What are in da box?

Just checked my mail, and saw a box. But what could be it be? Another textbook being sent by a publisher trying to sway me into adopting a new book for general biology? Ah! No, it's the reprints of my latest paper from Biological Bulletin!

PDFs are convenient, but for a sense of accomplishment, nothing beats the printed page.

The circle nears completion. I will have to send out copies to the people who have requested them. But this particular project can now go to bed, and it's time to push through on my manuscript and get something into an editor's hands again.

Closing the door and making progress

I've had a good few days. I finally managed to shut my office door over the weekend and this afternoon and make very nice progress on a review article I'm pulling together. I like how it's turning out.

Too quick to believe

I tool around a lot of science websites. Last month, I saw multiple blogs and websites reporting about how the Parks Service was waffling over how old the Grand Canyon is, in response to political pressures from fundamentalists Christians in government. For instance, the highly visible Panda's Thumb blog ran with it here. Also spotted on Richard Dawkins’s website.

The problem is that it isn't true. Skeptic also ran with the story at first, but in this article, they report that the press release that started to story appears not to have any substantive basis. Good on them for fact checking what looked to be an all too plausible story.

As usual, the initial hoopla gets more attention than the correction. On the Dawkins website, the article come up with the full headline and article, with the link to the Skeptic piece as a much smaller update.

Administration ate my brain

Or at least, administration is eating my time. Since Monday... let's see...

I've been dealing with documentation concerning our university's reaccreditation (Hi SACS!). We need to have "student learning outcomes" for our students, measures of how well those outcomes are achieved, two year's worth of the measurements we took, a list of changes we made in response to those measurements, and what changes we plan to make in the future based on those measurements. It's a bit difficult to do when -- in the case of our graduate program, which I oversee -- you're talking about 0 to 2 students graduating in any single semester.

Then the page proofs for the new graduate catalogue appeared on my desk, with a very short turnaround time and many, many errors and missing classes and things in need of updating.

I managed to get those two things squashed this morning, thankfully. But the fun continued. I just got out of a Faculty Senate meeting. Lots of review of our university's Handbook of Operating Procedures.

And looking at my desk, I can see at least two more forms and paperwork asking me for information.

I really want to get back to my manuscript, which was coming along so nicely before classes started up again.

Oh yes.... first post with new version of Blogger.

Safe returns

We had a bad few days in the department when one of our instructors went missing. She had gone overseas for the holidays, and when classes started... nowhere to be seen. This continued for a couple of days.

Fortunately, she is safe and sound and has returned to work this morning. Whew.

I got asked to step into her class temporarily and give a lecture rather than canceling class, which I was glad to do. But I am also glad I will not be having to do it for any more days, since it took a big bite out of my time.

In other news... um... well... there isn't much. Classes have started again, I'm working on a manuscript and trying to make arrangements to go to meetings (South East Nerve Net is a possibility), that sort of thing.

And the prospect of some very good news remains just tantalizingly out of reach, so I still can't talk about it yet.

Oh yeah, way behind

Some time last year, I wrote that I had started work on a book manuscript, on the "200 words a day equals a book in a year" theory. I worked on it a little today, for the first time in a long time. Unfortunately, the graph has reached the point that you can't see the little, teeny, tiny nudge upward at the very end of the "actual" line. So hopefully I'll start seeing the red "work done" line lifting up some more in coming months, though it'll be a tough slog to get back on target.

Now we're looking official

In my role as Graduate Program Coordinator for the department, I found I was starting to lose track of when I'd received certain bits of paper (applications, letters of inquiry and such). I shouldn't have that problem any more now that I have -- the stamp! Bwa-hah-ha-haaaa! Good up until the end of 2013. And I can still use it when we get a Ph.D. program, since it says, "Graduate Program" rather than "Master's program."

Mathematician again?

First, I'm Isaac Newton, now this...

Your Intellectual Type is Visual Mathematician. This means you are gifted at spotting patterns — both in pictures and in numbers. These talents combined with your overall high intelligence make you good at understanding the big picture, which is why people trust your instincts and turn to you for direction — especially in the workplace. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results.

(From Tickle)

Y.A.R.

Y.A.R. = Yet Another Rejection. Another grant proposal has now officially bit the big one. Which, considering we're in the last few hours of 2006, is kind of representative of the year. I can't wait to see the back end of this year. I haven't enjoyed it much. While there have been some good points professionally (mainly, having three papers come out this year; working with my students and interns), it's been otherwise very dreary on many other notes.

Roll on 2007...

