science before breakfast

Crowd-funding science projects through SciFund and RocketHub

Chia-Yi — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:27:04 +0000

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! In the giving mood? SciFund and RocketHub have teamed up to raise funding for over 50 diverse science projects. This is a bit like Kiva if you are familiar with microfinancing, except that this is straight giving and not loaning. They also offer rewards for different levels of giving, similar to some other giving sites like Kickstarter.

Projects range from microbiology to conservation to ancient Roman DNA to zombie research. Some of my favorite projects (to which I have donated to) are:

Communicating science the Beethoven way
Mathematics of Direct Democracy
What’s that Weed? (field guide for local urban plants)
Mapping a Bornean soundscape

These projects have 18 days left to reach their funding goals, so give to these projects while you can!

Internships in environmental economics and health

Chia-Yi — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:07:32 +0000

EcoHealth Alliance is looking for 2 people who are interested in environmental economics and health to intern at our offices in NYC for 2 or more months, at least 2 days per week. This is an opportunity to work with our experts on issues such as economics of emerging diseases or of disease in wildlife trade.

Just to give you an idea of what we work on, projects range from wildlife health surveillance to disease ecology of specific pathogens to predicting disease hotspots, to estimation of wildlife trade impacts on human and animal health. I’ve also written in the past about a graduate training and research experience program focused on infectious diseases that is currently entering its second year. We’ve also been involved in conservation work and human health surveillance in developing countries.

If you’re interested, please email your Statement of Interest (maximum 1 page; indicate availability and current location) and CV as a PDF file to intern@ecohealthalliance.org with “Health and Economics Internship” in the subject line.

You can also download and distribute the PDF flyer.

The non-PhD route

Chia-Yi — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:39:43 +0000

What does it mean, to be a PhD? It’s different in different places, of course. There have been several articles published on this topic, for me most notably in Nature and the Economist.

The idea of doing some research that I’m extremely interested in is still very appealing to me. It’s just that…I don’t want to do the PhD to get there, and it may not really be necessary. Like in the Nature article, there are ways to get involved in research at the entry or mid-level. I just won’t be able to be a Principal Investigator (PI) on any grant proposals.

And I’m glad of it! Being a PI comes with great expectations and responsibilities. You are tasked with accomplishing the Great and Many things that you promised in the proposals, and at the same time you have to stay within The Budget. Then you have to get your work published in High Impact Journal A or High Impact Journal B, and then compete with peers all over again for more funding.

Not to mention, when you exit with your PhD, your options are both limited and wide-ranging at the same time. Limited in that you probably won’t want to settle for something that pays less or doesn’t acknowledge your Killer Skills or Awesome Expertise. And you do come out an expert…in a very very very specific area, which in turn may lead to more limitation. Your options are wide-ranging in the way that you could go to many different places in the world, granted that there are people who want you on their team. But even that seems to ultimately be somewhat limiting, because jumping from place to place is not conducive to the paper-publishing feedback-loop of a career of the PhD.

I’m not bashing on PhDs, or the system (though it seems very flawed). I’m just saying here, out loud, finally, that I’ve changed my mind and it isn’t for me. I’ve got my Masters, and that might be enough. Who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind, but I’m not going to feel bad about this choice or any other subsequent choice. I’m not 100% sure where I’m headed now, but I’m excited about figuring it out and going with wherever it takes me.

Whew! That was a load off! I hope I haven’t disappointed you.

For further reading, some interesting blogs about academia and other science things:
Female Science Professor
Context and Variation which used to be at Blogspot

Recycled plastic eyeglasses frames

Chia-Yi — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:45:07 +0000

A year ago this month, I purchased new eyeglasses frames from the Earth Conscious Optics line by MODO. They are made completely of recycled plastic. I could also chosen frames that were made from recycled metals. They have been awesome so far, although they don’t sit quite evenly on my nose, but that just might be because my nose is a little uneven!

Here’s what they look like:

They are also doing an interesting promotion where they plant a tree for every pair of frames purchased. Check out their website: ECO Optics

Hopefully I’ll be able to used these frames for several more years to get as much mileage out of them as I can.

This makes me wonder, what other cool upcycled things are out there? Know of any?

Migrating birds spreading a protozoal disease!

Chia-Yi — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:34:44 +0000

You may have heard about avian flu, and how migratory birds may be spreading the virus around and potentially allowing for new strains to emerge, but you may not have heard about birds carrying disease causing protozoans.

In this peer-reviewed journal article published by EcoHealth, researchers are able to connect the migration of birds through Europe to the emergence of Trichomonosis in several places, such as southern Fennoscandia. This will be the first time it has been documented that birds are transporting a protozoal disease across regions through migratory patterns!

Read more about it at the EcoHealth Alliance website or at BBC or the Independent.

Ditching the bottle and making the switch to solid shampoo bars

Chia-Yi — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:55:48 +0000

There has always been something alluring about a nicely packaged shampoo or personal care product. The packaging designers definitely tap into some kind of psychology of the consumer so that they can project the image that they want us to have of their product. Somehow, we might unconsciously link a pretty bottle to the quality of what’s inside it.

I haven’t made many lifestyle changes recently, and when I have, it tends to be very gradual. Sometimes I don’t notice until after the fact that I had made a change (e.g. certain eating habits, like eating less chicken or pork). Sometimes, though, I do consciously make abrupt changes. This is one of those.

