From Cadet to Captain: An angry review of Star Trek 2009

Note: I penned this “review” after walking out of the theatre in 2009 having just endured the hell that was sitting through J.J. Abrahm´s lens flare infested take on Star Trek. My views have evolved over the past 15 years on this “film”. There are certainly elements in the “Nu Trek” films that I liked but overall, I have to say that my opinion from over a decade ago stands and has likely gotten more negative and nuanced. Maybe I´ll revisit this at some point when I get sick of academic writing. – SMS 26/09/24

The writers really needed to write a quick and clean way to get James T. Kirk into the captain’s chair. Why? The answer probably has to do with the fact that that target audience has the attention span of your average meth addict and does not really want to see a character evolve; instead, they favor being presented with a “wham, bam, thank you ma’am’ product”. Most importantly: the movie studio needs to get this necro money cow on the fast track to more lucrative sequels. Unfortunately, this means the writing teams ends up force feeding us some of the most retarded bullshit I’ve seen in a science fiction movie that has a navy-like military organization in space. I’m of course referring to the already much bitched about cadet to captain journey that lasts takes up less than two hours of screen time.

Of all of the problems with the movie, this one is one of the hardest for me to swallow: Cadet to Captain. Cadet to Captain? What is this? Did someone submit a piece of fan fiction to the studio that got somehow got swapped with an actual movie script and no one noticed? This is what really destroyed my suspension of disbelief: military structure and function or the complete and total lack there of. It is reality check time. Starfleet has always been modeled off of the United States Navy. For the sake of convenience, I am going to completely ignore the fact that Gene Roddenberry was against the militarization of Star Trek despite writing certain military aspects into the series. Regardless of what Mr. Roddenberry thought, the topic was heavily written into the show over six television series so I’m going to treat it as something that makes Star Trek what it is (or perhaps “was” is more accurate).

Anywho, the reboot-happy creative powers that be obviously decided to keep these concepts associated with the previous incarnations of Star Trek yet they only bothered to apply them where it suited the plot (or lack there of). The military, any military, follows sets of rules and regulations and the chain of command. Arguably, Kirk is known for stepping outside of these rules and usually for the better. Of course, these tendencies have previously caused Kirk problems while earning him praise. But the rules were still there and very much dealt with as if they really applied to the characters on the screen. Hell, even Kirk was scolded for not following orders or outright breaking the rules (you know, the little things like stealing a starship, assaulting officers and so forth). Hell, they even demoted him from the rank of rear admiral to captain when they had enough of his bullshit and could not look the other way without losing face to the Klingons.

So here we have our rebooted Cadet Kirk: cheater and womanizer. That is about all the film shows us of Kirk’s days at Starfleet Academy. Oh, be sure to add arrogant, cocky, and insubordinate to that résumé. Yeah, that’s right-out-of-the-box captain material alright. So shit hits the fan and they use cadets to fill up starships that must be sent to Vulcan to get blown up by some unknown but obviously dire threat. God forbid you send a scout ship to do some reconnaissance first. Reconnaissance? What the hell kind of idea is that? That’s not action packed! So Kirk, against orders and by the grace Dr. McCoy, ends up on the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike. So for some reason (like surrendering to a supposedly insane Romulan miner from the future that has already destroyed a good chunk of the fleet) Captain Pike decides to leave Commander Spock in command of the Enterprise while he goes and get tortured. Oh, and by the way, Pike makes Cadet Kirk the second in command. What the hell?

After some bullshit, Spock tosses Cadet Kirk’s mutinous ass into an escape pod and sends him to Iceland where the CGI monsters live. For the record, as a legal resident of Iceland, I’ve never seen CGI monsters here. Cadet Kirk manages to find a young officer by the name of Scotty who magics them back to the Enterprise. Kirk proceeds to oust (via some contrived melodrama) Commander Spock from command and finally gets access to the captain’s chair. What is this? 90210 in space?

After Nero’s contrived antics are dealt with, Starfleet promotes Captain Pike to (Rear?) Admiral and Cadet Kirk to Ensign Lieutenant Junior Grade Lieutenant Lt. Commander Commander Captain and puts him solely in charge of the most advanced ship in the entire fleet. Oh, and it is also the flagship for the United Federation of Planets (which Pike tells us is important therefore it is). What the hell? Why? Oh, because this is the fastest way to set this up for sequels! The financial needs of the studio outweigh the needs of the mindless movie masses … or those of use that were of the misguided opinion that Star Trek was about telling stories and exploring character.

