Who are biologists and what do they do? Faces of Biology Contest

What does a biologist look like? Who are biologists? Where do they work and what exactly do they do?

For many grade school and middle school children, the image of an older (usually Caucasian) male with wild gray hair comes to mind. He's holding a test tube or flask and wearing a white lab coat and goggles. Other than the wild hair, none of those phrases describe me.

But why do so many people recall that image? I don't know, but  I do know that the Faces of Biology Photo Contest presented by the American Institute of Biological Sciences is an excellent opportunity to expand everyone's preconceptions what a biologist looks like and what he/she does.

The contest is an opportunity to showcase the varied forms that biological research can take.  Photographs entered into the contest must depict a person, such as a scientist, researcher, technician, or student, engaging in biological research.  The depicted research may occur outside, in a lab, with a natural history collection, on a computer, in a classroom, or elsewhere. ~ from the official contest website.

Like this one of me (and my wild hair, hahaha)

Seriously, you should consider a picture of your own to the contest. The grand prize is this

 plus $250 cash.

Learn more about the contest and read the orginal full post at The Urban Scientist at The Scientific American.

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Wordless Wednesday: I'm the luckiest nerd in the world

This is exactly how I'm feeling lately. The law of attraction is very real thing. A little more than a year ago I made list of things that I would like to have happen and low and behold if they didn't.

The University of Missouri - St. Louis Newsletter came out today and it included a feature of my recent exploits as a blogger for the Scientific American Blog Network. If you haven't checked out the new science blogging network, then please do so. It is awesome and I'm in the company of many other awesome online science communicators.  And also 'sign up' that way you can leave comments.

And I also got some really, REALLY exciting news: I have a post-doctoral research position with the awesome and amazing Dr. Alex Ophir at Oklahoma State University.  Alex & I go waay back, researching voles and social behavior.  He's started this awesomesauce research endeavor the Giant Pouched African Rats (of Tanzania) and the questions were right down my alley.  I was like, "Hey Alex, you know I'm all about the individual differences, behavioral variation, maze running, field biology, and mammalogy?" So some wands were waved papers by deans and administrators were signed and he gave me the news Monday night when I arrived at the Animal Behavior Society/International Ethological Conference. I'm still flying high.

Details of everything will come. In the meantime, check out the recent posts from the conference at the Scientific American blog.

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A Twisted Dust Web in the Galaxy IC 342

A Twisted Dust Web in the Galaxy IC 342 (7/20/11)

Looking like a spiders web swirled into a spiral, the galaxy IC 342 presents its delicate pattern of dust in this image from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope. Seen in infrared light, the faint starlight gives way to the glowing bright patterns of dust found throughout the galaxys disk.

At a distance of about 10 million light-years, IC 342 is relatively close by galaxy standards, however our vantage point places it directly behind the disk of our own Milky Way. The intervening dust makes it difficult to see in visible light, but infrared light penetrates this veil easily. It belongs to the same group as its even more obscured galaxy neighbor, Maffei 2.

IC 342 – click for 960×806 image

More: here, here

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Pathological

A surreal experience, of the conference kind:

A colleague, with whom I used to work, many years ago, but with whom I stopped working because he was so uncommunicative and because he sat on data for YEARS (so that in most cases I had to redo his work to have any hope of moving forward with the research) and because he did not comment on manuscripts (much less write anything himself) and because he was therefore a major and annoying obstacle to any progress with our collaborative research, recently complained to me about another colleague who behaves the exact same way to him as my ex-colleague did to me back when we worked together. He complained bitterly to me about this other person's lack of communication (!) and refusal to share collaborative data (!) or comment on manuscripts (!), much less write anything himself (!).

Does my ex-colleague's brain consist of compartments that are totally impermeable to each other so that he can act one way and complain about the exact same behavior in someone else? I am sure that it is fairly common to be annoyed by unsavory behaviors of which we ourselves are guilty, and perhaps this was just an extreme example.

Or did my ex-colleague know that he was complaining about his own behavior (in someone else) and was in some twisted way apologizing to me? I doubt it, but I suppose it is possible.

In any case, I just said "Omigod, what a jerk" and walked away. It was too weird, even for me.

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Wordless Wednesday: Dragon Fly

This dragon fly is dead. I found it on the lawn of a friend's house, still in great condition.  Dragon flies are wetland bugs. They live near water where the females lay eggs.  The juvenile stage of dragon flies (and the closely related damsel fly) are called nymphs; and these little alien-looking bugs live in the water until they become mature exoskeleton-having, wing-bearing adults.  You can always tell a dragon fly because of its large size and when it lands it holds its equal-sized double wings out, like the pictures above.  And they come is a variety of pretty colors.

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2011 Black Weblog Awards Live cast tonight!

The 2011 Black Weblog Awards are tonight and LIVE for the first time ever in Los Angelos, California.  It seems to have become the capstone of the weekend of events of the Blogging While Brown Conference, now in its 4th year.  Tonight's award ceremony is hosted by actress Kim Coles. Recognizing the best and brightest African-American bloggers, the Black Weblog Awards will announce winners of the coveted awards in over 30 categories including Best Science/Tech Blog and Best Green Living/Outdoor/Nature Blog - the two categories I, Danielle N Lee, was proud to be a finalist for.

I'm not there, but I will be tuning in this evening - on the web and tweeting, too.
The ceremony is 6:00 - 10:0 pm (PST)
You can join me if you like.  I'll be down at Whiz Tech Cafe at 8:00 pm (CST).  It's the greatest, newest internet cafe in the midwest (and it's female/African-American owned).

