Huge crowd and strong sign game in West Chester, PA! So energizing to see so many people speaking out against hate and standing up for democracy #HandsOff

Perhaps the coolest thing about this work is that, in order to conduct culture experiments with Chaetoceros resting spores, I “resurrected” resting spores from Southern Ocean sediment. Zombie diatoms!!

One thing bringing me joy during these dark days is my diatom sweater! I designed and knit this sweater as part of my #KnitYourPhD project. The yoke is adorned with Chaetoceros diatoms and the bobbles around the hemline are meant to represent Chaetoceros resting spores 🧶🌊🧪

Happy Halloween from NBP24-10! I am Ekman drift, obviously 🌊

Lots of science and adventure happening for the next 6 weeks! #nbp2410 🌊 🇦🇶

People seem to like my KnitYourPhD socks, so I thought I’d share my first paleo-inspired knit! This blanket represents the benthic oxygen isotope stack, a famous paleoceanographic dataset showing the evolution of global temperature and ice volume over the past 5.3 million years 🧶🌊

Presenting the pair of socks I made for my personal #KnitYourPhD project! These socks represent data from 2 of my chapters, each down-core diatom-bound nitrogen isotope records from Holocene-aged coastal Antarctic sediment. Stay tuned for a diatom sweater!!

What a day! I voted AND defended my PhD!

While less mainstream overall, diatoms and knitting are more prominent at high latitudes. Diatoms thrive in the Southern Ocean and, according to my (admittedly methodologically flawed) census of knitters on Instagram, knitting is more popular in countries at higher latitudes.

Next, forams are used extremely widely in paleoceanographic research, while diatoms are more niche, as evidenced by a quick search on Google Scholar. According to a 2017 survey by the Craft Yarn Council, 51% of crafters crochet while 29% knit. (20% do both)

So, why are diatoms:knitting::forams:crochet? First, IMO, diatoms are beautiful and forams are cute. Also IMO, knit sweaters are beautiful and crocheted clothes are cute.

Both knitting and crochet involve looping stitches of yarn together, but knitting uses a pair of needles and crochet uses a hook.

Here’s an example of an oxygen isotope record from forams - Lisiecki & Raymo’s famous benthic stack - in graphic and knit blanket form.

First, some introductions. Diatoms and foraminifera (or forams) are single-celled creatures that live in the ocean. Diatoms are phytoplankton with intricate shells made of glass. Forams are zooplankton with popcorn-y shells made of calcium carbonate.

Today I achieved mud nerd bingo by visiting my 4th out of the four NSF-funded marine geological sample repositories (plus the IODP-GCR)! Very grateful to be attending the FUTURE workshop at WHOI, both for the chance to see their cores & to discuss priorities/approaches for collecting more samples

Hello, Bluesky! Can’t think of a better way of introducing myself than by sharing pics of things I’ve recently knit for the hydrothermal vent spire on display at URI-GSO’s rock & core repository