Being the captain of a vessel is not a job for just anyone. They don’t just toss you the keys to a Battlestar starship and hope that you’ll do just fine (and not drive it into a canyon or activate the self-destruct for kicks). A commander of a vessel usually has to be of firm mind, display good judgment, have proven their leadership capabilities and not just reach for the self-destruct whenever the script requires things to be dire (obviously Captain Janeway missed that day at the academy). Even if you are the hottest damn thing in history you still usually have to go through the motions and advance from one rank to the next. Unless you start a coup, you do not go from supposedly gifted cadet to the commander of the god damn flagship even if you save a metric crap load of people. Okay, so maybe in a time of great need you might be in the right place at the right time and you’ll move up the chain of command more quickly. Since Starfleet, in a moment of blindingly obvious stupidity, lost a crap load of starships and the experienced officers that go with them it could stand to reason that Starfleet was desperate. But why the hell would you reach for an arrogant, mutinous, narcissistic ass that had to resort to cheating his way out of a computer simulation to command your flagship? Oh, because the sequel needs Kirk to be established as a legendary captain.

Okay, so maybe a promising but flawed cadet steps up and saves the day in the most extreme of circumstances and displays great promise. So maybe you scold him about disobeying orders and being reckless while finding an experienced office to babysit him as you fast track his career. That would seem a bit more reasonable and in line with the military traditions upon which Starfleet is based.

Discipline must be an interesting thing in the future. Kirk sneaks aboard a starship. This is almost completely ignored. He challenges a superior officer and gets his ass tossed in an escape pod. Okay wow. Granted, mutiny has been handled differently but the logical thing to do in a civilized society would have been to throw him in the brig. Of course, if it were up to me I would have tossed the asshole out the nearest airlock.

What was Pike thinking when he made Kirk the XO (executive officer) over experienced officers already serving on board? What about promoting Kirk to Captain? I would have thought that Starfleet Command would have had some serious objections to this but instead they promote Pike to Admiral. While Starfleet Command might not have noticed, I’m sure the hardworking young men, woman and furry things that are already officers and have been working hard at their jobs would certainly take notice that an inexperience douche bag from Iowa gets instantly promoted to Captain while it takes them years and years to advance to lieutenant. Yeah. What a great way to alienate people and undermine the legitimacy of rank. Oh wait, this isn’t my father’s Star Trek. Never mind.

Did anyone else notice that scene where Uhura jumps on Spock in the turbolift? How about the fact she walked away from her duty station. First of all… Spock and Uhura. Cadet Uhura. Spock is both an educator at the Academy (or someone at least involved in some capacity) and an officer that holds the rank of commander! What about the general no-no in the military called fraternization? Can anyone say CONFLICT OF INTEREST? Gee, I wonder where this is heading when the writers inevitably throw Pon Farr at Spock?

So, my point is this: this garbage makes absolutely no sense except when viewed from the perspective of what the writers needed to do in order to make sure everything was set up for the extremely lucrative sequel. It is extremely demanding of the creative staff to expect us to swallow complete and total bullshit like a cadet being promoted to captain of the most advanced starship in the fleet. But hey, if people will roll over and give you money for a franchise that was once story centric turned big summer action block buster franchise devoid of anything but the most hackney of writing, I’d bet you would turn out total bullshit too.

In memory of Tom Elliott

I wrote this in 2016 in memory of my grandfather. As I was in Iceland at the time, my good friend Steve Mauter with whom Tom and I worked at Camp Miakonda read it in my place at a memorial for Tom not long after he passed. I’ve inserted random pictures from my collection.

I doubt that there is anything that I could tell you about Tom that you do not already know. I am pretty certain that everyone in this room has seen firsthand how Tom had a positive impact on those around him. I think we all know what kind of extraordinary man Tom was and appreciate the incredibly rich life he lived in his 80 plus years here.

