Must Be That Time Of The Season

After four or five months of Seattle winter, you kind of loose track of where you are. Add on a touch of end-of-quarter madness, and you can really start to lose it. I actually had a moment yesterday when, for about ten seconds, I had no earthly idea what month it was. Sitting at my desk: “Is it spring? Summer? No, it can’t be…think…well, last month was January, so…”

Sigh.

So, dear readers, here are a few links I’ve been meaning to write real posts on (read: have had open in browser tabs for the past three weeks.) , but probably won’t get the chance soon.

Will ecology be the “Master Science” of the 21st century? Thomas Homer-Dixon, of the University of Waterloo, says it is. I’m willing to be flattered, but is this the real deal? Read below, and tell me what you think:

The Newest Science [PDF]
(Hat tip to ALYBATT.)

Daniel Pauly, outspoken fisheries scientist at the University of British Columbia, is well known for popularizing influential ideas in marine conservation such as “shifting baselines syndrome” and “fishing down the food web.” But he has also done work on the allometry of fish growth and respiration. How do fish know when to stop growing and start reproducing? Turns out it may have something to do with the ratio of their gill area to body mass. Read on here.

Two interesting stories on the intersection of race and science in the mid-1800’s. The first is the case of Paul Du Chaillu, an explorer and scientist who ran into trouble when rumors surfaced that he was of mixed-race ancestry, as reported by Richard Coniff in the New York Times. The second, via NOAA, is on a map produced by the Coast and Geodetic Survey in September 1861, showing the percentage of the population enslaved in each county in the southern states. It’s a striking image, and was apparently consulted frequently by Lincoln during the Civil War. In fact, it shows up in a painting of him signing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Lekelia D. Jenkins, from the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs here at the UW, is in Costa Rica to study and encourage the use of turtle-safe gear among commercial fishermen. She is blogging her expedition at the New York Times’ Scientist at Work Blog, where you can follow along.

Finally, for those of the ocean-blogging persuasio—the next edition of the Carnival of the Blue goes up here next week. Start getting those submissions in…