“I want to show people our great world of #biodiversity. There are so many #animals and #plants around us, one or the other just needs to be made aware of it.
Every day I try to #inspire people of different ages to see how colorful and beautiful the #environment is. And that is one of the best jobs, to be passionate biologist and to pass in this #enthusiasm.”
Nenas @nena_weiler bag of science in January shows us her most important thing in her backpack (she never has a handbag) which is her binocular to explore the nature everywhere and every time. Also with her mostly is a tube to store exciting nature-stuff to look on closer.
I want to explain the name of a fish Oblada melanura, a bream which is living in the Mediterranean. If you know some Latin words and see how the fish look like, it’s very easy never forget this name anymore.
Between the body and the tail fin, the fish has a little black round point. And that’s it. Melanura means black, so it’s the description of the color. Oblada is something round, like the point and describes the point on the tail fin.
Often you can read the description sexual dimorphism during reading a book about animals in combination with the looks of males and females. But what does it mean? The word sexual means the different sexes, the male and the female. Dimorphism must be separated to see the meaning. Di means two, like a dialog, a conservation between two people. And morphism means the look of the animals. All in all, we can combine: sexes two looks – the sexes of an animal have a different look. On of the best examples is the Mallard. The males with a beautiful green head and the females with a brownie camouflage look. Do you know other animals with an sexual dimorphism?
Nena drawin is inspired by a little girl who said that not only facts are important to understand ecosystems, lifestyles and different species. Also a smiling is important to see the nature things they happen in front of your eyes.
Nena came up with a super cute giveaway that serves a scicomm purpose (that was April’s scicommchall). She writes:
“Scientific Bookmaks helps you to find the most intresting topics in a reference book you need for your studies or you just read because its fun. Sometimes there are several places in a book you want to find again and so you always need bookmarks. And when there bookmarks, with some little information and nice pictures, you get to know some new species and facts. And for kids, they can sample the bookmarks of the different topics.”
Don’t you just love how she included where to punch the hole so you can add a tassel to the bookmark? What would you give away for your project?
“Fire salamanders are animals full of legends. There are a lot of stories which tell about the naming about the beautiful amphibian. Some people though fire salamanders are not able to burn or they even are able to ignited a fire. Other people just believe they wake up if there is a fire going on or because of his cnspicious coloring. And again other people believed, they can delete fire with their skin secretion. In fact, all these myth are a little bit the truth. Fire salamanders always come out of their hiding places if it is getting warm. And in former times, it just getting warm with fire. So there was a big connection between fire and the pop up of fire salamanders.”
Nena gave us quite a challenge yesterday: Coming up with a “Tree of Project”. Today she shows us how it’s done:
My Tree of Project – My Tree of getting a good Biologist
I have not a real PhD Project or something similar, because of that I want to show you my biggest Project, to become a good Biologist.
It was very early I learned to be fascinated about the nature around me. With my siblings and me, my parents often went into the black forest to go for a walk. There they told us a lot about animal tracks we saw or all the huge trees. I am sure there was more, but that is what I remember from this time. This was my impact to learn more about life, and so I decided to study biology. At the University there were four lecturers and a lot of good friends who make my decision to study biology feeling right. During my studies I noticed that my way was more in the direction of animals than plants, and if I want to learn something about plants, than it must be trees.
At some points, probably it has to do with my time on Helgoland and the whale I saw for my first time, I had the feeling to capture all the great stuff I was discovering outside. I started to photograph birds, butterflies, bees, beetles, flowers, trees – to show the people around me what I have seen. In a nature conservation organisation, I started to talk about my experiences and my photographs and did a lot of volunteering work with kids. This leads me from my home, through Stuttgart to Kiel into the Zoological Museum where I started to guide people through the amazing exhibitions of this wonderful house. In the museum I got a lot of influence of the director, my colleagues which became one of the best friends I ever had. There I also worked in a marvellous group about science communication, where I learned more of talking about the fascination about my passion. Not least because of a great colleague, which became a good friend and something like a mentor and my personal life coach After two years I decided to go into a nature conservation organizationin the Southern Harz to work there to show people the beauty of the world and of biodiversity and so to leave behind familiar paths. Here I get a lot of connections to political actors, volunteers, farmers, like-minded people and opponents and also the industry. That’s were I am noew. All the time I am still learning to distinguish between idealism, realism and fascination and if I am at the end of myy Tree of Project, I want to be a good Biologist. Thanks to all they join my way!
“My work is like the little blue and glittering rainbow fish,
colourful like the biodiversity I experience daily again and again,
lively like the nature I am working in,
glimmering like the eyes of children they discover the live around them,
friendly like the people I am allowed to speak every day!”
Love it! What would your work be if it was an animal?
February’s #scicommchall is brought to you by Nena:
If your work was an animal, which one would it be and why?
Excited like a mating cock? Clever like a red fox? Like ants – looking chaotic but more organized we can imagine?
During remembering a talk of a professor last year, the #SciCommChall for February was born. He was asking his pupils “If maths was an animal, which one would it be and why”. One girl was answering “Maths is like a spider, just hit down”. Another little child compared math with a lion “full of respect”. Interesting was the answer of a boy who said “Math for me it’s like a hippo, first you are scared and later you are fascinated”.
So, take up the challenge in work and live and tell us which animal is reflecting your work!