You have probably seen this logo around. It stands for I Fucking Love Science, which is the brain child of British Blogger Elise Andrew. Since its release in 2012 it has awakened wild new interest and promotion, and beyond its visits on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic, was slated this year for a TV spot on the Science channel.
Elise (who does all her own posts) uses a cheery engaging series of infoblasts, relying on her many million followers to get the messages shared around the world. How successful is she? This year Forbes magazine rated her as one of the 30 under 30 to keep an eye on.
Guess what she wrote about this week?
Beavers Are Awesome For Ecological Conservation
Beavers are proving to be quite the helpful little creatures: First, they proved themselves to be awesome engineers in the California drought. Now, they’ve found a new vocation as biochemists. A recent study has shown that beaver populations are helping to remove nitrogen from waters in northeastern America.
Despite the ecological importance of beavers, they still face threats from fur trading and the stigma of being viewed as a pest by salmon farmers.
Arthur Gold, a natural resources scientist who worked on the project, said in a statement, “It’s noteworthy that the beavers have such an impact on improving nitrogen downstream. We have a species whose population crashed from wide-spread trapping 150 years ago. With their return they help solve one of the major problems of the 21st century. I don’t want to minimize that. We have to remember that those ponds wouldn’t be there without the beavers.”
Thank you Elise! I am always eager to get the word out and your voice is an especially great way to do that. Scientists everywhere are thinking about the need to work harder to make their messages understandable around the globe. And you changed an entire conversation for the better.
It naturally raises again the issue of allowing profanity on this website, which I know has over the years rattled some readers. Back when Suzi Eszterhas was planning to do the entire article on the Martinez Beavers story she mentioned that Ranger Rick would link to the website as a resource. So I went dutifully back and took out evey swear word. (Well, within reason. I left the ‘dams’). But since our kits died, she sadly won’t have enough material to do the story entirely about us. In a literal illustration of adding insult to injury, that means we won’t get to be a link either. Boo.
But every loss has its bright spot somewhere. There is always a silver lining if you look hard enough I guess. And I’m pretty sure this is it:
