From Tracey Holloway:
Hi All –
You’ve probably heard about the study that over 80% of American’s can’t accurately name a living scientist — and my guess is that the numbers are similar when asking “what do scientists actually do?” Of course, we do lots of things – work in labs, go out in the field, teach classes, program computers – but the public doesn’t get to see this.
As a large-scale public outreach initiative, and the first major fundraiser for the Earth Science Women’s Network (ESWN), we’re launching Science-A-Thon. … an international “day of science” where participants share 12 photos over 12 hours of their day. From morning coffee through the ups and downs of a day in the life of a scientists (any scientist, any field of STEM, students, professionals – all are welcome).
We already have 100 scientists signed on – lots of earth scientists of course, but also cancer biologists, computer scientists, and more. Men and women, from 10 different countries so far. We’d love to have you! Just go to scienceathon.org/how to sign up. (And you’ll get a great “I love science” t-shirt)
If you’re not up for showcasing your own day, you can support ESWN and Science-A-Thon by sponsoring your favorite scientists (like me!)
You can donate here, if you are so inclined, any amount is appreciated.
Even if you’re not interested in donating to the cause, I highly recommend checking out the #scienceathon hashtag on Twitter as it’s a great way to get a sense of what a scientist’s day looks like.
Below are my twelve images of the day.
Image 1/12
This is the main University of Zurich building that I passed with the tram this morning on my way to my office. (For those who’ve been reading CT for a while, yes, this is a change, I moved institutions and countries last year.)
Image 3/12
The occasional break is necessary to stay productive. My preferred quick distraction is Ingress. Fortunately, my office sits on a portal (or if I’m lucky, three) so it’s an easy quick break before diving back into work. (For those who speak Pokemon Go better, that translates to two Pokestops.)
Image 4/12
Research is rarely a solitary activity. Here I am meeting with one of my postdocs, Amanda Hunsaker, about researching older adults and Internet use. The beautiful plant in the corner is courtesy of a UZH program that includes someone coming and watering/dusting off/taking care of this marvel.
Image 5/12
I find that a good desktop setup is important for staying on task, this works well for me.
Image 6/12
Lots of research happens through group meetings, this one an advisory board meeting conference call for an important CDC-supported project.
Image 7/12
Touching base with my other postdoc, Marina Micheli, in preparation for a longer meeting tomorrow.
Image 8/12
Went for a walk in the office neighborhood. This piece is next to my building. From one side, it looks like an abandoned log, from the other you realize it’s public art. I’m not sure I would have ever noticed it were it not for the fact that it is a portal in Ingress.
Image 9/12
Science requires training future generations of researchers. Teaching courses, mentoring through research, and in this case grading their papers are ways I contribute to the cause.
Image 10/12
I’m old school when it comes to reading books, paper copies please.
Image 11/12
On my way home, I stopped at one of Zurich’s 1,200 fountains. That is, in fact, the number of fountains in the city. There are many that are quite beautiful. Zurich has the most fountains of any city in the world.
Image 12/12
As my last picture of the day, I share with you a picture of my screen with one of my Instagram accounts, the one with one sky photo a day. I started this photo project over a year ago (I’m on day 452 to be precise). Every day I take a photo of the sky. The sky can be so beautiful and so different. I thought it was worth a moment to pause and take it in every day.
]]>Unconferences are meetings that don’t have a set agenda until participants show up and create one. There is a structure to the timing of sessions, but attendees fill up the grid with whatever topic they deem of interest for a session at the beginning of the in-person meeting. Then participants decide which sessions they want to attend. And if it turns out that they are not enjoying where they are, the law of two feet means that they are welcomed to get up and leave to find another group or activity.
For the past several years, I have had the great pleasure of attending ORDCamp, an unconference held in Chicago in January made up of some extremely creative people (many of whom are from the area, but a good chunk of whom fly in from various parts of the US and beyond, in January to Chicago, yes). ORDCamp is the brainchild of Brian Fitzpatrick (former Googler, more recently founder and CTO of Tock) and Zach Kaplan (founder and CEO of Inventables). Attendance doesn’t cost anything to participants, but it is by invitation only. Google and Inventables have been footing the bill with lots of people and organizations pitching in to provide food, drinks, gadgets to try out, lots of supplies for various sessions, and an embarrassment of riches in the swag bag box.
