cwilcox | September 26, 2010Ok, I'm a few days late in posting this, but here's the latest podcast from Me, Travis, Peter, Jason and Sci. Our topic of the month: Fieldwork! Which we stay on for, oh, maybe a few minutes before getting sidetracked... :)
Enjoy!
PS Our previous podcast about life as a grad student can be found HERE!
cwilcox | September 17, 2010Scientists worry way too much about the impacts of our work. We want our papers to mean something, for people to really want to read them. Of course, the true test of whether your paper is important is that future papers cite you as a reference.
What makes one paper cited by everyone and another fall into obscurity? Well, there are all kinds of theories. Maybe it's how high-impact the journal is - after all, a Science paper is better than obscure journal, right? Some have even suggested it's a matter of size - of your reference list, that is.
But now, John Parker, a post-doc at the National…
cwilcox | September 9, 2010So, Shark Diver set out a challenge for Ocean of Pseudoscience Week that I simply had to look into. He wanted to know whether there's any science backing the notion that Bull Sharks, Carcharhinus leucas, have extraordinarily high testosterone levels and might thus be usable as a source for legally obtainable steroids - an idea, apparently, started by some video game.
The rumor, as I'd heard it, is that the fierce attitudes of these large and aggressive sharks is due to unfathomably high circulating levels of testosterone. Specifically, these menacing monsters supposedly have higher serum…
cwilcox | September 9, 2010Sure, the field days sound exciting and magical, don't they? So, of course, it's hard not to want to paint the picture that that is what it's like to be a marine biologist. But I don't get to do that kind of work often. Here's an average day in my life, a work day, is like:
5:30 am Wake up. Roll over, look at the clock, curse loudly. Try to sleep a little longer.
6:00 am Alarm goes off. More cursing.
6:15 am Manage to stumble out of bed, clean myself up, and get dressed.
7:00 am First, read e-mail. Second, check facebook. Third, check comments and such on ScienceBlogs. Fourth, read the…
cwilcox | September 7, 2010Graduate Student. Marine Biologist. Science Blogger.
I put on a lot of hats in my daily life, and the end result is that when someone asks me what I do for a living, I usually want to answer "I'm a Marine Biologist." Sounds good, doesn't it? Recently I've had a few people ask to interview me, and when I agree they all ask what it is like to be me. A Marine Biologist! It sounds so exciting! So...what do you do, anyway?
Truth is, what I do depends a lot on what day it is. There are class days - those are fairly self-explanitory. There are work days, which make up the majority of my daily life.…
cwilcox | September 5, 2010The sea is a dark and often mysterious place, and it's no wonder that the fear and fascination with the marine world has led to more than a few inaccurate claims. The crew over at Southern Fried Science have decided that this week is all about busting pseudoscience and the myths that surround our ocean realm. As it turns out, I'd posted about one of these before. So here, in honor of Ocean of Pseudoscience week, is a repost busting the myth that sharks don't get cancer.
There are a lot of myths out there about the marine world, but by far the one that bothers me the most is the notion that…
cwilcox | August 23, 2010Sorry I've been so MIA. The ship pulled back into Pearl Harbor on Friday, and currently I'm trying to get back to the swing of things on land, catch up on everything I missed for the past month, and find a place to live, so I'm kinda busy.
In the meantime, enjoy the adorableness (c/o Zooborns)
This little baby cottontail lost its mother, but luckily someone turned the little one in to a rehabilitation center, where the cute thing is being nursed back to health.
cwilcox | August 9, 2010Boy, diving all day every day sure makes you miss a bunch of stuff on the internets. Here's a quickie catching up of things I should have told you about already:
Jason tagged me in a meme because I have some kind of substance*. It would be breaking web etiquette not to follow suit. So here's the deal: I have to sum my "blogging motivation, philosophy and experience in exactly 10 words." So here I go:
The world could feel the way I do about science.
Oh, and TAG to... let's see... Allie, Scicurious, Travis... and some more people. When I have more time to think. I've got some transit days…
cwilcox | August 4, 2010For the past five days, I have been snorkeling and diving at Pearl & Hermes Atoll. P & H is one of the prettiest places I have ever been - stunning, vibrant reefs, calm, blue waters - the works. It's stupid pretty. The atoll has the highest standing stock of fish and the highest number of fish species in the entire Northwest Hawaiian Islands - and you can tell the minute you're in the water.
