Author Archives: Sam

Ice and Fire

Posted on 2011/08/18 by Sam

This video is pretty unreal. Winter in Hell from Enrique Pacheco on Vimeo. Shot by Enrique Pacheco, and brought to my attention by Julia Whitty. Iceland is one of the strangest and most awesome places I’ve been, and getting to … Continue reading →

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What Science is Really Like

Posted on 2011/08/09 by Sam

Posting has been a bit slow of late–I’ve been in the bunker, working on my thesis. This rage comic came across my radar last week, and it might be the truest thing I’ve ever seen written about the scientific “method.” … Continue reading →

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La Beluga Mariachi

Posted on 2011/08/08 by Sam

Mariachi Connecticut serenades a beluga whale at the Mystic Aquarium. This video has over 1.2 million views, but it needs more. Watch it, fools. H/T to my friend Arielle for sending this.

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Standing on Shoulders You Didn’t Know Were There

Posted on 2011/07/18 by Sam

If you’re a scientist, almost all of your professional reading comes in the form of scientific papers. These days, that usually usually means between 10 and 20 pages of fairly dense information packed into a PDF. This format is great … Continue reading →

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The Most Repulsive Barnacle in the World

Posted on 2011/07/11 by Sam

There is some truly nasty stuff out there in the ocean. All kinds of parasites. Male anglerfish. Penis fencing and traumatic insemination. Lampreys. Even those studying the “cute” marine mammals aren’t safe. Ever hear of blowhole sex? How about murderous, … Continue reading →

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Independence Day on Lake Union

Posted on 2011/07/05 by Sam

I spent a good portion of today on the shores of Lake Union, which is located right in the middle of the city of Seattle. This afternoon was the Wooden Boat Festival at the Center for Wooden Boats. There were … Continue reading →

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Oppie, In His Own Words

Posted on 2011/06/28 by Sam

In the time since the last post I wrote about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Bomb, I’ve finished “American Prometheus.” Highly, highly recommended. I also came across a video (from 1965) of Oppie repeating the famous quote I used for … Continue reading →

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Are Grouper Eating Invasive Lionfish?

Posted on 2011/06/24 by Sam

A short but provocative study just came out in the open-access journal PLoS ONE. As readers may or may not be aware, the Caribbean Sea has seen an invasion of lionfish over the past five to ten years. No one … Continue reading →

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Rossby Waves

Posted on 2011/06/23 by Sam

I was reading a paper recently that mentioned Rossby waves. I had vague memories of learning about these things when I took Physical Oceanography as an undergrad, but that was a was five years ago, and I didn’t really understand … Continue reading →

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I’m back from the land of the ice and snow…

Posted on 2011/06/23 by Sam

…of the midnight sun where the hot springs blow… Okay, so I haven’t actually been in Iceland for the past seven weeks, and it wasn’t actually that icy or snowy. I spent a week and a half there, attending the … Continue reading →

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