ORDCamp 2016 was this Fri-Sat and it was the best one yet. About 300 attendees contributed with boundless energy dedicated to sharing passions and interests. I learned about and practiced drawing at a session led by the creator of Darth Vader and Son, Jeffrey Brown and the brains behind Shawnimals, Shawn Smith. I bonded with others who like to send snail mail in a session on “Keeping in touch/Snail mail” by the talented Jenna Blazevich of Vichcraft. I looked down at Chicagoland from space thanks to Google’s augmented reality tools assisted on the spot by Jon Wiley, Director of Immersive Design at Google. I tried out a relatively new party game app and brainstormed about ways to put it out in the App store with its creator Sandy Weisz, a master at games and puzzles. I created a tile with Carvey. I sampled fine chocolates from around the world thanks to the ORDCamp Chocolate Table. And I chatted with lots and lots of interesting people about topics ranging from getting girls excited about engineering to what makes a memorable walk.
I got to discuss existing hobbies and passions with others while learning about new ones. I got to be creative in very energizing ways. Don’t get me wrong, I like many aspects of my work very much, but it is invigorating to dedicate time to different creative undertakings with folks who are experts in and passionate about such a myriad of activities.
I can’t help but think that many people, including and perhaps especially academics, would benefit from such an unconference. These events are not easy to organize, of course. Both the financial costs and logistics are considerable in order to pull off a meeting as expertly as ORDCamp has been doing. But the benefits can be tremendous, to individuals, to organizations and to communities. Such a venue allows for people to find connections with others they did not know existed. It can inspire thinking across domains previously not in conversation. It can help people articulate thoughts and feelings (yes, sessions can be about all sorts of sensitive topics) that do not often have a helpful outlet.
If you have the opportunity to attend an unconference, I highly recommend doing so. But don’t forget, an unconference is very much what participants make it so be sure to bring your enthusiasm, interest, creativity, and passion to the event. Have you ever attended one? I’d love to hear about it.
]]>FIFA’s headquarters greet you with three flags, the middle one proudly proclaiming “My Game is Fair Play.” It’s good that they cleared that up. I was curious to see a sculpture peeking out from behind some trees, but as we tried to enter the FIFA grounds, a security guard stopped us explaining that unless we were children playing in the soccer match nearby or their parents, we could not proceed. Nearby was a guard with a weapon as well, not a common occurrence in Zurich.
The highlight of this area for me was Friedhof Fluntern, a most charming cemetery, if that word is appropriate given the context (as aptly noted by a reviewer on TripAdvisor, “how do you rate a cemetery?”). Given the Swiss context, it is not a huge surprise that the grounds are very orderly. But there is more to it. It feels more like a garden than a cemetery. You can imagine spending time there to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. A colleague even noted that he sometimes goes there to read. The headstones move past the usual venturing into the whimsy and artistic. The cemetery is on a hill, which adds to its character. I enjoyed going from row to row trying to peek into the lives of the people buried there through their names, the dates and notes on the stones, and the little sculptures honoring them. See more of my Friedhof Fluntern photos here.
It was too hot to proceed to the Zoo, but having later read that they have Galapagos giant tortoises, I was bummed by my decision to skip it and will be sure to visit next time I am in town.
To get to Zürichberg, take Tram 6 from Central to Zoo, which is a 2-minute walk heading east from the main train station, which is ten minutes from the airport by train. Zurich offers day tickets for its entire public transportation system. The 24 or 72-hour ZürichCARD can also be very beneficial if you plan to visit numerous attractions.
]]>I admit that it wasn’t a particularly targeted visit on my part. I was in town for a conference and had an afternoon to roam the city. I had been walking for hours (winding my way back from the Thomas Sweet in Georgetown to the Mall) and found myself walking on Independence Ave SW when I spotted signs to the MLK Memorial. Once I saw the signs, I knew I wanted to see it.
I was lucky in the timing of my visit. It was early evening on a weekday, 9/11 to be precise. There was almost no one else around. This made a difference as I found the place perfect for contemplation. I entered from the northwest, which worked well as I appreciated walking through the rocks not knowing exactly what to expect.
After looking at MLK’s figure and taking in the scene of the Jefferson Memorial that is in the statue’s line of sight, I walked from quote to quote and reflected on each, especially given the Ferguson events still fresh in memory. I was able to do all of this almost in solitude. The early evening light added to the mood.
If you can, I recommend visiting early evening or perhaps early morning on a weekday when you may have the place mostly to yourself. Be sure to give yourself time, it wouldn’t have been the same had I felt rushed.
]]>Ingredients
1 medium banana, chopped
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 tbsp dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
Put everything in a blender and voila. (I don’t like my shakes too cold so I skip the ice. Adding a couple of cubes is certainly an option.)
]]>If you want science to deliver for society, through commerce, government or philanthropy, you need to support a capacity to understand that society that is as deep as your capacity to understand the science. And your policy statements need to show that you believe in that necessity.
To many in my world, this is unlikely to be a particularly surprising statement, but one need only glimpse at the comments that follow to appreciate how controversial the idea seems to some.
