Deep Fried Shrimp!

Kevin gets published!

After a three year gestation period, Kevin, and co-author Stephane Hourdez' 20 page paper "A new species of Alvinocaris (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea: Alvinocarididae) from hydrothermal vents at the Lau Basin, southwest Pacific, and a key to the species of Alvinocarididae." is out in the wild!

In it they describe a bigger, oranger species of alvinocaridid, Alvinocaris komaii, discovered in the Lau Basin of the South Pacific. I always love species description papers and this one does not fail to delight with wonderful holotype illustrations including details of the distinctive telson and dactyli of some of the pereopods . They also discuss the new species place in the whole Alvinocaris genus, and oh yes, a dichotomous key of all known species of Alvinocarididae!



I'm really impressed with the paper and with species description, molecular evidence and dichotomous key it is very complete! Awesome job.

So, I take it A. komaii was named for Tomoyuki Komai of Natural History Museum and Institute in Japan?

5 Things Redux

First that "scallywag" Brian from Laelaps tagged Kevin with a meme, and then what does he do? He nails me with it! And me without my meme vaccinations up to date! If Kevin will forgive me, I'm going to use his entry as a template:

5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago

• As of Dec 15th this year marks 10 years ago I was getting laid off from Micron Electronics in Nampa, Idaho, where I was a Support Engineer (the people who try and figure out what's going on when there are issues and develop a reliable fix for it) and Web Designer.
• Enrolling at Boise State University (one of the best things I've ever done!)
• Doing video production/animation for the local market and teaching 3D animation
• Moving from a house with a big garage to a 2 bedroom apartment and a big storage unit!
• Smoking about 1 pack of cigarettes a day
  

5 Things On My To-Do List Today

• Finish one of three paper rewrites due by the end of the week
  
• Clean up office (train self to pick up "toys"... futile I know...)
• Email one professor for grad school position
• Write personal statement for one grad school
• Help Johann create one more batch of scientist trading cards

5 Snacks I Love

• Chips and Salsa
• Almonds
• dried blueberries
• Orange or Grapefruit
• Grandma's white chocolate covered pretzels (which Tammy now makes so well!)

5 Things I Would Do If I Were A Millionaire

• Pay off all our debts
• Buy a house and some undeveloped land...to leave undeveloped.
• Buy a rebreather and HD underwater video rig
• Let Tammy go to graduate school and put away enough that Johann can go to college and if he wants grad school without having to worry about funding
• Conrtibute to Kevin's scholarship

5 Places I've lived

• Bitburg, Germany
• Lompoc, CA
• Mesa, Pheonix and Sierra Vista, AZ
• Boise, ID
• Austin, TX

5 Jobs I've Had

• Marine Science Department Technology Support
• Animator & Multimedia Production Artist
• IT Technician
• Computer Support Engineer and Multimedia Web Developer
• Satellite and Microwave Radio Communications specialist

Ok, so now I get to infect...er...tag 5 other people?

• Kevin already tagged Karen, but let's see where Peter was 10 years before he live blogged boat shows with friends of millionaires, I think we know what he would do with a a cool Million. What IS his favorite snack?
• Was Miriam at the Oysters Garter already wearing such trend setting and cool invert clothing as a squid hat??? With the million she could afford them all easily. I hope Oysters are on her favorite snack list!
• Was Mark at Blogfish stalking sustainable fishing 10 years ago? Would the million dollars prevent him from diving under his mistresses covers every chance he gets?
• Did the Beach Chair Scientist feel the pull of the ocean 10 years ago? Would we see an upgraded chair with the million dollars, maybe something with solar powered icebox, GPS and real time satellite feed of marine forecasting and visual data sets? What is the best beach chair snack?
• Was the Brine Queen watching super cute sea horses 10 years ago? Does she have a new marine bio geek acquisition to pickup today?

