your academic writing is “slow” – some thoughts on pace

Brilliant piece on the importance of pace and explanation in academic writing. Well worth a read!

patter

Last week I happened across a facebook post which went a little like this. “My supervisor has just told me my literature chapter was slow and tortuous. What do I do?”

This feedback is a pretty clear example of a supervisor knowing there is a problem with the writing but (a) not actually saying what writing that was ‘right” would look like, and (b) not offering any strategies for the writer to use. The PhD researcher probably had no idea what they were aiming for, nor any idea how to get there. I’m guessing they not only felt bad because what they’d done was deemed inadequate, but also pretty worried about the fact that they didn’t have a clue about what to do to rectify the situation.

Now I haven’t seen the piece of problematic writing, and I can only hazard a guess at what the problem might be. But…

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Practising Science Communication… On the radio!

I wish I had taken a picture of the studio!!

By Claire

One of the most important jobs as a scientist is being able to communicate what you do to the people around you. Even if it’s just your mum, one day, someone without a background in your particular field of science will ask you what you do. The trick is to be able to communicate what is typically a quite complex scientific idea in simple terms.

One of my favourite things about contributing to this blog is that I get to “practice” communicating scientific ideas very simply. I am actually getting quite good (if I do say so myself), at telling people about what I am studying in my PhD.

I got an excellent chance to “practice” my science communication last week, when I was asked by the host of a community radio program called “Biodegradio” to come into their studio and record an interview on what I am studying. I was quite nervous heading into the studio, but quickly relaxed and actually had a lot of fun chatting to Alison about my work. 

Accidental science: How you know you’re a real scientist

By Claire

Today I spent my day being an I.T. person.

As soon as I arrived at work this morning I was asked to help one of our lab techs with a computer issue she had been having. I then helped another student install some complicated software (although not entirely successfully), then fixed up some software issues of my own.

I’ve always been my family’s go-to person for tech issues because I systematically find the problem and fix it, even though I don’t really know what I’m doing. Somehow, being a scientist makes me a good tech person (or at least a reasonable substitute).

The final hurdle today came when I went to download some data, but wasn’t able to get the website to work. It had worked in the past – I’ve downloaded many datasets from it before – but since Christmas, something hasn’t been working properly. I contacted the site administrators and they assured me everything was working from their end.

It was then that I slipped into subconscious science mode to fix the problem.

The A-factor

Akademik Shokalskiy stuck after weather conditions changed and sea ice closed down behind the vessel.

By Bianca

I just stumbled over a detailed media report about the Russian Akademik Shokalskiy that recently had to be rescued out of Antarctica’s sea ice, and have been reminded about our excursion to the continent.

Although I do agree that a lot went wrong on their expedition, and human failures played an important role, it has also be admitted that you simply can’t change the A-factor and you need to adapt to it as much as possible.

The A-factor simply stands for the Antarctic-factor and is a common saying under Antarctic expeditioners as the climate is so unpredictable and weather conditions can change quickly.

Ewok and data digitization appreciation!

By Kate H

Have you ever had data trapped in a graph with no means of accessing the sweet, juicy points yourself? The solution you need is WEBPLOTDIGITIZER:

http://arohatgi.info/WebPlotDigitizer/app/

This is a really rad web program in which you drag and drop the graph of illusive and/or aggravating properties into an interactive window, where you simply coordinate the axes and select the desired data points, or trend line to be generated into an x-y (or other coordinate system) csv file !

If you weren’t already convinced, then follow as I extract useful but obscured information from an informative graph. Barney Stinsons ‘Ewok Line’, pictured below, can be digitised and the entire data set accessed.

Extreme seasons: Australia melts while the US freezes

Observed maximum temperatures for Monday, 13th January, 2014. Image from BOM.

By Claire

I’m writing this post from hot hot Canberra, Australia, in my office, in front of my desk fan. In case you didn’t pick up on it, IT’S FREAKING HOT HERE!!!

This week, a large mass of warm, desert air is slowly making its way across southern Australia, bringing as many as five consecutive days above 40°C (104°F). Here in Canberra, we are forecast to swelter through five consecutive days over 38°C (100°F).

Best of 2013: I’m sorry. Does my science offend you? Part two.

By Claire and Nerilie

Last week I posted about some new research carried out by Nerilie Abram, from the Research School of Earth Sciences at ANU. While the research itself is definitely worth a read (if you have access to Nature Geoscience, check it out here), what I personally found most interesting was the response to this paper seen across comments sections in news articles and blog posts on the internet.

