The Little Things: Jo's Biology Blog

This week I've been thinking about Joni Mitchell (singer-songwriter from 1964 to 2002). I'm sure that she wasn't thinking about algae when she wrote "Big Yellow Taxi," but when we paved paradise and put up a parking lot we drastically altered algal communities, which in turn affected many aquatic and marine ecosystems. Many people I've spoken to about this subject outside of the scientific community have asked me how parking lots on land damage aquatic habitats. While we haven't yet popularized aquatic cars requiring underwater parking lots, paved land indirectly affects aquatic environments by increasing nutrient input through runoff.  Runoff is water that drains into a water system from a surface or area of land. It generally picks up nutrients and pollution on its way to the water. In a natural environment, much of the runoff is absorbed into the soil along with the excess nutrients and pollution. However, large areas of impervious surface area (like p

  An essential part of scientific research is the education and communication of significant findings. This can be especially true for sciences that directly affect the general public. However, there is often a disconnect between what a scientist attempts to convey and how the public interprets the information given. A significant portion of this confusion can be attributed to the way that scientists communicate ideas; the way a scientist speaks and writes is almost its own language, with very different connotations for the same phrasing. In order to remedy this, we must either change the way that scientists speak to the public or better educate the public on scientific terminology.  "Hand Robot Human" by geralt | Pixabay The way that professionals discuss scientific concepts is very specific and careful. One will never hear a seasoned scientist use words like "fact" or "absolute certainty," because their job, by nature, is to explore uncertainty. Our unde