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
3 medium potatoes, cut into eighths or smaller
4 cloves of garlic, chopped into 8-10 pieces each
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 tbps chives, finely-chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1 apple, chopped into small/medium pieces
1/4 tsp basil
2 tsp salt
Directions
1. Boil potatoes (add 1 tsp salt)
2. In a pan on medium heat, pour in the olive oil, add the mushrooms and garlic, top with the chives, basil and remaining 1 tsp salt. Cover, but do stir occasionally (with the cover lifted;).
3. A few minutes later, add in half a cup of white wine. Keep stirring. Add in the potatoes. Stir some more, put cover back on for a few minutes. Add the apples, continue stirring.
4. When the potatoes are starting to get brown on the edges, remove from stove.
The above-linked recipe calls for four eggs, which I knew I would not consume. I also didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand (like zucchini). Having read the reviews on AllRecipes.com for that dish, it became clear that you could get creative and still end up with a good result. Below is how I prepared the dish, it was delicious and a nice hearty breakfast to get my week started off on the right foot.
Shakshuka for one
1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped grape tomatoes
2 eggs
a pinch of Hungarian paprika
a pinch of smoked paprika
a pinch of herbes de Provences
a pinch of salt
Directions
1. Pour the oil in a pan and add the garlic plus onions. Stir for a few minutes until the onions are beginning to get translucent. At that point, add the chopped tomatoes and the spices. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
2. Create two little craters in the sauce to make room for the eggs (see picturse below). Since you don’t have that much sauce, this may require moving some of the mixture around. Add one egg to one crater., the other egg to the other crater. Do not mix. Cover and cook until the eggs reach desired consistency. Serve with bread. I also added some Parmesan once served.
This dish calls for a whole head of garlic. Even though I only used half the amount of chicken suggested, I still used a head of garlic, which met my need for lots of garlic. I had neither fresh parsley nor fresh rosemary so I replaced those with crushed rosemary, ground thyme, and a seasoning blend. I used chicken breasts instead of thighs. I happened to have a bottle of opened white wine, Oracle of the Wind Sauvignon Blanc 2010. The recipe calls for any white wine that you like, but since I don’t car for any white wine I just went with some leftover wine from a party. This worked well for the dish.
To complement the chicken, I made some salad: mix of baby spinach, red and green chard, and kale, mushrooms, and grape tomatoes, all diced. For the salad dressing, I mixed nonfat Greek yogurt with sunflower honey and a bit of vinegar.
While eating all this, I ended up cutting up the chicken as well as the whole cloves of garlic into small pieces. It occurred to me that this would all work well as a hearty salad. That’s probably how I will have the leftovers.
To recap, here is my version of the garlic sauce chicken recipe:
1 lb chicken breasts
1 head of garlic, cloves peeled, separated
1.5 tbsp olive oil
1 cup white wine
1/3 tsp chopped rosemary
1/4 tsp ground thyme
1/2 tsp no-salt seasoning blend
salt and pepper to taste
Then follow what’s in the original.
]]>I like garlic and I’m also convinced that it has health benefits. I’d like to make fresh garlic a regular part of my diet. I realized that I’m not traveling at all in January so I will have more say in what I eat than is often the case when I travel. Thus my 31 Days of Garlic challenge was born. I’m fine with repeating approaches, but I’d also like to spice things up a bit (sorry). Will you help me? Do you have some favorite dishes that include fresh garlic or that could include fresh garlic? I’m especially interested in relatively quick and easy recipes (lots of work things coming up in the next few weeks) and ones that don’t involve an oven (as mine needs repair). But I’ll have some downtime as well so don’t hesitate to share trickier ideas.
On the 1st of the year, as is the Hungarian tradition (shared by other cultures), I made lentil soup for good luck. I don’t usually include garlic, but I did press a clove into it and it worked well. The pictured soup is missing a usual ingredient, carrots. I didn’t have any at home, but sauteing some onions, adding various spices, adding the clove of garlic and some sausage resulted in a very yummy dish.
On the 2nd, I added a pressed garlic clove to my tea. It’s a palatable way to have it, certainly the quickest way I know to include it in my diet. A teaspoon of honey is also an important component of that mixture. The particular tea I have on the image is especially good for soothing the throat (or so I was told by someone who works in theater and I’ve found the recommendation helpful).
On the 3rd, I added it to an omelette. The omelette also included onions, fresh mushrooms, rosemary ham and shredded Parmesan. I had it with grape tomatoes, farmer’s cheese and this delicious cornbread. (I highly recommend that cornbread recipe, but I do suggest cutting all ingredients in half as it results in more cornbread than you’ll know what to do with unless you’re serving at least a dozen people.)
What should be next for my 31 Days of Garlic challenge?
I’ll be posting pictures of the dishes/drinks on my Instagram.
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