Sad but important

I've written in this journal before about some of my excitement concerning the discovery of new species. (For example, here; here; here; here.)

Unfortunately, this time the news is about the reverse: the loss of a species instead of the discovery of one. Science reports that a rare Chinese river dolphin, the baiji, has not been sighted in a recent survey specifically intended to look for it. And none are alive in captivity. Which means that while it may not be formally extinct (there may be a few individuals left), it's so close to it that it's past the point of no return.

Douglas Adams wrote about the conservation efforts in his book Last Chance to See.... In the blog Another Chance to See, it's noted that the Chinese considered the dolphin a goddess of the river.

If we can't look after our gods, what hope for the rest of the life we share this planet with?

Christmas comes early

The new issue of The Biological Bulletin is up! You can find my new research, "Loss of Escape-Related Giant Neurons in a Spiny Lobster, Panulirus argus" here. Download it to your citation manager now! And don't forget about the journal's handy "Email this article to a friend" service.

This is good news, since some planned research I was going to do with my lead co-author on said paper, Sandra, got scuttled because of missing car keys. (Hers, not mine.)

Additional: A reprint request came in already, only three hours since the paper went onlint. Woo-hoo! That's the fastest response one of my papers has ever generated.

Ooooh, look, we're gel jockeys

It's but a small, modest thing, but it is our own. The picture shows an agarose gel with nine columns. The two bright sets of bands on the margins are standards. The fainter columns (two so faint as to effectively be invisible, really) show faint smears. Those faint smear are DNA. Genetic material. The double helix, baby! Those smudges, unimpressive looking as they are, show that my student Sakshi and I successfully extracted DNA from some tunicates.

This is stuff that they often teach in undergraduate classes now. Very standard procedures. But for various reasons, I'd never done anything like this before. This smudgy gray picture represents the first little baby steps into some new research capabilities for me.

Now that we know we have DNA, I just have to figure out what the heck we want to do with it next...

Only about five days until the publication of my newest research paper. It's like science Santa is coming early! In the next issue of The Biological Bulletin. Accept no substitutes.

Delays, delays

The Biological Bulletin is now placing the arrival time of their next issue (with my next paper in it) as 20 December.

Just in time for you last minute Christmas shoppers! Because, when you think of it, doesn't a PDF of recent research on spiny lobster giant neurons just scream, "Happy holidays!"?

Tying the bungee cord to the ankle

I have never bungee jumped. But this week has started to take on a feel of what I imagine the moments they're tying a bungee cord to your ankle must feel like. Then someone's asking, "Ready?" and you try to say, "Not re--" [Shove]

I wish I could talk about it in more detail, but I can't post about it quite yet.

The meeting I mentioned earlier this week went about as well as I could have hoped. All involved seemed to have no preconceived ideas, and was willing to listen, which is about as much as I could hope for.

Last day of class Wednesday.

And there's only two days until the publication of The Biological Bulletin paper, which I'm psyched about.

What Clan Are You?

Crab Clan Scholar.

All the marbles

aIt's turning into a very eventful month. Tomorrow, for instance, may well be the most important meeting I've had in my time at this university. At least, it has the potential to be so. Myself, department chair, college dean, and two vice presidents. Yeah. No pressure.

And oh yes, less than a week until publication of the new paper.

Countdowns

Just nine days to go until the publication of my new paper in The Biological Bulletin.

Meanwhile, I've had some very encouraging news yesterday. Unfortunately, I can't say more at this time because it's only encouraging and might not pan out. But I'll take it anyway.

More than medicine

When I was at a textbook focus group near Austin recently, one of the things I said to the authors and others present was that "Relevance is overrated." A lot of people think that students will only be interested in something if it's somehow relevance to their lives. Most instructors spend a lot of time talking about medicine.

Personally, I think this is a short-sighted approach. At the workshop, I said that we should not be afraid to say that we study things and research them because they are beautiful. (Actually, I used the phrase "fucking cool" at a few points. (Under the influence of Kevin Broidy's post, which I found though the always enlightening Kathy Sierra.)

Steven Pinker has written an excellent op-ed piece that articulates this idea much better than I did on the fly at the workshop. Some turns of phrase I particularly like:

(S)urely there is more to being knowledgeable in science than being able to follow the news. And surely our general science courses should aim to be more than semester-long versions of An Inconvenient Truth. ...

(T)here are methods for ascertaining the truth that can force us to conclusions which violate common sense, sometimes radically so at scales very large and very small; that precious and widely held beliefs, when subjected to empirical tests, are often cruelly falsified.

