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29 July 2022
#AntarcticLog: Down with Alvin
Down with Alvin! That’s where the scientists aboard R/V Atlantis are headed. As Alvin Science Verification Expedition chief scientist Adam Soule says, “our human brain is good at seeing what’s different in an environment — anything from organic shapes to unusual colors.”
22 July 2022
#AntarticLog: To sea we go!
And now for something completely different. #AntarcticLog heads to the deep sea, where carbon sinks, where the sea is black, and where the tiny submersible Alvin — able to carry three people — will soon be shining its light on unseen territory.
25 February 2022
#AntarcticLog: Give me Shackleton
What can I say — Ernest Shackleton just kills me. Yes, Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole, and by goal-oriented criteria was the most successful. In a certain kind of heroic sense, Scott wins many hearts. But, as the saying goes, “Give me Shackleton.” He’s the one who got every single man of the Transantarctic Expedition home alive, though he left their ship, Endurance, to the Weddell Sea.
23 November 2021
Sharing Science at AGU21
Well, it’s that time of year again. No, not the holidays (well, yes, that too). It’s AGU’s Fall Meeting!
8 September 2021
Blogging for Science Unsealed
For six years, I participated in one of the most impactful science communication endeavors I’ll ever embark on: I ran Science Unsealed, the blog from the Illinois Science Council. The ISC aims to give folks an opportunity to explore their scientific curiosity, and the blog was my opportunity to further their mission. Besides educating the public, running Science Unsealed did something extra for me: it helped me discover my passion for science writing.
23 April 2021
#AntarcticLog: Happy Earth Day!
If you think it’s tough scuba diving in icy Antarctic waters, try doing it while pulling up old tires, rails of steel, and other junk. I spent Earth Day, April 22, 2018, at Palmer Station, Antarctica, helping pull old trash out of Hero Inlet.
21 December 2020
(Re)introducing the Sharing Science Virtual Learning Hub
For each webinar, we’ve created additional content to convey key points via multiple mediums. I’ve taken to TikTok and Reels to create scicomm videos with my dog. Our own Olivia Ambrogio has flexed her artistic drawing skills by creating <1-minute animations as well as animated webinar summaries. And our graphic design department has been putting together infographic summaries.
30 November 2020
So you wanna host a Twitter takeover…
A few years ago, when we in Sharing Science first stood up our Twitter account, I had the idea to take over the @IAmSciComm rocur account. Basically, @IAmSciComm (along with all of these accounts) allows users to take control for various periods of time to talk about things related to the account, in this case, scicomm. It was a great experience that allowed us to let the world know about the scicomm tips, tools, and resources that we have, as well as good marketing for our fledgling Twitter account.
9 September 2020
Want to do outreach but don’t know where to start? We got you.
Science communication is a catch-all phrase that means so many things. Even when narrowing it down to scientists talking about their research to (mostly) non-scientists, there are still so many avenues and places to start.
24 July 2020
Zoonotic Diseases: Plugging the Source Before the Flood
A whopping seventy-five percent of emerging diseases have been said to be zoonotic, meaning that such diseases can spread from wildlife to humans, an example being our current pandemic consisting of Covid-19 a bat-to-human infection.
23 July 2020
Reduction of Ice Extent in Arctic Region Cause PDV Transmission Between Arctic and Pacific Region
This article focuses on reduction of sea ice extent in Arctic region which is caused by climate change might introduce many diseases that are locked in Arctic to sub-Arctic regions. The virus they track is called Phocine distemper disease (PDV), and it is a pathogen that majorly causes high rate of mortality in European harbor seals of northern Atlantic Ocean.
22 July 2020
The Four Corners Outbreak of 1993
In May, 1993 a 19-year old man suddenly developed shortness of breath while driving through the Four Corners region in New Mexico. He had complained of fever and muscle pain a few days before, but generally was in good health. By the time he pulled over and paramedics arrived, he had gone into respiratory failure and later died from an acute pulmonary edema in the emergency department of Gallup Indian Medical Center.
21 July 2020
Debunked Myths about the Bubonic Plague
The Black Death, believed to have been caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis, killed about 100 million people worldwide in the fourteenth century. However, there is still much that is unknown about this deadly disease, also known as the bubonic plague, and there are still myths about it that continue to be spread. Even though it wiped out a decent portion of Europe all those years ago, if someone were to contract the disease today it no longer means death thanks to modern medicine.
20 July 2020
Pigs: Mixing pots for influenza
I was recently reading an article on Healthline.com that discussed a new form of swine flu that was recently discovered in China. The new strain is called G4, and it has come to researcher’s attention after being discovered in Chinese pigs.
17 July 2020
Research Suggests Leprosy to be a Zoonosis, The Reservoir: Armadillos
Leprosy, renamed Hansen’s Disease, is a chronic condition caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae). The disease primarily targets the skin and peripheral nerves, however new forms of the bacteria have also been found to affect other areas such as the eyes, testicles, and bones. An individual, once infected, typically shows an incubation period of three to seven years.
16 July 2020
Anthrax, a cool band name but devastating to reindeer
Anthrax, also known as Bacillus anthracis, is a gram-positive bacterium that has a very high fatality rate up to 80% when inhaled. This deadly bacterium is now a yearly ticking timebomb in northern Russia every summer, devastating the local wildlife and spreading to humans.
15 July 2020
Tongue worms, they’re not just for reptiles…..humans too!
Tongue worm disease caused by the parasite Linguatula serrata is a blood sucking parasite that belongs to the group Pentastomida. This species generally inhabits the upper respiratory tract of terrestrial, carnivorous vertebrates. It is mainly found in reptiles and bird species.
14 July 2020
Winston Churchill and the Spanish Flu
Winston Churchill is notable one of the most influential people to ever live being recognized for many public policies that he had implemented in England during his time serving in parliament. What is not talked about to a great detail is how he attempted to establish many policies dealing with certain wildlife diseases such as the Spanish flu.
13 July 2020
A Troubling Site: Mass Death of Botswanan Elephant Population
Since early March, there has been mass death among the elephant population in Botswana. The cause? We don’t know. The Botswanan government has ruled out three causes: poison, poaching, and anthrax. Yet, there has been significant question in the government’s handling of elephant mortality.
10 July 2020
Debunking the alleged connection between Lyme disease and Unrelated Conditions
Lyme Disease, or Lyme Borreliosis is a zoonotic disease caused by the Borrelia genus of Bacteria. This bacteria is usually transferred to a human host by the bite of a tick. Lyme disease can effect the host’s neurology and often results in fever, headache, tiredness, various bodily pains, and in some cases memory loss. Lyme disease has proven to be a major problem in the United States, affecting an estimated 300,000 Americans yearly.
