Southern Fried Science

The last climate change refugees fight for survival in this grim view of our future ocean – Fleet: The Complete Collection

November 29, 2013 Andrew Thaler

Fleet: The Complete Collection “The sea is big. The sea is cruel. She takes more than she gives. That’s how it’s always been.” The world has changed. Coastal cities lie abandoned as the encroaching sea rises, drowning and reshaping the land. Violent plagues, impervious to antibiotics, sweep across the planet, erasing entire communities in a … Read More “The last climate change refugees fight for survival in this grim view of our future ocean – Fleet: The Complete Collection” »

Fun Science Friday – New Human Body Part Discovered

November 29, 2013November 29, 2013 Kersey Sturdivant

Blogging

Happy Thanksgiving Holiday. After hopefully stuffing your bellies with delicious food yesterday, take a moment to quench your curiosity with this addition of FSF!

If you thought that knowledge of the human anatomy was exhaustive, you would be wrong. Orthopedic surgeons, Steven Claes and Johan Bellemans, at the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium, recently discovered a previously undescribed ligament in the human knee now known as the anterolateral ligament (ALL). Knowing that I have one more extra anatomical structure in my body than was previously known for some reason makes me feel all warm and cozy inside… or that is the post holiday ‘spirit’ still coursing through my veins. 😉

A deep-sea ecologist over-analyzes Aquaman #25

November 27, 2013November 29, 2013 Andrew Thaler 2 Comments

Popular Culture

Today marks the end of Geoff Johns’ 25-issue run as lead writer for Aquaman. It is not hyperbole to say that he revitalized the king of Atlantis and helped cast off the stigma of the Superfriends. Aquaman was no longer a one-trick hero floundering about for relevance, trying to find his plaice in the DC Universe. Johns’ Aquaman had depth. The characters were compelling, the stories engaging. And, after more than 2 years, it was clear that this new Aquaman wasn’t just a fluke.

All puns are most definitely intended.

In honor of Johns’ 25 issue run, it’s time to plumb the depths of his ultimate issue and do what I do best: over-analyze a comic book and dredge up as much tenuous symbolism as possible. This is Southern Fried Science and I’m talking about Aquaman, what else would you expect?

The anglerfish symbolize Aquaman’s relationship with Mera

Aquaman and Anglerfish, Aquaman #25, DC Comics

Here we find Aquaman diving deep into the Trench, searching for an army of lost Atlanteans to command. During the course of his dive, we discover that, though Aquaman is fighting to reclaim Atlantis, his one overarching goal is to find his wife, Mera. It is not a coincidence that we see him surrounded by deep-sea anglerfish — Melanocetus johnsonii to be precise. In many ways, the life-history of the anglerfish mimics Aquaman’s relationship to Mera.

Fleet: Horizon has arrived!

November 26, 2013November 26, 2013 Andrew Thaler

Popular Culture

Just in time for your Thanksgiving travels, Fleet: Horizon, the dramatic conclusion to the Fleet serial, has arrived a few days early! Head on over to the Amazon Kindle Store and check it out! As always, if you’re new to Fleet, please visit my Amazon author’s page to find the previous 3 installments. Enjoy! Previous … Read More “Fleet: Horizon has arrived!” »

Announcing Fleet: The Complete Collection

November 24, 2013 Andrew Thaler

Popular Culture

The Fleet serial is coming to a close. The final installment, Horizon, will be available December 2 via Amazon’s Kindle store. In addition to Fleet: Horizon, this December I’ll be publishing Fleet: The Complete Collection. The Complete Collection will include all four installments plus all of the bonus stories that appeared on Southern Fried Science. The Complete Collection will also be available on e-reader platforms other than Amazon Kindle and as a real, actual, book made of dead trees and bookbinder’s glue. If you’ve been waiting for the complete series before checking out Fleet, The Complete Collection is the edition for you.

Happy Fun Science Friday – Ice Cream!?

November 22, 2013November 22, 2013 Kersey Sturdivant

Uncategorized

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!!!!

Photo Credit: Sherbert Photography (from WikiCommons)

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, this FSF is about a childhood (or for some, adulthood) favorite, Ice Cream!

Some rather ingenious… or mad scientist-esque ice cream makers have invented a glow-in-the-dark ice cream flavor. That is correct, you heard right, glow-in-the-dark ice cream, welcome to reality! 🙂

Check out Musingo, the music trivia app that helps save the ocean

November 21, 2013 David Shiffman

Conservation

This week saw the launch of Musingo, an interactive music trivia app for iOS. The developer, Good World Games, lets users make an impact in the real world through the game apps they play, and Musingo is no different.

