Drilling an Ice Core in Greenland

As proof of my continuing existence, I would like to post something today. Recently I learned of the The North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling project, the purpose of which is to obtain core samples of ice from the Eemian, an interglacial period that ended over 100 thousand years ago. (I’m having trouble finding out exactly when the Eemian occurred. Any geologists out there?) Anyhow, the point is to reach back in time, with use of ice core samples, and learn more about changes in Earth’s climate. The drilling is scheduled to finish next year, at which point over 2 km of ice core will have been obtained. Sounds like fun!

Reference Reverence

Reference lists are a marvelous study in the art of conveying information clearly. Different ingredients make up reference lists, and each ingredient needs to enter the recipe at the right time and in the right manner. Generally, these ingredients are

• author names,
• date of publication,
• title of publication,
• page number or numbers.

Other embellishments are optional—or required, depending on your taste. These include

• article or chapter title,
• abstract title,
• volume number,
• publisher,
• publisher’s city.

Each element is distinct, so it is important not only that all of them appear but that they appear in a way that sets them apart from each other. Thankfully, we have the usefulness and beauty of punctuation.

Ask an Astrobiologist

Lately I have been visiting Ask an Astrobiologist, a site associated with the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI). Here you can ask questions and have them answered by David Morrison, the Senior Scientist of the NASA Astrobiology Institute. It is interesting, funny, and sad that so many questions have to do with the end of the world: fears that we will perish at the hands of fictional planet Niburu or fictional solar storms or galactic alignment or some make-believe thing in 2012. These are expressions of what Dr. Morrison calls “cosmophobia.” As he says, “When I was growing up, new discoveries in astronomy were a source of pleasure, but now for many people astronomical discoveries are associated with fear” (18 May 2010). So true, and it is so important that we return to that delight in discovery. Also, in a recent post, he gives the amusing and sound advice: “A good rule of thumb is that if anyone predicts the end of the earth, they are lying” (13 August 2010).

Anyhow, cosmophobia aside, I quite like Ask an Astrobiologist. There are some great questions about Mars, Titan, SETI, and life beyond Earth. I hope Dr. Morrison receives more thoughtful questions on such topics.

Science Journal Editing

This week I am preparing to teach a class called Science Journal Editing (WR 410/510) at Portland State University. The class is one of those super-concentrated four-week doses, starting June 21 and running into July. I am looking forward to it but anxious about it: I hope that the students learn a lot and find it satisfying.

I should say that I am co-teaching the class, along with the editor in chief and the managing editor of Astrobiology. Each of us has a valuable perspective; each understands a specific part of the publishing process. So the class will take students through from start to finish: founding a science journal, acting as editor in chief, directing the peer review process, editing for clarity and cadence, and copy editing (my specialty).

How does one teach copy editing? Well, I am about to find out. I would say that copy editing for a science journal is a very structured procedure. I need to stay on track and accomplish certain tasks; there isn’t the time to dawdle or to make things “pretty.” (There is, of course, the need for clarity, precision, and fidelity to the author’s voice—I consider these beautiful, and I strive for them.) Also, I need to accomplish these tasks for eight or more papers every month, so there is a great need for skillful project management.

I consider copy editing to be a more “technical” form of editing. (Technical isn’t quite the word I want, but I cannot think of another.) By this I mean that I concern myself with details such as abbreviations, numbers, units of measurement, variables, equations, tables, figures. Certainly I spend much time on the text; I work with words and their meaning. But I have to insert a space so 0.43nm becomes 0.43 nm. I have to italicize that T for temperature. And many other lovely little things!

Well, this is my life. By the way, there is still room in Science Journal Editing, if you would like to join our band. Science journals are exciting, enlightening, important, and fun.

AbSciCon Part 2: Posters

I am new to this whole science conference thing, so bear with me as I express my surprise: science fair is real. I remember setting up my little tri-fold with its science-sounding title and its Hypothesis, Experiment, Results, Conclusion—all neatly handwritten on notebook paper. I stood nervously next to my display as people wandered around the school gymnasium. Some of them would stop to hear my little spiel about growing plants in the darkness (to see whether or not they would survive) or rolling a pair of dice over and over again (to see if any patterns appeared). Ok, well, I was not so much the brilliant scientist. But I did my time at science fair.

And it’s for real! The Poster Sessions at AbSciCon were science fair for real, with adults and serious people and glorious full-color posters with titles like “Abiological Nitrogen: Formation of Nitrogenated Organic Aerosols in the Titan Upper Atmosphere” and “Tracing Autotrophic and Heterotrophic Influences on Microbialite Formation in Pavilion Lake, BC.” This was a very exciting discovery for me, and I wandered around until my mind was like to burst.

Goodbye

Guenter Wendt passed away this morning; he served NASA for 43 years. He is perhaps best known for his role as pad leader, working on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. Well, NASA describes his career better than I can. They have issued a press release and compiled a photo gallery.

