Non-Stop: Thoughts on Hard Work from two Alexanders
Alexander Hamilton (*see “Hamilton poses” from Hanny and me…yes, I know this is a little kooky) The spectacular success of the Broadway musical Hamilton provides insight into our societal values. It’s impressive that a story about the Revolutionary War and subsequent establishment of American democracy has been made accessible and relevant to a modern audience. To…
Read MoreDusting off the data
We recently published a pretty cool little paper (if I do say so myself), but it was a really long time in coming. Scientists have a responsibility to share our data and communicate our findings . But pretty much every scientist I know has data coming out of his or her ears. The time and mental power…
Read MoreAdventures in “Spontaneous Generation”
A childhood friend told me that when she was a little girl, she heard her mother say “don’t drop crumbs, we’ll get ants!” After hearing that, she thought that crumbs turned into ants. My friend and I laughed about this, but later we learned in our grade-school science class that people have shared similar beliefs…
Read MoreTired of Caring?
A beautiful aspect of my job is the opportunity to help others. I have opportunities to mentor, train and advise students, to assist colleagues and co-workers, to collaborate on a variety of projects, and to reach out beyond the scientific community. This adds diversity to my day and enriches my scientific experience. Some of these…
Read MoreSometimes I get in my own way
Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it with use – Ruth Gordon I think a lot of us feel insecure or intimidated from time to time. That may be completely normal, and can be helpful in a way. When I first came here to WHOI as a postdoc, I was (rightfully) worried that I…
Read MoreA little reminder to keep perspective
I’ve been slowly going through some old things, tidying up, getting rid of clutter and “baggage”. Today I flipped through a lab notebook from my high school physics class. I kept it all these years (26 now!) because the teacher had written a really complimentary and inspiring note in the back. I was thinking maybe…
Read MoreWhat to do with a PhD in Oceanography? A journey of venturing into science policy
This post was written by lab alum Amalia Aruda Almada, Ph.D. Hi everyone! It’s a pleasure to be a guest on Ann’s fabulous blog. Ann and I go way back (see photo evidence above…I’m on the right, Ann’s on the left) – Ann taught me how to hold my first pipette when I was a…
Read More¡En Español! (sort of*)
This post was co-written by A. Tarrant and H. Rivera. (* Giving an 8-minute presentation exhausted the limits of Ann’s Spanish proficiency. Someday we might write some posts in Spanish, but not quite yet). On September 16, 2017, WHOI hosted a special symposium titled “Oceanos: WHOI en Español e Português” in which twelve scientists gave…
Read MoreStella song
Since ‘Stella (the sea anemone Nematostella) is one of our favorite animals, we’ve adopted this onto our lab play list.
Read MoreI didn’t always want to be a scientist
I have a weird little masochistic hobby – I often ask my friends how these decided to become scientists. The answer is almost without exception some combination of: I always loved science…I loved the science fair…as a kid I wanted to know how things work…I was always fiddling with engines/chemicals/ant farms (or whatever). That wasn’t…
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