What are you working on?

[klw]

Ok, I’ll start off this new opening of the thread in science-y mode by attaching a link to a recent paper of mine on snowy owls. You’ll need to click on the pdf link on the webpage yourself for a copy, but the journal is open access so hopefully it works OK…
Anyways, I’m following this one up with some work on migration routes of snowies in relation to landscape features. If you’re not into all the boring stats in the paper , you may still appreciate the visuals in the figures that show the annual movement tracks of the owls into the high Arctic where they breed. These birds amaze me!

Snowy Owls in central North America have regular migration and high philopatry to wintering sites though not always to home ranges - Avian Conservation and Ecology

[Dale (evolutionary providentialist [now deceased])]

Wow. That more than maybe reflects a lot of watching and waiting? And hiking.

[klw]

Well…a lot of driving around the backroads of Saskatchewan in winter at -30 C to trap and tag the owls. And yeah, I was out with a few grad students then doing behavioural observations for their own thesis topics and at times we froze our butts off. But other times, you sit in the cab of the truck with a thermos of hot coffee, waiting for the owls to do something.
Once the transmitters are on, the cool thing is that they download GPS locations via cell phone towers. So one can just track the positions of owls from the warmth of indoors, by looking at a computer screen. Lazy fieldwork then!

[Dale (evolutionary providentialist [now deceased])]

Nice.  

[Paraleptopecten (Timothy Campbell)]

Okay, well, for science stuff I’ve done since I posted on this thread last, I’ve actually published an identification guide on the Waccamaw Formation mollusks. I think I’m up to about 50 copies having been sold or given away. I also now have a 2.5 page erratum/addendum for it…

[glipsnort (Steve Schaffner)]

This is the last thing I’ve worked (and worked, and worked) on that has produced output: Malaria surveillance reveals parasite relatedness, signatures of selection, and correlates of transmission across Senegal - PMC

[Randy]

Thanks. I greatly appreciate anything to do with malaria. I have flashbacks of cerebral malaria on the wards with kids, and a hematocrit of 4 (normal being about 40), etc–in those who survived!.

[St.Roymond]

@beaglelady

The interval of an augmented fourth (a.k.a. the “tritone”) is called the Devil in Music (diabolus in musica) because it is so difficult to sing.

In college choir we did a piece where that was used, bouncing from tenor to soprano to bass to alto and back to tenor. Rehearsing that piece up to concert quality was annoying until suddenly the interval made sense.

@jammycakes

keeping laboratory notes

And field notes. My volcanology professor insisted on thorough field notes, which were to be attached to the papers we turned in.
These days with a smart phone and the ability to record voice I think things would be different, probably more sketching and less writing.

@jammycakes

and the only thing to explain it is a comment in source control saying something meaningless such as “A bit more refactoring.” Sometimes, the person making such an idle comment has been none other than myself.

LOL
I recall in a computer science course where my “documentation” was little more than reminders to myself that were pretty much worthless outside the context of my own thought processes.

@beaglelady

@David_Lee

It does occasionally appear in singable tunes. Two example:

True, but that doesn’t change what I said.

I think the difference is whether it is sung as an interval or as a chord.

[St.Roymond]

I just finished writing the annual report for my NfP organization.

Now it’s time to scour the national forest dunes near here for small pine, fir, and spruce to transplant to increase the native forest extent out in the dunes where we removed a lot of invasive scotch broom over spring and summer. It will be nice if we can get enough funding we can buy small saplings though searching out the young trees where the national forest people don’t want them has become a bit of a tradition.

[beaglelady]

@St.Roymond

I think the difference is whether it is sung as an interval or as a chord.

(Don’t know exactly why this ancient thread is open again.) Sometimes a composer will deliberately use the “crudeness” of the tritone to make a point. Consider Stravinsky’s ballet “Petruska” ( Don’t worry; this is just a short clip)

Petrushka Chord

[Paraleptopecten (Timothy Campbell)]

What, not Le Sacre du Printemps? That has way more of them (and an insanely complex series of changes in time signature, but that’s a different issue).

[St.Roymond]

@beaglelady

(Don’t know exactly why this ancient thread is open again.)

Primarily because I decided to share what I’ve been working on, and it wasn’t a locked thread.

[Kendel]

@jammycakes

Is anyone working on anything that might be of particular interest to those of us involved in discussions about science and faith?

I’ve frequently made the point that science is a very hands-on and practical enterprise, and that being the case I thought it would be good to have a thread where we could showcase any science-related activities in action.

