Recommended reads #84

Are you familiar with the work of the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group? I applaud their dedication and excellence in chronicling the diversity and natural history of this unappreciated yet widespread taxon. This is where the line between science and art is invisible.

“Women are woven deeply into the history of science, stretching back to ancient Egypt, over 4,000 years ago. But because their contributions often go unacknowledged, they fade into obscurity—and the threads of their influence today aren’t as apparent as they ought to be.” I’d like to call this one early: We’ll be looking back at Dr. Emily Temple-Wood as the person who rewrote the history of scientific discovery.

Racism in the research lab. This post, from two scientists from prestigious institutions, is important.

Why Fotini Markopoulou traded quantum gravity for industrial design. 

Against sustainability. Like theoretical physics, biological conservation and ecosystem services rely heavily on philosophy to determine and understand precisely what our objectives are and why we have made these decisions.

The myth of the nontraditional student.

A new report from the Brookings Institution argues – with lots of data – that state support of public universities does not favor the wealthy enrolled students. They argue that funding to wealthy and low-income students is roughly equivalent. I think someone might want to have a chat with them about the difference between equality and equity. It’s funny the arguments that you can make with many words and numbers, that just don’t make sense when you consider actual human beings.

Specious and inadequately substantiated charges of misconduct are being used to railroad a researcher at the National Museum of Natural History. If you read this whole article, which is not short, I imagine you’ll be feeling some outrage. Let’s hope that external scrutiny in this circumstance can help the NMNH do the right thing.

[Hope Jahren’s] Father’s Hackberry Tree. It’s okay if you cry a little, like I did in seat 23A of flight UA 867.

Science communication is not new.

13 lessons I wish someone had taught me before I became an academic administrator. As listicles go, this one’s pretty good.

Testing what you’re teaching without teaching to the test. This is from the perennialy excellent Faculty Focus site, which is mostly targeted at professors who are comfortable with the most common edu-jargon and how education experts talk about education.

We are not all scientists for the same reason. And that’s wonderful:

That’s why you came to grad school?

You bet your ass it is.

“Easy change could improve college racial equity.” This headline comes from the pages of the San Diego Union Tribune, which are reliably odious but occasionally will publish reasonable viewpoints (such as this one) to provide a false veil of balance. I do think the title, though, misrepresents the definition of easy.

“Hey, you’ve got a little racism in your teeth.” (This comes from the site Nonprofit With Balls — once you see it, you’ll want to share with all of your friends in nonprofits, in the off chance they’re not familiar with it.)

This is a cogent argument for sending more undergraduates to graduate school.

I hope you have a great weekend! I’m putting this together as I’m heading home from 3.5 days at the annual Ecological Society of America meeting, which was a wonderful time to get to meet some Small Pond readers. For those of you who took the time to say nice things about the time, I really appreciate it. (And for those of you who withheld from saying mean things, I appreciate it too!)