Man-made climate change has been described by scientists and policymakers as one of the greatest challenges of our time. It has also been called a hoax by fossil fuel industry lobbyists and oil-state politicians. The fact is that human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels and the release of carbon into the atmosphere and oceans, is warming our planet. This has both short- and long-term ramifications for economic, political, ecological, and social structure. No amount of denial will stop that, only action to reduce carbon emissions.
The Dake Page has been reporting on science issues for many years and recently began a series exposing climate denialism. The goal is to discuss the tactics and tall tales of those who deny the science of climate change. Links to The Dake Page will be periodically posted on this Science Traveler site for those who are interested.
The first in the current series relates to an internet communication campaign by a website called Skeptical Science, and the resulting “rebuttal” by climate science deniers. Others in the series can be found at this search term: exposing climate denialism. Earlier posts on The Dake Page are also relevant to the discussion.
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One year ago today I left behind the first half of my life. After more than 30 years as a working scientist I had decided to give up a comfortable salary for a life of (essentially) no income. I would become a poor starving writer.
It was the best decision I ever made.
I loved my previous life. Well, most of it. But the parts I didn’t like had grown in proportion to the parts that excited me. Using my skills, my knowledge, and my personal connections with colleagues and clients, I made a large amount of money – for others. Sure, my salary was nice enough, but increasingly the benefits of my labor went to others, and those others seemed decreasingly appreciative of that fact. Abraham Lincoln’s line from his Second Inaugural Address about “wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces” kept popping into mind. Not a perfect analogy, but close enough.
I learned a lot during all those years – about science, about business, about people. I also learned that science is often trumped by business concerns and people’s perceptions. I felt there was a growing need to communicate science to the public, and that scientists weren’t always very good at meeting that need. I decided to do something about that.
Coincident with this desire was some serendipity that led to publication of my first professional book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. As the old saw grinds, “the stars aligned, angels’ voices rang down from the heavens” and all that not-so-scientifically-accurate metaphorical interlude. In real terms, stuff fell into place and it became clear this was the time to take the risk. So I did.
So where am I this one year later? I’ve traveled a bit, though not as much as I would have liked. One highlight of 2014 is an amazing trip to Argentina, with several smaller and more local trips throughout the year. I’ll squeeze in a few more jaunts before New Year’s and am busy planning for 2015 (Peru? China? Rushmore?). Science Traveling will play an increasingly important role in my future.
I’m also writing. Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity was back in Barnes and Noble stores mid-summer and was selling faster than it did last year (in fact, sales in the first 6 weeks already nearly matched all last year). To this I added a second book, an e-book exclusive to Amazon called Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time. More books are in the works, including my opus on Abraham Lincoln’s interest in science. Add in some manuscript editing, magazine articles, newsletter writing, and even some grant requests (plus my blogs, which I’ll reveal more about later), and yes, I’ve been keeping incredibly busy. All in an effort to bring science to the public – to make science fun again.
Finally, as I wind down my final year of the presidential cycle for the regional SETAC Chapter, I begin my first year in a leadership role with the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia. As the director of outreach and education for LGDC I’m working with an engaged group of Lincoln scholars and aficionados to celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln and ignite a new generation of interest. His “science geekiness” bridges my lifelong interest in Lincoln with my lifelong career in science. A perfect prelude to my forthcoming book. 🙂
I can confidently acknowledge that it’s a very happy anniversary indeed. The first of many.
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It’s a busy week of writing – I’m working on articles for the Lincoln Group of DC newsletter, for Tesla Magazine, and for the Smithsonian Civil War Studies website. Amidst all of this I’m out science traveling. More on that in the future. Which gets me to a quick visit in Ipswich.
I previewed my most recent trip to my hometown in Massachusetts in this article. More articles are here (click and scroll down). The talk on Nikola Tesla I gave at the Ipswich Museum is here.
Ipswich is the “Birthplace of American Independence,” the home of the famous Ipswich clam (aka, steamers), the Clam Box, Crane Beach, and “The Castle.” It’s also home to more first period houses than any other place in the United States. In short, it’s pretty cool.
Some of the more famous houses include the Whipple House:
The John Heard House (now home to the Ipswich Museum), typical of the wealthier folks in town:
Directly across the street from the Heard House is a reconstruction of a simple timber frame structure called the Alexander Knight House, circa 1657. This was the kind of house that most families lived in during early Ipswich days (incorporated 1634):
And then there is this yellow house. I actually don’t know much about it even though it has stood on this prominent rise overlooking the main downtown area for my entire life. I’ll dig up more information for a later post.
