Posts

Publishing a scientific paper - Part 1

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It's been awhile. Hope you're handling any pandemic-related obstacles and that you're able to care for yourself and be safe. I've been struggling like crazy -- I absolutely hate working from home. Someone recently asked, "haven't you figured out how to work from home yet?!" Nope. Have not. It's a daily struggle, but I'm getting through it. Something I've been working on for the past 4 months is writing up the last paper from my PhD dissertation. I finally hit the "submit" button last night, so I thought I'd go through some of the highlights (lowlights?) of how research gets from an idea in your brain to words in a scientific peer-reviewed journal. Note: this is my particular experience with this particular paper...everyones experience is different, some are successfully published, others may be rejected for whatever the reason (it's complicated). These are my own thoughts and understandings of the process from what I've e...
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How We Do Science: Conferences

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Welcome to the first installment of "How We Do Science"! Today I'll be talking about scientific meetings or conferences, and my adventures attending the 2019 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA.  What is a scientific conference?  It is a big meeting at a convention center or hotel ballroom(s) where scientists gather to present their research, ask questions, connect with collaborators, network with other scientists, and learn about the current research being performed in a specific field. AGU is one of the largest scientific conferences, with more than 24,000 attendees from 113 countries (stats for 2018 meeting).  There is usually a mix of poster and oral presentations. Poster presentations are given in a big hall or room, where everyone has their own board with a poster that you created showcasing your research. Posters can be tiresome since your session can last for at least 2 hours, and you stand by your poster for awhile (have a ...
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So, what do you study?

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This is a question I hear often. Depending on who is asking, my answers can and must vary. For example, if I'm chatting with a high schooler I'm not going to say "I study the sensitivity of orographic precipitation to perturbations in microphysical parameter values and environmental conditions within an idealized moist, nearly neutral flow." That is way too much jargon that will immediately turn off any interest they may have had. I recently attended a workshop at the University of Colorado - Boulder on effective public outreach and communication for scientists. The speaker emphasized three key goals to convey at a public outreach event: Content - provide some science information  Process - provide a window into how science is done  Person - show that you're a relatable, thoughtful scientist I saw these three points and thought, this would be a great basis for my blog! My intent with this blog will be to provide some information about my own science int...
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Welcome!

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Hi there. My name is Annareli Morales and I'm a scientist. I'm also a daughter, a sister, a friend, a teacher, a student, a woman, and much more. The purpose of this blog is to communicate the challenges and successes I've experienced as a scientist to a general audience. I want to provide an accessible and relatable view of one scientist's thought-process and the application of the scientific method, without using too much jargon.  I named the blog "Just Ask This Scientician" as a reference to a great episode of The Simpsons (Lisa the Vegetarian S7E5). In the episode, Lisa is struggling with her personal views on eating meat and the tripe being fed to her class through the "educational" film Meat and You: Partners in Freedom . The film's narrator, Troy McClure, loosely uses science to support his claims that people who say it's wrong to eat meat are ignorant and simply unaware of a little thing called The Food Chain. If you ask the "...
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