I suppose that I am one of the few people that can claim to have known Tom from birth, being my maternal grandfather and all. He flew out to California to see me shortly after I was born, or so I gather from those early photographs of a slightly younger Tom with more hair but that same incredibly loving smile. After my family moved back to Northwest Ohio, I have my first memories of my interactions with my Grandfather. In all of my early memories of Tom, his kindness was apparent. He had a very good way of interacting with us “little people”; as far as I could tell his trick was simply to treat us like miniature adults and speak to us with a mix of kindness, humor, and an occasional healthy dose of sarcasm all while taking what we had to say seriously. There was always excitement in his voice when he interacted with me. On an Easter Sunday when I was not much older than 3 or 4, I remember him giving me a stuff rabbit which has inhabited my bed ever since. Even my children know where the rabbit belongs. At some point during those early years, we discovered that we had a shared love of jelly beans. As a result, my visits to his house were frequently accompanied by pilgrimages to Churchill’s to buy a bag of jelly beans, typically the black ones, in quantities that I sure made my parents roll their eyes. But spoiling their grandchildren with sweets is a grandfather’s privilege after all. My association with Tom involved jelly beans to such a large extent that I started to call him “Grandpa Bean”.

As a teenager, I had the good fortune of working with Tom and John at Camp Miakonda. In my mind, wanting to work with him was a no-brainer. I thought he was cool, what he was doing was interesting, and working at camp would keep me highly involved in Scouting. During this phase of my relationship with my grandfather, I opted to call him “Tom” for the sake of professionalism. He was more that accepting of the change of title as he understood that my respect for him had little to do with I called him. In these years in the Ford Center, Tom always amazed me with his patience, curiosity, professionalism, and dedication to our work. He absolutely loved to learn and solve problems and those years in the kitchen with him are the closest thing I’ve seen to a true “culture of learning”, even as someone that has been employed in higher education for the past decade. Tom exposed me to all sorts of new ideas and innovative problem solving. He gave me my first look at proper quality management (no doubt pulled from his experience with ISO), food science, and “non-conventional” chemistry which we should be careful not to speak too openly of. He openly shared what he knew and extracted new knowledge from others to the extent that he could in an effort to advance his own learning. We were always debating best practices, discovering new and better ways of doing things. And then there were the stories of his various adventures in life. The colorful anecdotes that he would share not only cast him in a more human light but also accented many of the virtues that have come to be synonymous with Tom’s life.

The Tom that I got to know as a scout was a near-perfect exemplar of many of the qualities that scouting instill in young people. He was always kind and honest in his dealings with others. As he often put it, “being nice matters”. Tom was also a model of what self-less service should look like. We hear a lot in our society about being of service but, at least in my observation, an ulterior motive is often at play in our society and the perceived perks of serving are often more important than the spirit of service. That is certainly not true of Tom. Tom serviced; he served his country, he served his community, and he served those around him. Tom was a near tireless servant and even as an energetic teenager it was difficult to keep up with a Tom in his 60s. No piece of work was beneath him. If there was something that he could do, he would do it. Tom wanted very little in return for his service. (Humorous tone please) Well, there was thing: a minimal amount of bullshit. Tom always struck me as someone that was quite pragmatic and he had little value for things without function. Tom’s kitchen was a place of equality; He valued and encouraged input into the task at hand just as he valued creativity and learning regardless of age, gender, educational status, or any of the other worldly titles that do not help you get a job done. Tom cultivated leadership and often encouraged us to step up to the plate and take charge. He was always supportive when a mistake was made and was typically ready to jump in and help get a task done. He’d often underplay major f-ups with humor and an incredible amount of grace.

Digital Camera Exif JPEG

When I was 17, Tom was with me the morning that my father passed away. We were in the Ford Center getting through the daily grind of getting ready for the next meal. He was always there for me, especially in those difficult weeks, months, and years that followed. He understood my desire to keep working and not take time off after the loss of my father. In many ways, Tom was like a father to me and was always supportive of the choices that I made, even if he didn’t agree with them. He some how knew how to ride the line between telling someone what to do and just being supportive.

Tom touched many lives in deep and profound ways and I was fortunate enough to have a window into the kind of influence that he had. I am truly blessed to have had the fortune to learn with my grandfather and I stand in good company knowing that many other young men and women have had the fortune to have been influenced by him. The pain of his passing is greatly lessened by knowing that the mentorship that he gave others will continue to make this world a better place for decades to come. Thank you, Tom.

Post glacial adventures in Northern Iceland

I´m always telling people (particularly my students) that you don´t need to stray too far into your backyard to find interesting and compelling science. Fortunately, living on a volcanic island in the middle of the North Atlantic often times makes things even easier. All one needs is some experience making basic observations (using our keen senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch). Of course, a basic knowledge of science is often helpful but not always necessary (after all we´re just making observations and asking questions).

