The 2011 floods in Queensland provide a societal learning moment. The intense media attention and the personal experiences that touched so many people have made a broad swath of society receptive to learning more about flooding and flood impacts. The key from the science communication perspective is to generate timely and synthetic products that are targeted to a broad audience.

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Just as Randy Alberte served to get the Alberte laboratory together in Chicago, his recent death has provided the impetus to get us together via the emails that we have exchanged recently. I think that he would have appreciated these enduring connections. Randy Alberte snorkeling over Bill Dennison's seagrass research site … A major factor in my decision to come to The University of Chicago was the cohort of Alberte graduate students, as well as the students in other lab groups.

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Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers conduct regular surveys of seagrasses and Lyngbya majuscula (a cyanobacterium that has been blooming in Moreton Bay for over a decade). I was able to tag along for a look at the Bay and the benthic communities of the Eastern Banks. The Eastern Banks of Moreton Bay are very special--they support large populations of green sea turtles and dugong, a relative of the manatee.

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The Queensland floods touched something deep within the Queensland residents. The term 'Queenslander' has been used as a rallying cry for the State of Origin rugby league football team from Queensland since 1995 when Billy Moore called for team unity and spirit when they were underdogs against their arch rivals from New South Wales.

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conference banner … The Integration and Application Network and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science would like to make you aware of the upcoming Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS) conference entitled "Global Summit on Coastal Seas". The abstract deadline is 25 February. The conference goal is to improve our ability to manage coasts in all their ecological, economic, and cultural dimensions.

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We arrived in Brisbane on January 9, 2011 and were surprised at the green and lush vegetation. It was raining and our friends informed us that it had been raining for weeks, and that the dam was at 120% capacity, compared with the 13% capacity on one of our previous visits.

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This blog post discusses the seminar given by Bob Hirsch of the US Geological Survey (USGS), at the IAN Seminar Series on November 23, 2010. Bob Hirsch speaking at the IAN Seminar Series … The analytical method used by Bob Hirsch was clarified. Bob explained that he used nutrient concentrations that were estimated daily every day over a 31 year period, and these concentrations were converted to fluxes by multiplying nutrient concentrations by discharge (water flow) rates.

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The word 'sabbatical' stems from the concept of the number seven, and it has been co-opted by academia to refer to a break that faculty take from their regular duties at roughly seven year intervals. In Australia, the term used is 'study leave', which is more descriptive and distinguishes it from long service leave or vacation. Sabbaticals are viewed as a way for faculty to rejuvenate careers, learn new techniques and approaches, and/or complete large projects (e.g., books).

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Last month, President Obama coined the phrase Sputnik moment in regard to the race for new innovations in science and technology. Last night, he raised this issue again in his State of the Union address. The President asserted that in order to support innovation, advance alternate energies, compete in the new global economy, and create jobs, the country needs investments in research and education equivalent to those undertaken during the height of the Space Race.

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One of our favorite teaching modules is about conceptual diagrams, and the activity associated with this module is called Conceptionary. It is a game in which teams of 4-10 people are formed and one team member is designated as the 'science illustrator'. The 'science illustrator' is given a card with an environmental concept explained and several key words are identified.

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