BIG💧THREAD ALERT

Yesterday I spoke about the value of freshwater ecosystems & some threats by human alteration & a changing climate.

There’s many great voices & I’ve been saving their tweets/links just for this occasion. So thank you water tweeters for sharing your insights.

https://twitter.com/geo_gunn/status/1039534993092038656?s=21

Here's a thread on basic tips to help improve your next science figure! 📝 (ie common mistakes I see). It'll cover:
1) Contrast (color value) ⬛️⬜️
2) Color (it’s a tool, not decoration!) 🌈
3) Fonts 🔤
4) Image Resolution 📷
5) Spacing / margins 📐
6) By request! 💡 1a) Ahh contrast.. my favorite topic! If we lived in a world of black & white, contrast would actually be less of an issue (because we'd notice it immediately). Color variation can trick you into thinking something is legible!

(1/6) This was a fun piece I illustrated with @NatGeo on the neuroanatomy of the common octopus 🐙 Seems relatively simple but (as many of you can attest) a lot of good storytelling is stripping AWAY info as opposed to adding.. (here's a peak at the process work below) (2/6) First sketch that was proposed to me for the story. I was immediately hooked since I am fascinated with octopi 😍🐙

Our team is a mix of scientists of many different skill sets and backgrounds. Some of us are great at tweeting, some of us are great at fixing cars, and some of us can cook a curry that makes you cry with happiness after a long windy day in the field. What binds is together is our dedication to studying the workings of the Solar System by studying out of this world landmarks on Earth. #NASAFieldWork

So a few people have been asking about general word finding difficulties and temporary episodes of language loss. Firstly, let me just say that I am not a medical doctor. 1/2

https://twitter.com/realscientists/status/1022676510891626496

An increase in word finding difficulties can occur with age.
Temporary episodes of language loss may be called 'aphasia' by some but the cause is temporary - diff to someone who has a brain injury that changes the brain permanently (even tho they may recover to some extent). 2/2

So I'll start a thread that provides more information about #aphasia...
Feel free to ask any specific Qs you may have...

https://twitter.com/iris_vendel/status/1022398578009010182

Aphasia is caused by an acquired brain injury, most commonly #stroke. Around 1/3 of people with left hemisphere stroke can have aphasia. Over time, the severity of the aphasia and type may change but many people live with aphasia.

Good morning Twitterverse...

[Photos from Porcupine Gorge, North West Queensland, Australia] Today is my 2nd last day of tweeting for @realscientists....
Work-wise, I am catching up with research tasks, having spent the week meeting teaching deadlines. I'll be giving feedback on an upcoming poster presn & a lit review; catching up on research projects & trip planning...

Good night tweeps. I leave you with a picture of my favourite animals.

Elephant = elefante (italiano) = අලියා (Sinhala - sounds like ‘aliya’)

(& delightfully called ‘heffalumps’ in Winnie the Pooh)

What’s the word for 🐘 in your language? So these are the emerging patterns if we cluster the different words for elephant together:
Elephant, Elefante, Elefant, Eilifint
Oliphant, Oliphaunt, Olifant
Peel, Feel, Fíll
Gaja, Gajah
Aliya
Erin
Slon
Haathi

At the start of this week, I said that I've grown up between 2 #cultures. I imagine many of you navigate more than one #culture 2. So what are some of your experiences navigating more than one culture? #navigating2cultures

For example, for me.... At work, I use cutlery; at home, I eat rice & curry with my hands. That is the best way to eat rice and curry. Eating with cutlery just doesn't cut it. You can't mix the food in the same way. & while we're myth busting, we NEVER eat just 1 curry with rice!!!

