Over 15 years of ocean science and conservation online
Earlier this month, I released The Last Hunt for the Jabberwock, a Dungeons & Dragons adventure in ecologic succession. This campaign is an expression of my two favorite things: being giant nerd going on strange journeys with an odd assortment of friends and helping students of all ages learn about their world through experiential education. … Read More “‘Twas brillig… building a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for adventurers in and out of the classroom.” »
Welcome to the Warren. Within this tiny Domain of Delight, Rabbitfolk engage in an endless battle against the Jabberwock, a manxome foe that refuses to stay dead. With the aid of their Archfey and allies from near and far, they have forged an uneasy peace. Every 30 years the Emerald Moon rises, the Jabberwock returns, … Read More “Hunt the Jabberwock, Defend the Warren, Save the Forest: a D&D 5e Adventure for Environmental Educators” »
As an informal learning assignment, I have my students use social media to follow ocean science and conservation experts for the semester. Each week, they’re asked to check social media for a few minutes, and report on something interesting they learned about marine science or conservation (and why they thought it was interesting.) I’m sharing … Read More “My “Follow ocean science and conservation experts on Bluesky and Instagram” assignment” »
For close to two decades now, the venerable YSI Castaway has been the gold standard for small, relatively cheap, handheld CTDs. In the early days of OpenROV, the robot’s little payload bay was sized explicitly to fit a Castaway. When Kersey and I started building the OpenCTD, our benchmark for viability was how well the … Read More “Comparing the OpenCTD to a YSI Castaway” »
The Cephalosquad recently celebrated our 300th episode of Dugongs and Seadragons. Listen along as we reminisce on 6 years of D&D podcasting, getting to old for all this, and the surprising discovery that our younger members do not know who Jennine Garofalo is. Meanwhile, in the ongoing adventure of a bunch of very nerdy marine … Read More “Catching up with the Cephalosquad on Dugongs and Sea Dragons” »
In 2011, researchers from Japan and the Center for Unconventional Computing in the UK asked one of the most important questions ever asked. How many crabs do you need to build a computer? And then, they answered it. If you want to build a computer from scratch, you must first invent a logic gate. Using … Read More “Everything is Crabs: How many crabs do you need to land on the moon?” »
On Friday, I posted about the financial model used to project the potential profits from a hypothetical polymetallic nodule mining model in the Clarion Clipperton Zone. This model, originally commissioned in 2018 and updated in 2021/22, had some puzzling prices for manganese in particular. This model is extremely important. Beginning late this month, member states … Read More “Updated financial model for deep-sea mining makes more sense, fewer dollars” »
Twelve years ago, Discovery Channel aired a documentary so egregiously bad, so wildly dishonest, and so utterly contemptuous of its audience, that it set the entire Science Blogging Community alight. And then, a year later, they followed it up with another. This was a clarifying moment for science, and especially ocean science, blogging. We weren’t … Read More “We Were Wrong About Megalodon: lessons learned from 10 years combating fake science in popular media” »
Centuries of exclusion have resulted in a tangible human diversity deficit, where the diversity of oceanographers does not represent the global diversity of people impacted by ocean processes. Let’s explore the history of ocean science to understand how it ties into and influences the lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in modern day oceanography. … Read More “Oceanography’s Diversity Deficit” »
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” »
