How you can tell you're ready for grad school life

This is another list-like thing I thought of in the middle of the night (technically the morning (started 1:54 AM)) because I was feeling lazy about going to sleep (Yeah, I know (it's actually a problem).

You're ready to be a graduate student when...
- you're asking questions that are difficult to answer just looking at the literature
- you want someone else to wash the labware
- you want an undergraduate to do basic tasks

Holiday talk 1

Should we celebrate Black History Month?

In the past, it was beneficial to have divisions between groups; your neighbor group might want to kill you to take your resources (land livestock etc.). That's not the case anymore. People nowadays understand the value in working together whether it be in ranks at the workplace or overseas. History, by its nature, is divisive (due to authors' and interpreters' biases). It doesn't need us to tack more labels to it. I would advocate the months be split up by academic discipline; History month, Math month, Chemistry month, Agriculture month. etc. That way, we'd shape students and citizenry to be more well-rounded scholar-citizens.

Visiting the Prarie

I missed the Cates Farm trip one week. Our grassland ecology class went out to the Cates Farm (located in Spring Green, WI) to see how a well-informed farmer practices agriculture. I was at a conference to learn how t write effective statements of purpose and personal statements for graduate school. Instead, I recently went to te BioCore prairie to see a reclamation from agriculture to prairie.

The prairie stood out from it's surroundings. I was a bit awestruck when I came around it, I saw a beautiful blend of golden brown greens and deep shades of browns. The wind brushed the stand to the left, and let them stand tall. I approached. At the periphery, I peered into an ecosystem far different than the tree-dense one I was previously in. From afar, it seemed quaint, but as the field of view shrunk, the prairie seemed more lively and immense.

Tallgrass prairie isn't just a catchy name; the plants are genuinely tall. I felt strange calling them foliage as it [foliage] has a connotation of being small. The grasses towered above dominating the canopy, they don't choke the underbrush for light but effectively dominate 3D space. One level down, another plant takes the reigns but in terms of surface area on the ground. Lower to the ground is where the serious cover comes into effect.

Once I've witnessed the tallgrass prairie, I used to wonder hat zero percent soil erosion would come from. I've had a hard time imagining the combination of best management practices (BMPs) that would contribute to that T value. I feel I have some serious work to do when it comes to reducing erosion on agricultural systems. The tallgrass prairie is an excellent example of what I want to strive for. The best part is that it is consistent with what the literature suggests. The land cover is dense, and there is no bare ground. The soil is shielded from direct raindrop impact as well as having air flow to the soil surface which would facilitate in infiltration. the slower flow an extreme reduction in surface sealing made the system one to behold.

The soil scientist in me wanted to break out the spade and take a quick sample from the site, but I had a feeling I would know what I'd find. Under the dense vegetation, would be a molic epipedon, forged by carbon inputs and the occasional fire.

I peered under the tightly woven sheet of grasses to see if I could see ant traces of a recent fire. There were no traces visible. What I did find was a damp soil even though it hadn't rained for days. The low-lying grasses prevented water loss from the system. I couldn't help bit remember similar situations in no-till agriculture were plants grew slower due to the colder ground temperature. The grasses here were doing fine. Perhaps there is something missing in the cropping system that would make it more effective for the plants.

The man

Science in mapping and mapping in science

          Wanna get from the Minneapolis to the Big Apple? There’s a map for that. How about finding your way to class on the first day on campus at your new university? There’s probably a map for that. If you’ve had a question that dabbled in space or time or just wanted to see a cool version of your country, there may be a map for that too.

          Maps keep their information neatly packaged in symbols, colors and rely on the viewer to unpack the meaning. Now it seems like anyone can make a map and most anyone can but it takes technique to make a compelling one. There are horrid maps churned out by media outlets effectively skewing the truth. We love the chic ones, on full-color glossy National Geographic pages and still turn back to the amateur monochromatic ones on the pages of our old pal Wikipedia. But what makes those really good maps so good? The answer is "lies."

          Maps tell lies? Of course they do.

          We won't go as far as the BuzzFeed Motion picture staff when they posted Maps that Prove That You Don't Really Know Earth, but keep in mind that all maps do abstract reality. 

          Dr. Robert Roth mentions that concept on the first day of every Introduction to Cartography course he teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The cartographic problematic, as he calls it, is that in the process of externalizing geographic knowledge into a single representation, abstractions are made and ultimately, information is lost. He proposes that the only way to get over that is to have more interactive maps. Those maps rely on the user to uncover the missing information and use the abstraction to its fullest extent to obtain valuable information.

          Maps tend to work because we tend to work. Roth says like language, maps are social constructs. Our ability to see is effectively innate. “Good maps take advantage of the eye-brain process.”

          What better way to communicate by using concepts that we already understand. Red tends to mean danger, bad or at risk while green tends to mean safe, good or healthy. Most of the faculty we use to interpret maps are reinforced in our everyday experience. Cartographers, map-makers put these associations to work.