This could be something as part of your job, or something from school or college, or a hobby side project. It could be a short weekend project or something more long-term. It could be something that illustrates various scientific principles that we discuss here, or perhaps something that was inspired by discussions about science and faith in one way or another. Anything that might inspire or inform us, really.

I wonder if this thread of @jammycakes could be revived. Honestly, we need something fresh and scientific.

[jpm (Phil McCurdy)]

at this point in life, my scientific experiments involve botany (gardening), chemistry (cooking), and biochemistry ( the effect of drugs on the human body, focusing on the effects of testosterone depletion on the mentation and muscle mass of the aging male). I am currently having trouble recruiting volunteers for the last one, and strongly suspect as a participant, I am not in the placebo group. But, the observations are interesting, not that you ever want to be interesting when it comes to medicine.

[Mervin_Bitikofer]

Can any of us hangout at any observation windows?

[jpm (Phil McCurdy)]

Anytime! Let me know and can arrange multi day sessions in the native habitat.

More seriously, I am looking at how to volunteer more at such things as conferences to advance the interests on Biologos and the science community. If anyone has ideas as to conferences and such that Biologos would be appropriate to have a presence at exhibit tables etc., let me know. Hopefully, places that need a good word spread about science and faith.

[Randy]

I’m a family doc, so not a researcher. However, as @jpm knows, the American Board of Family Medicine is now requiring a directed practice improvement strategy, with intervention and observation for evidence of success, every few 3 years. My project is due at the end of this year, and there are 3 possible considerations in my mind.

1. How to increase access to insurance with the recent drop in subsidy

2. How home support can control hypertension, congestive heart failure, and diabetes, by supplying BP cuffs, scales, and glucometers connected to daily monitors and med adjustments.

3. How to encourage constructive dialogue regarding vaccines, especially in the recent Covid related skepticism.

I need to set up an intervention arm, possibly a control arm, and adequate assessment for results.

It’s not anything like what the researchers do, but it gives me more appreciation for what you real researchers do

[jpm (Phil McCurdy)]

Sounds like good projects. The first one is pretty ambitious and would challenge me where to even start. the second sounds expensive to implement, though I can see how some of my friends have benefited greatly from the continuous monitoring devices with their diabetes, and insurance covers a lot of that expense. The third seems feasible to do and would be interesting to see how education would affect immunization levels. All would be challenging. I’m glad that phase of life is behind me, and I have no more hurdles to jump. I finally decided to let my license to go this year, and dropped board maintenance a few years back, as the expense of maintaining it was not worth it. Still, it is a little difficult as that is part of my identity. Not sure which is harder, dropping my license or losing my prostate with all that entails. All of which is TMI, but you sort of have to laugh about it.

[Vinnie]

Here is what I am working on as a high school science teacher (no fancy research).

In physics, just taught gravitation followed by center of mass and now we doing an basic intro to torque and some balancing problems. Monday students will be given a 200g mass and a meter stick. They will be expected to determine the mass of the meter stick with just those two objects alone (they will need a table edge as well). Our next stop is an intro to static equilibrium with hanging streetlights and signs (calculating tension).

We are also building paper roller coasters one day a week. These templates are great. Well worth the money.

Paper Roller Coaters

Freshmen were given three density tasks to resolve.

1. Determine if diet and regular soda have different densities.

2. verify or falsify a statement like this online: * 1982 (Major Shift): The composition changed from 95% copper to 97.5% zinc with a 2.5% copper plating, as copper prices soared. Both copper (pre-Sept 1982) and zinc (post-1982) pennies were made in 1982.

3. They have to match up a fluid found at a crime scene with one of three samples. I told them it’s urine and some of them seem to believe me, And they have to explain whether why this sort of evidence—if it matches, would be good or bad.

This will keep them working for a week. After finishing density we will move onto the greenhouse effect. After that it’s energy/ basic circuits , motors/electromagnets. Or I might skip ahead and do some baby physics with them (try to use lots of hot wheels and tracks).

Drone class is just switching to the photography drones. Too cold for outdoors so we are flying inside and doing some very basic flight intros with a little video editing. I’m trying to design some physics labs (for non physics students) with the drones (hooking them to a force sensor and measuring their max lift and verifying this with masses, we could go outside and measure their max horizontal and max landing speed (no free fall!!!). Working on a project where they have to design something (non-electrical) that can pick up two packages and drop them off at different locations.

All basic science and technology stuff for me. Nothing crazy. Besides that, finishing a few books, writing articles for my website, taking a science and cooking course at EDX and arguing at Biologos!