Gotta get back on that horse, I suppose.
This is my first grown-up, not for grad student's only, grant though. Which is pretty intimidating! They agency wants a letter of intent (LOI) first, which is a nice way of easing into it, I think. But it's hard to cram everything related to asking for a shit-ton of money into 2 pages.
I also think it's funny that I spend the better part of the first (and so far worse) heatwave of the summer writing this LOI for a climate change grant.
How are algae related to climate change? What does this have to do with the major project I'm already doing? Well, I tried to fold this proposal into the project I'm already doing. The basic premise is that: climate change increases crop production (due to higher temps and CO2) which needs more water and more fertilizer which makes more run off (due to less frequent, more severe rain) which affects the algae which are also experiencing increased production (due to higher temps and CO2).
So fingers crossed! In 4 weeks, the agency will tell me whether or not I've got a month to write another 15 pages about it!
Monday, July 25, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
The Transition is Happening!
Well, here it is folks, the first (I think) official thing out of NABS with the new name on it. Check it out!
Pretty neat, huh? I think so!
For those of you not familiar with what the hell I'm talking about, I'll give a brief background. Brief for two reasons; 1, I'm just a youngster in the society and I couldn't possibly give a full history and 2, we're in the middle of a heat wave and the computer is just too hot on my lab for anything longer.
The above was the logo for the North American Benthological Society (NABS). If you find yourself asking, "what the hell does 'benthological' mean?" then you have a pretty good answer to why it was finally voted to change the name. This past May in Providence was the 3rd time in the last 20 years (perhaps longer) that the name change was brought up. Since last year's meeting in Santa Fe, we've been hearing many stories about how our society has missed out on funding, speakers, and other opportunities all because people didn't understand the "benthic" part of our name. In the interest of growing the society, both in membership and accessibilitythe name was changed to the Society of Freshwater Science (and the journal name was changed from J-NABS to Freshwater Science, too). I think it is a good idea.
Not that I don't miss the "Benthic" part of our name. I do, I really do. And I feel for the reasons why people wanted to keep it. Even though I was only a member of NABS for a few years, I got real attached to Benthic real quick! It's got a certain ring to it! And after saying it just a few times, it really began to feel like home. I am sorry to leave that home. The other (and better, in my opinion) reason for keeping it was that we shouldn't have to "dumb down" as a scientific society. Our name should inspire people to learn more about what that crazy word means and perhaps something of our field in the process. Doesn't it look like one of those words you want to learn more about? And besides, other societies with somewhat archaic words in their name aren't voting to change their name (I won't name names, you know who you are).
So why did we "give in" to the "dumbing down"? Because it was time. The gains were greater than the losses. And so we have moved forward and transitioned into the SFS era of the society.
This is my brief history of this event, with my own interpretation of the arguments for and against, colored as a recent member (at this point I've been a member 4 years). I do hope I haven't offended anyone from NABS/SFS with my re-telling, it wasn't my intention. Everyone at the top who has been handling this put in a lot of work and thought to the issue and I really appreciate it (no, I'm not just kissing ass, I really mean it!).
So here's here's one last shout-out to all the NABS-ters!! Yay NABS!
For those of you not familiar with what the hell I'm talking about, I'll give a brief background. Brief for two reasons; 1, I'm just a youngster in the society and I couldn't possibly give a full history and 2, we're in the middle of a heat wave and the computer is just too hot on my lab for anything longer.
The above was the logo for the North American Benthological Society (NABS). If you find yourself asking, "what the hell does 'benthological' mean?" then you have a pretty good answer to why it was finally voted to change the name. This past May in Providence was the 3rd time in the last 20 years (perhaps longer) that the name change was brought up. Since last year's meeting in Santa Fe, we've been hearing many stories about how our society has missed out on funding, speakers, and other opportunities all because people didn't understand the "benthic" part of our name. In the interest of growing the society, both in membership and accessibilitythe name was changed to the Society of Freshwater Science (and the journal name was changed from J-NABS to Freshwater Science, too). I think it is a good idea.
Not that I don't miss the "Benthic" part of our name. I do, I really do. And I feel for the reasons why people wanted to keep it. Even though I was only a member of NABS for a few years, I got real attached to Benthic real quick! It's got a certain ring to it! And after saying it just a few times, it really began to feel like home. I am sorry to leave that home. The other (and better, in my opinion) reason for keeping it was that we shouldn't have to "dumb down" as a scientific society. Our name should inspire people to learn more about what that crazy word means and perhaps something of our field in the process. Doesn't it look like one of those words you want to learn more about? And besides, other societies with somewhat archaic words in their name aren't voting to change their name (I won't name names, you know who you are).
So why did we "give in" to the "dumbing down"? Because it was time. The gains were greater than the losses. And so we have moved forward and transitioned into the SFS era of the society.
This is my brief history of this event, with my own interpretation of the arguments for and against, colored as a recent member (at this point I've been a member 4 years). I do hope I haven't offended anyone from NABS/SFS with my re-telling, it wasn't my intention. Everyone at the top who has been handling this put in a lot of work and thought to the issue and I really appreciate it (no, I'm not just kissing ass, I really mean it!).