When I take groups of young students outside to have a walk around in the nature areas around Akureyri, I frequently make a point of telling them about the glacial history of this part of Iceland. I usually start by pointing out that this part of the country was covered with a massively thick sheet of ice (a glacier) that is thought to have been a kilometer thick. More often than not (and depending on the age of the students), they respond with a bit of surprise at such a fantastical claim.

From here it becomes an exercise in making observations and putting things together. Now for this example, I´ll be using the Krossanesborgir hiking area (link) out by Bykó although there are numerous other areas here in Eyjafjorður for which you can use (including the walking path that bisects Akureyri and runs along Glerá).

Sulúr, familiar to everyone in Akureyri with functional eye balls, is a mountain, more specifically a stratovolcano, that formed around 8-9 million years ago and reaches and elevation of around 1.2 km. Now, the last Ice Age started around 2.6 M years ago and ended about 10000 years ago. Now there is ABUNDANT visible evidence that not only was this area covered by a massive glacier, but that Sulúr must have erupted sometime during that period. I´ve had people give me recent numbers, but it is safe to say this stratovolcano is a relatively recent victim in geological time. This is important to buttressing our claims of glaciation based upon some of the evidence below.

Let´s get started with the visible evidence of glaciation in this region!

Slickenside: Smooth surfaces

The basaltic rocks scattered around Iceland are typically quite jagged and course unless they were given sufficient time to crystallize nicely. In the area around Akureyri, you mostly find crystallized rocks which are not the smoothest of surfaces although you´ll often find exposed rocks here that are surprisingly suave, particularly on the top and south-facing surfaces as shown below.

These flat, smooth surfaces are very likely the result of a large mass of ice slowly creeping across the ground as it moves towards sea level at a glacial pace (literally). These polished surfaces are known in geological circles as slickensides (not to be confused with Slip ´N Slides, the pool toy that resulted in numerous trips to the ER and even some instances of paralysis. Oops). While we might not think about it in such terms, water ice is a hard material and while it cracks and splits easily, you rub enough of this material against another hard surface over a long enough period of time, you´ll flatten and polish the surface. These slickensides can happen in other scenarios where rocks slide past another surface causing friction (such as along fault lines).

Sometimes, you can even see striations in the rock indicating the direction of movement, particularly if you have bits of debris that are coming along for the ride which brings us neatly to our next piece of evidence.

Giant stray rocks (Glacial erratics)

This one is the first BIG giveaway. How did these huge rocks get here? It may be conceivable that a few of them were deliberately placed here by people, but to quote Ryan Reynolds, “but … why?”. There are dozens of these stray boulders scattered about the landscape. The other possibility is maybe these rocks just rolled here. Maybe, but because Súlur is several kilometers away and lumpy terrain, rivers, streams, hills, and other natural obstacles notwithstanding, it seems a bit far-fetched.

Now the correct term for these giant stray boulders is “glacial erratics”. These rocks were actually brought here by the movement of a glacier and dropped in random places as the glacier melted away. Glacial erratics can range in size from tiny rocks up to multi-ton boulders and can travel HUNDREDS of kilometers via this mechanism.

There are dozens of other glacial erratics scattered around Akureyri. The walking path that cuts through the University’s campus has several on display as does the walking path on the west side of Gléra in the forested area near Krambuð.

Scrapes along the ground: Glacial striations

Along the aforementioned flat and smooth surfaces, you can find deep gashes in the rock that seem to point in one direction.

Perhaps this is the work of those glacial erratics that we mentioned previously? If a large rock was dragged along the ground by a large ice sheet, it is perfectly conceivable that it would leave behind some pretty large dents in dings in the direction in which they were traveling. Kind of like the abrasions you´d get by dragging your knee across the ground albeit with less blood and tears. Indeed, this is exactly how such cuts into the rock form. These are known as glacial striations.

Volcanic glass: obsidian

Finally, we come to my favorite bit of evidence: obsidian. Obsidian is basaltic magma that isn´t given time to cool and crystalize causing it to form an amorphous material. This is similar to what can happen to water: slow cooling results in nice orderly crystallization (such as snowflakes or ice cubes) while rapid or uneven freezing can give you this slippery, uneven glassy ice (such as the “black ice” we find on surfaces resulting in numerous trips to the emergency room each year!). A similar process is at play here with obsidian (or “dragon glass”). When magma erupts and comes into contact with ice, it rapidly cools to make volcanic glass.