There is much more to Ipswich than these glimpses. I’ll write more later but for starters you can check out the Stories from Ipswich blog by Historian Gordon Harris.
Sandy Hook has survived major fires, budget cuts, and neglect. To that list of afflictions can now be added its namesake, Hurricane (aka, Superstorm) Sandy. On my most recent trip I stopped off at one of my old haunts, the Sandy Hook Laboratory in New Jersey. I worked there as a young marine biologist many years ago, so this visit was, in a sense at least, both science traveling and time traveling.
Officially known as the James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory at Sandy Hook, the lab is a facility of the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A devastating fire destroyed my building when I was there, necessitating my move on to another job. Eventually, after many years, a new laboratory building arose. It was that lab that I visited.
My first stop, however, was in Union Beach, NJ. I had owned a house there in a previous life, and it was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. Recently a half-destroyed yellow house has become an iconic image of Sandy – that house was down the street from mine. It no longer exists. In fact, very little of that row of houses and restaurants survived Sandy. Some are slowly being rebuilt; others remain just reminders of what used to be.
Further down the road is a hook of sand called, appropriately enough, Sandy Hook. I wrote about my fragrant memories of the Hook in a creative writing piece named “The Scents of Sandy Hook.” Additional background on the piece and the Hook (plus a throwback photo of me imitating Jacques Cousteau) can be read in this previous Science Traveler article.
Long ago Sandy Hook was an Army hospital, and the Officers Row, now in depressing disrepair, still lines the bayside road (see photo above). The old hospital was turned into the fisheries laboratory; the one that was burned to the ground in a sad case of arson that deserves its own story some day. If you look at the chimney on the second house to the right in the photo above you’ll see an osprey nest. Several of the old, abandoned yellow brick houses now serve as stands for these magnificent birds. I caught sight of one of a pair flying off below.
Because of the historical value of the site, the new laboratory externally mimics the same yellow brick style. The inside largely mimics the old lab design that I spent so many memorable days maintaining.
The centerpiece, then and now, is a 32,000 gallon concrete tank used for behavioral studies. When I was there we mainly used it for studying bluefish (made famous by Hiroshima author John Hersey’s book, Blues). An old colleague of mine from that era, now Branch Chief, said that the tank is now used for Black Sea Bass research. She also showed me some of the other facilities, including the ocean acidification lab where the effects of climate change on spawning and behavior are studied.
Scientists are also studying metabolism and digestion in monkfish, known to many as frogfish or goosefish (photo below). Wholly unattractive to look at, these are anglers – they dangle a “lure” from the tops of their heads to attract dinner to their large mouths. These fish are themselves becoming more important as dinner for humans as they increase in commercial catches. This shift in species is a concern for fisheries managers, hence the research focus.
It was great to have my old friend Beth give me an inside tour of the facilities, something most casual visitors would not be able to do. At the same time it was sad to see that many of the buildings on the Hook are not being maintained due to lack of interest and financing by the federal or state governments that control the site. The fisheries research being carried on at the lab has taken a severe funding hit to the point where the staff has shrunk in recent years from over 60 to only 27 people. The short-sightedness of legislators and Governors is simply irresponsible given that it is this kind of scientific research that provides the critical information necessary to make informed, wise decisions that affect us all every single day.
David J. Kent is an avid traveler and the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies at Barnes and Noble bookstores, as well as online at B&N.com and Amazon.com.
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I hope everyone had a great 4th of July holiday. I’ve been doing a little science traveling, mostly without internet access. But I did stop off at Sandy Hook to see the marine lab I worked at many years ago.
The 32,000 gallon aquarium has been recreated (the lab burned to the ground when I was there and was rebuilt). I’ll talk more about this in the future.
A bit rainy but managed to get in the Independence Day parade in Manchester-by-the-Sea.
And the beautiful weather at the Ipswich River. Tomorrow I give my Tesla presentation at the Ipswich Museum if you’re in town at noon.
I’ll have more once I have internet access.
Science traveling is a big part of this website. I’ve written on various trips taken to date, always with some sense of the science surrounding the majesty of the locations. And there is much more to come. I’m sure Nikola Tesla and Abraham Lincoln, both science travelers themselves, will be along for the ride. With this post I’ll introduce the Scents of Sandy Hook, along with a new writing endeavor.
The Scents of Sandy Hook is a short memoir-ish piece writing in response to a writer’s prompt. You can read it on my new creative writing blog, which I call Hot White Snow.
