by Melissae Fellet | May 20, 2011 | Posts
Last fall, our class visited the sea otter researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Sandeep summarized many neat tidbits about otters from that trip on this blog. Two items that really piqued my interest involved otter mortality. In California, many otters die from...
by Melissae Fellet | Feb 26, 2011 | Posts
Where there are science writers, there’s schmoozing. And parties during the AAAS meeting last week elevated the evening social gathering to a new standard of sophistication. One event, at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C., featured fancy finger food and...
by Melissae Fellet | Feb 4, 2011 | Posts
The Santa Cruz Baroque festival features a glass harmonica player in a February 12th concert. We’ve all rubbed a wet finger around the rim of a goblet just to hear it hum. This instrument works on the same principle. Many bowls, each tuned to a precise note, are...
by Melissae Fellet | Dec 4, 2010 | Posts
Early in the quarter, I wrote that becoming a writer felt like learning how to swim. Now, after two months of daily lessons, I’ve taken off my water wings and I’m happily paddling around. An experience this week showed me that I can still swim even if...
by Melissae Fellet | Nov 26, 2010 | Posts
We went on a class outing to the Santa Cruz Harbor last week. Our goal: Find crab fishermen and learn about their catch during the first two weeks of crab season. Biggie, a friendly sport fisherman in the bait shop, declared himself our teacher and gave us a lesson...
by Melissae Fellet | Nov 16, 2010 | Posts
I watched a fantastic Nature special on PBS this week about wolverines. I always thought of these critters as small bears with exceptionally angry attitudes. But they’re actually quite fascinating. First off, the wolverine is a weasel, not a bear. They’ll...
by Melissae Fellet | Nov 11, 2010 | Posts
Full disclosure: I’m a dog person. (So is Sascha.) I love their exuberance. Excessive tail wags radiate into full body wiggles. At dinnertime, table manners are optional as they snarf their food. And then there are cats. From my cat-ownership experience,...
by Melissae Fellet | Nov 6, 2010 | Posts
…or else these would have been the lyrics to “Strangers in the Night.” [soundcloud width=”100%” height=”81″ params=”amp” url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/6750267?secret_token=s-7x3Nz”] The opening...
by Melissae Fellet | Oct 28, 2010 | Posts
During our class field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we learned about the aquarium’s Sea Otter Research and Conservation Program (SORAC). I loved spending time with the researchers watching wild otters hang out in the kelp forest in the bay. But what I was...
by Melissae Fellet | Oct 20, 2010 | Posts
Over the past two weeks, we’ve all shared our experiences as we shed our previous lives as scientists and let our writer-ness out to run free. For me, this video pretty much sums it all up. For reference: baby otter = Melissae...
by Melissae Fellet | Oct 14, 2010 | Posts
Look out, Interwebs. The SciCom slugs are coming to a social network near you. By the end of the quarter, we have to commit an act of journalism using social media. My limited attempts to build an online community were not too successful, so I’m dubious about...
by Melissae Fellet | Oct 9, 2010 | Posts
A quick Twitter break on Wednesday uncovered an issue I’m still thinking about today. Earlier this week, Ira Flatow, host of NPR’s Science Friday, issued a statement that the program is having funding trouble. The news spread through a Huffington Post...
