A recent project is leading my adviser and I to design and build a large, acrylic tank which will be able to hold several hundred litres of seawater. Since a tank like this will take both time and money to build, it is logical to develop multiple experiments to run in it. These experiments will…
Daily Dose: Efficiency at Work
Prioritizing goes hand in hand with efficiency and productivity whether it’s extreme (like triage) or the mundane (like paying bills), but how often do we actually stop and think about the process? While at the bar yesterday my friend asked me a question about how I deal with my data. In particular the question was…
Daily Dose: Correlations in a Warmer Ocean
A recent project, which is still in the very early stages, is looking for changes in patterns in the surface ocean due to el Nino. El Nino is a decadal mode of variability in the atmospheric forcings on the Pacific Ocean leading to anomalously warmer ocean temperatures throughout the eastern Pacific. This water, like a…
Master Bathroom Remodel
A couple week ago I decided to finally dive into a project that I’ve been thinking about for some time. My master bathroom, like the guest bathroom in my house, was obviously “refurbished” right before I bought the place. Starting at the bottom, the floor was vinyl, the vanity was a 32″ kitchen cabinet base,…
Story Time or How I Found My House
There I was, standing in the airport terminal introducing my father to my new academic advisor, and wondering what this strange new city would bring. Tallahassee is the forgotten capital of Florida boasting no more than 200,000 people. I had flown down from Boston in order to meet with Stukel and to see first-hand what…
Daily Dose: Unity in Science
Although all around us, there are few things as universally spectacular as natural phenomena. Whether it is a volcano, the changing of the leaves or, most recently, a solar eclipse; people love spectacles and nature sure can be spectacular at times. So why is this called “Unity in Science” and not “Unity in Nature”? Well,…
Call me Ishmael: computers, the sea and the stars
While ancient and modern mariners alike look up to the stars for direction, oceanographers look to the sea. Our research in particular involves moving with the water wherever it may happen to take us since we want to measure how a patch of water develops and changes over time. On my latest cruise I found…
On the Surprising Value of English
Growing up and throughout my traditional education the constant refrain comparing English and other world languages was simple that English is the poor, bastard child of language. Further than that, English was the ubiquitous and difficult system of language, a quality making it a true heroic feat to master as a second language. I do…
For lack of a better word: Clumpiness
We perceive randomness every day whether it’s the shape that clouds take or the number of red lights we face during our commute, so it is not surprising that our intuition is well suited to some of these phenomena. The human mind attempts to bring order to the chaos as it were, and in doing…
Daily Dose: Installing solar panels
With the cost of solar panels coming down and with the rise in energy consciousness, I thought it might be time to try out solar panels myself. Just starting out, it seemed to be prudent to get a small, trial size panel kit to see how it works. I opted for a simple 100W monocrystalline…
Philosophy Monday: Social Implication of Biological Evolution
Novel scientific theories first setout to explain one anomalous phenomenon which the old theory cannot. Whether it’s explaining the production of heat, the formation of the earth, or how society stays intact, the same current of development can be seen working below the surface. Kuhn has developed a theory to explain this commonality over the…
The world of tools: introduction
I’ve been kicking around an idea for a while to write a series of articles and resources that detail different sets of tools based on the project at hand. Since I’ve used a lot of tools on a menagerie of projects, it seems right to try to share some of what I’ve learned along the…
Plex media server
As someone with a lot of digital content including movies, TV shows and music, I’ve always been on the lookout for new and useful ways to get the media where I want it. Previously I’ve used a Raspberry Pi computer with KODI to organize and play my media on my main TV, but I was…
Daily Dose: Let there be light
It is often extraordinary what a simple coat of paint, a touch of color, or a simple alteration can make in the appearance of things to see everyday. Even something as simple as cleaning an oil smudge off of the garage door can make the space feel much cleaner and “put-together”, so today will be…
Weekend Review: The little things
This weekend I decided to work on the list of those little things around that house that should be done yet are far from a priority. We all have those little miscellaneous jobs that are noticed from day to day and just as readily as they’re noticed they’re forgotten. Let’s get started killing them off.…
Switching out a garage door opener