In Portland, Oregon, the Great Northwest Bookstore went down in a blaze on Sunday. I had never been to the bookstore myself, but I have friends who served on internships there or who were otherwise connected with it. More than 100,000 books were destroyed, reports the Los Angeles Times. What a terrible loss.

What is AbSciCon? Part 1: Sessions and Discussions

I returned from the Astrobiology Science Conference with a long list of ideas I would like to write about and share with you, readers. First, I want to provide an overview of the conference. I had never been to AbSciCon—or any science conference—before, so this experience was new and glorious to me. Here is an outline of the conference structure. As always, to learn more please visit the AbSciCon 2010 website, brought to you by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Getting in the mood with the AbSciCon program and a copy of Astrobiology

Sessions
Each morning featured 4–6 different sessions at 8:00 and at 10:30. This was wonderful and…overwhelming! Imagine trying to decide between

• “Energy flow in microbial ecosystems,”
• “Extraterrestrial molecular evolution and prebiological chemistry,”
• “Astrobiology in orbit,”
• “Astrobiology and interdisciplinary communication,” and
• “Science from Río Tinto: an acidic environment.”

All those tempting talks were held at the same time, 10:30 Monday morning! The mind boggles.

Truly, it was wonderful to have so many choices; I could see straightaway the breadth and depth of astrobiology. Evident, also, was that this field of study is growing.

I have returned from AbSciCon

The 2010 Astrobiology Science Conference was a superlative professional and personal experience. I attended AbSciCon with joy and departed from it with sorrow: three dynamic days passed by all too quickly. I met authors, attended presentations, read posters, talked science and publishing, and learned a great deal. Today I am assembling my notes from the conference so that I may write a series of posts about my experience. I also have a few more book reviews in the works.

Oh, AbSciCon, I loved you, and I miss you. 2012 seems so far away.

I am going to AbSciCon!

I am going to AbSciCon! I am going to AbSciCon! I am going to AbSciCon! I am so excited that I can hardly speak or type.

AbSciCon, my friends, is the Astrobiology Science Conference. It is coming up next week, April 26–29. AbSciCon brings together an international community of scientists from a multitude of disciplines; it is the place to hear about new discoveries and insights in astrobiology. And I, a humble, awestruck copy editor, will be there!

What takes me to Houston on such a marvelous mission? I copy edit Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed science journal that studies the origins and existence of life in the Universe. My editor in chief invited me to attend the conference with her. I am delighted for this opportunity to represent my journal. Delighted? I am sitting at my computer, grinning and laughing and thinking of the pure awesomeness of AbSciCon.

Most of all, I am happy (and a wee bit nervous) for the possibility of meeting some of the authors I have worked with. To date, I have edited 24 issues of the journal; that translates into more than 200 scientific papers. Of course, not every author I have corresponded with will be there, but if I can meet even a handful of them and say hello, I will be so very glad.

So, readers, expect a lot of posts about AbSciCon in these next few weeks, because I will be writing about it like crazy.

Recent Discoveries

I have been making all kinds of discoveries recently. Here they are.

Food
A friend and I wandered through Portland’s Pearl District. Oh, the weather was lovely for walking. We happened upon Sweet Masterpiece, a quiet chocolate shop. The proprietor shared with us the most marvelous lemon cream: it had the perfect balance of sweetness and tartness, lightness and richness. I ordered a jasmine and clementine chocolate, an alderwood smoked caramel, and something else with milk chocolate and cinnamon. There were several floral blends, including one with lavender that I ought to have tried. Next time, perhaps.

Thought
I found a blog that is a good blend of irreverent and heartfelt. It is called Write on Through, and it speaks for itself.

Life
The Habitability Primer is online! European astrobiologists and the Astrobiology editorial staff got together and created this special issue of the journal, focused on the search for habitable planets beyond our solar system (exoplanets! see my previous blog post here). This issue represents a significant collaboration and effort, so I am quite pleased to see it online. Would you like to read a paper or two? Go ahead, because right now the entire issue is available for free!

Robots
What can I say about the Robot Astronomy Talk Show? I can say that it is awesome. The Spitzer Space Telescope folks have created a variety of videos under the name IRrelevant Astronomy. You can view the Spitzer Space Telescope Musical, a Spitzer Space Telescope action film featuring Sean Astin, and RATS: the Robot Astronomy Talk Show. RATS is quirky, funny, and educational; it presents hard-core astronomy lessons and space marvels. Recent episodes have featured guests including George Takei, Mark Hamill, and Linda Hamilton. And the episode “Sculpting with Stars” has a copy-editing joke in it.

Why the IR in IRrelevant? Because Spitzer detects infrared radiation, commonly abbreviated IR.

Hooray for discoveries!