Over 15 years of ocean science and conservation online
I’m Andrew and I like weird little projects. I built a weird little FitBit walking robot. I built a weird little cyborg see turtle. I built a weird little face-mounted Lidar array that lets you see the world like a dolphin. I built a weird little ring light with a panic button to get you … Read More “Great conservation technology programs thrive on weird little projects” »
Note: This is an updated and expanded version of the original article: 3 kid-friendly STEAM electronics projects that harness NOAA’s massive public databases. If you’re anything like me, you probably have a stack of assorted electronics in various stages of disrepair, which is great for your hardware hacking dads and moms, but kids need projects … Read More “Weekend electronics projects for kids that love the ocean.” »
So, you’ve made it! The remnants of science twitter have at last begun to coalesce around a new microblogging platformed owned by questionable individuals with inadequate content moderation that groans under the weight of a massive surge in new users. Welcome to Bluesky. Honestly, it’s pretty great, in the way that Twitter circa 2012 was … Read More “A quick and dirty guide to making custom feeds on Bluesky” »
Hello Friends, do you like Dungeons and Dragons? What’s your favorite class and why is it Circle of Spores Druid? In the campaign I run for my family, my daughter was sent to rescue the mayor, who was kidnapped by dwarves during a property dispute. In the process, she uncovered an illegal quicksilver mining operation, … Read More “Roll for Climate Initiative: A Dungeon Master’s Guide to Running for Local Public Office” »
By pretty much every metric, this month was the best month we’ve had at Southern Fried Science since the pandemic began. It turns out people do still read blogs and just a little bit of effort posting regular updates goes a long way. 13,500 of you stopped by to see what we were writing and … Read More “What you read on Southern Fried Science in January” »
The structure of scientific inquiry has coalesced around a model that is, in general, both expensive and exclusive. This centralizes knowledge production within a circle of individuals, organizations, and institutions which rarely reflects the breadth of identities, experiences, and ways of knowing of those most directly connected to the places being explored. Nowhere is this … Read More “It is your ocean. You should have access to the tools to study it.” »
It finally happened. Three years after Chris Parsons and friends announced their podcast on this very blog, I have joined the Cephalosquad (I actually joined almost a year ago, but we have A Backlog). Meet Patches Tenderfoot, a rabbitfolk necromancer who believes that if he delves deep enough into the arcane arts, he can de-extinct … Read More “Want to join the Cephalosquad? Fight the Kraken!? Listen to a D&D Podcast!?!? Start here!” »
In a region once thought to be so ecologically uninteresting that it was viewed as a useful testbed for deep-sea mining equipment, NOAA researchers have detected what could be the world’s largest cold water coral reef. “For years we thought much of the Blake Plateau was sparsely inhabited, soft sediment, but after more than 10 … Read More “The world’s largest cold water coral reef lies beside the first experimental deep-sea mining test site” »
2023 was a year of endings. I closed several projects and spent a lot of time, behind the scenes, laying the foundation for project I hope will have an impact in 2024. I don’t really think of myself as a science communications person anymore. We are activists, working to achieve specific science-informed policy outcomes. We … Read More “Taking Initiative: My 2023 year in environmental education, outreach, and activism” »
