Bethan Davies

Are websites and blogs an effective outreach tool for academics?

Posted on 11/05/2013 / by Bethan Davies

Introduction | The science of science communication | Outlets for science communication | Online science communication | Are blogs effective methods of science communication? | Summary | References | Introduction There is a movement afoot. Academics and scientists are entering the blogosphere, and their numbers are increasing 1,2. The majority are early career scientists – […]

Are websites and blogs an effective outreach tool for academics? Read More »

Photography for geoscientists

Posted on 20/04/2013 / by Bethan Davies

Tagged study skills

Using photographs in our research As geoscientists, we are trained to observe and record the world around us. We often use but simple tools – a note book, a hammer, a camera, maybe a handheld GPS. With these implements, we can make careful observations and deductions about the evolution of the landscape around us.

Photography for geoscientists Read More »

Antarctic ice shelves – the hidden villain

Posted on 18/04/2013 / by Bethan Davies

Tagged Ice shelves, sea ice

Sea ice and ice shelves What is sea ice? Sea ice is frozen sea water; it perennially expands and contracts during each year’s winter and summer. Amongst the sea ice are icebergs calved from tidewater glaciers and ice shelves. Melting sea ice does not contribute directly to sea level rise (ice floats and displaces the

Antarctic ice shelves – the hidden villain Read More »

Future sea level rise from ice sheets

Posted on 28/03/2013 / by Bethan Davies

A new paper in Nature Climate Change by Bamber and Aspinall attempts to untangle the thorny problem of how quickly and how much the ice sheets of the world will melt. The rate at which ice sheets melt is difficult to understand, because there are many processes that occur.

Future sea level rise from ice sheets Read More »

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

Posted on 22/03/2013 / by Bethan Davies

Tagged blogging

In my last post, I described the art of blogging and how it benefits me. The main conclusion I drew was that people love pictures, and that if you want to get people to your website, it must be figure-heavy. This second blog post describes how to avoide copyright conundrums and how to illustrate your

Pictures, pictures and more pictures Read More »

Why I Blog (and why you should too)

Posted on 17/03/2013 / by Bethan Davies

Tagged blogging, careers

This is a brief article on why I blog, some things I have learned by blogging, and how I think it benefits me. Lots of people have written articles about why blogging is important for outreach (for example, to counter misunderstandings like this), but I also think that blogging is good to do for you

Why I Blog (and why you should too) Read More »

The Open Access Debate: A possible solution?

Posted on 24/01/2013 / by Bethan Davies

Tagged open access

The Open Access Debate | Difficulties with Open Access | Blogging about your work | Open Access: A possible solution? The Open Access Debate A debate that is currently raging in Academia is a discussion about how and where scientists and academics publish their work. Some commentators have said that academics who publish their work

The Open Access Debate: A possible solution? Read More »

Antarctica’s contribution to global sea level rise

Posted on 17/01/2013 / by Bethan Davies

Tagged Climate change, Ice shelves, MISI, Sea level rise, WAIS

How much ice is there in Antarctica? And if it were to melt, how much would global sea levels rise, and how quickly?

Antarctica’s contribution to global sea level rise Read More »

Wildlife at Rothera

Posted on 19/12/2012 / by Bethan Davies

Tagged introductory, Rothera, wildlife

Wildlife at Rothera Rothera sees a wide variety of wildlife throughout the year. All of the large animals around Rothera rely on the ocean and particularly on krill as a basis for their diet; there is very little that grows on land. Seals, penguins and whales form the majority of the wildlife seen at Rothera

Wildlife at Rothera Read More »

Flying through the air

Posted on 18/12/2012 / by Bethan Davies

Tagged Rothera

An interview with a pilot Rothera has four twin-otter aeroplanes and one larger Dash-7. The twin otters land on skis and are the robust little landrovers of the Antarctic. They can land anywhere that is flat and snowy, and they can raise their skis to land on blue ice or gravel. Versatile and compact, they

Flying through the air Read More »