You are browsing the archive for science and society Archives - AGU Blogosphere.
27 January 2023
#AntarcticLog: #FridaysforFuture
I’ve made no secret of my admiration for youth climate activists around the world. This week’s #AntarcticLog features four from Kenya and Uganda, along with quotes from their social media posts.
23 January 2023
Announcing three new AGU Honors and Honors Program Innovations
As we enter the new year, I’m excited to share several updates and highlight some new AGU Honors we’ll award this year. First, the 2023 Honors nomination cycle is now open! From now until 12 April, the Earth and space sciences community has the opportunity to nominate individuals, and in some cases teams, for an AGU Honor. We encourage you to recognize colleagues, mentors, postdocs, students and others for their …
20 January 2023
#AntarcticLog: Antarctic Bears
When you think of Antarctic beasts, the tardigrade might not be the first to come to mind. But new research from the British Antarctic Survey shows that the ones in Antarctica represent a divergence hailing back to the time when the continent was cut off from the rest of the world.
12 January 2023
Defending Truth and Sharing Science: A Response to Political Violence in Brazil
Last Sunday, the world watched as a mob overran and ransacked Brazil’s Presidential Palace, National Congress and Supreme Court in Brasilia, the nation’s capital. AGU condemns these actions and the disruption to the peaceful transfer of power.
16 December 2022
#AntarcticLog: Blasts from the past
Magical? Science? Sure, as samples offer clues to unseen, unknown worlds nothing like our own, the metaphors turn to ideas like time machines and portals, and the adjectives turn to fantasy. And yet — it’s real! Check this — new proof of ecosystems and species previously unknown, based on a few grains of dirt.
9 December 2022
#AntarcticLog: Beyond the “Wall”
Yes, I’m shocked each time I see a scientist take time to get interviewed by someone debunking a false claim about climate change, Antarctica, space, you name it. Besides debunking the debunking, my contribution this week is a look back at just a few #AntarcticLog comics that focus on the work of scientists who worked in Antarctic’s interior.
7 December 2022
AGU Member Survey on Meeting Considerations
In June, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That decision shifted the battleground over reproductive rights and freedoms to the states. Additionally, several states have further restricted LGBTQ+ rights from what can be taught in schools to medical care and procedures. States and municipalities have also seen a renewed push on conceal and carry gun legislation. Together, these developments have cast a bright light on issues of …
5 December 2022
AGU Board vacancy filled in special election
In a special election, AGU members have elected Catherine Coleman Flowers to serve on the AGU Board of Directors. The AGU Leadership Development and Governance Committee would like to thank everyone who voted in this special election to fill a vacancy on the Board. In May 2022, Dr. Jalonne White-Newsome accepted a position as Senior Director for Environmental Justice for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The new role required Dr. …
2 December 2022
AntarcticLog: Diversifying Antarctica
#AntarcticLog is a series of comics by Karen Romano Young. You can find the originals here. There are many efforts afoot to increase minority perspectives in the sciences. As we celebrate the 63rd anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty, which designated Antarctica as an international continent dedicated to knowledge and peace, we acknowledge the lack of diversity there — and elsewhere. In my new project, I Was A Kid, which launched …
11 November 2022
#AntarcticLog: Keeping tabs on baby penguins
I first heard of Stéphanie Jenouvrier and her WHOI colleagues’ work assessing emperor penguins a few years ago, when I was working on my book about Antarctica and climate change. Their work had allowed them to connect projected global temperature rise with its impact on emperor penguins, making the big birds a “sentinel species” for environmental change.
7 November 2022
Special Election for AGU Board Member
Earlier this year, AGU Board member Jalonne White-Newsome accepted a position as Senior Director for Environmental Justice for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The role necessitated that Dr. White-Newsome step down from the AGU Board. The AGU Leadership Development/Governance Committee has decided to hold a special unopposed election with Catherine Coleman Flowers to fill this vacancy. Voting will open for AGU members on 9 November and close two …
28 October 2022
#AntarcticLog: Penguins!
Once upon a time, I had a penguin costume. I’ve learned that, when I go into the field with scientists, it’s never a bad idea to pack a costume. And that one has definitely had legs — short legs, for sure, but I’ve seen it in a number of videos, from penguin dances for International Penguin Day to open mic nights — penguin on saxophone, anyone?
26 October 2022
2022 AGU Election Statistics
In AGU’s 2022 biennial election, for which voting ended on 6 October, the membership chose 59 new leaders to serve 2-year terms in 2023–2024. Union officers, Board members, section officers, student and early-career representatives to the Council, and the College of Fellows chair-elect were elected. Here the AGU Leadership Development/Governance Committee looks back at the voting in this year’s election and how it compared to prior elections. Read more in …
10 October 2022
Youth astrobiology education continues at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science
On July 16, 2003, the famed former President of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nelson Mandela stood in front of a crowd in the midst of the founding of the Mindset Network and said “education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world”.
7 October 2022
AGU’s September 2022 Board Meeting
The AGU Board met in Washington DC in a hybrid format with approximately half of the Board members on Zoom, and half in person. After more than two years of learning how to do this since COVID’s unwelcome arrival, the hybrid format worked very well. At the on-site dinner, there were times when several of us were looking around and saying “Where’s <insert name>?”, only to remember that the person …
#AntarcticLog: Back to the ice!
It’s springtime in Antarctica, and the scientists are heading back to the ice. Not only the scientists, but the support people working at the stations, and yes, even a few science communicators and artists. Among the first to travel to McMurdo and the South Pole in the wake of the Covid pandemic is Lauren Lipuma, editor of the U.S. Antarctic Program (and the National Science Foundation’s) newspaper, The Antarctic Sun.
30 September 2022
#AntarcticLog: The wombat connection
I’m in Crownpoint, New Mexico this week, researching future comics at Navajo Technical University– and learned that the campus here used to have more trees. Piñon and juniper have died because of recent drought, says Abishek Roychowdhury, who teaches environmental science here.
23 September 2022
#AntarcticLog: Why did the ship cross the Drake Passage?
Why did the R/V Laurence M. Gould cross the fierce, fearsome Drake Passage? To get to the other side — to the Antarctic Peninsula and Palmer Station.
16 September 2022
#AntarcticLog: The importance of research ships
I learn so much from drawing ships. Here is E/V Nautilus, from an artist-in-residence and science communications tour I did in 2015. Nautilus is the mother ship to Hercules, a deep-diving ROV.
9 September 2022
#AntarcticLog: A close look at a glacier’s edge
The Alvin Science Verification Expedition may be over (science? verified!) but the research and findings are ongoing. What’s more, the scientists aboard bring plenty of fascinating stories to the table — not all of them related to Alvin.