So here's here's one last shout-out to all the NABS-ters!! Yay NABS!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Worst. Day. Ever.
Oh man, did I fuck up today! It was just one of those days in lab where I didn't want to be around anyone and no one should have wanted to be around me. I broke our stream sonde!!! I know, I can't believe it either. So this morning I get to lab and start processing the samples we collected yesterday. Everything's going mostly fine, there was one filter column I misthreaded and so part of that one sample leaked a bit, but ok. Then our lab tech gets there and I tell him that the sonde's batteries are dead and I need a special screwdriver to get it open. He's puzzled but says ok. Turns out you don't need a special screwdriver, just a quarter and a good grip. So he opens it up and out comes WET BATTERIES. "Did this fall in the water?!" "...no...?" "Because it's not the batteries, it's broken. You broke it." Oh fuck....I didn't know that the controller part of the sonde wasn't water proof. We had laid it stream side a few times and I guess it was sitting in more water than I realized. I don't know what possessed me to leave it like that, no excuse really. Not only is the inside of the circuitry wet (we put it in a dessication jar with sillica) but extra batteries got wet too...and corroded all over the inside of the case. Double fuck!
Now I'm super pissed. One of the first things I did this morning was turn in a bunch of gas receipts; $170 worth. I feel like a total mooch for using that much gas worth of field vehicles, I have no grant money for this. The Assistant Director assures me that it's alright, that the station views this expense as an investment for future gas money. Alright, I'll take that...gotta get the dollas, yo. Back to work. THEN I break a $4000 piece of equipment!!! What the hell is wrong with me. In addition to my field work, we've also got 3 undergrads in the lab this summer and some of them need this sonde too. I just took one of the most used pieces of equipment in our lab out of commission. Sad panda, angry panda...
I'm still so angry with myself I could just scream.
So now I've got not just CV reasons to want a grant. I've got to replace equipment I broke. I really need a funding win....
Now I'm super pissed. One of the first things I did this morning was turn in a bunch of gas receipts; $170 worth. I feel like a total mooch for using that much gas worth of field vehicles, I have no grant money for this. The Assistant Director assures me that it's alright, that the station views this expense as an investment for future gas money. Alright, I'll take that...gotta get the dollas, yo. Back to work. THEN I break a $4000 piece of equipment!!! What the hell is wrong with me. In addition to my field work, we've also got 3 undergrads in the lab this summer and some of them need this sonde too. I just took one of the most used pieces of equipment in our lab out of commission. Sad panda, angry panda...
I'm still so angry with myself I could just scream.
So now I've got not just CV reasons to want a grant. I've got to replace equipment I broke. I really need a funding win....
Thursday, July 7, 2011
BMP Sampling: July 2011
Here's a sort of public diary about my first month of field sampling for my dissertation project
July 6th; Visited 4 streams, 2 with new BMPs, 1 old BMP, and one Ref. At the first stream (Trav); it took a really long time since I needed to explain to my High School student assistant how to do all of the sampling procedures. However, this stream runs through some very clay/silty terrain and after the recent rains, all the rocks were coated in a red sediment film. I tried to pick rocks where I could see some evidence of periphyton growing (which I know is bad sampling, but I'm willing to risk it), however the sample is practically red....fingers crossed on that one. Second two streams went fine (Car & Her) except that at Car, we lost our squirt bottle :-( And coming out of Car I was attacked by teazles (I don't know how you spell that...they're kind of like thistles, except more cone shaped) and there was a spider on my hand that made me scream. I don't do spiders. And last we went to Beers, as a thunder storm approached. Sampling was done very quickly, maybe even a bit too quickly. As we were finishing, we heard the first bit of thunder and made a dash for the car before anything bad happened. Hospitals are few and far between up there and I'm ok with being overprotective and nervous. My advisor had warned me that there had been a bit of rain in the area over the weekend and that the periphyton may be a bit thinned....thin to almost non existent! I'm really worried that I won't get enough out of these first samples to make it worth it and that I'll have to re-sample them.
July 6th; Visited 4 streams, 2 with new BMPs, 1 old BMP, and one Ref. At the first stream (Trav); it took a really long time since I needed to explain to my High School student assistant how to do all of the sampling procedures. However, this stream runs through some very clay/silty terrain and after the recent rains, all the rocks were coated in a red sediment film. I tried to pick rocks where I could see some evidence of periphyton growing (which I know is bad sampling, but I'm willing to risk it), however the sample is practically red....fingers crossed on that one. Second two streams went fine (Car & Her) except that at Car, we lost our squirt bottle :-( And coming out of Car I was attacked by teazles (I don't know how you spell that...they're kind of like thistles, except more cone shaped) and there was a spider on my hand that made me scream. I don't do spiders. And last we went to Beers, as a thunder storm approached. Sampling was done very quickly, maybe even a bit too quickly. As we were finishing, we heard the first bit of thunder and made a dash for the car before anything bad happened. Hospitals are few and far between up there and I'm ok with being overprotective and nervous. My advisor had warned me that there had been a bit of rain in the area over the weekend and that the periphyton may be a bit thinned....thin to almost non existent! I'm really worried that I won't get enough out of these first samples to make it worth it and that I'll have to re-sample them.
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