#ask a scientist

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Hey so may I ask, what do you do at your job as as a paleontologist?

Read papers, fill in spreadsheets, create maps, run analyses, prepare fossils, teach students, write papers, create bibliographies, cry, measure and describe fossils, sketch fossils, find fossils in dusty museum drawers everyone has forgotten about, study anatomy of living creatures, study things I’ve forgotten, occasionally look for fossils in the desert and find nothing, daydream about making museum exhibits with all the funding I don’t have, dance with dinosaur bones when no one is looking

[arsonwerm]

science side of tumblr I have a query that will not leave me to rest until it is answered

why is it so much easier to toe off your shoes than to put them on???

[nelkcats]

The Crime Lord does not stop flirting with me!

When Danny ran away from home and ended up in Gotham he wasn't quite sure what to do, adrenaline was coursing through his veins and all he wanted was a place to be safe.

That's when Crime Alley lit up like a Christmas tree and Danny knew it could be his new home, something about Crime Alley was drawing him in. It wasn't long before he decided to get a job to lay low. Of course, the latter was a bust because Red Hood noticed him almost instantly.

Contrary to his expectations, the Crime Lord took an interest in him but said nothing. He simply asked him to repair his motorcycle like a normal customer in his new job. Danny did and well, he couldn't help but repair some damaged systems and add some modifications. He hoped he wasn't stepping out of line, he just couldn't help himself, it was second nature to repair damaged things.

He thought Red Hood would be angry about it but the man seemed delighted (or as delighted as he could look with the mask), he looked at Danny and asked him what else he could do. Nervously, he told him that he was somewhat good with technology and before he knew it he had been hired by a gang (more or less, they were just asking for some custom orders).

So, technically he established as the mechanic and supplier to the Hood gang, and more specifically to the Crime Lord himself. He gave Hood some upgrades and became his supplier of (mostly harmless) weapons and upgrades. This attracted the attention of most of the gangs that were against the Crime Lord and Batman himself.

Jason, noticing how nervous the guy was assured him that he would protect him and no one was going to hurt him as long as he was around, it was obvious he wasn't from Gotham. For some reason, his new employee blushed every time he said those words.

Danny didn't know if Red Hood understood what he was doing (That was totally a flirt for protection spirits!), every day it was getting harder and harder not to respond to him. His ghost side kept screaming that he got a good match!

Which was technically true, considering that Red Hood had promised him protection and let him stay in his haunt (it became obvious that Crime Alley was his haunt after a few days in Gotham but strangely it accepted him)

Jason continued to promise Danny that he would be safe (poor boy always looked nervous) and Danny wondered how many days he could take the blatant flirting.

[obsob]

making and weaving and loving! like we have done for millennia!!

[smallpwbbles]

baby biolizard shadow is like. mouse sized. they NEVER expected him to just. grow that much THAT QUICKLY

They thought he'd be at least a lil taller than the average male mobian

[shanastoryteller]

Merry bday! A continuation of Enola Holmes marrying the viscount of Basilweather would be really cool 😀

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

She wrinkles her nose when Tewksbury passes over her cup of tea with two sugars, unstirred, and she knows.

She puts down the cup too quickly, blood pounding in her ears, and Tewksbury frowns, reaching for her hand. "Enola?"

"Got to go," she says, pushing herself to standing, almost just leaves him sitting there, hand outstretched, but he's her husband and she loves him, so she darts over to smack a kiss on his lips before she's running for the door.

"Enola!" he calls out again, but now he sounds less worried and more exasperated, which is better, which is good. There's nothing for him to worry about.

She wants her mother, who's banned from London and is causing political unrest in Southern France currently, or Edith, who's doing something clever and illegal in Scotland. She'd take Victoria, but Mycroft will be there, and he's the last person she wants to see right now. Sherlock, while beloved, is useless, but his boy is a doctor.

She drops in at 221B Baker Street, picking the lock like always, and is relieved that Sherlock is still asleep and decides not to have any opinions on the various bones scattered about the kitchen table. She assumes there's a reasonable explanation for them.

"Oh, Enola!" John grins and shoves some femurs to the side to make space at the table. "Here, join me, would you like some oatmeal? Are you looking for your brother? I can wake him-"

"I'm pregnant," she blurts out, then bites her bottom lip.

