The story of the pride flag made from NASA imagery: Bluesky’s most-liked image

September 27, 2024 David Shiffman

Science

Last June, a striking image of a pride flag made up of NASA imagery became the most-liked post on the new social media network Bluesky, a post it held for 2 months. I spoke with its creator Rachel Lense about how it was made, and what it’s reception means for inclusion in science. This image … Read More “The story of the pride flag made from NASA imagery: Bluesky’s most-liked image” »

Space whales. Space. Whales. SPAAAAACE WHAAAAALES! Weekly Salvage: October 21, 2019

October 21, 2019October 20, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Transcript below.

Smart phones are worse than you think, SeaWorld takes a dive, this week in deep-sea mining, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: April 9, 2018

April 9, 2018April 8, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Stop raising awareness already (and start translating information into action).
Scott Pruitt still has a job [As of 16:59 on 4/8/2018 ~Ed.]. A Running List of Wild Shit Scott Pruitt Hasn’t Been Fired For (Yet).
What to up you outreach skills? Sign up for Andrew Lewin’s Podcasting for Environmental Communications course.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Smart phones. As you know I have a love/hate relationship with tech and the resources needed to fuel our increasingly demanding hardware. Now, we’ve got the most clear picture yet of the impact of smartphones on the environment and it’s not pretty.
- Smartphones Are Killing The Planet Faster Than Anyone Expected.
- Smartphones are warming the planet far more than you think.

The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)

Knitting *and* environmental justice? Sign me up! Stitching Hope for the Coast: Creative pieces that celebrate coastal optimism for Louisiana.

Snot Bots for whale health, critical dolphins, lobster considerations, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: January 15, 2018.

January 15, 2018January 19, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Uncategorized, Weekly Salvage

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

2018 is almost certainly going to be a record year for FOIA requests. Learn how to do them right and get results thanks to Pro Publica: I’ve Sent Out 1,018 Open Records Requests, and This Is What I’ve Learned.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Dr. Michelle LaRue is off to Antarctica and you can follow along through the magic of Twitter. #AccioAntarctica!

The Cinematic Legacy of Jacques Cousteau: The man, the myth, the legend, and his persistent influence on screen.
Lake Michigan’s Latest Ice Ball Outbreak Was Incredible. Earther has the best GIF game in town.

Ice balls and slush waves. — Paul May via Storyful.

Fun Science FRIEDay – Au Revoir Cassini

September 15, 2017September 15, 2017 Kersey Sturdivant

Uncategorized

Roughly 20 years ago the Cassini orbiter launched from Cape Canaveral for a seven year journey to the ringed planet Saturn. Towing with it was the Huygens probe, built and maintained by the European Space agency. On its journey to Saturn the orbiter flew by Venus through the asteroid belt, past Jupiter with its giant red eye, before finally arriving at Saturn. After spending countless years investigating Saturn and its moons, today is the culmination of that journey as Cassini begins its death orbit down into Saturn.

Cassini was a triumph of science and engineering, sending back amazing views and increasing the state of knowledge in astronomy. Cassini discovered two previously unknown moons orbiting Saturn (bringing Saturn’s total known moon count to 60), discovered ice plumes from Enceladus (another Saturn moon) via magnetometer, and detached and sent the Huygens probe down to the surface of Titan (Saturn’s largest moon). The landing of Huygens on Titan is the first and only landing on the surface of a world in the outer solar system.

Cassini orbiter sees Earth from Saturn (Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

A selection of space nerdery from your favorite ocean blog.

March 25, 2016March 25, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Blogging, Popular Culture

coverTitan This Monday I launched A Crack in the Sky above Titan, a science fiction adventure framed around the seemingly simple question: What is it like to sail across the methane seas of Titan?

While Southern Fried Science is all about ocean science and conservation, we do make the occasional foray into space. From celestial navigation on Mars, do diving robots on Europa, to exploring other (fictional) worlds to learn something about our own, we haven’t shied away from the ‘other’ final frontier. So, in honor of A Crack in the Sky above Titan (available now on Amazon*) here is a selection of our favorite space nerdery from Southern Fried Science.

(Note: Some of these are from our month of ocean science fiction. While the framing for these pieces is fictional, the science itself is sound)

The Extraterrestrial Ocean: Could OpenROV Trident explore the seas of Europa?