5 Things Meme

Those scallywags, Brian from Laelaps and Adrian from Evolving Complexity, have tagged me with the 5 things meme. Wow, its been ages since those gosh darn memes have been traveling around. I swore we exhausted them out last year, but like a nasty infection you didn't quite clean out well enough, its come back. Here it goes!

5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago

• Line cook at Applebee's in Davenport, IA
• Breaking off an engagement (one of the best things I've ever done!)
• Dropped out of community college
• Traveled to Australia and New Zealand
• Smoking 1-2 packs of cigarettes a day
  

5 Things On My To-Do List Today

• Write some more on my Masters thesis (yes it is still isn't quite finished yet...)
  
• Clean up living room (train kids to pick up toys... futile I know...)
• Read on microsatellite optimization
• Write some blog posts
• Figure out how to increase resolution of line drawings for a publication that held back because the resolution of the images was too low :(

5 Snacks I Love

• Sun chips!!
• Cashew and raisin mix
• Cookies
• Bananas
• Goldfish crackers
  

5 Things I Would Do If I Were A Millionaire

• Buy a house with lots of land, and a boat of course
  
• Pay off all my debts and brothers' debts and buy my parents a nice house near us
  
• Invest a large enough portion that we could live comfortably off the interest
• Put enough way for my kids to get the best possible education and not have to worry about working through school like I did
• Start a scholarship for poor people to attend college

5 Places I've lived

• State College, PA
• Davis, Monterey, San Jose and Berkeley, CA
• Mesa, AZ
• Bettendorf, IA
• Moline, IL

5 Jobs I've Had

• Graduate student research and teaching assistant
• Academic Support Services tutor (basic arithmetic to calculus)
  
• Supervisor at an upscale local cafe
• Audio engineer and studio musician
• Line cook, baker and/or kitchen manager for several restaurants

Ok, so I will tag my coblogger Eric, Rick, Karen, the Southern Fried Scientist, and EchinoChris.

KevvyKev Got a JobbyJob

So alot of people have wondering about my job search status since I announced my intentions back in March. Its been a huge struggle. Several interviews, several let-downs, several interesting connections made. Job searching is very humbling experience. There were many times I was very frustrated, scared, worried about the future of my family and where I will be living. I have to thank my wife the most for being the perfect companion through this journey, listening to my pains, helping me draw plans A-ZZ in case I couldn't find work before my funding runs out (in 5 days nonetheless!). (If anyone is curious, our back up plan was to move to the North Carolina Research Triangle Park area and seek out work in science communication). My parents and brothers were also very supportive at this time. So many people were there for me in the back channels offering advice, emotional support, sending me job advertisements, helping me network, seeking out opportunities for me within their organizations and listening to me. You know who your friends are when you are down on your luck and I can't repay their kindness enough. Especially when many these are individuals I have never met in person or only briefly. Many others are good friends. I really would like to thank, in no particular order, Craig and Peter, Eric, Miriam, Rick, Mark P, Karen and Peter, Dave, Jason, RPM, John W, Jim, Brian, Ed, PhysioProf, DrugMonkey, Liz, Romunov, Michael, Aydin, Mike, Abel, Chris M, Sheril, Carl, Emmett, Jives, Richard, Jonathan, Jeremy, Ginny, Andrew, Bora, Adrian, Kate, Martin, Janet, Tara, Pal and Mark H, Sandra, Anton, Revere, Razib, Mark C-C, Greg L, Chris R, Grrl Scientist, Shelley and Steve, Mike D, Orac, Sciencewoman and Alice, John L, Josh, Zuska, Chad, Evil Monkey, the Fisher Lab past and present, Dimitra, Andre, Josh H, Eleca, the Penn State biology and ecology graduate students, and all my friends in State College. I'm sorry if I have forgotten anyone! All these people, and more, helped me out in some way, either a small contribution or large, it is extremely appreciated!