John blinks once, then twice, then says with a gentleness that had made her like him in the first place - because Sherlock wanted to be gentle, but was quite bad at it, so someone had to teach him - "This is what you wanted, isn't it?"

Wanted seems like not the correct word, although of course it is, because she and Tewksbury had been, not trying, but not-not trying, which probably amounted to the same thing, considering how often they - well.

"I can fix it," he says, voice low and serious, "if it's something that needs to be fixed."

Enola lets out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "No. No, it doesn't need to be fixed."

She loves that he offered. She loves John, more her brother than Mycroft will ever be, sometimes even more her brother than Sherlock is. If nothing else, her brothers had picked their partners well. Victoria and John are a delight.

John is the functional one between them, explosions and skeletons notwithstanding. John is the one that coaxed her brother into a proper relationship and John is the one that knew they were like parents to all the Irregulars and John isn't normal but he grew up normal.

"Are you worried something's wrong?" he asks. "I can look you over."

"No," she says, although, "I mean, yes, that'd be nice because Tewksbury will go spare, but no, I'm not worried anything's wrong."

He leans back in his chair, looking her over, and after almost ten years of dealing with her and Sherlock and even occasionally Mycroft he can read them almost as well as they can read everyone else.

"It's alright to be scared," he says finally. "Lots of women are when they find out, even when it's wanted, even when the baby's healthy."

"I'm not scared," she says, but for the first time her words feel like a lie. "I shouldn't be scared. What do I have to be scared of?"

She wishes her mother was here.

Will her children miss her like this too?

Sometimes she misses her mother even when she's right in front of her, and if nothing else, she's her mother's daughter.

John gets to his feet, stand in front of her, and opens his arms. She looks away even as she steps forward, like if she doesn't look at him when she does it then it doesn't count as weakness.

His arms close around her. He smells like chai and antiseptic and it's only years of association that make the combination comforting. "I can't wait to be an uncle."

He'll be an uncle. Sherlock will be an uncle. Even Mycroft, and Victoria will be delighted to be an aunt, and to raise her children with Enola's. Of course there's her mother-in-law, and Tewksbury's uncle, who have been angling for her to have a child from the day they married.

There's Tewksbury, who loves her, who isn't going to die on her or leave her if either of them have anything to say about it, who isn't going to leave her to raise their children the way her mother raised her.

Alone.

She's been saying she wasn't going to do this alone from the beginning, but standing here in Sherlock's kitchen, with John holding her steady, she really believes it.

[potato-lord-but-not]

When she Cecil on my Gershwin til I Palmer

[hellsitegenetics]

Hi, This is sooo so very cool, I’m in the middle of my final exams right now and every so often I forget why I love biology, and chemistry and then I think dammit I should have just picked languages as my high level courses. But whenever I see your blog, I am reminded of why I want to study biochemistry. It’s just so insanely cool. Anyways, you don’t have to answer, but I just wanted to let you know. Many thanks!!!!

String identified: , T c, ’ t a a gt a t gt g, a ct a t t at a t c agag a g c. t g, a at t t ct. t’ t a c. Aa, ’t a t a, t t at t t . a ta!!!!

Closest match: Globicephala melas genome assembly, chromosome: 19 Common name: Long-finned pilot whale (dolphin)

[ohno-the-sun]

Poor Sun

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

hey so I wanted to become a paleontologist, and I was wondering how? Like the system that exists to educate a paleontologist seems to be such guesswork that it’s maddening. I just want to focus on vertebrate paleontology and it feels like the education system really doesn’t want that.

it doesn't profit capitalism (and in many ways actively destabilizes it as many things we learn from paleontology disprove founding theories of capitalism), so, yeah, the education system doesn't want that

you kind of have to claw for it

find someone to do research with, either at your institution or elsewhere

try to volunteer for relevant things (conferences, museums, etc)

think about what research questions you have and narrow down grad school choices to people who study the same questions. be as specific as you can

learn everything you can about everything you can because paleontology is holistic af

[cupcakeslushie]

Hi! If you don't mind me asking; I saw the post on what Venus would have looked like if she had been raised by Splinter, but what would have happened had Splinter been able to escape with Donnie from Draxum's lab? And what would've happened when they were ambushed by the foot, would he have been able to stay with Raph and Splinter, escape with Mikey and end up at the nexus hotel with big mama, or would he have been taken with Leo and both be raised in the foot clan? I'm sorry if I'm thinking too much into this, or I'm rambling. Anyhow, have a great day (or night)!