It's an atoll in the truest sense, in that most of it is underwater, with only a handful of small, sandy islands fringing its edges. While the reef covers over 194,000 acres, only 80 of that is…
cwilcox | July 27, 2010We just spent two days at French Frigate Shoals, most of which I spent diving or sleeping. Our research is going very well, which keeps me pretty busy, but I still find time to snap a picture or two. Here are some shots of the cruise so far!
cwilcox | July 25, 2010We spent the past day at Nihoa. Even from afar, its jagged shape seems somewhat ominous. It blows my mind to think that people used to live on this island! There seems to be no source of fresh water, and the only source of food is the blue depths off shore, which are patrolled by territorial beasts which may attack at any time. After my experiences yesterday, I have to admit that I am afraid of them - which I had never been before. I had always thought that as long as you don't bug them, they won't bug you, and they're no real threat. But yesterday, I was scared, and I seriously worried that…
cwilcox | July 23, 2010So I've spent almost a day now on the H'i'ialakai, and I've learned a couple things.
1. I do not have my sea legs yet, Have you ever seen that episode of Family Guy where the whole family, including Brian is in the back of a van, and everyone is making fun of Brian because he can't seem to stand up without sliding around and falling over? Yeah, that's me.
2. While the rocking might be difficult for walking, it's fantastic for sleeping. I was gently rolled to sleep like a baby in my mother's arms.
Today we arrive at our first stop, Nihoa. Nihoa is an interesting island because while it's…
cwilcox | July 22, 2010It's official - I am on board the Hi'ialakai and we are underway, headed to our first stop Nihoa.
Want to know where I'm at? Follow me around using NOAA's Ship Tracker. The Hi'ialakai is "HA", and you can click the link on the left sidebar to get it pointed out. Click "show latest track" to zoom in and focus on our movements.
Meanwhile, I've got briefings to go to. Catch you later!
Home sweet home for the next month!
cwilcox | July 19, 2010So, you may have heard this rumor that I, on occasion, do things other than blog, tweet, or facebook. It may seem shocking, but I do have a day job (if you can call it that - a graduate student's job never seems to be restricted by sunlight).
For the past couple weeks, I've been getting my butt kicked into super shape by an intense 2-week scientific diver certification course, which covers from open water to master scuba diver at warp speed. It was intense, physically exhausting, and mentally draining. But it was well worth it, because now, I can do something even more intense, physically…
cwilcox | July 18, 2010I'm pretty happy with my results:
I write likeMargaret Atwood
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!
Try it yourself. It's a pretty good way to waste 30 seconds or so.
cwilcox | July 8, 2010I think we all need a little happy right now. So, here you go:
This is Yoshi, my dear friend Kira's newest family member. Isn't he just the cutest?! Those blue eyes are just irresistible.
More adorableness below the fold.
cwilcox | July 8, 2010By the latest count, ScienceBlogs has lost 11 bloggers over its mismanagement of the PepsiCo sponsored blog (which is now RIP). That's around a quarter of our Sciblings. Notably, we've lost some of my favorite bloggers, like Brian Switek and Scicurious.
With the strong reaction many had to this PepsiCo fiasco, you might be wondering why I am still here.
In part, it's because I don't feel that the incident was as bad as some of my peers did. Yes, it was poorly managed, and the blog needed to be well labeled as sponsored/ advertising/ something to make it blatantly distinct from the other…
cwilcox | July 6, 2010I, like many of my fellow SciBlings, am less than ecstatic that PepsiCo now has a blog here at ScienceBlogs. It needs to have the Pepsi logo on it. It needs to be 100% clear that the content may be shameless advertising for a major corporation. Right now.
But what ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? I'm not talking about Pepsi or its products, which have been shown time and again to be general detriments to health. I'm talking about this new blog. People are accusing them of all kinds of things including compromising the content here - but they haven't written a single post.
Yes,…
cwilcox | July 5, 2010The other day, Jason, Sci, Travis and I got together to chit chat about various aspects of grad student life. You know - likes, dislikes, how we ended up in grad school, etc. Anyhow, here's our little chat for your enjoyment:
You can also download the MP3 directly for your iPod, etc from this link HERE.
Is there anything we left out? Any questions you have about being a grad student, or anything really? We intend to make this podcast (tentatively named "Scibling Showdown") a regular habit, so if you've got something you want to know, don't be shy.
PS: Y'all missed the five minutes prior…