We hope everyone has had a great August. As always, this month has gone by too fast. It’s already time again for our collection of awesome links and videos that we found enjoyable and/or important this month. Let us know if we missed any super cool posts!
“She drew their attention as a wolf that had a lot of moxie and was very adventurous.” Check out this NatGeo article about Nate Blakeslee’s new book, American Wolf, who’s central character was once “the most famous wolf in the world”.
This in-depth interview with Francis Weller, author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, is a must read when you have the time.
We are clearly fans of Priya Shukla‘s Forbes articles. Check out this one about the ocean’s itty bitties with an important link to carbon cycling.
The Sunshine Blogger Award is an accolade given by one blogger to another in recognition for work that they find creative, inspiring and positive. We are tickled and humbled to be nominated and have been enjoying peeping all of the other recipients in this network!
The rules of the award are:
Thank blogger(s) who nominated you in the blog post and link back to their blog.
Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.
Last week Sweet Tea, Science was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by the fabulous Science Femina!
Tess, the woman behind The Science Femina, is a California native working and pursuing a graduate degree in Chemistry at California State University, Fresno. Her experiences partnering with countless outreach organizations to promote diversity in STEM translate nicely to super helpful blog posts. We love that she is writing about her experiences in order to guide and motivate future generations. Some of our favorite posts include: From JC to UC to MS Degree and You Can’t Do It All And 4 Things I’m Doing Instead. Also be sure to check her out on Twitter and Instagram.
The Science Femina asked us the following questions:
How did you come up with the title of your blog?
We wanted a name to tie together our southern roots and our love for all things science. We both grew up in the woods of Kentucky and met in undergrad at Western Kentucky University. Also alliteration is something we highly value. We used to have separate blogs (Always a Scientist and Practical Ecologist) but we found working together on a single project was more enjoyable because it gave us an excuse to spend more time together and explore what we could create as a team!Continue reading “Sunshine Blogger Award Q&A”→
At various points along your PhD journey it can seem like life ceases to exist beyond your pile of papers, monitors full of code, or wall of caffeine. Sometimes it may be hard to find the time to venture outside your office, let alone your town, state, province, country, etc. In this and many other regards, the academic life is not without its stresses and pitfalls, but the opportunities to travel for conferences and research are some of the best parts. The bi-annual International Statistical Ecology Conference (ISEC) has been on my radar for some time, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to extend a trip to St. Andrews, Scotland into a full fledged honeymoon around the Scottish highlands. According to my twitter profile, I’m often a traveler, and I think I’ve developed a few good packing practices I would love to share with all of you.
Me and Darling Husband
Nearly five years after my last European adventure, I’m once again packing my trusty 60L pack and jetting off, only this time with my darling husband accompanying. When packing for this trip there were several considerations at the forefront of my thought process. I knew how I packed for my 3 month long European trip 5 years ago thanks to this previous STS post. While I ended up packing a few of the same items (!!), this trip has a different focus and thus different packing needs. First, I needed conference clothes as well as clothes for hiking and exploring and I wanted to look super cute as often as possible because I am a proud fancy scientist.
Luckily, since I am so used to packing for research/camping related trips, I am not disappointed by the lack of space for super cute clothes. ~ Meridith circa 2013. My, my how I’ve changed.
Next, I wanted to pack a few things to help reduce my carbon footprint while traveling (even though flights are a big one! Two quick links about carbon offsets: why and Rachel’s recommendation for where to buy). Finally, while we aren’t truly backpacking, I did need to consider weight. Admittedly my packed ended up way heavier than I anticipated, and as I’m writing this post I’m noticing some areas where I could maybe, sort of, perhaps packed less. A thought I will not admit to my husband. Ever. My pack is perfect.
Sweet Tea, Science 