Take note, people!

http://jbdeaton.com/2010/things-you-never-say-to-a-graduate-student/

Fashion for women in science...part 1

Just wanted to link to this post about women's dress for a scientific meeting. I'm impressed by how professional everyone looks. The average outfit at the Ecological Society of America meeting (ESA) is tevas with cargo shorts and a tie-dye shirt. I would LOVE to do this at ESA but get the full range of outfits. There would be QUITE a range, but I can tell you suits would not be present.

http://cobblab.blogspot.com/2012/12/womens-attire-at-agu.html

Another great thing about Florida

...is the armadillos!

News Flash...Cookies!

Keebler coconut dream cookies are THE SAME as Girl Scouts' Caramel Delights  (or Samoas if you come from that part of the country). So delicious. I'm not usually into buying store-bought cookies (why buy them when you could make them yourself, better?), but field work makes me bend my rules and buy things I don't usually buy, like coconut dreams and flavor-blasted Goldfish. So good. I keep telling myself I'm going to reduce my sodium intake, and then buy flavor-blasted Goldfish. To be fair, I have been sweating all day out in the sun. So I figure I need the salt.

Funding science

I was recently discussing the current state of research funding with some other scientists. Most science funding for university researchers comes from the government--National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, Department of Energy, NASA, etc. As most of us know, funding rates are decreasing, especially with changes to National Science Foundation policies. As more people get PhDs and go into research, the chance of getting money for research isn't likely to go up anytime soon. I think we need a new system. I see two models: 1) a patron system, like artists in the Renaissance used or 2) a sales system, where we develop products to fund our research.

Under a patron system, individual researchers or teams of researchers would be funded by a donor (the patron), and the scientists would research exactly what the patron wanted. Unfortunately, I think we would get a lot of superficial or inane questions that wouldn't necessarily further scientific knowledge. Unless of course, that patron is a scientist him/herself. Could universities or institutions be patrons? Perhaps, but they still need the money to come from somewhere.

The sales system is already used by pharmaceutical companies and probably every company that does R&D. Develop a product, sell it, use some of the profit to fund more research, get rich in the process. Or at least that's the goal. Could individual researchers use this method? I suppose we could to some extent. The problem is that developing something that people actually want to buy takes time, and wouldn't leave a whole lot of time for the actual "useless" research that is contributing to our knowledge of the world around us. Basically, we would have to develop immediate applications for our research that are marketable, or sell awesome souvenirs. Crowdsourcing sites like Petri Dish encourage researchers to give a souvenir of their research to donors. Photos, hats, and having a species named after you are cool rewards for donors. I could sell mangrove mud masks, photos of insects, and maybe some aquarium plants...I wonder if that would work. Hmm...

Total fail

I've been a total failure at keeping up with posts...sorry! Bear with me, because I came down with a nasty stomach sickness yesterday. This has never happened to me in Panama before, because the water in Panama City is very clean and fine to drink. I blame the water at the field station--every so often, they run out of water because people steal parts of the pipe down the road, so they have to call in a water truck to fill up tanks on site. I have a feeling the tanks are not the cleanest...sigh. I know travelers in Mexico call this "Montezuma's revenge" but since I'm in Panama I think I'll call it "Colombia's revenge" since the US helped "liberate" Panama from Colombia.

Wildlife sightings

For July 5, 2012:

3 three-toed sloths
1 coati (Nasua nasua)

Coatis are related to raccoons, but have longer, skinnier tails and a snout more reminiscent of an anteater.

Yesterday I saw a raccoon coming down from a mangrove tree, which might not sound exciting but it is. Why? A different species of raccoon lives in mangroves than in cities--the crab-eating raccoon, which as its name suggests, eats crabs. Probably eats other stuff too. I've seen lots of raccoon tracks in the mangrove mud but never spotted one before.

I also saw some sort of eagle or hawk in the mangroves, but I'm a terrible birder so that one will go unidentified.

Sloths

Sloth count for the day: 3.

For just driving into the field station, not bad. I'll be on the lookout tomorrow.

Things go right

SOMEONE is looking out for me. The science gods, the Panama gods, or some other powers that be. After being used to doing fieldwork where nothing goes right, I'm finally getting a few breaks!

I collected samples from some mangroves back in March that I need to bring back to the US to use a fancy machine to analyze them for nutrients. I'm planning to do this in the laboratory of a collaborator, but I needed the proper export permit from Panama before I bring the samples back. I left them boxed up and ready to be shipped, so that as soon as I got my permit the lab in Panama could send them to the US and they would be safe.

Well, the export permit never came through. So here I am in Panama again, three and a half months later, cringing at the thought of opening up my samples and seeing them completely molded over, covered in fungus. Even in air conditioning the humidity is still 60% here, so it seems likely that mold would take over (my hiking boots grew moldy after I left them in a closet in Panama for 3 weeks!).

I got to the lab today and opened the box...and the samples are still good! Not completely destroyed by fungus! YAY! I haven't gotten to the ones at the bottom yet, so I don't know if every single sample will be okay but I will at least have something. Probably because I thought they would all be destroyed (and so did everyone I told about them), I'm ecstatic to have usable samples.

Lowering my expectations seems to be working well for me. Over the weekend I traveled to David, Panama to sample mangroves from that area. I discovered after returning to Panama City that I had no longer had my camera with me, which I really need to process the samples after I collect them. In a panic, I called the hotel to ask if they found it, but I assumed I would never see the camera again.

Expecting a, "no, there is no camera here," as I waited on hold for them to search the room, I was surprised to hear that they did find the camera and would be willing to send it via bus to Panama City. That was a surprise! In Panama, there is no mail system like the US so sending things by bus is typical. You just get a number for the package and pick it up at the bus station.

However, I had to wait for the hotel staff to put the package on the bus, call me and tell me what bus it left on and what the number was to pick it up. After I didn't hear anything for a few hours, I called them back. Then I called them again. Every time I got a soothing reassurance that they would call me as soon as they knew which bus it had gone on. But the problem was I didn't get a phone call all day, so I figured someone was out trying to see how much money they could get for the camera.

At 9:30 last night, my cell phone rang. It was the hotel staff, saying, "the bus should be there by now, it left at 3:30." Why they didn't call at 3:30 or any time shortly after that, I don't know. BUT it gave me hope after I had almost given up! Today I went to the bus station to pick up my camera and we were happily reunited. Well let's just say I was happy--I think my camera was indifferent about it. But BIG thank you shout-out to Carlos at the Hotel Internacional in David, Panama. THANK YOU!

So thank you science gods, or fieldwork gods, or Panama gods or whoever is helping me out. Fieldwork doesn't always have to be SO challenging.