2014 Reflections, Resolutions, and Round-Up

Hello, 2015! Rachel and I are living it up with our lovely friends in Boston. This year has been wonderful thus far, but we wanted to take a few moments and reflect on the great things that 2014 brought to us.  One of the most rewarding things for us, in the last year, was starting this blog.  From the launch of our Tumblr blog in January of 2014 to occupying this space in May, we feel so blessed to have this space to share our experiences as travelers, learners, and burgeoning female scientists!

Starting the new year sharing the same physical space is always a blessing for us as a creative duo.  We've been discussing our ideas/hopes/dreams for the future of Sweet Tea, Science, and you can rest assured that we are cooking up some exciting content for 2015!

Top 5 Science Podcasts

Screen capture from my list of podcasts!

I’ve been out of the academic atmosphere for over a year now. Sometimes I just really miss getting my learn on. Academia pretty much ruled my entire life before I graduated with my MS degree (and it’s about to take back over!), so you would think I’d enjoy a well deserved break from, well...thinking. But no, I missed it terribly and have found becoming an avid podcast listener to be one of my more enjoyable hobbies. I love that I have a nice little list of podcasts queued up on my phone, so whenever I find myself with an extra 20 minutes or so I can just hit play. There’s no decision making, which is really nice for someone as indecisive as I am.

While I'm sure the internet has many sites for finding podcasts, iTunes is a great starting place. Their podcasts are collected, organized, and ranked, making it easy to browse categories of your interest and subscribe to those you'd like to have pushed to your device. Again, I always listen on my phone, but you can choose where to store your podcasts. I download a few episodes at a time when I’m around wi-fi so I don’t have to use up any cellular data. If you aren’t able to listen in this manner (maybe you don’t have a compatible phone/device) there are a few alternatives. Android users can use the Podkicker app. You can listen through iTunes on your PC. You could listen through a podcast website, such as Podcast Alley, from any computer. Several podcasts even have their own websites where you can listen.

Top 20 Things I'll Miss When I'm on Mars

I was going to wait to write this post until after the applicant advancement announcement, but I'm just so excited that just maybe news will arrive today instead of tomorrow (or worse, Saturday).

Four months spent 'on Mars' is a quick trip compared to the complete 2-year journey that would be required of astronauts heading to the Red Planet. However, I'm sure that the 6 selected participants will feel the strain of such a lifestyle every so often. Before deciding to apply, I asked myself if there was anything I absolutely could not live without for four months that should keep me from submitting my application. While I couldn't think of anything of that magnitude, I was able to come up with some items that I'd certainly miss (but, ultimately can live without IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE).

My Top 20 Things I'll Miss:

1. Family
2. Friends
3. Freedom to Travel
4. Vegetarianism
5. Sunshine on my skin
6. Long, hot showers
7. Animals
8. Crock Pot? If the Mars kitchen isn't equipped with a slow cooker I will be quite sad. 
9. Forests
10. Hiking
11. Mountains
12. The Ocean (and it'll be so close, yet so far!)
13. Having my own room
14. Fresh fruit and vegetables
15. Direct contact with people (5-20  min delay on all communications)
16. My own kitchen, stocked with what I want to eat/snack upon
17. Streams
18. A fully equipped lab and greenhouse
19. Food choice
20. A private life, outside of work

A lot of the things that make this list, I already miss. Graduate school in the desert certainly has many, many perks, but I'm finding myself missing going for a hike in the woods and stumbling upon a stream. I can't think of anything more delightful to do once I graduate. I'll take a nap in the sun and then turn over rocks to observe critters.

If selected, I'll be very eager to see how this list of predictions holds up to what I actually end up yearning for the most.

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As an EXTRA ADDED BONUS, I found this short talk by Kim Binsted! Dr Binsted is one of the co-PIs for the Hi-SEAS project. Last week, she tweeted a link to this talk that was recorded at The Green House Innovation Hub in Honolulu, HI. Be sure to check out the other presentations, but if you grow impatient, the Hi-SEAS talk starts about 30 minutes into the clip. My favorite part is when she says that they'd only expected 50 applications (remember, there were 700)! I also would LOVE to have a better view of the slide with the guinea pig that outlines some of the other aspects they'll be monitoring. I see sleep! 

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Questions of The Day:

What would you miss if you traveled to Mars?

What did you think of Kim Binsted's talk? Was her summary of the project what you expected?