So what is my new job? Its awesome is what it is! My family and I will be relocating to beautiful Beaufort, North Carolina on the "Crystal Coast". I will be working as a research technician at the new Marine Conservation Molecular Facility of Duke University's Marine Lab. The project will involve studying the population structure of several deep-sea hydrothermal vent invertebrates with unique life-history characteristics. There is also lots of room for me to work on other exciting projects, but this will be focus for the next year or so. It is part of an environmental impact assessment to measure the effect that deep-sea mining off of Papua New Guinea (and yes, its that very company, indeed) would have on disrupting the population connectivity at this unique vent community. My duties, as outlined in my offer letter include, but not limited to be

"responsible for molecular genetics and laboratory benchwork, including DNA extraction, PCR amplification, DNA cloning, electrophoresis, histology, and fluorescent in situ hybridization."

Quite a change for me, but I am very excited to learn new techniques and work more intimately in the fields of molecular evolution and population genetics. I have to find a cool lab coat to wear!

The amazing people I will be working with are smart, wonderful, enthusiastic and excited about the projects (plus they drink, a prerequisite to consideration for me). Which makes me excited to be a part of the projects going on at Duke Marine Lab.

As such, this will be a busy month for with finishing up and moving. Writing will be light till I get back on my feet again in early September. So please don't go away, you should know by now the Eric is just as capable, if not more, to bring you spineless goodness straight from the gastrovascular cavity!

Interviewed!

For those who care what blathering I have to espouse, my friend Peter Buckland of the blog Forms Most Beautiful, interviewed me regarding my work in the Deep Sea, my views on atheism and religion, evolution, science communication and tattoos. Peter is a nice guy who is doing a PhD in education at Penn State studying the Evolution/Intelligent Design-Creationism issue in schools covered the Dover Trial for the newspaper Voices in Pennsylvania. If you enjoy reading about science and evolution in politics and issues in atheism, I recommend bookmarking his blog!

On the Allure of the Ocean's Novelty

SEED Magazine has put my article up on their website! Go there and take a read. Let me know what you think or address any questions, comments and concerns below!

UPDATES:

• Bora highlights it on his blog!

• Linked to by Neil!
  

• The article made the July 29th front page of The Morning News!

• OMG! Karen James of the Beagle Project, honorary Friend of the Invertebrates, has compared my writing in SEED Magazine to that of a young Darwin's writings while voyaging on the HMS Beagle. Somebody catch me while I faint, I've reached the epitome of my existence...

• Mike weighs in on the article!

Good News!

No, I didn't get a definite job yet, although several great opportunities in the works. But I did an article published!

Self-Promotion Yay!

Bora has an extensive interview with me up at A Blog Around the Clock. It's all about me! Yay!

Heavy Snow = Light Blogging

We got absolutely dumped on a few days ago. Finally winter is here!! So I am doing what any snow-loving midwesterner would do. Cross-country skiing! For those of you snowed in, get out and have some fun. I'll post later when I'm thawing out.

Trying out the gear after its been in storage for a year. Just needs a little wax!

TO95 Assimilated By DSN?

The word is out now. The blogosphere is a-buzz. Kevin Z is now officially writing for Deep Sea News as a fixed member of their team. I'm very excited to be working with Craig and Peter. They are a great couple of deep diving dudes with an accomplished scientific record to boot. From the comments over at DSN, people seemed a bit concerned about TO95. So here are some FAQs.

What does this all for The Other 95%? Well, nothing really. I'll still keep pluggin along here. Everything that I want to write about thats above 200m or terrestrial will remain here. This is also the home for my spineless music and personal ramblings.

Will we still be able to hear all the news and views of the world's most under-appreciated majority? Yes! I will still bring you content on the most amazing creatures this world has ever seen. Content may be more abbreviated, which may result in there being more of it.

You promised to do all these blog carnivals, your not backing out are you? I will still host blog carnivals occasionally as I've always done here. In fact, I will be looking to host blog carnivals on DSN as well.

Your not selling out are you? Yes and no. Sure, ScienceBlogs pays. But not that much and it will be split 3 ways. Peter and I will have enough to buy a box of diapers and Craig donates his to Oceana. Its nothing that will make a living. My reasons for joining are not monetary. I am passionate about the deep sea and enjoy working with Craig and Peter. DSN provides a high visibility outlet for me as well.

