So many questions

Driving into school today, listening to NPR update the Sandy destruction I drove around a long curve and there it was. A full moon. My first thought upon seeing this particular full moon was how powerful that tiny moon is. After all, some of the destruction from Hurricane Sandy can be attributed to the high tide coinciding with the storm. My daughter lives in Brooklyn and I've been pretty anxious these past couple  of days. She is fine. She evacuated to the lake house in Pennsylvania. The storm was bad there too but they survived intact, no trees down, no power outages.

How different would this storm have been if the moon was in a different phase? I haven't had any course work into tides and tidal forces beyond the basics in freshman level sciences classes. I'm sure someone out there has done modeling to show the answer to my question but would I even understand the papers that explain computer and mathematical models on that level? Probably not. Fascinating to say the least. I envy people who get math on that level.

How are the ecosystems going to be affected by this storm? So many studies to be done up and down the eastern seaboard. Maybe some of the internships I am applying to this summer will be studying this storm's effects upon the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. I do hope that I'll get to participate in the research.

Salt water moving into areas where it hasn't been before. The tidal force pulling up sea grass beds, oyster beds, and just plain scouring the dunes and coastal areas of all vegetation. How long will it take for the areas to recover? One season, two seasons, never? Are the wild pony populations of the outer banks islands suffering? Does commercial fishing improve or suffer immediately after a storm of this magnitude? Are there species of plants that can hang on in such a storm? What attributes lead to a plant surviving this storm? In areas that are swept bare what will the re-population look like? What are the pioneer plants for the sea shore? So many questions and soon I will be one of the scientists looking for answers.

The application process

          I'm beginning the application process to summer internships. REU (research experience for undergraduates) and never realized how hard it is to present the best side of myself in less than 250 words. But I'm getting there and have a great mentor at my university helping me with it all.

What is a proper gift to give your mentor to show them how much they have helped you?

What is a good resource for how to write up a resume?

A little bit everyday. An hour a few days a week. And soon the project is finished. Whether it is a research project or the application to a internship these small increments make it seem smaller.

Now I need to go put in my 30 minutes of time on my water resources paper.

            I'm in the process of practice. Practice, practice, practice. I'm practicing writing. This blog. I re-read my previous entries and believe me, I need the practice.Of course you probably already realize this. Every type of writing increased my communication skills and communication is a skill every scientist needs. So here goes nothing. Err, something. Oh what ever.

I found a great website of science videos. Go check it out. Now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh2MWgfPiPU

          Oh good. You are back. More thoughts on my Plant Ecophysiology project. I'm considering looking into the physiology of semi-deciduous plants, the kind that grow new leaves in the autumn because...I don't know why. So I've got a question. Why do some plants experience new growth when all the others around them are losing their leaves? Is there an evolutionary advantage to this new growth? To the research then.
More on this tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

developing a research project

               In plant ecophysiology we are to develop and carry out an independant research prioject. I developed and wrote up what I thought was a fairly good proposal and my professor approved it. Then came the presentation to the class in order too get feed back prior to starting the project. I failed. Flat on my face failure. I know that I need practice on how to present ideas when standing in front of the class and that I am new to all of this but still... I was horrible, looked unprepared (because I was unprepared), and fumbled through my outline. The professor gave a few ideas, my classmates said nothing.
             One of the grad students gave his project proposal. Polished, concise, clear, with measurable parameters. I want to be at that level. I must have had a defeated look on my face because my professor asked why I looked mad. I said that I was  disappointed in my ability. The grad student was awsome, pointing out that learning how to do research is a learning process. A. Learning. Process. As I am writing this it comes to my mind that some people may think the professor was mean to me or rude. I want to assure my readers that I did not feel singled out, or belittled in anyway. He reminded the whole class that it was why we set aside a class period to discuss eachothers projects. We all have to help eachother get better at research.
             I do enjoy these upper level classes that mix grad and undergrad students. This type of class gives examples of the knowledge and skill level that I want to attain. Fall break started today and I'm starting over, using the things that I learned during the class proposal review I'm off to develop a new project. Wish me luck.

Sunday morning readings....musings

             I love to sift through my google reader feed and my Zite content on Sunday mornings. In days gone by (oh the loss of good newspapers) I would spend the morning with the NYT sunday edition and the local Arkansas papers along with a big pot of coffee. Sprawled out across the living room rug. Never really knew what to expect. What interesting tidbit would jump out at me at this time? Is there a topic I did not even knew existed? With Zite and google reader not so much. Zite's algorithms are too small in the categories it provides. I have used this web app for about a year and now the majority of articles presented for my amusement are science (primarily biology) related. The Google reader is a little better as it doesn't predict anything, just gives me exactly what I ask for. Alas, no surprises. I still miss my Sunday morning papers (they just aren't up to par) and every once in  while I will purchase said papers and settle in on a sunday morning to read. It's just not the same as the content is now 50% of what it was a decade ago.  That said, today's surprises.

             A website called book porn. Just pictures (think pintrest) of book shelves. Amazing pictures of book shelves. There was even a book shelf made of books strategically stacked to create the book shelf without any other structural component.

            A website (i think it is a tumblr account but i don't understand tumblr) titled "Things I Learned as a Field Biologist. I read post after post and laughed. I have one professor this term who refers to students as 'Biologists' After reading this author's small stories I now realize...I am a field biologist! I am a field biologist? WOW That is so cool.

          The intelligent octopus https://vimeo.com/44791802

        The Washington Post has an article with the headline "In Hawaii, fisheries service relaxes bycatch limits on endangered sea turtles"  stating that swordfishermen can catch 26 leatherback and 34 loggerhead turtles before suspending fishing. Appalling, right? If you read the entire article you find that, according to Michael Tosatto (regional administrator for the fisheries service) no turtles were killed this year. All were released alive. If this is true and the bycatch is not resulting in death of turtles and the fishermen are reporting truthfully, then is there a problem here? What a great research opportunity. If a scientist could partner with the swordfish fishermen and geo-tag the turtles caught on the swordfish hooks a wealth of information could be obtained without having to create and implement a large, expensive study. Maybe someone is already doing this, it just doesn't make the news.