Robert Krulwich

Every time I’m feeling down and needing motivation, I’m going to listen to Robert Krulwich.

He gave an excellent commencement address at CalTech, highlighting the importance of storytelling in science, and how we have to compete against the storytelling used to capture the masses with Intelligent Design and other pseudosciences. Krulwich a science journalist who’s been on ABC, NPR, and especially on Radio Lab. As you can tell, I am a big fan of his work, and I true feel inspired after watching his speech.

To watch his address, you need RealPlayer and fast-forward about 9-minutes in.

Still not dead yet

The pacemaker is still ticking, and I am still not dead. Yay for getting noticed!

I expected that once school ended, I would be free from the oppression against my time. Time would roam free and wild, where I would then steer towards other fruitful projects like photography, and this blog. Instead, I’ve been under the tyranny of indecisiveness. I created a large to-do list, and I quickly realize that it wasn’t possible to do everything I wanted in one summer. Instead, I’ve been spending the past month at a sloth-like pace, looking over my list, and glacially removing items from it.

There’s a great line in The Incredibles that many people miss. When Syndrome pretends to save the city, a crowd gathers, an individual proclams, “The supers have returned! Isn’t that ironic?” To which, someone answers, “No, Ironic has a different outfit.” Right now, given my productivity so far this summer, my superhero alter ego is in fact Ironic.

Right now, I want to comment about the “The MPG Illusion” in Science magazine. First, I need to get my hands on the full-text of the article.

I’m not dead yet (I’m feeling better!)

I can’t wait for classes to end, but it’s not that I’m being stressed out. Oh no, this has been one of my most relaxed semesters I’ve had since starting up community college three years ago. Much of my Spanish class has been concepts I’ve already covered so I’m not spending that much time studying for it. Then for technical writing, I’m enjoying it far more than what I was expecting. I had a lot of fun writing a technical description of PCR reactions, although I wish I could have spent more time on that assignment. I might as well have been reading my Spanish book and typing my assignments under the cover of an oak tree on a lightly warm day. Happy bees and butterflies would be humming around me and freshly squeezed lemonade would be in my water bottle.

But no, I’m waiting for this most blissful of academic semesters to end so I can focus on this blog. And sort through several hundred photos I’ve taken in the past few months. And study for the GREs.

School ends next week.

Sex and bathroom humor, jellyfish style

While I’m getting this blog off the ground, here is some filler for your entertainment. Click to enlarge:

Jellyfish and their relatives (anemones, corals) eat and crap out of the same hole, something called a two-way digestive tract; food goes in one direction, then reverses the direction to get crapped out. Us humans are fortunately to have one-way tracts where food travels down one direction in our bodies until we have to use the bathroom.

Jellyfish actually have a complex life-cycle where they do both sexual and asexual reproduction (not at the same time). These jellyfish will eventually have sex, but don’t let facts spoil the humor

Graduate School Part 1

Directory of Science Communication Courses and Programs

Since yesterday I started compiling a list of graduate schools from the link above. It’s a list grad programs of some form on science communications. The programs run the gamut from technical writing, science journalism, pubic and health, environmental policy, and whatnot. I want to apply to a graduate program in science writing/journalism. The first thing I need to do is figure out which programs look most appealing to me. I don’t have a dice big enough for all 39 programs on the list. Actually, I don’t think I own any dice.

Yes, this is happening…again, but I’m serious this time. And this time, there will be no dampened enthusiasm, not even my screwed-up molar will slow me down.

“She blinded me with science!”

Selling science to the masses — New Scientist Short Sharp Science Blog

I think that it’s rather fitting that my first science entry in this blog is about communicating science to the general public. Part of the reason why I started this blog was to venture and experiment with science writing (and communications). It’s not just straightforward language and metaphors, but how do we connect with the audience? It’s the writer’s dilemma multiplied by seemingly unapproachable topics explained by even more unapproachable people in lab coats.

I have rather mixed feelings after reading this summary of the “Speaking Science 2.0″ talk that happened in Berkeley last week. On one hand, I agree with Chris Mooney and Matthew Nisbet that the “usual” techniques isn’t going to cut it. More PBS programming isn’t going to reach an audience that doesn’t even watch PBS, nor read long feature articles in a newspaper. On the other hand, I don’t want science communications to be sensational, blowing issues out of proportions and running over subtle but important nuances.

