I am willing to bet most people have never heard of paleotempestology before. I hadn’t heard of it before I took a marine geology course. In a course I am taking this semester, we decided to reexamine the topic because a lot of individual studies are debatable. So, if the title of this post didn’t already give it …
Have you ever noticed a rip current at the beach? If you or someone you know was caught in a rip current, would you know what to do? If you’ve been paying attention to the coastal news along North Carolina recently, you may have noticed recent stories about rip currents and rip current safety. Dr. …
Having no publications to my name and only nebulous drafts of several (hopefully) publishable papers, I am not an expert on how to get published. This is why I attended a student workshop on this very topic at the 2018 ASLO summer meeting in Victoria, BC. In this workshop a panel of editors in chief …
Martín Benavides is a PhD student in Marine Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. His research focuses on the variability of coastal shark communities in both time and space. He is also interested in the movement ecology of sharks in estuarine systems. Martín is a proud father of two boys and provides a unique prospective to …
Applications have been submitted. Recruitment weekends are near (or have already come and gone). Funding source notification dates are coming up. And most exciting of all–graduate school acceptances are around the corner. It is an exciting time to see your hard work pay off. But wait. Hold your horses. Here are some things you should …
The ocean is home to some strange and mysterious critters – including some that could give the Justice League a run for their money. From immortal invertebrates to flying fish, here are four super powered ocean animals. The one that can walk on land While there are a number of amphibious fish out there, …
The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP) application season is here. I was fortunate enough to receive a fellowship for my application is 2017 after an unsuccessful one in 2016. From one rejected and one accepted, here is a list of resources that helped get me through it, a bit of my personal …
Most productivity gurus say that when you hit a wall, you should switch tasks. This is how I ended up reading a paper about beavers who managed to hijack a wetland restoration for their benefit. So congratulations! You’re in the right place to learn some fancy philosophy terms and think about wetlands from a whooole …
As modern marine scientists, we spend a lot of time learning to effectively communicate science to various audiences. That’s mostly so we can make friends at parties, but has some nice side benefits like educating the general public, whatever. Sometimes though, and I’m probably admitting to a cardinal sin of outreach here, there’s a certain …
The above video might call to mind the “jellyfish forest” in a certain Pixar movie, but divers have nothing to fear from the eponymous inhabitants of Jellyfish Lake. (I’m pretty sure oceanographers can only mention Finding Nemo once every few months or they start to lose credibility, so you bet I waited for an optimal … Continue reading
On Monday night a group of U.S. Senators took to the chamber floor to give short speeches about climate change. The event, dubbed #up4climate, lasted all night. Who was in attendance? 30 Democratic senators and 2 Independent senators showed up to participate. Of the 45 Republican senators, a total of zero joined this movement. However, … Continue reading
People like stories. Scientists have all heard the suggestion to communicate your science as a story when communicating with the public. But what about to fellow scientists? Do we then get the dry, impersonal version of your science? Unfortunately, it often turns out that way, but established science communicators are now suggesting science stories be … Continue reading
If you ever played Sharks & Minnows in your middle school pool party days, you’ve mimicked recent research from the University of Hawaii and University of Tokyo: seeing the world from the perspective of a shark. But whereas your swimming pool shark was single-mindedly trying to “catch fish,” it turns out that actual sharks’ schedules … Continue reading
When you were little, did you ever do that thing where you cut a worm in half because someone told you two new worms would grow from the parts? I did that thing. And it was the first of many somewhat morbid scientific disappointments in my childhood. It’s half true – the head half might … Continue reading
If you follow us on Twitter, you have probably seen lots of content about #SciREN. If you weren’t at the workshop, let me tell you how it works. Marine scientists from North Carolina submitted lesson plans to the workshop and then met up at North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores (a great venue, by … Continue reading
Did any of you, when visiting National Parks as a kid, complete those Junior Ranger workbooks? I did. I completed one at every park we lingered in for longer than a bathroom break and a photo-op. You got these activity booklets from the Visitor Center, and when you finished the whole thing you took it … Continue reading
For this week’s photography Friday, we at UndertheC thought we’d indulge our love of GIFs–also known as the perfect marriage between photographs and film–with a collection of some of the best marine science-themed gifs. As our own Megan Schutt stated, “They’re like Harry Potter paintings, but in real life.” … Continue reading
Let’s open with a game. The following quote recommends appropriate attire for seaweed collecting. (Stay with me, people.) Who do you think wrote it, and when? “Feel all the luxury of not having to be afraid of your boots; neither of wetting nor destroying them. Feel all the comfort of walking steadily forward, the very … Continue reading
Largest: Blue Whale These marine mammals can grow up to 100 ft long and weigh up to 200 tons. They maintain this huge size on a diet of small shrimp-like animals called krill which they filter out of the water with plates called baleen instead of teeth. Fastest: Sailfish Although this is still debated, the … Continue reading
UNder the C 