Presumably when Súlur last erupted, some of its magma rapidly cooled in this manner to leave behind obsidian such as those shown here:

The areas around Akureyri are full of little bits of obsidian. You can easily find them as they stand out against the dirt as they are intensely black and shiny. In the areas out by Byko, it may be a little bit harder to find, but it IS findable. Generally, as you look at areas closer to Súlur, you´ll be able to find a greater abundance of obsidian.

As this is a nature preserve, do not remove obsidian from this area. There is plenty of non-protected obsidian floating around Akureyri. I´ve trained my offspring to bring me obsidian and you can see with this picture below, there is some variability in the obsidian found in the Akureyri areas differ.

Conclusions

Northern Iceland was covered by ice at some point in the recent geological past and there is abundant visible evidence to support these claims. From rocks buffed smooth, to deep directional cuts into those rocks: the data is plainly available for all to see. Dig around and you´ll find obsidian that forms when volcanic eruptions are rapidly cooled (as a giant ice cub would upon contact with freshly erupted lava).

A blast from the past: An Evelyn Colorimeter

For the past several years I have been working on a manuscript for a book on the use of colorimetric methods for the quantification of organic molecules. One of the major landmark pieces of equipment that I kept reading about was the Evelyn Photoelectric Colorimeter; it is basically a quaint little wooden box that put an affordable spectrophotometer into laboratories the world over. This was one of the pieces of essentially ended the days of comparators (devices in which you compare the color intensity of a sample to a reference material) which were often subjective and contributed semi-quantitative work at best. I myself used a comparator which used long Nessler tubes for comparing the color of liquid samples, which a bit of skill it isn’t so bad although having an unbiased eye was not always easy.

The Evelyn Photoelectric Colorimeter was the handywork of Kenneth Evelyn, hence the name of the device. Kenneth Evelyn published a paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry title “A Stabilized Photoelectric Colorimeter with Light Filters” in 1936 (Evelyn, 1936; which can be viewed here). The design, while simple by today’s standards, was a major step forward in the field of spectroscopy. Perhaps unsurprising given the truly ground-breaking nature of this instrument, Kenneth Evelyn filed a patent in 1938 (United States Patent 2193315) for this photoelectric colorimeter for “biological” work. Consisting of a photocell and drop-in colored filters, the device put a cost-effective colorimeter into reach of many laboratories, ranging from industrial labs to clinical settings. Prior to this, a lot of chemical analysis consisted of traditional “wet” chemical methods such as titration, gravimetric methods which involved forming a precipitate and weighing the amount of material recovered, or the aforementioned color comparison methods in the event of a reaction that forms a chromophore.

Anyway, Kenneth Evelyn and a coworker (Helga Tait Malloy) published a paper on the colorimetric determination of Bilirubin using this device in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 1937 (link) which is regarded as one of the landmark papers in clinical chemistry. A flood of other highly cited paper quickly followed which quantified a wide range of molecules using colorimetry including a high cited method for determining phosphorous published in the Journal of Laboratory Clinical Medicine.

A bit about spectroscopy and how we use light to measure stuff

The basic principle behind colorimetry, and spectroscopy in general, involves the principle of absorption and transmittance. Some types of molecules absorb light very strongly at specific wavelengths allowing their concentration to be measured if you can measure the amount of light transmitted through a sample at a given wavelength. The amount of light that is not transmitted to the sample due to absorption can be used to infer the concentration of a particular analyte. For those of you that have taken a course in college chemistry or biology have probably heard this referred to as Beer’s law, or more accurately the “Beer-Lambert law”, which is described by the equation:

Where A is the amount of absorbed light, I₀ is the light intensity shining into a solution and I is the amount of light that makes it through the solution. So the cloudier the solution, the less light make it through or is absorbed. As you might guess, the amount of light absorbed by a solution is dependent on a few things, namely the concentration of the stuff that does the absorbing, the wavelength of light, and how “absorby” a particular thing is.

In this equation, A is again absorbance (at a specific wavelength), ε (epsilon) is the molar extinction coefficient (basically a measure of how “absorby” a particular molecule is for a specific wavelength of light), l is the pathlength (usually 1 cm to make the math easier!), and c is the concentration of a particular molecule. The beauty of this is that if we can measure the absorbance of light through a solution, we can infer the concentration of a particular molecule that absorbs at this wavelength! This technique has been widely applied to all sort of molecules over the past 100 years, from protein in blood and urine, to the amount of oxygen in the blood stream bound to hemoglobin, and literally tens of thousands of other kinds of molecules!