About 1 year ago, I decided to completely ditch shampoos that come in plastic bottles and switch to more natural and unpackaged products to replace shampoo and conditioner. I have bought Burt’s Bees and Dr. Bronner’s soaps, and Lush shampoo and conditioner bars. Below is the Lush Squeaky Green shampoo. I also love the Godiva shampoo bar (see a review here).

I really like the freedom of not thinking about what happens to those bottles after I’m done, and there are several other benefits of using solid shampoo bars, like:

Natural ingredients that smell great!
Compact (diameter is ~2in, depth is ~0.75in) and long-lasting (the bars have lasted at least 12 weeks or ~50-60 washes, which is fewer than the company claims because I have a lot of long, thick hair)
It’s a solid, and therefore easier to get through security in your carry-on at airports. Plus, not having to worry about things exploding in my bag, leaving me with a soapy and sudsy piece of luggage, is awesome. This has never happened to me, but I don’t want to think about the possibilities,

There is definitely something psychological about making gradual vs. abrupt changes in your life. It depends on what you are comfortable with, and how much you are willing to change at once. This has worked out for me, but others are doing things like making 1 change for each day in the year.

I’ve been able to get over the pull of attractive packaging. That was a bit of a mental trick, but I can now better recognize when those marketing geniuses are trying to work their magic on me.

What are your thoughts? Do you tend to make gradual changes or abrupt ones? Which ones have stuck with you and which have not?

EcoHealthNet: program for graduate students interested in infectious disease research

Chia-Yi — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:06:09 +0000

EcoHealthNet is an awesome program for anyone who is interested in learning more skills to use in the infectious disease research field, or to get involved with some super interesting projects around the work. I was lucky enough to become involved with planning for this program through work, and I also got to participate in our workshop in June (which was held at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD)!

This is the group that was at the workshop, including student participants from the Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Ethiopia, Peru, Spain, USA, Vietnam, as well as lecturers from Johns Hopkins, Harvard, University of Wisconsin, and EcoHealth Alliance (where I work!).

So what does infectious disease research mean? This is a cutting-edge field that brings together ecologists, veterinarians, geographers, medical professionals, policy makers, and more. Participants at the workshop learned about disease mapping/spatial analysis and mathematical disease modeling, and people who went on the research exchange contributed to projects like Nipah virus surveillance in Bangladesh to developing primers for avian influenza viruses in China to wildlife surveillance in Brazil to White Nose Syndrome in the United States

The next opportunity to apply for EcoHealthNet 2012 will be this fall. Applications will be accepted starting in October 2011! Check out the website here: http:// www.ecohealthalliance.org/health/29-ecohealthnet

Glowing infections: bioluminescent bacteria in human soft tissue

Chia-Yi — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:46:16 +0000

Have you ever wished that you could glow in the dark? If you have, attempting to imitate marine species by acquiring bioluminescent bacteria is not the way to do it.

A journal article published in Emerging Infectious Diseases details 2 cases of Australians who had soft tissue infections from the Photorhabdus species.

There have been a total of 12 human cases of infection, but there is no clear understanding of how these people got the bacteria, with the only clue being that they somehow got it while taking part in some outdoor activity. It is likely that they got the bacteria from a terrestrial invertebrate (a nematode or arthropod).

Where is sustainable development research headed?

Chia-Yi — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:22:20 +0000

The 17th International Sustainable Development Research Conference is being held at Columbia University on May 8-10, 2011.

The main topic of the conference is “Moving Toward a Sustainable Future: Opportunities and Challenges,” and one of the things I’m interested in seeing is if there are any researchers who will present work that is based more in biology than you would typically expect at a sustainable development conference.

I’m submitting an abstract soon for this conference, and I hope that it gets accepted because it would be great to bring a different perspective to this discussion. As of today, they have received 330 abstract submissions! I hope to present an analysis that will really open up new possibilities for future research!

Check out the website for more info on topics covered in the conference. They include:

pressures on earth’s natural and socioeconomic systems,
limits for future development,
solutions to problems created by development,
adequacy of governing structures to implement policy,
and assessment of pilot programs.

Two videos, two governments

Chia-Yi — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:27:59 +0000

In an interesting contrast of perspectives on governments’ takes on environmental issues, these two videos highlight air pollution in Hong Kong and electronic waste in Toronto.

The first is a comedic public service announcement (PSA) put out by the Clean Air Network (CAN), which is a nonprofit advocating for more action to control air pollution in Hong Kong. I first saw this as part of an entry at the Green blog at New York Times that I saw yesterday.

Basically, air quality is a big mess because of industrial activity and roadside pollution. Instead of the usual “shockvertising” and serious ad campaigns, CAN decided to change their approach with this light, but poignant piece. Check it out:

For the Cantonese version, click here. The wording in this version is a little bit different, but the ideas are the same. (Interestingly, instead of the horse scent, there is man’s scent. Probably geared towards the fans of the main actor, Daniel Wu, because that is him in the image, I believe. I wonder why they chose to make it a horse scent and not anything else.)

The second is also an entertaining PSA but this time put out by a government agency. The City of Toronto wants your electronics, and they make it quite clear here:

I also saw this yesterday, at the blog Green as a Thistle. This video is quite funny, almost to the point where you don’t believe the City are the ones who actually released it. It is more in the style of a cheesy mattress commercial.

It seemed like a strange twist of fate that I came across these two videos on the same day, each with its own purpose in a common mission to incite environmental action, but coming from different perspectives. As I see it, there is one government attempting to stimulate action, and one government needing to be stimulated into action. It really gives you something to think about!