefully, we will educate ourselves and others about rad environmental science work along the way, too.

Maybe other people will see parts of themselves in my journey. Maybe telling blogging through my story, starting with this backstory, will help you understand who I am and whether you want to continue following this blog or not (Please continue to follow us. I think it will be worth it). And maybe by blogging together, we’ll understand each other and ourselves better, too.

So here’s a shortened version of my story so far. Looking back, I realize that almost everything I wanted to be growing up (and trust me, there were a lot of things) was some sort of natural scientist.  In fact, the very first thing I can remember wanting to be was a paleontologist. What 4 year old even knows what that is?!?  By middle school I wanted to be a marine biologist, studying cetaceans, especially dolphins and their methods of communication. Then I realized I hated anatomy and thought better of that path. By high school, I switched to wanting to be an astronomer. I even job shadowed in a planetarium and researched colleges with astronomy degrees. There were a lot of things in between, but those are the highlights.

And then one day – and I know this going to sound weird and dramatic and sappy but stay with me – I had an epiphany.  Like lightening, it struck me that if I had one life and I was going to dedicate it to something (which at the time seemed a given, though I realize now that it most certainly is NOT), I needed to dedicate it to the study and protection of nature. I don’t know why. It wasn’t like I had been doubting my career path as an astronomer.  If you’re a religious person (and I am), you might say it was a calling. It doesn’t really matter. I changed my mind, and have never once doubted or felt unsure that this is the field I wanted to be in.

I kind of became known around my high school as the Environmentalist, which was more often than not thrown at me as a label of shame, but which I wore as a badge of pride.  A classmate took notice of my passion and invited me to a local meeting of The Keepers of the Mountain, an anti-mountaintop removal grassroots organization.  Like most West Virginians at the time, I’d never even heard of the practice, but at that first meeting I heard Maria Gunnoe and her daughter speak about what MTR is and how it had ruined their lives and their community.  I was so affected. I learned everything I could about the practice, which lead to learning everything I could about the ecological and societal costs of pollution, which lead to learning everything I could about climate change.  By the time I was 17, I knew more about any of those topics than anyone in my world – teachers, lawyers, even miners themselves! But nobody liked me for it.  I went to a church that had a very strict and anthropocentric definition of the word “domain,” and I lived in a world dominated by coal interests.  I was called un-American for my opposition to fossil fuels, un-Godly for my prioritization of the health of the Earth, and told that I didn’t care if West Virginians starved and died.  Of course, the truth was the exact opposite of all those things. But fear of change and instability, as well as challenges to what one has always believed to be true and right usually triggers responses of anger.

Me with the late Larry Gibson overlooking MTR destruction near Kayford Mnt., WV

I somehow got it into my head, though, that I wouldn’t be good at science.  How that idea infected the mind of straight-A, science class-loving girl is worthy of its own separate blog post, though.  So I found a small liberal arts college that I loved (shout out to Marietta College!!!) where I double majored in environmental studies, and political science.  I also minored in Spanish and enrolled in the certificate program for leadership and business.  My big plan: to become a super influential environmental nonprofit leader.  But as early as high school, I recognized one thing: You can’t segregate good policy and good science.  Good science had to be done so that good policy could be written. And you had to have people in power that understood both so that they would listen to the science and craft strong, passable policy.  So I decided I needed to go to graduate school and study environmental science, and advanced policy. Then I would be the strongest, most well-prepared advocate for the environment that I could be.

But while in graduate school I discovered, to my great surprise, that all I wanted to do were the hard science classes. Despite having chosen a graduate program on purpose which was well rounded, with opportunities to study both science and policy-making, I kept being pulled towards the field classes – and there were only a few! I blew through them right away, had the time of my life, looked at my remaining elective choices, and felt bored. I’d already gone through all the hard science options. I’d reached out for research opportunities, but nothing really was being done.  I didn’t feel prepared to do my own research yet, nor did I feel like my institution was a good place to learn how-no disrespect, it was simply a policy-oriented place.  I had a serious discussion with my advisor, my friends, and my family, and decided to alter my path.  What I really wanted was to be a research ecologist.  I wanted to be out in the field taking samples, setting up controlled experiments in the lab, publishing my own work!! So I left. I withdrew half way through my program and decided to search for a new one.

That brings you up to date with me.  I’m still searching for the right fit for me, academically, but I’m excited (if stressed) about my new path.  I hope watching my journey will teach others what to do, and, more likely, what NOT to do in their own journey, and we can all have a blast discovering and talking about the coolest, most interesting works going on right now in Ecology and Conservation.

Thanks for reading.