On the “absorby-ness” of a particular molecule as a function of the wavelength of light, consider carbon dioxide (which is something like 400 ppm in the atmosphere at the time of writing). Carbon dioxide gas lets visible light through with no problem, yet, infrared light is absorbed. If we could see infrared light, the world around us would appear to be very dark given how “absorby” CO₂ is for light in this part of the spectrum!

The Big Find

About two or three years ago I stumbled upon the Science History Institute’s page where they have a photograph of an Evelyn Colorimeter (link here) and I have to say that I was taken back by the elegance of the design. There is something about the appeal of a wood box. And one that does science? I´d love to have one especially given my love of spectroscopy. Unfortunately, I figured such a think would be well out of my reach if such things are even still floating around out there!

In the spring of 2021, I stumbled across an Ebay listing for an Evelyn Colorimeter for $150 (USD). I could not believe the price for such an amazing artifact, and one in seemingly in fairly good condition given its age. Before I could bat an eyelash, I had my credit card number entered and a confirmation email in my inbox.

The arrival and a closer inspection

Upon receiving the Evelyn Colorimeter (Figure 1), the first thing that struck me when I opened the box was the unmistakable aroma of antique wood. It smelled absolutely fantastic. The potent yet gentle scent of the wood reminded me of my grandmother’s walk-in closet in her bathroom. Lifting the instrument out of the box, I was amazed at how sturdy it felt. The feel of 70+ years of grime on the surfaces was unmistakable. All things consider, I’m nothing short of amazed at how well this instrument has stood up against the passage of time.

Figure 1 – The Evelyn Photoelectric Colorimeter

As can be clearly seen from the name plate on the front, this instrument was manufactured by Rubicon in Philadelphia. Later iterations of this instrument were made by Honeywell (which still exists today).

The top of the instrument, home of various knobs and switches, is a stainless steel plate (Figure 2). On the left, we find the switches that control the lamps for the “galvanometer lamp” and “colorimeter lamp”, and the middle hosts a tube for slide a sample in with a slot for the desired wavelength filter (more on that later), and on the right we´ve got course and fine adjustment knobs.

Figure 2 – The top of the Evelyn Photoelectric Colorimeter

On the top metal plate, there is a hand etched inscription that reads “149-11-9” (which can be seen a bit more easily in Figure 3 below). I am not sure what significance these markings are but I have to wonder if this particular instrument was manufactured in 1949.

Figure 3 – The top panel is etched with several numbers etched at the bottom center

Figure 4-6 –

Figure 4 (left) – The switches on the left side of the instrument panel definitely have some wear after some heavy useage

Figure 5 (center) – The sample holder and filter slot

Figure 6 (right) – Even more grime!

The Evelyn Colorimeter that I purchased only came with a single filter (660/690 nm) although the seller displayed a 565 or 585/640 nm filter holder and a few other filters that didn’t make it to me for some reason (perhaps they got lost when customs opened up the box and inspected the contents?). Careful inspection of the Science History Institute’s images of this instrument reveals that the colorimeter came with a 420/515 nm and 540/600 nm filters. The slot holder in the back has 6 slots suggesting that this instrument may have originally came with more filters which have no doubt been last over the years.

Figure 7 – The rear filter holder of the Evelyn colorimeter

Based on the wear pattern on the back of the instrument, it is pretty clear that some filters (or at least specific filter slots) were used more than others. Each filter set comes fitted with two glass filters (such as the 660 nm filter seen below in Figure 8) which serve to filter the light from the source to a narrower set of wavelengths pass through the sample and reaching the detector.

Figure 8 – The 660/690 nm filter that came with my slightly used Evelyn Colorimeter

Opening the front panel, which has a very satisfying feel to pulling on the Bakelite handle, reveals the colorimeter´s internal components: a detector, a sample holder, the filter holder, and the light source (Figure 9). To my surprise I actually found an extra bulb in the internal compartment!

Figure 9 – The internals of the Evelyn Colorimeter include a detector, sample holder, and light source. Note the extra bulb holder assembly (complete with broken bulb) and an extra bulb in the holder at the right. White residue and damage to the bottom wood panel are apparent.

On the inside of the door, this is a pair of instructions (Figure 10) for the operation of the colorimeter. The paper is old and very discolored but otherwise intact. The piece of plastic material covering this paper has become very brittle with age. Removing the pins such that I can remove the paper and restore the wood underneath is going to be a chore.

