Listen to my first episode hosting the Santa Cruz Naturalist! I talk with my friend Allison Payne about her unique research, which involves using Northern Elephant Seals to eavesdrop on elusive Cuvier's beaked whales in the deep sea.
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My newest published story: "At the seaward fringe of my coastal city, there is a place that defies the rigidity of hard edges and boundary lines. In this place, where the ocean licks the land, a colorful and lively community thrives in an ecological borderland. In tune with the clockwork of the moon and sun, the ocean pulls herself back twice each day. In doing so, she unveils the microcosmic worlds of urban tidepools—worlds that occupy the liminal spaces between land and sea and between city and submarine wildlands. It is within this marginal strip of waterlogged earth that I find myself, ankle-deep in a Central California tidepool, probing a melon-sized sea anemone with my pointer finger. How does my skin taste? I wonder..." Read the rest at City Creatures
________________________________________________________________________________________ This is my first paid / professionally published story! I am incredibly grateful to PhD candidate Samuel Bedgood for anemone insight and to Julia Mason, Chapin Dorsett, and Dr. Gavin Van Horn for editorial assistance. A few months ago I joined the Free Radicals, an incredible community of scientists, science educators, activists, and community organizers who operate at the intersection of science and social justice.
We are currently calling on scientists to support #BlackLivesMatter and the abolition of our anti-Black policing system, critically consider their roles in the struggle for Black liberation, and donate. Learn More About The Project Also, follow Free Radicals on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for daily content updates. I hope that you consider reading through our social media threads and/or donating — Free Radicals is matching donations to $6000+! One of the anemone photos from my photo series "Between Tides" was featured by Inverse.com as one of their "Coolest Science Photos of the Week!"
Take a Look at the Article Here My newest (short) story!
"Today’s urban tidepool exploration begins as I kneel next to a patch of barren rock occupied solely by a squat, snail-like creature. She is a female Owl Limpet (Lottia gigantea), with ridges and barnacles texturing the top of her conical, chicken-egg-sized shell. As I rub my inquisitive fingers along her serrated upper surface, I notice a green hue and slimy texture—a layer of algae, I deduce—growing upon the surrounding rock. The algal layer is arranged in a striking patchwork pattern, as if a miniature lawn mower had been haphazardly dragged across an overgrown, slippery lawn..." Read the rest at The Urban Field Naturalist Project My latest article: "The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals fundamental insights into the structure of our planetary community; we have created a disease-friendly world. As of Tuesday morning, May 12, the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has infected over four million people in at least 187 countries. More than 285 thousand people have died. And while many countries and U.S. states have begun to reopen public life, it is decidedly clear that COVID-19 will not fade away in the immediate future. The coronavirus is still moving swiftly and silently to new people and communities, threatening to overwhelm medical facilities across the globe. In response to the infection’s continued spread, we humans are forced to confront several new realities for our interconnected planet. One of those realities is a phenomenon called zoonosis..." Read the rest at Mangoprism ![]() ________________________________________________________________________________________
For this piece, I had a lot of fun digging into the many many great stories on the topic. Here are some of the best resources that I gathered: For clear, concise, and entertaining science writing that is reputable and well-researched, I have been reading Ed Yong's stories in The Atlantic. These include Why the Coronavirus Has Been So Successful, How the Pandemic Will End, Our Pandemic Summer, and Why The Coronavirus Is So Confusing. For more information on zoonosis, our best resource is David Quammen and his book "Spillover". He was recently featured in the Emergence Magazine Podcast and also has recently written a piece in the New Yorker and a piece in the New York Times. Another great resource on the connections between human health and ecosystem health is the EcoHealth Alliance. Unfortunately, the government recently cut the EcoHealth Alliance's funding for bat virus monitoring in China. These are the kinds of programs we need to prevent future pandemics! For content focusing on racism and zoonosis, I recommend Looking Beyond Pangolins and Chinese ‘Wet Markets’ to a Culture of Racial Bias, Why We Shouldn’t Push for a Closure of China’s ‘Wet Markets’, and I Am Not Your Peril. The UN Environment Programme also put together a short video about zoonotic diseases. More resources to come! If you find any great stories or videos for me to include, send them my way — frankiegerraty [at] gmail [dot] com |
Hi! For several years, I have been gathering stories about science and society, nature and people, oceans, diseases, cities, forests, and more. This is a place where I can share some of those stories with the world. I hope that, while you explore these pages, you find something wonderful or interesting that catches your eye. Thanks for checking it out!
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