Though the app is free, there are opportunities for in-game purchases of additional game tokens, as well as the opportunity to buy the songs you hear through iTunes. 50% of the profits from those in-game purchases are donated to my lab, the RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program, where they will be used to help support our many ongoing research projects.

On being an ally and being called out on your privilege

November 19, 2013January 15, 2014 Andrew Thaler 13 Comments

Uncategorized

Privilege — within any given community, whether formal or ad hoc, social or professional, members will express varying levels of privilege. Some people will be playing the game on easy mode, others will be struggling with subtle and overtly oppressive societal and institutional structures. If you are a person of privilege who recognizes the reality of this imbalance and strives to make your community a more accessible and welcoming place to those who aren’t as privileged, you might identify yourself as an ally.

You are wrong.

Being an ally is not something you are, it’s something you do. “Ally” is not an identity, it is a set of behaviors that help acknowledge and promote underprivileged members of your community. But you have privileges that they do not and not all of your words and actions will fall under the banner of “being an ally”. Even if you consider yourself well-versed in your understanding of oppression and privilege, you will, eventually do or say something that reveals your privilege and is offensive, insensitive, or callous, if not outright cruel. The whole point of privilege is that it’s largely invisible to those who have it — including you. If you have colleagues that respect you, if people in the broader community value the work you do, if you are recognized as an important voice, people will call you out on your privilege.

How you respond to that criticism makes the difference between self-identifying as an ally, and actually being an ally.

Stories from the Fleet: The Sea-Above

November 19, 2013November 19, 2013 Andrew Thaler

Popular Culture

Fleet is a dystopian maritime adventure in which sea level rise and disease has driven the last survivors of the human race to sea. I’m releasing the story in serials — 3 chapters on the first Monday of each month — on Amazon. Loyal readers who can’t wait for the next installment can slate their thirst with a series of short stories set in the world of Fleet that will be published on Southern Fried Science every few weeks. Please enjoy the forth and final of these distractions, The Sea-Above, where we find out how one of my favorite side-characters survives the fire on Gallant and what happened to the sailors who journeyed into the sea-above.

Amberjack was trapped. There was only one way out of the hold and fire raged beyond the bulkheads. Remembering his training, he found a rag to cover his face and, creeping low, felt along the walls until he found a cool spot.

There were no cool spots.

The fire spread through the ship. It blazed on the decks above and the decks below. He was trapped like a chicken in Gill’s diesel stove.

No, he thought to himself, not diesel. Fizzle.

He laughed at his own joke, then choked as the smoke seeped through the sealed hatch. He was roasting! He coughed again. The smoke surrounded him, permeating the hold. His rag reeked of it. He tore it from his face in disgust. He coughed again and again. He couldn’t stop. He wanted to panic, knew he should panic, but he couldn’t. His head was light. His mind felt clear. He began to drift, backwards. The flames reminded him of his great-grandfather, a man who lived for over a century, and a story he would tell the young Amberjack; a story about other ships, their fleets, and the sailors who rode fire into the sky.

“Did you know, Jack, that not every ship sails on the sea?”

What’s turning dolphins in South Carolina into half dolphins?

November 15, 2013November 15, 2013 David Shiffman 4 Comments

Science

One of the many perks of spending lots of time on boats is that you get to overhear some pretty strange radio conversations. The strangest I ever heard took place in the summer of 2002 in the Gulf of Maine, when the captain of a fishing vessel was calling the Coast Guard to report that he was looking at half of a dolphin swimming around. I was shocked, but the Coast Guard radio operator had apparently heard of this, and replied, “No, sir, that’s a mola mola. It’s a fish, and it’s supposed to look like that.” Everyone on the bridge of the sailing vessel I was on laughed.

I hadn’t thought about the idea of “half of a dolphin” for more than 10 years… until last week, when I saw this photo of an animal which had washed up on Folly Beach, South Carolina, only a few miles from where I used to live (and swim). According to marine mammal expert Wayne McFee of NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal and Ocean Science, this is the second time in recent weeks that half a dolphin has washed up on the shores of South Carolina. Although more than twice the average number of dolphins have stranded in South Carolina this year, seeing two bitten in half ” is an unusual occurrence,” he told me.