About a year ago I drove into my driveway after a full day at work and found my garage door open. Immediately I assumed the worst and my heart skipped a beat. For those of you who don’t know, I keep a lot of stuff in my garage including easily a couple thousand dollars worth…
Daily Dose: Checkout Dropbox’s new Feature
Dropbox has a new beta feature out that I think you should know about. While Dropbox is well known as a go-to backup and file sharing platform, few would realize that they’re posed to become much more integrated into our digital world. The trademark feature, and primary reason for the ubiquity within their market, is the…
Cheap Yankee: Free Upgrade for a Kitchen Scale
A few months back I purchased a cheap kitchen scale that I figured would come in hand for projects in both the kitchen and the workshop. As time would show, the scale was quite useful but with one major flaw. Being a scale of the cheaper sort, it chewed through expensive button batteries and would inevitably…
Time is money: The value of opportunistic sampling
NOTE: This article is a reposting on one originally posted on the UNOLS Chief Scientist Workshop website (here) with slight modifications. Aboard the R/V Sikuliaq we often run around-the-clock operations and do our best to collect every last bit of data. Not only is our time limited, but ship time is valuable—really valuable. Even if…
Learning to Drive the Boat: the Start of Chief Sci Training
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the terminology used for scientific, research cruises; a chief scientists is the de facto boss of the science party and coordinates the research plan with the captain and crew of the ship. This role often incorporates traits from other positions such as diplomate (between crew and science party),…
Back out to Sea
The eve of my departure is finally here, yet I am feeling less sanguine than expected. More than likely, it has something to do with the length of these upcoming travels and the scale from which I see them. besides, I’ve never found the easy uncertainty and the foreshadowing calm very easy or calming, I’d…
Trial Week, Part 2
A few months ago I wrote up an article about what I call a Trial Week. It is a week where you break free from habits and take part in a personal experiment. The only real good is to live your life during that week a bit differently and come away from it with a new…
First Impressions of Shiny, an R Package
Today I wanted to try something new; so instead of discussing a project, let’s briefly take a look at an R Package I’ve recently discovered. Before we being let me just mention that I realize not everyone uses R or have even used it before, instead my focus here will be on the technology, innovation,…
The benefits of interdisciplinarity: residence time
The so-called residence time of a system is both an immensely useful and highly intuitive conception which provides a relevant timescale for processes. For example, the residence time of nutrients flowing into a pond would be the average ‘lifetime’ of the nutrients before being taking up by the pond creatures. If it is a small…
Julia Language for Scientists
Today I wanted to take a moment and introduce a programming language to my friends and colleagues. While certainly not a common topic, I do so because I believe that it is well worth your time. Rather than trying to get non-programmers into a language, I write this for the already initiated such as those…
Data Compression: Benchmarking Performance on Generic Data
Data compression is one of those things that most people don’t really think about. We all know about the benefits of using a ZIP file if our attachment is too large or if we have a bunch of files we want to share with someone over email. Outside of those niche uses, data compression by the…
Why I’m looking forward to moving out of the south
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed my past year and a half, almost two years, living in Tallahassee. The often forgotten capital of Florida has served me well and I’ve made friends down here that I wouldn’t sacrifice for anything, yet I already know that my days down here are limited. After having grown up…
Environmental Sunday: Agriculture
The current agricultural system used to feed the worlds 8 billion plus people is unsustainable and requires a major overhaul. With a rising world population, the stresses placed on the environment due to inefficient and wasteful practices will lead to food shortages and a plethora of socio-economical issues. While in the past the increased pressure…
Modern Data Organization for the Modern Scientist
Scientists handle a lot of data, I mean a lot of data. The type and format of the data varies, but the predominate format used in oceanography is definitely the humble spreadsheet. Without firsthand knowledge of the practices common in other disciplines I cannot comment on the universality of spreadsheets, but I imagine that the situation…
Getting Started in 3D Printing
As someone who enjoys working on projects and tinkering with everything from computer systems to welders, I’ve always had a passive interest in 3d printing technology; yet I never seriously considered getting a one for myself. 3d printers work in much the same way a normal printer does, except instead of ejecting ink out of the…