Nerd Nite SD #40!
Dr. Jeremy Long “How to homebrew a marine lab during a lockdown”
My research group started an 8-week experiment at our marine lab on March 6th. Two weeks later, San Diego closed its beaches and banned non-essential travel. Despite what my mom would have you believe; marine biologists are not typically considered “essential employees”. Also, finding basic supplies during this pandemic has been impossible (knows anyone who tried to buy t.p. in March or flour in April). Because I was determined to complete our study, I persuaded SDSU to label me essential, convinced lifeguards and cops to let me collect organisms, and Macgyvered a marine lab in my garage with duct tape, cinder blocks, and baking soda. This is a story about the quest for truth amidst a pandemic.
Bio: I am a marine biologist that has never extracted a golf ball from a whale’s blowhole. I will fight you if you try to convince me that charismatic megafauna are cooler than invertebrates. My unscientific quarantine time includes taking online dancehall and afro-dance classes. Because hip hop influenced my research, the acknowledgement sections of my papers include shout outs to Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and Del tha Funky Homosapien.
Rad CBS8 video about garage science
Check out the Long Lab:
More cool videos about how researchers study the endangered black abalone:
Dr. Jessica Barlow “A Sage Model for Helping to Make the World a Better Place”
I’ll be talking about how science — and all fields — can be applied in an interdisciplinary way to tackle pressing local issues through massively-scaled city-university partnerships. It’s a win-win-win-win for students, instructors, local governments, and communities.
Bio: Jessica is a professor in the School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at San Diego State University (SDSU). She is a linguist by training and her research program addresses why people sound funny by focusing on phonology, language acquisition, and speech sound disorders. Completely unrelated to this, and because she seems to think that she is just not doing enough, Jessica also serves as the executive director of the Center for Regional Sustainability at SDSU, where she oversees programming that addresses social, economic, and environmental challenges of the San Diego-Tijuana region. She also really likes birds.
Watch more about Jessica’s awesome work on local sustainability here:
KPBS story: https://youtu.be/LML7udfSDe4
Work with National City: https://youtu.be/hKr5X6oDFLE
Work with Lemon Grove: https://youtu.be/VWLtFQskjCY
Mural installation in Lemon Grove: https://youtu.be/lfr-6DV_wDU
Kameroun Mares “The Development of Honey Bees, Hives and Genetics”
In my talk, I will be covering the development of honey bees (Apis Mellifera) and their colony structure, touching upon the critical ecological impact of the species, referencing the genetic concerns of the San Diego Beekeeping Society work with western queen breeding.
Kameroun currently majors in Molecular and Cellular Biological Sciences. She is a well-known member of the San Diego Beekeeping Society, being considered a professional Beekeeper in regard to hive removal, re-queening and care. Additionally, she assists with the modernizing of society members, developing a larger online and social presence geared towards the expansion of the society and support for the proper handling and care of bees.
Learn more about the SD Beekeeping Society here: http://www.sandiegobeekeepingsociety.com/
Watch SD Beekeeping Society education videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7iw7raNULEJlAcklfVlh1g