Our planet is an ocean, and it is almost entirely unexplored. OpenROV, and their new Trident underwater drone is one of many tools that will help change that by democratizing exploration, conservation, and ocean science. We are poised atop the crest of a wave that may change how humans interact with the ocean as profoundly as the invention of the aqualung.

Earth is not the only body in our solar system that hosts an ocean. As we (slowly) venture out into the stars, could OpenROV Trident dive in extraterrestrial seas?

What is it like to sail across Titan’s methane seas?

March 21, 2016March 20, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Blogging, Popular Culture

coverTitan A simple writing prompt–what would it be like to sail across Titan?–has taken me on a 20,000-word journey through the intricacies of life on Saturn’s largest moon. Join the Salvager on a journey across Kraken Mare to land the score of a lifetime, if the rest of the universe doesn’t get in their way. Discover the weird, wonderful world of Titan and her coastal colonies and confront the challenges of sailing across an alien world.

A Crack in the Sky above Titan takes a lot of the ideas developed during Field Notes from the Future and extends them out into the extremely distant future. At what point do humans, heavily augmented with hardware and software, stop being human? What rights are retained when a person contains no human parts? How does art evolve in a future obsessed with technology? And how exactly do you sail via celestial navigation with no polar star and an atmosphere of dense haze.

In honor of this new launch, my other novella, Prepared, an adventure in doomsday prepping, seasteading, and catastrophic sea level rise, is free to download all week long.

A Crack in the Sky above Titan.

Read an excerpt from my latest novella, below:

Join the DIT Orbital Observatory program and print your own microsatellites

January 17, 2016January 2, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Uncategorized

On January 1, 2016, the Southern Fried Science central server began uploading blog posts apparently circa 2041. Due to a related corruption of the contemporary database, we are, at this time, unable to remove these Field Notes from the Future or prevent the uploading of additional posts. Please enjoy this glimpse into the ocean future while we attempt to rectify the situation.

Are you ready for the next evolution of the do-it-together global monitoring movement? For the last few years we’ve been training students, citizen scientists, and legacy academics to build small, low-cost, open-source satellites. These satellites, outfitted with an array of sensors, have, after decades of development, finally reached the point where they can fulfill the gaps left by the Great Deorbiting, when most government research satellites fell–either literally, or simply into disrepair.

Multi-material 3D printing helped lead the charge, allowing users to fabricate parts, even complete micro-circuits, for nickels, using a desktop set up. These parts could be standardized and printed as a single contiguous piece, adding durability and reliability to the project. Thanks to these tools, fabricating your own personal observation satellite is now easier than ever.

The Extraterrestrial Ocean: Could OpenROV Trident explore the seas of Europa?

October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 Andrew Thaler

Science

Our planet is an ocean, and it is almost entirely unexplored. OpenROV, and their new Trident underwater drone is one of many tools that will help change that by democratizing exploration, conservation, and ocean science. We are poised atop the crest of a wave that may change how humans interact with the ocean as profoundly as the invention of the aqualung.

Earth is not the only body in our solar system that hosts an ocean. As we (slowly) venture out into the stars, could OpenROV Trident dive in extraterrestrial seas?

Fun Science Friday – Mars One

January 17, 2014January 17, 2014 Kersey Sturdivant

Uncategorized

Theoretical schematic of the Mars One habitat, Photo Credit: Mars One — Theoretical schematic of the Mars One habitat,
Photo Credit: Mars One

Maybe you have heard about it, or maybe you haven’t, but Man… Man is headed to Mars! …. or at least Man is going to try!

In recent years space expeditions have shifted focus towards reaching the red planet. Of the different campaigns to travel to Mars, Mars One has probably gotten the most press recently. As stated on their site, Mars One’s goal is to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Crews of four will depart every two years, starting in 2024, with a first unmanned mission in 2018.

For good or bad, Mars One is taking the Colonialism Era approach. Send out explorers without the guarantee of return and see what happens. And despite the obvious one-way ticket approach of their endeavor, there are an abundant source of participants ready to step up for this, literally and figuratively, ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity. Mars One had over 200,000 applicants, and recently whittled that field down to a little over a thousand. Over the next few years these individuals will undergo training that should in theory prepare them for one of the most daunting missions mankind has ever undertaken.