Bill Nuttle, Caroline Wicks, Anthony Kung and I circumnavigated Long Island Sound, crossing it at both ends (over the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge on the western end and aboard the Cross Sound Ferry on the eastern end), and drove through most of the Connecticut coast and the length of Long Island. We visited five different groups of scientists, resource managers and local conservation groups in Connecticut and Long Island, New York in March (10-13).

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Evamaria Koch died last week from lung cancer. Lung cancer in non-smokers is particularly aggressive and Eva was not diagnosed until the disease had taken hold. She was very guarded about her condition, so most of her friends and colleagues were shocked to learn of her death. Eva was born to German parents in Brazil where she grew up and received her undergraduate training at the Universidad de Rio Grande.

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A team from the Integration and Application Network stopped off at New York Harbor School for a visit and quick tour. Getting there was part of the fun, as we drove right by the newly completed One World Trade Center, towering over lower Manhattan. We parked down near the Battery and boarded a ferry that left from a pier adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry. The small Governors Island ferry moors at the northern end of the island, which is shaped like an ice cream cone.

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'Scientists who made a difference' series … This blog accompanies the biographical sketch of Alexander von Humboldt that Bill Nuttle recently posted provides a selection of his writings as poetry and one of his scientific sketches as art. The 'Poetry' uses von Humboldt's exact words (translated from German) in prose form to focus on cadence and word choice. It captures von Humboldt's philosophy of natural science connections that was in his multi-volume treatise entitled 'Cosmos:

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'Scientists who made a difference' series … Alexander von Humboldt became world famous by illustrating how nature works. If you ever get to Humboldt, Nebraska (40°9′54″N 95°56′45″W) you will have gotten someplace special. Humboldt lies almost exactly at the geographic center of the Mississippi River watershed; motto:

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In early 2014, a 558 pp. book “Long Island Sound: Prospects for the Urban Sea” was published. The co-editors JS Latimer, MA Tedesco, RL Swanson, C Yarish, PE Stacey and C Carza were able to get 57 contributors to produce this comprehensive summary of the state of science in Long Island Sound. Springer lists the book for $279 and the eBook for $219, which is a steep price.

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In collaboration with the Chesapeake Bay Program and US Geological Survey (USGS), we released a report entitled "New Insights: Science-based evidence of water quality improvements, challenges, and opportunities in the Chesapeake". The release was conducted at the Chesapeake Bay Program in Annapolis on 25 February 2014 . We produced a 52 pp. full color report and a small trifold executive summary to accompany the full report.

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Alex Fries and I had the chance to travel to Adelaide, Australia to deliver a two-day Science Communication Course to the South Australia Department of Environment, Water, and Natural Resources (DEWNR). The course focused on Ecosystem Health Report Cards. DEWNR is currently creating state-wide report cards in the marine, freshwater, terrestrial, and atmospheric environments, reporting on elements like pest species, soil health, reefs, seagrass, salt marsh, and dunes.

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My first visit to the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) was in 1985, when I joined Doig Capone and Linda Duguay on a collaborative project sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation. I was on a Coastal Marine Scholar postdoctoral fellowship at the Marine Sciences Research Center (now the School of a Marine and Atmospheric Sciences) at Stony Brook University.

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Following a day of scientific talks where the various climate change resilience indicators were presented, we had dinner at a nice restaurant on The Strand, a popular Townsville promenade overlooking the harbor. On the second day, we sketched a few conceptual diagrams, generated a prototype reef resilience index and storyboarded a trifold document.

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