It turns out, climate science is personally offensive to some people.

As much as I was enjoying (in a disbelieving kind of way) trying to follow the avalanche of comments from people across the internet, Nerilie was actually dealing with personal communications from a number of people in response to her paper.

I asked her to provide her opinions on the reaction her paper received. This is what she wrote…

Best of 2013: How do clouds effect solar panel output?

Nick Engerer, a researcher from Fenner School is looking at the relationship between weather events and solar energy output in Canberra.

By Claire

At the beginning of this year, I was at the annual AMOS Conference in Melbourne. It was Friday morning, and there wasn’t a lot of paleoclimatology going on, so I decided to head along to a session on solar energy.

Speaking in this session was Nick Engerer, a researcher from Fenner School at The ANU. Nick’s area of interest is the link between weather events and solar energy output. Now, this is an area of huge interest, especially now that we’re trying to move more towards green energy sources. But one of the key questions that keeps popping up is, “what happens when it’s cloudy?”

As part of Nick’s research, he has developed a real-time website, which shows you the weather across Canberra, and the related impact on solar energy production. Nick is working on the idea that on partly cloudy days, there will be at least some solar panels that are still able to produce power, even if some are not seeing a lot of the sun. And that’s exactly what you can see on his website.

Nick has written up a guest post for us to explain how to use his website, and introduce you to some of the cool features. I encourage you all to take a look. If you’re interested in his work, you can also subscribe to his blog and follow him on twitter. 

Thanks for another great year!

http://sciencejokes.tumblr.com

As this year draws to an end, the Oncirculation team are taking a well earned break. Thanks for following the blog over the last year. We have loved sharing our personal stories of life as a PhD student, our fieldwork photos and science news with you.

We will be taking a break until the 14th January and we hope that you will click back in next year!

Until then, we’ll be reposting some of our most popular and most interesting posts of the last 12 months.

Merry Christmas and see you in the new year!

Thanks, from the Oncirculation team.

PhD Comics.

What can we expect this summer?

Wet weather in Sydney yesterday. Source: News Limited.

 

By Claire

I don’t know what the weather is like at your place at the moment, but where I am, it’s raining. It feels like it has been raining for days (well, maybe two). My plants are looking pretty happy outside, but I’m wondering when the rain will end. Is this what we can expect over the coming months?

The last few years in Australia, we have been influenced by La Nina, which brings relatively cool and rainy conditions to the east coast of Australia. We have seen large flood events, particularly in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. We actually had so much rain in 2011, that we recorded a drop in sea level, due to all the rain that fell on the Australian mainland!

So, can we expect the same this year? Or will we be in for the hot, dry summers that Australia is known for?

Icebreaker versus sea ice

View from the bow of the Aurora

By Bianca

More than a week after the estimated arrival time we are still fighting our way through Antarctica’s very thick sea ice.

With ice conditions as tough as it can get (10 out of 10) our progress was more than slow and the outlook of arrival had been uncertain for a long time. New rumours started to spread daily, including that we would have to turn around and go back. Fortunately, that didn’t happen and by now we are close to Davis and actually just got told that we are likely to arrive tonight.

Putting Science into Perspective

By Jen (guest blogger)

I’m the first member of my family to go into science, so it wasn’t surprising that my parents have had a lot of questions about what I do (paleoclimatology), especially since they want to try to brag about me explain my work to their friends and colleagues.  Eventually, we got past the usual responses:

“Huh?”

“Oh, that’s like weather, right?”

“So… global warming?  Are we doomed?”

And now, when my parents ask me what I do, I can go into more detail than ‘old climate.’ Back when I was doing my Masters’ in New York, I was creating a 2000-year record of Atlantic tropical sea surface temperatures.  Upon hearing the words ‘two thousand years’, my parents were astonished.

“Wow, that’s a long time!”

My father was very confused about why it was important for us to know whether or not dinosaurs needed umbrellas.  I explained to him, “No, Dad, this is long after the dinosaurs went extinct.  This is information relevant to human society.”

My current PhD research is a 15,000-year record of Indonesian rainfall.

“So now you’re looking at dinosaur weather?”

“No, Dad, still no dinosaurs.  This is thousands of years ago.  Dinosaurs were millions of years ago.”

“Right…”

There’s still a skeptical tone in his voice as if saying, “Thousands?  Millions?  What’s the difference?”