          Maps are still authored; "Google maps didn't just appear," says Roth. People and their biases are integral in making maps effective. In the great age of data, cartographers are more important than ever. If people trained solely in geographic information systems (GIS) were our map makers, we might have maps too complex, too data heavy for efficient use. The people that made the incredible interactive Google Maps have an agenda. Dr. Roth cleverly points out "it's not objective, it's a purposefully designed map that helps you spend your money." While you are planning your commute, it is quite easy to spot restaurants, and boutiques. You've gotta admit, that's one clever disguise.

          Luckily every author doesn't tell a story to get you to buy the latest gadget or chic sweater. Some try to pass on information that you or the author thinks is valuable. Take the presidential election for example. In the end, all that people care about is the party in power. Think of the ways that the public symbolizes the opposing parties.

...

          The donkey and elephant are popular choices. I bet you haven't seen a map with pictures of the mascots covering the state that the party got. Too many lines would create illusions of new geographies when iterated for each of the fifty states in the USA so we default to red and blue. But why are those red and blue maps so obnoxious? Turn out that our eyes see different colors with differently. Cones in our eyes are packed tightly for reds giving great resolution while cones that detect blues are spread out. It's like looking left and right at the same time. There's some strain going on. Good cartographers will consider their audience and not use such harsh color combinations or will use different versions of the classic colors especially when their work would be shown on something that functions by emitting light.

Painful experience

Pleasant experience

          Scientists also have a part in the cartography business. Soil scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Alfred Hartemink Ph.D. wraps his job succinctly saying "different people want to know different things and what we need to do is make sure we provide that information. Sounds simple but it’s a bit complex."

          There are two kinds of spatial data, discrete and continuous. Discrete phenomena occur at specific points in space while continuous phenomena occur throughout the plane of space. Cows are discrete. Soils are continuous. In industries that revolve around precision and placing things in discrete locations, Hartemink says that there's another dimension that needs to be made available and thus is boldly stamped on his works. Every statement these maps make has a guarantee; "all the mapping we attach a level of accuracy, or if you like, uncertainty."

          So the lies are back! But this time, it's more like risk. Researchers and practitioners alike rely on data big-time to make decisions. We simultaneously know that's it's impossible to know some properties for certain. Scientists that map, note their degree of accuracy on their works so others know how much trust to put in the findings. We have a have a good deal of data, but we know somewhat less about how that data is spread out across space. "The probability [that we're correct] is largely dependent on how many samples you have or how much field work you did," says Hartemink. Knowing that, half of his time is spent in the field collecting data and ground-truthing or validating his claims. "We don't just do mapping, we do soil science."

          Dr. Hartemink advises those thinking of going into cartography to "work on the uncertainty, on the accuracy because most people doing mapping aren't addressing it." 

          Scientists know that there's a degree of accuracy in everything they do and the public doesn't take well to terms of uncertainty. People take it as a license not to trust science when the word uncertainty is uttered. The information broker is simply saying is that there may be more to the story than what you see in this representation or the other variables weren’t necessary to get the point across. Dr. Roth addresses the cartographic problematic in all of his works but for those static maps one may still ask things like...

"Why does it only show three cities?" and the reply could be "Well, that’s all that’s relevant to the statement." After all, he’s pretty sure you don’t want to see the other hundred he’s excluded so you could get the message.

Opposable thumbs

After that volleyball game on the 12th, My thumb was hurt and a bit swollen. During that time, I learned how important our opposable thumbs are to us and our lifestyle.

Things that were hard
Opening doors
- Doors with knobs
- Doors with push thingies
Opening jars and bottles
Fastening my tsuba on my shinai
Writing (because I'm a student (at the time I'm writing this post)
- Taking notes
- Drawing cross-sections of plants
Eating with chopsticks
Carrying shopping bags.
Chopping "vegetables" (do I need to go into a whole list of my cooking woes?)
cutting fruit (mainly oranges (because who cuts apples and pears?))
Opening microwave popcorn bags
Opening bananas


the list goes on...

Bringing Science to the Buzz

Dan Vergano makes a leap and subsequent splash.

[Shilvio] D. Linton

Student in LSC 212

          Dan Vergano has really moved up in life. From his days researching for PBS to a senior writer-editor with National Geographic Society. Now comes the next big step in his career with BuzzFeed. Whaa?

          Vergano says he hasn't really changed jobs he’s just changed his target audience to the generation obsessed with the internet. Citing the decline of the physical media, Vergano is just getting the cool science news to the generation that may never pick up a magazine.

          He still tells sensational science stories, but he wasn't in the business of looking for a nugget of science he wanted to impart tohis audience that day. It’s not hard to imagine; “every story in the modern world has science behind it.”

          It wasn’t clear as to why he left National Geographic (my science writing instructor’s dream job) and something I’m suspicious of. One thing is certain, Vergano deeply respects digital interfaces. They allow readers to effectively pass on things that would be newsworthy and adds another layer of trust. Who do you believe more? Advertisers sticking something in your face or your aunt Minnie who passes an article to you via social media?

For the record, I do trust my Aunt Minnie.

          Regardless of why he’s left the big daddy of science writing, Vergano hasn’t retired his journalistic ethics. He’s still practicing investigative reporting with a high degree of professionalism, whether it be exposing Exxon Mobil at the root of climate naysayers or checking out the plausibility of force fields on Humvees.

Vergano expertly closed the question answer section by mentioning he had BuzzFeed stickers.

This man is experienced.