This guest post is by Rachel Canty. Rachel is a Master’s student at UNC Institute of Marine Sciences. Her research focuses on coastal microbial ecology, specifically on competing different strains of the human pathogenic bacterium, Vibrio vulnificus, against one another. Rachel’s claim to fame is that she once swam on a relay with Katie Ledecky (5-time … Continue reading
It’s funny, sometimes, the random facts you remember from when you were growing up. One I vividly remember is my 9th grade biology teacher telling us that lecithin, a common additive in food and cosmetics, was originally derived from algae. Who knows why this fact stuck with me (maybe because she challenged us to find … Continue reading
Here at UNC Marine Sciences, we have a really cool program that allows graduate students in the department to nominate and then select a seminar speaker to come to the university and give a talk. It’s a unique opportunity for students to select a speaker that not only conducts interesting, world-class research but that also … Continue reading
One of the very first things anybody learns about science is the scientific method. Observation, hypothesis, experiment, conclusion. It’s the scientific creed. The motto scientists live by. But, despite the seemingly simple 4-steps, in reality, the scientific method is a tortuous path that can be slow, complicated, winding, and at times, incredibly frustrating. To really … Continue reading
When most people think about the impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans, they’re first thoughts are things like ‘corals’ and ‘ocean acidification’. And while these are both excellent examples of how climate change affects the oceans, they’re not the only ones. Science magazine recently published a great article by Hunter-Cevera et al., 2016 … Continue reading
Spring is springing (finally!) here on the NC coastline and I feel like there has been a complete re-birth. People are back in town, flowers are blooming, plants are turning green again, crops are being planted, and more and more people are getting back on the water. Signs of spring are everywhere on land, which … Continue reading
Science grad students are asked terrifying questions on the regular, but the very worst one comes from our moms. It’s usually tacked onto an otherwise innocent conversation, when Mom will casually pause and say, “Honey, your latest oxygen flux data are truly fascinating! By the way, have you met anyone lately?” It’s enough to make … Continue reading
This guest post was written by Julie Geyer. Julie is a research technician in Joel Fodrie’s lab at the UNC Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences, where her work focuses on the ecology of seagrass beds. She graduated from Cornell University in 2014, where she worked in both Nelson Hairston’s lab, as well as in … Continue reading
Today’s blog post was written by Alex Hounshell, one of our regular bloggers. Since Alex is abroad with limited internet access, her post is being published by our general UNdertheC account. Last blog post I wrote about the logistics (and my reservations) about conducting scientific research abroad. Today, I write from abroad. From Taihu, China … Continue reading
Throughout the warm summer morning, I carried crates and boxes up the gangplank of the R/V Melville to the tune of barking sea lions. Stopping to watch them flop across the rocks near the port reminded me that I was no longer in North Carolina, but was about to board an oceanographic research ship in San Diego. … Continue reading
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