Won't you be stretched a little too thin? Yes, but I am always stretched out thinly. That is the nature of being a successful scientist. Involving yourself in several projects. Starting new collaborations while putting the finishing touches on old ones. My writing at TO95 and DSN nearly always takes place at home on my time, after my kids have gone to sleep. When I am in my office, I work on papers and my dissertation. My advisor wishes I could would work on my dissertation and papers during this time. But sometimes you need to do other things. Many grad students I know read trashy science fiction or romance novels. Many watch T.V. or play video games. Some spend their nights at the bars or other social places. I sit at home in blog in my spare time. I fail to see how blogging is any more of a time waster than those other activities. My blogging has led to great collaborations, friendships, potential job opportunities, educational outreach opportunities, being noticed by more established faculty and researchers, and improved writing that carries over to my dissertation. Jennifer Ouelette said her keynote address to the Science Blogging Conference that her blog was her 'writing lab'. This is a wonderful analogy that I will "link to" often in explaining why I blog.

Elliot and I hiking at Millbrook Marsh, State College, PA sometime in late Summer/early Fall 2007. We like to spread the "message" whenever and wherever we can! Photo by Linda Zelnio.

Open Lab 2007

As many of you may know, Bora and Anton have been tirelessly working to get the 2007 edition of Open Lab out in time for the NC Science Blogging Conference. I had the honor and sincere pleasure of being of ~30 judges to assist in evaluating the 450+ posts jockeying to be considered the "best of '07" (as denoted by OL2007 judge badge on the right sidebar). In an interesting twist of fate, one of the nominees decided to pull out their post and my post on "anemones raising a tentacle in support of evolution" was chosen as the first runner-up (disclaimer: I did not evaluate my own submissions)! I am now flush with pride at taking part in this whole process, just knowing I was considered as a runner-up was an honor in itself. Go check out all the other winning entries at the Open Lab 2007 gala.

TO95: The Return

Fig. 9. Proposed realization of a lobster-based robot.

I'm Back! And with science even! We are all moved into our new house (pictures later), got internet restored at home finally, most of my end of the semester/year stuff is taken care of and I got a case Leinenkugel at home. So there really is no more excuses. And in case you think I might have been idle while I was madly running about with my head cut off, I have been downloading and reading aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllll sorts of amazing invertebrate research, so I got a lot news and views to share with you. So keep tuned!

Other developments? If you are attending the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference make sure to come out to our session in Real Time Blogging in the Marine Sciences, co-moderated with K-lo, Peter E, Ricky Mac and Ceph-dawg J, word. Attendance is already at max capacity but you can sign up to be on the waiting list. Check out the line-up too, its going to be a good conference!

Big developments are underway as I speak. Its all hush hush right now, but I just wanted to plants the seeds of anticipation.

Dissertation Blogging Updates

I've considerably updated the Introduction and Chapter 2 to my dissertation blogging series due to comments from my advisor. It is much improved from before. So feel free to check it out and let me know what you think!

We are also moving this weekend so blogging will be slow. With two kids now, we are cramped in our little ole 2 bedroom duplex that we have called home since we moved to Penn State. Its a great place, but not for a family of 4. We are going to be renting a beautiful home on Mount Nittany, with State Forest for my backyard, a 5 mile scenic commute and plenty of space (in and outside) for our little planulae to run around! Its a beautiful place and worth every penny more than we are currently paying in rent. All hardwood floors, a wood-burning stove, enormous kitchen with oodles of counter space and smart cabinet arrangements, a fire pit in the backyard, a BBQ area with a stove for heat, plus the former owner left us lots of furniture to use. Its almost like heaven, except that we spent all night tonight cleaning it up... Expect pictures once we're settled in.

Check One PhD Milestone Off!