As you can see, the Hot White Snow site is specifically for short pieces of fictional, creative, and experimental writing, including responses to writing prompts. Heck, there is even a prose poem, a preview into some other poetry writing I’ve done and will do. The name of the site comes from the first piece I posted. Indeed, the very existence of the site is the result of requests from other writers to publish more of my creative writing side. Since this Science Traveler site focuses on non-fiction works related to Tesla, Lincoln, Aquariums, and of course, Science Traveling, creating a new site for fictional and memoir work was the obvious choice. I hope you like it.
Tagging flounder off Sandy Hook (me, in disguise)
Getting back to The Scents of Sandy Hook for a moment, let me give some background. In college I studied to become a marine biologist. I was a huge fan of Jacques Cousteau, having watched all his television programs as I was growing up. Soon after graduation I worked two summers at the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) laboratory in Oxford, Maryland. After the second summer I got a full-time job with NMFS at the Sandy Hook laboratory in New Jersey. I was there for 2-1/2 years, leaving only after arson had destroyed the laboratory building housing all of the fish tanks used in our research, thus putting my continuing job prospects into limbo.
Now, all these years later (I won’t admit to how many), I’ll be dropping by Sandy Hook on my way to see the family for the holidays. I’ll get a tour of the new laboratory facility, which largely recreates the systems we had back in the day. Even more fortunate, the tour will be given by a colleague who was a co-worker at the time and is now the director of my former department at the lab. It was anticipation of this trip in which The Scents of Sandy Hook was born.
So if you’re interested in creative writing, check out Hot White Snow. For a science traveling follow up to my Sandy Hook visit, come right back here to Science Traveler.
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Here on Science Traveler I cover three main topics – Nikola Tesla, Abraham Lincoln, and Science Traveling. It’s been a busy few months so far this year, and the rest of the year is shaping up to be even busier. Here are some quick updates on what to expect.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
I’ve recently become the Coordinator for Outreach and Education for the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia. In that role next week I’ll meet with key people from the infamous Ford’s Theater to evaluate any common goals and activities. I’ll also be working with the Lincoln Group President and Board to develop a program to better integrate with other Lincoln groups, scholars, and the public.
I expect to make great strides on my own Abraham Lincoln book this year, as well as a new Lincoln book project I’ll talk more about later. Meanwhile, the Lincoln Group book club is wrapping up our discussion of Herndon’s Lincoln and will decide shortly on what book we’ll tackle next.
I also had the privilege of joining Lincoln Group member and National Archives researcher Rodney Ross for a Civil War event at the exclusive Cosmos Club in Washington DC. The coordinator of that event even asked me to be a speaker on my book topic next year. That makes four or five requests for speaking engagements already being lined up for when the book comes out.
Nikola Tesla
Tesla world has been equally busy. I continue to work on the Tesla and Renewable Energy ebook I expect to release in June. The ebook format will keep the cost low and allow reaching out to the large number of people who haven’t yet discovered the great inventor. Meanwhile, the second printing of my Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity book is scheduled to be in Barnes and Noble book stores in time for Tesla’s birthday in July.
I’ll be giving a presentation on Nikola Tesla at the Ipswich Museum on July 7th, and expect to be part of the Tesla Days events in Philadelphia on July 9th. I also expect to be doing presentations and book signings in July and August once the second printing is in the stores. I’m eager to include a west coast trip on the schedule.
One exciting project is the development of a curriculum to teach about Nikola Tesla in schools. The Tesla Science Foundation has been working with Ashley Redfearn Neswick at the Tacony Academy Charter School, and there is potential for using my Tesla book as part of that curriculum.
Science Traveling
I’ve been documenting on these pages some of the highlights of my February 2014 trip to Patagonia, Argentina. I’ll have more on other trips I’ve taken in the past as well. But the next few months could get very busy with new science travel.
I’m planning a trip out to Chicago/Springfield sometime in May or June. The main purpose is to visit and do some research at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, but I’ll take advantage of the trip to also see the exhibits (including Tesla) from the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, as well as check out other Lincoln sites. In November I’m expecting to go to the Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg, PA.
July will be a trip home to New England to visit family, as well as a possible Tesla book tour to the west coast. The end of August should find me in the fjords of Norway, plus trains through Sweden and Denmark. The fall, in addition to Gettysburg, may take me to Vancouver and, hopefully, India. By Christmas I’ll be ready to curl up under the Yule log.
One more thing I initially forgot to mention: I’ll be giving a presentation on Monday, April 28th at the CPRC 2014 Annual Meeting. My topic is “Remembering the Big Picture: Communicating Local Science to a Global Audience.”
David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies at Barnes and Noble bookstores, as well as online at B&N.com and Amazon.com.
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I’ve recently returned from a science traveling expedition to Argentina. The trip was an incredible experience and I’ll be writing about it more here and elsewhere over the weeks. You can already read about drinking mate and other highlights beginning here (scroll for more).