So come on down, pull up a chair and order a tasty coffee drink, too.
Location Whiz Tech Technology Cafe
1629 Locust
Downtown Saint Louis, MO


In the meantime, here are some important links and folks to follow for the event.
Black Weblog Awards website and Twitter @BlkWeblogAwards
Blogging While Brown Conference website, Twitter @BWBConference and hashtag to follow - #BWB
Me - on Twitter @DNLee5
Kim Coles on Twitter @KimColes
The Whiz Technology Cafe Twitter @WhizTechCafe
Live cast here:



Video clips at Ustream

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"Rose" of Galaxies

"Rose" of Galaxies (4/20/11)

The newly released Hubble image shows a large spiral galaxy, known as UGC 1810, with a disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. A swath of blue jewel-like points across the top is the combined light from clusters of intensely bright and hot young blue stars. These massive stars glow fiercely in ultraviolet light.

The smaller, nearly edge-on companion shows distinct signs of intense star formation at its nucleus, perhaps triggered by the encounter with the companion galaxy.

Arp 273 – click for 987×1000 image

More: here, here, here, here, here, here, here

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Non Transparent

Over in Scientopia, I discuss a question about matching fund requests.

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A really BIG Announcement - I've joined the Scientific American Blog Network

You may have noticed how quiet it's been lately. I have been busy trying to work and pay bills.  Doing non-traditional work has been quite an experience for me. Don't get me wrong, I love outreach and I enjoy sharing what I know with others as a consultant, but doing it as my full-time wasn't my strong suit.  And I'll admit I miss academia culture - the teaching, research, and going to journal clubs - and doing hands-on outreach. What can I say, I'm a nerd and I am proud.


So imagine how geekily excited I was when I was asked to join the newest Science Blogging Network on the Globe -- @ScientificAmerican Blog Network. If that sounds a little familiar to you, then you can certainly understand my excitement and pride over joining the network.  It's the name of a rather popular science magazine.

Perhaps you may have noticed one or both of these magazines on the shelves in your local bookstore or public library. I'll be an official blogger for them, meaning I'll continue to write in my usual tone and form for them online.

The blog I have at Scientific American will be called The Urban Scientist - which will feature posts about urban ecology, evolutionary biology and diversity in STEM. Essentially it is a combination of both this blog and my other blog SouthernPlayalisticEvolutionMusic.  I'll continue to write about science for non-scientists and I hope everyone finds some new favorite science blogs to enjoy while you're over there. Dive deep, please.

What that means for this blog

I can't write unique content for three science blogs. And since I will be paid for writing for Scientific American Blog Network, The Urban Scientist will be my blogging priority. The good news is that I am allowed to syndicate my content at my blogs, which I will do for some time initially.  But I will have to make a decision soon.  This blog is my baby, I'm not ready to let it go, at least not just yet.

So please come check out the new blog and the awesome blog network. Please leave a comment at the new blog. It includes some amazing bloggers. I think it's a great neighborhood and I hope everyone enjoys all of the great science reading to be had among my new SciAm blog siblings, including Papa Smurf himself - Bora! Yay!
 Thanks for love, the support (moral and financial), the prayers, the encouragement, and critiques.  You made this modest little blog and me - a student who struggled fiercely with her writing - a better blog/writer and it was with your kind thoughts and wishes that this blog was noticed and asked to be apart of something grand.

Thank you very much. With all of my love.
Danielle

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I'm Not Here

** Note: This blog post has been certified 100% accurate by the FSPEB
(as amended, see footnotes) **

Happy July[1], everyone[2]. I am about to enter one of those See You On The Other Side/Academic Edition times of the year when I will be crazy-busy with professional travel and other research activities for several months [3]. In fact, the next time I can see a not-insane time segment of any significant length is late October [4].

Even epic-multitaskers have their limits, and we here at FSP are about to hit ours, especially for the next month or so.

Therefore, blogging will get erratic for a while, not just in content, but also in timing.

I did have a thought [5] the other day, though. When a commenter noted that it was not believable that some professors had behaved in a strange and rude way towards me during an interview for a faculty position (lo these many years ago), I started remembering how my friends and I used to entertain [6] each other by telling each other about all the bizarre awful things that happened at our job interviews.

Perhaps experiences of this sort have been collected elsewhere in the blogosphere, but, even if so, perhaps it would be a fun summer activity to retell some of these here. Surely there are some great examples out there of Professors Behaving Badly during interviews for faculty jobs?

So, if you are willing to be patient with my intermittent comment moderation, I hope you will share with us here some exciting experiences that you or those you know have had during a job interview (not necessarily of the academic sort, so as not to exclude anyone from sharing their disturbing and/or bizarre experiences).

Perhaps you even want to confess some bad behavior of your own during an interview (either as interviewer or interviewee). This is the time and place to to do it.

***********
footnotes:

[1] This may be a false or irrelevant statement. I am writing this in June and posting it in July, and I have no idea when you are reading this.

[2] This is an exaggeration. Obviously, not "everyone" -- in the literal sense -- is reading this blog.

[3] which is why it kind of drives me crazy when people talk about professors having the summer 'off'. I don't even have time to visit my ancestral home this summer; this is both saddening and a relief at the same time.

[4] This is an outright lie. I have a few hours free on the afternoon of Thursday, August 18, and there's a weekend in late September that seems to be quite unscheduled at the moment. It is also probably an illusion. As late October approaches, it, too, may become packed to the rafters with urgent events.

[5] This is an underestimate. I actually had two: one at 9:37 AM and one at 11:14 PM.

[6] This is not an entirely factual statement. Some of the examples were not entertaining; they were just disturbing.

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