Figure 10 – A scan of the original instructions for the Evelyn Photoelectric Colorimeter

Restoration plans

Over the coming weeks, I plan on restoring this beautiful piece of history to its former glory. I’ll be quite curious to see if I can safely remove the grime and repair some of the superficial damage that this instrument has endured over the decades.

References

Evelyn, K. A. (1936) ‘a Stabilized Photoelectric Colorimeter With Light Filters’, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 115(1), pp. 63–75. doi: 10.1016/s0021-9258(18)74751-0.

The never ending pandemic

So after more than a year of life with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, I’m starting to wonder if this will ever actually end. I’ve been so busy adapting my classes and trying to minimize the damage done by in silico education that I’ve hardly had time to tend to my other duties such as writing up results for publication. All I want to do is get back to the lab.

The hardest part of this ordeal has been trying to maintain some semblance of academic excellence although I have some serious concerns about the validity of the academic work done, particularly at home exams, administered during lock down. One of the key lessons that I’ve learned is that an educator can really only count on their own abilities and cunning to see them through challenges. I am not sure that I can manage another year like this, with the ground constantly shifting beneath my feet.

Wow! So I finished my Ph.D?! Whoopdy-effing do.

I finished my doctorate last spring and have kept it on the down-low regarding advertising that fact. While I occasionally use the fact that I´ve got a Ph.D. to poke fun at myself when I mess up in front of students or use my powers of deductive reasoning to make very obvious statements, I do not see the point in “celebrating” this academic accomplishment. I´ve had a few returning students come up to me and ask if I´ve finished my Ph.D. yet which is followed by the obvious question: so can I call you “Doctor Scully”?. My reply to this is usually as follows:

That said, when I finish my next doctorate, I wouldn’t mind being called “doctor-doctor” on account of how ridiculous it sounds.

I´ve been admonished my friends, family, and co-workers for my constant underplaying of this ‘accomplishment’ (this has actually been a recurring theme throughout my life). And I get it! Well, sort of. I suppose some people are defensive and want to feel like their own academic accomplishments matter and mean something or they want to see people take credit for the hard work and so on and so forth. To each their own, I guess.

In my mind, having a doctorate means that I know stuff and have learned how to do stuff good but those things are not exclusive to Ph.D. holders. I´ve met dozens of highly competent and skilled people that are dedicated professionals that lack ‘credentials’. I´ve learned many of the skills vital to finish my Ph.D. from people that only have associates degrees or bachelor’s degrees. If it wasn´t for people taking the time to teach me real skills (like troubleshooting problems or not letting bureaucratic bullshit get to so you don’t have a brain aneurysm), I probably wouldn’t have made it through university let alone managed to become a bench scientist. I suppose the reality of the situation is, I was already a practicing scientist responsible for supervising the research work of students before having a Ph.D. so I didn’t really experience much of a bump in my abilities just by virtue of completing a Ph.D. so what´s the big deal?

I think my attitude on the subject goes back to how I was brought up. My father had a Ph.D. and he would never allow people to call him ‘Dr. Scully’. I suppose that makes sense given his profession (he was a clinical psychologist working with young kids). Why build barriers between you and the people that you´re trying to help? That just creates an unnecessary hurdle that you have to unpack later; that´s counterproductive A.F. especially when you are charging by the hour for your psychological services! He spoke poorly of his work colleagues that pulled the ‘doctor card’ when introducing themselves and I totally get that.

I think another critical element in this little attitude of mine was my maternal grandfather; he was a highly skilled professional that was always curious and pushing himself to learn new things. He could pick up a new interest and just run with it. He did not complete any formal schooling beyond high school (he got drafted while he was in college because he was a mediocre student) and that didn’t stop him from mastering new skills throughout his entire life and his careers.

When I was in university (the first time), I took a course in analytical chemistry. The guy teaching the course was only a few years older than most of us and he told us to call him by his first name. It was the early 2000s and a lot of the up-and-coming academics were much more chill about their credentials than the old timers. I swung by his office one day to ask him a question about something or other. He was chatting with an older-looking person but he flagged me in and answered my question. I said, “thanks Dan, I appreciate it” and turned to walk away when the old fossil stands up and stops me with a firm, “HEY!” and proceeds to put me in my place. “You address him as DOCTOR or PROFESSOR!”. I was horrified and had no idea what was happening. I was just a 19 or 20 year old kid and I had seldom been dressed down by an authority figure (it turns out that he was the department chairperson and had a bit of a think for old-school formalities).

