scienceysideblog

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I'm really pleased and proud to say I can finally share with you all my first ever project as a researcher! I finished this project in January but due to mock exams and then my real exams I haven't been able to post about it.

A local organisation were running a project where young people had the chance to run their own research projects into systems they had experience with in the local area that they thought needed to be improved and to be supported through this by professional researchers.

I am so privileged to have been involved in this and I still can't believe I can say my first paid job was as a research scientist when that is my dream job!

My research question was: What support do autistic young people (aged 16-25) in my county want from schools?

With a specific focus on :

Meltdowns, shutdowns and burnout

Interaction with other neurodivergent young people

I won't share my county or the organisation that I ran the research with as I want to keep safe online however I will share my research presentation of all my findings and recommendations with this information removed.

This project means a lot to me and I hope it will have an impact on other autistic young people too.

If you have any questions I have set up an email associated with my blogs which will be on the presentation or you can message me on Tumblr

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tn3KP3f4PEzP9Zh19jENIZM7BbDgLQzR_A7GTu4rFG4/edit?usp=drivesdk

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Hey don't cry, okay? We just found Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, a species thought to be extinct for the past 60 years.

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... I now have questions about Margaritaville Syndrome

You and about 20 other people haha

Margaritaville Syndrome is a phenomenon where both the built environment and the human mind shift to create a liminal, tropical paradise that promotes detachment from reality and ones obligations to themselves, the community, and the ecosystem around them.

Examples of Margaritaville Syndrome:

Dredging (which is incredibly damaging to the environment) to create sandy beaches on islands where the beaches are rocky

The cultural sanitization of food (like building and promoting Señor Frogs instead of authentic Mexican food.)

Cruises

Tanning oil/tanning culture

The entire Margaritaville resort franchise, which has actually destroyed islands and frequently exploits local community members that staff it

Excessive drinking while on vacation

Interacting with wildlife in an inappropriate manner

Only sticking to resort/americanized areas

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Best wasp? Or one of your favorites at least

OOOH GOOD QUESTION. obviously every wasp is the best but here are some of my favorites

Dolichovespula maculata beloved beloved beloved. Dolichovespula is a really sick genus in general, love these guys & their patterns. also could go on for a while explaining how their scientific name translates. here's some other members of the genus:

(pacifica, saxonica, & maculata again)

& of course eastern yellowjackets (Vespula maculifrons), they're the wasps i see the most! also the only wasp i've been stung by so far. didn't hurt much

i've gotta include tarantula hawk wasp. i can't NOT include tarantula hawk wasp. sick as fuck!! massive shiny beast w/ neon orange wings that kills giant spiders they are awesome.

look at her go!

honestly every spider wasp. they're awesome. all of Pompilidae. parasitic wasps are so so so sick

oh & velvet ants are awesome! how are you a Hymenopteran & a wasp but called an ant. where are your wings girl. the males actually have wings and look like other wasps, it's just the females who ant it up!

👆velvet ant bugsex for reference. normal-ass wasp

a lot of other wasps are are the same w/ wingless females, but less fuzzy. this one's from Myrmosidae! also they get their name from "myrmex" meaning ant. which is where the word "myrmecomorphy" comes from, describing non-ants that mimic them, like this spider!

got very sidetracked. those are some wasps i like! thanks for asking :)

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"these researchers published a paper on something that literally any of us could have told you 🙄" ok well my supervisors wont let me write something in my thesis unless I can back it up with a citation so maybe it's a good thing that they're amplifying your voice to the scientific community in a way that prevents people from writing off your experiences as annecdotal evidence

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what annoys me about explaining evolution to people who don’t think it’s real is that everyone’s idea of how it works seems to be from this

Whereas the reality is far more like

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Remember "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" ? I feel like there's been a distancing from the "reduce" and "reuse" part and a favoritism towards "recycle" by corporate American.

Capitalism can still thrive with recycling in the mix. You buy Plastic Thing 1, throw it away after one use, and they take that and recycle it into Plastic Thing 2 and sell it back to you. All while continuing to harm the environment.

Reusing puts a damper on things. They can't sell you Plastic Thing 2 when you're still using Plastic Thing 1. Plastic forks, for example- there is literally no reason why you can't reuse plastic forks more than once (aside from maybe microplastics, but it's too late for that)

Reducing is the one everyone wants to ignore. Just don't buy Plastic Thing 1. You don't need Plastic Thing 1. Pick up a set of metal forks and use those for years. Convenience is killing the planet

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Two years after being tasked with commissioning a review of medical evidence surrounding gender-affirming care for trans youth, Utah’s own state health department has concluded that trans healthcare bans “cannot be justified.” The Republicans who commissioned the study aren’t too happy about it.

Back in 2023, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed a bill that placed an indefinite “moratorium” on doctors prescribing gender-affirming care like hormone therapy and puberty blockers to trans youth. That bill ordered the Utah Department of Health and Human Services to compile their report in order to produce recommendations for the state government on whether or not to lift the moratorium.

This week, the department delivered their long-awaited, over 1,000-page report — which is dated August 6, 2024 — to Utah lawmakers. The report’s authors found that “the consensus of the evidence supports that the treatments are effective in terms of mental health, psychosocial outcomes, and the induction of body changes consistent with the affirmed gender in pediatric GD [gender dysphoria] patients.”

The authors added that “the evidence also supports that the treatments are safe in terms of changes to bone density, cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic changes, and cancer.” Trans youth who had received gender-affirming care were within the bounds of normal, non-pathological ranges for these conditions.

y’all this is huge. please don’t “water is wet” all over it! I understand that we all already know this… The point is that the world doesn’t know or care or believe and so these studies really fucking matter!

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STARTING TOMORROW

Scientists in weather and climate are live streaming for 100 hours to make their case to the American public.

They are live streaming, but engagement is necessary for it to work. SHARE THIS WITH PEOPLE, RECORD THE STREAM, POST CLIPS OF IT THAT ARE FUNNY, if you can tune in, PLEASE DO!

This is something that has to be heard by as many people as possible. Put it on in the background! See if you can get other people to watch it! Do whatever you can do support those who are trying to be supported! Anything and everything helps!

TUNE IN HERE

article I posted screenshots of here

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blows my mind that cheetahs are apex predators. that is the single most anxious creature I have ever seen. at any given moment a cheetah is exactly one stubbed paw away from bursting into tears. that is a sad dripping wet animal, and it's at the top of the local food chain? babygirl what happened

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Field Work Fails

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