Just like Pono the happy face spider, I am as happy as a spider to pass my comprehensive exam and move on with my life. Of course, I was passed with conditions. I have to write 2 reviews in areas my committee felt I needed more background in before my defense: species concepts and how to the community ecology of my system relates to that of other well-studied systems. I agree with them and felt my performance was definitely sub-par, but it what it is and they feel if I correct a few of my deficiencies than I will have no problem finishing my degree. Looks like I'll be helping pay John Wilkins living expenses. All in all they were very supportive and asked good questions that got me thinking about my research in new ways. It was a terrifying, but good, experience.

Doomsday Scheduled Between 9 and 11:30 am

Dear Committee,

I offer you my head on a block. Please have pity on me and do not take it personally if I break down and cry at any moment during my comprehensive examination tomorrow morning. I beg of you to find it in your heart to find me worthy of donning the title "Dr." and joining the ranks of the academic elite. Remember that you too were one a graduate student. Let us forget the good ole frat boy days of initiation and progress to nurturing and random acts of kindness.

Sincerely, Kevin A. Zelnio

p.s. - Do you take cream in your coffee? Need some leaves raked?

Reasons Why I Am Lame

Yes, I know. This "science" blog 'highlighting all the news and views of the underappreciated majority" is been a little light on the science, news and views. Like any non-computer backboned human(oid), I get busy from time to time. What has been keeping my tongue is mainly teaching, grading and meeting with students and studying and assignments for my Molecular Evolution class. Of course, I am plodding away on my research getting some cool results that I hope to blog about this week.

But the main thing that will be keeping me until November 27th is writing my thesis proposal, making a presentation and studying for my comprehensive exams! (trembling in fear) Yes you can probably figure out that I'm a nervous wreck right now. These are the big ones, there's no turning back now. Passing these exams is extremely important for several reasons. Many of the grad student readers that are further along in their studies understand and can maybe relate themselves. On the plus side, I get a big raise if I pass! The format at Penn State's Dept. of Biology is for me to give a 20 min. presentation of my thesis and then get grilled on anything the committee wants to grill me on. I gave myself a tough committee too, it will not be easy.

So I'll still blog here and there as I've been doing for a couple weeks. It is sort of my refuge from the stark reality of life-changing examinations right now. But anything that will take substantial time gets a backburner for the next 2 weeks. Wish me luck!

Technorati

Ok ok ok... I joined Technorati too. Now I'm cool, like all the other cool science bloggers. I even have a nifty Technorati Profile too

Don't You Love It When You Get More Than 100% On An Exam?

Got my first Molecular Evolution exam back today, 26.4 points out of 25. Not bad I suppose, but I only 1.5 out of 2 points on te extra credit question:

"What is a gene? Explain how the concept of a gene has evolved through time and how recent discoveries in whole-genome expression data changed the definition of what a gene is."

I also missed 0.1 point for what I think are rounding errors (the correct answer for calculating nucleotide substitutions under the Kimura model was 18.9. My answer? 19.2... doh!). Otherwise, I could have had 27 out of 25 point dammit.

Seriously though, I'm really stoked. I've never done this well on an exam since I took a class on Darwin in Spring 2004 (one of my two A+'s as an undergrad, the other was in Physics I). I do not consider myself a smart person by any means, but I work hard and have a good memory for science stuff. Maybe its a sign that I need to do less ecology and get more into evolution?

Please Vote for Me!

Pisaster ochraceous says "Kevin Z has the support of Phylum Echinodermata!" (Photo from the Cabrillo Marine Aqaurium). I am running neck to neck with my contender in the BPR3 icon contest. The contest runs till this Monday, so please vote for me below (vote here if you are having any trouble)! In addition to fame and blogosphere-wide recognition, I can win some sweet science swag from SEED, Nature, PLoS and BioMed Central!

To make the pot sweeter, I will write an individually-crafted spineless song for every person who leaves a comment here saying they voted for me. Don't forget to mention what bad-ass backboneless brutha you want the song to be about!