I believe that a person for whom this understanding is not second-nature cannot be said to be educated. And I think that some acknowledgment of the intrinsic value of scientific knowledge should be a goal of the general education requirement and a stated value of a university.

Though I do think he could've at least slipped a "cool" in there somewhere.

Catch up day

This last week has been absolutely non-stop.

It's at least partly due to Thomson Higher Education, who invited me up to the Austin area to take part in a focus group for their upcoming textbook, Biology: The Dynamic Science.

If an out-of-town weekender wasn't enough to be distracting, that Friday, just before leaving today, I get a nice new piece of swag: a pocket PC. An HP iPaq hx2495, to be precise. I got it from... um... it fell off the back of a truck, as they say. Not that I got it through any nefarious means. No students' grades will be changed as a result of my receiving this. Completely legitimate. But I don't want other people to put pressure on my gift horse, so to speak. I had been looking at pocket PC as a possible alternative to a new laptop, since laptops are getting to be such a nuisance to travel with, particularly through airports. And lo, I get this just before a trip -- a nice test drive.

So, for instance, shortly after entering my room, I was able to write a few notes:

This is interesting. Eight pillows. Who needs eight pillows? Flat screen, Hi-Def tv with digital channels. Sweet!

It's actually rather scary and a little intimidating.

Downsides: Can't connect to the internet to blog. They have wi-fi, and I'm connected, but I'm not a T-mobile user. Drat.

As you might tell, it is extremely swanky in the Hyatt Lost Pines resort and spa where we had the workshop. I had a bit of a heart stopping moment when I saw the "max room rate" on the inside of the hotel door: $595! And I was there for two nights! (Note to the Hyatt management: If you're charging someone that much, don't you think you could spring for free wi-fi?)

The day got off to a bit of a missed start when I walked into a room with my breakfast that I thought was mine. I wasn't quite paying enough attention to realize the sign outside said, "Thompson" instead of "Thomson." So I accidentally went into a room full of lawyers, I later found out. Luckily, I was not the only one to make that mistake. They laughed and said they'd met a lot of my colleagues.

It was a lot of fun meeting with other instructors, and they had three of the textbook authors there to listen to our comments.

After we finished, the lot of us got in a little bus and headed to dinner at Eddie V's. It was very good. And parts of it were -- there are not other words for it -- fucking awesome. Among the things I had were excellent hot bread, superb steak, some excellent potatoes au gratin, and (here we ramp up into awesome) a Lady Godiva molten chocolate cake with Mexican vanilla ice cream.

Anyone who knows me even casually knows I love my desserts.

That molten chocolate cake is in my lifetime top 4 list now.

It nearly robbed me of the power of speech.

By the end of the day, I felt a lot better about attending the workshop. The day before, when I was only halfway to Austin and tired and knowing I had a lot of work to do, I was doubting whether it was a good idea to go. I felt much better about the decision on the drive back. Pretty much all I was able to do after getting back was a quick round of exercise.

But then Monday, of course, the weekend away caught up with me. I forgot I had a demo to attend on some grad program recruiting and application software the university it looking at buying. I didn't quite get a quiz done for my neurobiology students.

I ran over to consult with my colleague Debbie Cole about her guest lecture to said neurobiology students, and she invited me to visit her grad class in linguistics. I did, and it turned out to be a good night to visit, as she was also hosting David Garcia Ordaz, who was reading from his book of poetry, You Know What I'm Sayin'? (available from El Zarape Press). David is a superb reader of his work -- lively, energetic and funny. Light years away from the formal, stilted way that poetry often gets read.

And that was just Monday. I had meetings Tuesday and Wednesday. I had students coming to see me. Trying to fix a figure I was helping my colleague Anita with. I have a backlog of paperwork that I'm still not through with. Barely time to think.

Today is my chance -- I hope -- to put out a few smoldering fires of work. (And blog!) The building is empty because of American Thanksgiving, and let's just say I relate to today's cartoon in Ph.D. comics. I can work through some student evaluations, play the Doctor Who Children in Need concert on my desktop speaker very loud without disturbing anyone else, you know, that sort of thing.

Enough blogging for now...

I just want the proofs

Page proofs for my upcoming article came in the mail today. There do not appear to be any typos or problems (yay!) except one or two sentences that we could have written better (oops).

They came just in time, because tomorrow I'll be driving up to the Austin region for a workshop put on by a textbook publisher for one of their forthcoming textbooks. It's just a quick trip: drive up Friday, come back Sunday.