#navigating2cultures

Sadly, of the large carnivore species, more than 60% of them are threatened. Of the 17 showing widespread population declines, they now live in only 47% of their historical ranges. The tiger, for example, could have lost 95% of its historical range science.sciencemag.org/content/343/61… There are fewer than 3,900 tigers left in the world today due to widespread habitat loss, historic overhunting (thanks to us Brits), #humanwildlifeconflict and, more recently, #illegalwildlifetrade. Sadly, tigers are desired for their skins as rugs & their parts for medicine

My research mostly focuses on how we can get people to feel a bit happier about sharing their land with wildlife. When we disagree on how to manage wildlife, this is called #HumanWildlifeConflict. If an elephant destroys a crop, farmers want to get rid of that elephant 👨‍🌾🐘🌽 #DYK there are tamed Asian elephants used to herd wild elephants away from villages to limit crop/property damage? You can read more about them here wwf.or.id/en/about_wwf/w…

Now I'm going to talk a little bit about how to get into wildlife conservation. It's great to see so many people interested in nature! Conservation can be a hard career to get started but there are ways to do it. Academia is one route, but there are lots of jobs at NGOs too A good start is by reading this interesting journal article which looked at who advertises for conservation jobs and what skills are most asked for onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.111… Here's a good write-up of the findings on @mongabay news.mongabay.com/2018/06/not-al…

Gooooooooood morning Twitterverse! I'm an environmentalist who sees myself as a bit of a Captain Planet protégé. I am using science to help protect this wonderful world we live in. First things first: does anyone actually remember Captain Planet?! Captain Planet was a 1990s cartoon aimed at kids but had a very strong environmental message throughout. It brought together the "Planeteers" who were kids that wanted to help make the world a better place. Pretty neat, huh?!

Why should we care about sex differences? Shouldn't we treat men and women the same?

If we're talking about respect, of course! If we're talking about biology, drug dosing, etc...NO Historically, medicine has treated women as simply "more variable males" and most studies used (white, upper class) men, and assumed the results could be applied to women. There were also concerns about allowing women of child-bearing age to participate in studies

First things first, sex and gender are not interchangeable! Gender is social construct, that can differ across cultures. Humans can identify as a particular gender, but rodents, tissues, and cells DO NOT HAVE A GENDER. Sex is also somewhat socially constructed, in the sense that what we consider someone’s sex can change based on what we use to define sex. Are we defining sex based on chromosomes? Internal gonads? External genitalia? Hormonal profile?

This week has been a lot of troubleshooting, and not a lot of progress. I think this is one of the hardest parts of science.

When I feel like I’m not making any progress, I like to re-read The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus (or at least just the last chapter) I turn to this book when I’m discouraged, because in it, Camus works through the idea of finding meaning in an absurd universe. But it doesn’t feel patronizing in the way “motivational” books can.

Earlier, we talked about pain in rodents. Now let's talk about something a little more fun. What's your #ThesisSoundtrack?

To take a quick break from work, I started making a #ThesisSoundtrack playlist--a playlist of songs that relate to my thesis work. Here are some samples: #ThesisSoundtrack song 1: R.E.M.'s "Orange Crush"

I study the spine, so I figured it made sense to start with "I've got my spine, I've got my Orange Crush"

Let’s try this again. How do we measure pain in rodents??? In humans, we can just ask! How severe is it on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you describe it, where does it hurt?

This is too confusing for the rats, though.

(This is a real slide from a talk I’ve given on this subject!)

Moving on from #Asteroids #Exoplanets #SolarEclipse #StarSpectrum we now focus on #Satellites

Sputnik 1 was the first satellite to be launched (1957). Over 1200 active satellites are currently orbiting Earth.

Check out the LIVE Satellite Map maps.esri.com/rc/sat/index.h… Satellites come in different sizes: from the size of a lunch box to that of a small school bus.

And they are used for different purposes: Climate Monitoring, Agriculture, Telecommunications, Research....

Albert Einstein once said: "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."

Curiosity is the birthplace of Science.

It feels good to be curious and to learn. Poll: How many of us learned the children rhyme?

Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are?

2017 #TotalSolarEclipse Data from homemade Solar-X device:

All the sensors: Temperature, Visible, Infrared, UV and Solar power output registered a dip during the Solar Eclipse with peak dips during Totality.

Visible light dropped: 35%
Infrared: 87.5%
Solar Power Output: 95% Solar Cell Output showed the most variation. It dipped gradually at first and then started dipping drastically as Totality neared.

We concluded that a major portion of the Sun had to be covered by the Moon before human eyes notice any measurable change.