The trip was a long time coming. I first met my friend Pablo in Connecticut in 1980, where we joined a dozen other students for a semester at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research. We’ve been friends ever since despite the distance, and he’s been inviting me to visit him in his native Argentina for many (many) years. This year I finally did it.
After two flights and more than 14 hours in the air, Ru and I arrived in Buenos Aires, the first time south of the equator for either of us. We would go a lot further south before we were finished, but first there was two rainy days in the capital. Buenos Aires is more European than South American, and seemed to want to copy other cities more than innovate. Then the real trip began. We flew to Bariloche. [Hover over each stop in the map below, and click on the arrow button to follow the travel route.]
Bariloche, to be exact, is San Carlos de Bariloche, in Rio Negro Province, the northernmost part of Patagonia. Pablo has been a Professor at the National University there for the last 25 years, where he is Director of the fisheries resources group. We arrived in the late morning of an extremely windy day in late-summer, a refreshing change from the long, cold, snowy winter of February back home. One night to relax, then off to begin a road trip that would end up being over 3500 kilometers.
I’ll talk more about them in future posts, but Bariloche and environs boasts two amazing geological features – mountains and lakes. The views were extraordinary. And yet, they were only a preamble to what we were about to experience.
Bariloche – Nahuel Huapi Lake
With short stops in the scenic towns of El Bolson (“the best ice cream in the world”) and Esquel, we drove some of the most inhospitable “roads” in Argentina. Called a highway, much of Ruta 40 is actually a long gravel road. Long as in we drove a couple of hundred kilometers on piles of rocks in which tracks were our only guide. Pablo’s previous explanation that he, like most Patagonians, had installed metal plates on the underside of his SUV, suddenly became all too rational. Besides the constant clanging of rocks, the road would often detour into oblivion. It reminded me how whiny we Americans can be over a few potholes. Perspective is everything.
In any case, we finally arrived at Los Antiguos after midnight, then couldn’t find our lodgings. Eventually the owner came to get us and we settled in for a short, but comfortable, rest before our next day’s adventure. After much awe at the surrounding mountains and lakes we headed over to the amazing colors of the rocky desert, where we stayed the night at the Estancia Cueva de las Manos (The Cave of the Hands Ranch).
Near Cueva de las Manos
We visited the actual caves the next morning. After a long 17-km drive on gravel roads, gawking at choiques (ostrich-like birds) and guanacos (llama-like camelids) along the way, we hiked down, then up, a deep valley to reach the amazing caves full of painted hands.
Cueva de las Manos
Another long drive split between paved and gravel roads brought us to El Chalten, the “Trekking National Capital” of Argentina. Dominating the skyline is Mount Fitz Roy, named after the captain of Darwin’s HMS Beagle. The five of us hiked over 5 kilometers, the last 1.4 km of which were essentially vertical, to reach the picturesque lake below the peak. Four of us hiked all the way back. Pablo hiked back all but the last couple of kilometers, after which he was carried out on a stretcher. But that’s a story for another post.
Mt. Fitz Roy is top right.
The next day we drove from El Chalten to El Calafate (well, Pablo’s daughter drove, I rode in the ambulance with Pablo), then spent a much needed relaxed night in a dormis, complete with an Argentine-style lamb cooked over an open fire. Then, the glacier.
Perito Moreno glacier
The Perito Moreno glacier may be the most famous glacier in the world. It’s massive. And better yet, it is situated such that it splits two lakes and pushes up against an accessible island where visitors can get up close. As the glacier retreats slightly during the summer melt, it provides a front-row seat for thousands of people to see huge chunks of ice calving off the face. A truly unforgettable experience.
All of this so far occurred in just one week of traveling. The final week was less busy – a long two-plus day drive across lower Patagonia, up the coast, and back to Bariloche for several days of local flavor. Twice I came close to going into Chile (within a few kilometers at one point), but that pleasure will have to wait until my next visit.
And there will be a next visit. Pablo and I have begun discussing possibilities that would result in more frequent visits on my part. Besides seeing Chile I also still need to get to Argentina’s Iguazu Falls, the Mendoza wine region (I love malbec), and Ushuaia (the southernmost city in the world).
Come back for more detailed stories and photos from the trip. You won’t want to miss them.
David J. Kent is an avid traveler and the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies exclusively at Barnes and Noble bookstores.
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I call this site Science Traveler. And I’m currently out science traveling. So, what is science traveling? I’m glad you asked. Though the answer isn’t as clear cut as it might seem.
