awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:

David Attenborough and Richard Dawkins

__________

I’d love to be a fly on the wall during this conversation.

(Source: awesomepeoplehangingouttogether)

"Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact."

Carl Sagan (via cwnl)

(Source: ikenbot, via fyeahchemistry)

What scientists say and what the public hears

(via nevver)

"I have made a great mistake. I have wasted my life on mineralogy, which has led to nothing. Had I devoted myself to birds, their life and plumage, I might have produced something worth doing."

John Ruskin

Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) by John James Audubon

This morning, while completing a transect solo for the first time, I saw a Belted Kingfisher hovering over and dive into a creek. Over four years ago, watching that bird do the same over the San Diego River was when I knew birds were my calling.

That was just the reminder and encouragement I needed.

his ‘Iwa/Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor) skull from 1899 was one of the first specimens to come into the Bishop Museum of Honolulu, Hawai’i. Someday, another enthused individual will come across specimens I labeled over a hundred years prior, and be just as thrilled.

I am completely enthralled with all the little dead things in collections, and the hidden treasures I find from eras long ago only serve as constant reminders of why I do this and how fascinating and necessary it really is.

My experiences are just as priceless as the specimens themselves.

And I skeletonize birds like it’s therapeutic or something.

"The three letters I want to accompany my name are not Mrs., but Ph.D."

HILDEGARDE HOWARD.

Aspirations.

PROOF.

o worried about not having proof of my existence.

I realize I’ll have plenty of evidence in the professional realm; my handwriting and name is on bones, skins, and other specimens, as well as a slew of official scientific forms that will remain as the way we documented life on this planet as we have come to know it for hundreds of years to come.

And I’m sure that I’ll go on to have more of a hand in this.

Now, I just need to figure out a more meaningful way to create evidence on a personal scale (Art sometimes takes up too much space).

THE “ZOO” MISNOMER.

fter a frustrating comment from my mother, I am inspired to write this entry. Fair warning.
(My mother was watching Jack Hanna, saw Julie Scardina, prompting her to say, “Why don’t you do that instead of just focusing on birds?” Seriously, Mommy Dearest? Here’s why, for the millionth time!)

There’s something most people don’t understand, and it’s a pretty significant error. Though they are interchangeable terms in general speech, a zookeeper is NOT (usually) a zoologist. I’ve done work as both. Definitely not the same. Just because they both have the word “Zoo” in them DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE THE SAME.

(SPOILER ALERT!) Working as a zookeeper is a lot like working on a (really awesome) farm. It’s a lot of manual labor, a lot of preparing diets and cleaning up poop and groundskeeping and heavy lifting, and it’s wonderful interacting with exotic animals so closely (for about 2% of your workday), but it doesn’t go towards some scientific goal very often. The fact that it lacks that one essential aspect is why I get frustrated with it and consider animal care as more of a personal hobby.

A zoologist is a scientist who conducts research studies to figure out things that have to do with animals, most of the time in the wild. There are several facets within and related to Zoology. My personal fields are Ornithology (the study of birds), Systematics (the study of taxonomy/classification) and Evolutionary Biology (how, when, and perhaps why living things may adapt and develop over time).

I guess, in my case, it boils down to how an Ornithologist and an Aviculturist are not the same.

Some additional disclaimers: Zookeeping/animal care is based on and uses some scientific principles (i.e. for husbandry and behavior, nutrition, etc.) and it’s beneficial to have scientific knowledge about those animals, but it usually doesn’t directly involve or engage science.

Though some research is conducted in zoos, it is rarely done by zookeepers, but more so by the zoologists that come in and take their own data and observations.

There is usually manual labor involved in zoology field research, just not in regard to taking care of animals. It’s more trudging through the wilderness, lugging your gear.

As with most anything, there are always exceptions to these general principles. But, moral of the story is: zookeeper ≠ zoologist. Phew, glad I could clear that up.

Science: Successful Women Are Doomed to Unhappiness →

vneckandacardigan:

Here’s to proving science wrong.

__________

WTF?! Amen.

(via edatrix)