I do like the point scientist need to show that they are people, too. I know, I used to work with them. The science’s native technical tongue quickly masks the researcher, and that gets worse when the enthusiastic journalist is distills it without proper context. I’ll make no secret that I believe that one of the biggest problems in modern American journalism is not having enough context to understand what a story is really about.

That reminds me of today on NPR Science Friday. They were talking about the potential for massive solar power projects (instead of little panels scattered across roofs), and the guest from Ausra seemed so remote to me. I’ve been reading up on Ausra, their plans and technology, which I find really fascinating, but the guest spoke as if he was muted and disconnected from everything around him. I felt like I was excited about solar thermal power only because I had already read a lot about it, not because I was roused by the person on the radio.

I think Radio Lab has the right idea. They cover really interesting and complex topics, like the placebo effect or memory, but the hosts are humorous and jive with chemistry. Their guests are people first, then scientist. Science is not an abstract idea, but people with ideas or people who make unusual observations. I think that’s why I’m hooked on the program, anyway.

gerbilbox.org is no more

I just redirected my domain. For those of you (if any of you actually exist) were expecting gerbilbox.org, I’m re-making my online presence. It may take a few weeks before this new blog is up and fully running, pictures and all.

I’m shutting down my old web-hosting in the next few months, and the domain will go with it as well.

The photo above is of some strawberry anemones (Corynactis spp.) from my invertebrate zoology course a few years back. I aimed my camera down one the dissecting scope eyepieces and snapped this beauty. These guys are small, about a centimeter in diameter. I’m really fond of the photo I took of them, I used it as the banner graphic for the old gerbilbox.org.

I have a large collection of natural history photos, mainly of the Sierra Nevada flora, and some marine invertebrates. It is one of my pride and joys. I am going to get all those photos back online.

Temporary Photo Hiatus

I just started this offshoot of my blog and I’m already putting it on hiatus, sort of. Oh no, the first signs of sudden and inevitable collapse! Anyway, I’m not going to post any new photos here for a week or so.

I’m searching for a permanent online photo sharing/storage. I’m mostly entertaining SmugMug and Flickr’s pro account. I love SmugMug’s user interface, their organization and back-up features seem really nice. On the other hand, Flickr is cheaper and looks decent enough, except I’m not a fan of their interface. Either way, it’ll be cheaper and easier than full-blown web-hosting.

I want to consider other options if anyone has one that they really like. So far, I’m finding that Picasa doesn’t do everything I want.

Until I decide, photo posting is on pause. This way, I don’t go through the trouble of having to re-link all my photos when I make the move. This means I should to decide soon. I actually proposed to my technical communications teacher that I want to write my informal report comparing photo services. That should give me a kick-start.

Berkeley Sailing Club Part 1

I’ll start with the pictures from Berkeley from a month ago. I’m a disappointed in how the focus somehow got centered on the mast and not on the sign, which was what I wanted. Maybe I shifted forward a little after the focus locked, I was using a narrow depth-of-field and standing on a docked boat.

I wanted the full attention on the sign, which I found not just the language amusing but I love how it’s crooked, too.

Welcome

This is the first post of my new “blog.” I say it with quotation marks because I just don’t like the word, it sounds like I’m vomiting. Really, do I want to think about vomit when I’m catching up on a friend’s update, or hooked on a stranger’s thoughts? The sound the word makes is disgusting. It does get the point across and has fewer syllables than “web-log” or “online journal,” it is the only reason why I say “blog.”

I plan to focus “Blinding Flash of the Obvious” on a few of my shareable enthusiasms: photography, science, and science writing. Hopefully, that’ll keep things interesting, instead turning into a thinly veiled excuse to practice my writing.

About a year ago or so, I got attached to the phrase “blinding flash of the obvious.” I was talking to my brother Aaron about how explanations can suddenly become “obvious” only after hearing the explanation.  What’s a cryptic mess of dots before becomes a clearly connect picture after an eloquent explanation. Aaron calling this process a “blinding flash of the obvious.”

I admit that I often have trouble noticing or understanding “obvious things” until they are explained to me. I believe that it’s a good pragmatic approach, I’ve had plenty of those moments while doing photography or in my science classes.

Take care.

Alex