I’ve been a scientist for many years, and as a result have done a little bit of travel. Emphasis on “little” and “bit.” Besides the many wonderful days spent in luxurious locales such as oil refineries, sewage treatment plants, and mud bogs, I regularly attended scientific conferences in cities around the United States and Canada. A delightfully drenched week in Vancouver spent entirely inside a convention center epitomizes the excitement of that annual opportunity. For the last 15 years, however, travel has became a lot more interesting.
I’ve been lucky enough to live overseas on three different occasions, in St. George’s, Bermuda; Edinburgh, Scotland; and most recently, Brussels, Belgium. I’ve been to Asia several times, tootled around a good part of Europe, and currently am trekking through a couple of countries south of the equator. Now that I’m writing books and freelancing full time, my travels will become more frequent and more adventurous. They will also become story lines. And those story lines will usually contain some science angle.
Science traveler. Like asking whether Galileo actually did drop balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and if he did, was someone at the bottom to catch them? Like, how is it that I could carry on a conversation with an elderly (and slightly inebriated) Japanese gentleman when neither one of us spoke the others language? Like, how many Argentinian students does it take to get a visiting scientist to wade into a stream alongside an electroshock fisherman?
Of course, science traveling can also mean simply appreciating the ephemeral beauty of a sinking sunset over a Mexican beach, the astonishing talent of a renaissance artist in the Vatican, or the portentous river of water sluicing down a melting glacier in Chile. It might also include crawling through caves in Tennessee after overlooking one of the Civil War’s most infamous battle sites, admiring the orchids of Tenerife, or visiting the latest in a long list of aquariums.
Science traveling most definitely includes photographs. Thousands of photographs. And with each photo comes a story…or many stories. Science traveler will tell those stories.
So while I’m out science traveling I’ll post some photos, some stories, and hopefully some scientific insights that will bring the world closer to everyone.
David J. Kent is an avid traveler and the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies exclusively at Barnes and Noble bookstores.
Follow me by subscribing by email on the home page. And feel free to “Like” my Facebook author’s page and connect on LinkedIn. Share with your friends using the buttons below.
For the second year in a row Science Traveler (i.e., this website) will be an Associate Sponsor of the Chesapeake Potomac Regional Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. I have been involved with SETAC for more than 25 years, the last 22 of which have been as a member of CPRC. In fact, I’ve just completed my second term as President of CPRC and will continue as immediate Past-President during 2014.
CPRC “provides a professional forum for individuals from private industry, academia, and government agencies who are engaged in the study and analysis and solutions for environmental problems, management and regulation of natural resources, and/or research and development.” It represents the area surrounding Washington DC, including all of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, the District, and parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware and beyond. SETAC is a renowned international scientific organization.
You can find their websites by clicking on the links above, or even better, clicking on the really cool logo at the top of the article.
The timing couldn’t be better. CPRC has two huge upcoming events that members are going to want to be a part of. [If you’re not a current member, it’s easy to become one right here, right now.]
The other major event is our annual spring meeting, which will be held at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center (CBEC) on April 27-28, 2014. You can read all about last year’s event at CBEC in this recap. The meeting will feature an optional Sunday guided bird hike, kayaking, and picnic on the grounds, followed by a full Monday of presentations and posters (and some of the best catering on the Eastern shore). The location is beautiful so be sure to watch for updates on the CPRC website.
As an Associate Sponsor, Science Traveler plays a key role in helping CPRC foster interaction among its members, sponsor scientific meetings and social events, produce a biannual newsletter, maintain a website, and, perhaps most importantly, sponsor student awards “that encourage and promote the research and professional development of our student members.”
David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies exclusively at Barnes and Noble bookstores.
Follow me by subscribing by email on the home page. And feel free to “Like” my Facebook author’s page and connect on LinkedIn. Share with your friends using the buttons below.
Man-made climate change has been described by scientists and policymakers as one of the greatest challenges of our time. It has also been called a hoax by fossil fuel industry lobbyists and oil-state politicians. The fact is that human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels and the release of carbon into the atmosphere and oceans, is warming our planet. This has both short- and long-term ramifications for economic, political, ecological, and social structure. No amount of denial will stop that, only action to reduce carbon emissions.
One year ago today I left behind the first half of my life. After more than 30 years as a working scientist I had decided to give up a comfortable salary for a life of (essentially) no income. I would become a poor starving writer.
Tesla world has been equally busy. I continue to work on the Tesla and Renewable Energy ebook I expect to release in June. The ebook format will keep the cost low and allow reaching out to the large number of people who haven’t yet discovered the great inventor. Meanwhile, the second printing of my 
I’ve been documenting on these pages some of the highlights of my February 2014 trip to 