And it becomes apparent that it’s all just big numbers to him.  How do I make him (and the rest of the world) understand the difference between a thousand or a million or a billion? 

Documentary: Acid Ocean

Site exposed to very high concentrations of CO2 where coral developement ceases to exist. Credit: Katharina Fabricius

By Claire

If you’re looking for a bit of mental stimulation tonight, there is a documentary airing on SBS at 7:30pm that may be of interest.

The doco is titled, “Acid Ocean” and explores the acidifying ocean, caused by increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

“Marine scientists across the world are racing to tackle the most urgent environmental challenge facing our planet today – ocean acidification. From the icy polar seas to the world’s most pristine coral reefs we track the latest scientific research. Heading the investigation is Dr Katharina Fabricius from the Australian Institute of Marine Science. She’s made a game-changing discovery. Nestled amongst Papua New Guinea’s stunning coral gardens is a unique reef – a window to the future of our oceans.”

Check out a sneak peak:

If you do miss it tonight, you can watch the program online on SBS On Demand, after it has gone to air (if you are in Australia).

Just when you think you’ve figured it out…

By Claire

I have blogged/complained about my experiences with modelling already on this blog. In case you missed it, all you need to know is that I’m trying to run some climate simulations, using climate models, with absolutely no prior knowledge of how to run a model. It has been a steep learning curve…

I had finally gotten my head around how to run the Australian-based paleoclimate model – the CSIRO Mk3L – and set up a series of experiments to test the climatic response to insolation forcing, and “Henrich-like” events (basically where you dump a bunch of freshwater into the North Atlantic and see what happens – like in The Day After Tomorrow). 

0.107 leagues under the sea!

By Kate,

Imagine going for a casual snorkel and coming face to face with a real life sea monster:

A wild oarfish appears

In such a scenario, instead of panicking, having an underwater heart attack or wetting her wetsuit, Jasmine Santana simply called for reinforcements (14 people!) to help drag the 18 foot (~5.5m) beast from an unusually shallow depth of 6m (0.001 leagues).

Life on the Southern Ocean

The Aurora Australis docked in Hobart

By Bianca

We are now somewhere around 60 degrees South, heading along Antarctica’s sea ice coastline until we will start breaking through the ice somewhere near Davis station.

We started our journey on the Aurora Australis last Tuesday, already with a two hour delay, due to cargo, and a further delay has occurred due to strong westerly winds. As soon as we left the protecting shores of Tasmania we quickly learned what’s lying in front of us: the forties and fifties of the Southern Ocean, famous for their roughness. Out on the open ocean we immediately hit a stormy sea with swells up to 6 meters. Good thing we all went to bed and our bodies could get used to it during a night sleep. The next day things didn’t seem too bad.

Stormy weather on the Southern Ocean
Image: British Antarctic Survey

That however only lasted for a day until we hit another stormy weather front with waves up to 12 meters. That afternoon many of us didn’t feel too good and I think I figured out why. If the ship rolls left to right, which is quite normal, everything is fine. As soon as it starts rolling in all directions, i.e. forwards and backwards and up and down, that’s where you find most people in bed…

Why are you interested in earth sciences?

By Claire

People who are interested in earth sciences can usually point to something in particular that captured their attention- something that drew them to earth sciences and to understanding more about how our planet works.

I have always loved weather. Growing up in Sydney, I would get stupidly excited every time there was a thunderstorm. I absolutely love them! Mum and I would go outside and watch the lightning from our back porch, until the storm got too close and we quickly escaped back inside. I would often turn off all the lights in the room I was in and just watch the flashes of lightning. The scarier the better.

My fascination with weather lead me to do my undergraduate degree in atmospheric science. I love learning about how weather is formed and simply just observing it. Learning how to read weather maps was fascinating to me, and I still regularly check out the weather maps on the Bureau of Meteorology website to see what weather is in store over the coming week.

This video of a developing super storm captures beautifully the awe that I feel in the face of weather events. I could watch them for hours.

What is it about earth sciences that draws you in?

And so the adventure begins…

The Aurora Australis on its way through the Antarctic sea ice.

By Bianca

By the time you read this post I will be already in Hobart to start my days early at 8.30am with some special training. Training to prepare us for life in one of the roughest places on Earth – Antarctica.

Despite spring slowly coming upon us, temperature will be well below freezing and weather conditions can change quickly from a blue sky to wipe-out conditions. All that and more is what we will be trained for at the Australian Antarctic Division in Kingston, Tasmania.