To top it off, I moved to Iceland when I was in my early 20s. No one uses formal titles like ‘mister’ or ‘doctor’ or whatever. Everyone is on a first name basis here regardless of social standing or professional status. It took some getting used to at first but ultimately I think it creates a more open and friendly atmosphere so we can get to the business of discussion ideas rather than wasting breathe on such nonsense. I´ve read stories about how overly formal societies (such as Japan) leads to situations where people are afraid to point out the errors of their superiors which can have catastrophic consequences.

TL;DR: don´t call me “Doctor” Scully.

Örveruvistfræði Norðurslóða

An article regarding this year’s Microbial Ecology summer course.

Rannsóknastöðin Rif — Rif research

Dagana 22. til 24. júní s.l. heimsótti okkur stór hópur í tengslum við námskeiðið Örveruvistfræði Norðurslóða sem haldið er af Háskólanum á Akureyri í samstarfi við Háskólann í Reading, Bretlandi.  Í ár komu jafnframt nemendur frá Háskólanum í Massachusetts, Dartmouth og Háskólanum í Medellín í Kólumbíu. Nemendahópurinn taldi í heildina 29 manns og var honum stýrt af 16 manna teymi kennara og starfsmanna.  Það var því ansi mikið um að vera á Raufarhöfn þessa daga en hópurinn hafði bækistöð annars vegar í Hreiðrinu og hins vegar í Grunnskólanum.

Námskeiðið samanstóð af vettvangsferð, rannsóknarstofuvinnu, fyrirlestrum og verkefnavinnu tengdri náttúrulegri örverubíótu Norðurslóða. Í ár voru sérstaklega teknar fyrir örveruvistgerðir á Melrakkasléttu, í Öxarfirði og Jökulsárgljúfri ásamt fleiri stöðum.  Meðal örveruvistkerfa sem könnuð voru beint eða óbeint má nefna ýmis jaðarvistkerfi á borð við jökulís, hafís, súra hveri og basíska. Einnig var hugað að örverulífríki í jarðvegi móa og mela og í árvatni.

Markmið námskeiðsins eru þau helst…

View original post 100 more words

Hunting the Holuhraun Eruption in Norther Iceland

The Icelandic Metrological Office predicted an evening relatively free of cloud cover for the evening of September 12th so my wife and I jumped into the car and drive east hoping to find a clear vantage point to catch a glimpse of the lava field at Holuhraun. Additionally, a double CME had hit so at the very least there was a pretty good geomagnetic storm brewing overhead. With a good shot at catching a glimpse of the fissure eruption at Holuhraun and a near perfect shot at catching a good show of the Northern Lights, what was there to lose?

We drove around on a back road to Mývatn just off of Route 483 and found some truly stellar displays of the Northern Lights which had been visible as twilight fell.

  

Not finding any evidence of the eruption being visible, we turned around and went south. Driving down route 483 towards the ominously red sky, we eventually landed at a farm in Svartárkot where we were greeted with a road closed sign.

Not wanting to piss off the cops and risk getting arrested, we turned around and took a few photos on the way back.

An abundance of visitors

The research group has been blessed with a sudden burst of visiting Erasmus students and a visiting professor from Germany! All in all, we’ve got a total of six (6!) Erasmus students working on a variety of projects involving thermophiles. With any luck we’ll be able to clear the back log of environmental enrichments from last summer’s bioprospecting while kicking the ball down the road on a number of research projects.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Two undergrads from Finland working on the metabolism of Thermoanaerobacter strains (and a few Thermoanaerobacterium, Caloramator, and random other strains from class Clostridia)
• One MSc student from Slovenia working on characterizing a handful of strains (that are likely new species) from our lab (including members of Paenibacillus, Thermoanaerobacter, and Thermoanaerobacterium) and bioethanol using lignocellulosic biomass with our crown king: Thermonaerobacter strain J1
• Two BSc students from Montenegro working on characterizing some of our aerobic thermophiles from last summer and finalizing some enrichment cultures of thermophilic anaerobes
• and one Lithuanian that will arrive in June (hopefully) that will likely end up working on something or other (TBD!)

Hopefully these guys and gals will have a blast while playing with these bugs.

Footprints

Prospecting for psychrophiles in northern Iceland (2013)