Okay I’m gonna try to not to go too crazy with this lol

Donnie with Raph and Splinter would be closest to canon, but he’s got so much evil little brother energy, it’s insane 🤣

Donnie with Big Mama…hmmm so there’s already, let’s call it “prim and proper” Donnie in TLP and Gemini, so let’s go in another direction. Maybe Big Mama only takes a liking to Mikey, so she splits them up as soon as she realizes she can get Donnie to create tech for her. Donnie lives his life in her research and development program and eventually outclasses all the older scientists to become the head engineer/doctor (that one’s under much protest and he’s often forced to experiment on the corpses of previous champions). Mikey gets rescued but has no idea what happened to Donnie. Donnie is 17 when the brothers finally find him, and he’s pretty jaded.

Donnie in the Foot becomes Kitsune’s apprentice and his ninpo is second only to Mikey. Him and Leo aren’t super close thanks to Saki keeping them distant by design.

[anistarrose]

favorite character havers: this is my fave :) i just think their design and character arc are neat :)

blorbo havers: this is my SCRUNKLIEST little guy and NO one fucking understands them like i do. i found them when they were living alone in a cave and nearly feral but i never gave up on them and NOW they don’t even bite when i put them in the microwave and watch them spin. they’re my best friend and my worst enemy AND my therapist. we share an unbreakable bond

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 238

"Ugh. There's a group at the barrier again." Star squinted over the buildings they were all sprawled on almost lazily. "Seriously? I thought the GIW would have given up by now since there's 'no more humans' here," Sam's voice was sarcastic as she combed claws through her hair. The others grumbled in agreement, Valerie spreading her wings in a stretch. "Who wants to bet Danny is already about to crash their intrusion?" "Hah! I bet Dash is there already to video it!" "Those are both suckers bets," Wes scoffed, clear eyelid closing over his eyes and temporarily dimming the glow. "Let's be honest, Paulina has already left, she's going to get there first."

- - -

The GIW have been having a bit of trouble. Maybe just a bit. See, they were supposed to be taking care of the ecto-entities. Studying them, y'know? But er, some earlier agents had been a bit trigger happy, which meant the entities were well... aggressive. And a city full of dragon-fae-beings disliking any presence wearing white was rather terrifying, so they... might have gotten permission to bring a hero with them. For protection of course. ... Hopefully no one dies-

Feel free to ignore any of these pics lol, they're just ideas.

Order: Jazz, Danny, Tucker, Sam, Valerie, Wes, Dash, Kwan, Paulina, Star, Ellie, Dan

[smallpwbbles]

New employee admitted to Shadow the biolizard's research: *walks into the room to see him*.

Shadow:

Newcomer:

Shadow:

Newcomer: *doesn't know yet that Shadow understands human speech*

Newcomer: oh fuck, he's so HUGE-

Shadow: *one new word added*

*time after*

Shadow (on examination): Docta, I'vg learnt a new wort

Gerald: oh, that's so good... What's the word, sweetie?

Shadow: fuk.

Gerald: G A S P O M G W H O S A I D T H A T T O Y O U S H A D O W ?!1?1!1

Newcomer behind Gerald: *chuckles* I'm in danger

This goober scientist is called Paprika who only started working for a week before this. This was during the "holy shit why is he getting bigger so fast" phase so Shadow tended to forget how low the ceilings were for him. Also Gerald cancelled the pizza party they were going to have because of this so it wasn't a good week for anyone

[harringroveera]

Steve’s gonna force this universe to get Billy back with him no matter what it takes

[onionninjasstuff]

a little villain!PB&J au ive been working on because they deserve to go insane together

separated in childhood, raised by draxum, lost a couple of limbs, gained a couple of limbs, currently planning to nuke the earth

the comic