MACNA Online happening now

[AlanM]

Ben Titus is doing a really nice talk about clownfish and anemones on Zoom.  It's working really well.  There are 215 people attending the webinar right now.  The whole weekend of MACNA talks was only $30, I think, so I'm going to attend a bunch of them.  Did anyone else sign up for them?

 

Schedule is here: https://macna.org/schedule/

 

 

[maevepotter]

Shoot!! Thanks for reminder. I'm supposed to be watching this. Can you link me? I registered

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[AlanM]

everyone has a different link.  It should have gone to your email this afternoon.  I got a few of them.

[maevepotter]

Thanks I had to search. My inbox is a mess. I've been prepping for homeschooling and forgot all about it being this weekend already! Thank you so much for posting this reminder!!

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[maevepotter]

So looks like I came in about halfway through the rock flower talk. Can you give me a short summary of what they talked about in the clownfish symbiosis talk that I missed? Do you know if this will be available later as a recording?

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[AlanM]

I'm not sure about the later viewing.  

 

The Titus symbiosis talk was a lot about the mucus layer on the clown and how they prevent the anemone nematocysts from firing.  He talked a lot about the bacteria involved and the microbiome around the nem and the fish and how they get into sync within about 15 minutes even if the fish is kept apart from the nem.  Like a fish and a nem in a different tank but in the same water volume.  The bacteria travel through the water and establish quickly.

 

Colin talked about rock flower spawning, collection practices, and basically how to take care of them.

[AlanM]

Lynn just won a prize?!?

[maevepotter]

I'm not sure about the later viewing.  
 
The Titus symbiosis talk was a lot about the mucus layer on the clown and how they prevent the anemone nematocysts from firing.  He talked a lot about the bacteria involved and the microbiome around the nem and the fish and how they get into sync within about 15 minutes even if the fish is kept apart from the nem.  Like a fish and a nem in a different tank but in the same water volume.  The bacteria travel through the water and establish quickly.
 
Colin talked about rock flower spawning, collection practices, and basically how to take care of them.

Thank Alan. Really cool about the anemones and clown syncing.

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[lynn.reef.nerd]

Thanks Alan for letting me know!!! Getting my pack next week!!!

[maevepotter]

Disappointed in the quality of the talks so far. The rock flower was good, Sanjay was ok but not great, the women in reefing was great, but ran so late. Then the first talk Saturday was awful-monotone and just presenting her paper which is not enough in a talk, the veterinarian was great, and Mr Saltwater unfortunately I found very, very boring. The Hawaii panel decent but could have been more exciting.

 

It baffles me how speakers are not better vetted for being good speakers before they present, especially at such a limited conference where you can't escape to the show floor or really talk to others.

 

I encourage anyone who is going to give a talk to read "don't be such a scientist" about science communication and to try to communicate their story compellingly, and don't just read your slides.

 

This is a long time pet peeve of mine, having been to countless scientific talks and conferences during my time at Smithsonian. Science communication needs to be vibrant, interesting and on point.

 

Here's my blog rant on this from years ago.

https://treesneedroots.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/ohacademics/

 

And this wonderful rant here: Lehr, Jay H. “Let There Be Stoning!” Ground Water 23, no. 2 (1985):  162–165.

 

"Let there be an end to incredibly boring speakers! They are not sophisticated, erudite

scientists speaking above our intellectual capability; they are arrogant, thoughtless

individuals who insult our very presence by their lack of concern for our desire to benefit

from a meeting which we chose to attend.

We attempt to achieve excellence of written presentation in our journals. We can

require no less in our conferences. It is an honor to be accepted as a speaker who will

spend the valuable time of hundreds of scientists at a conference. Failure to spend this

time wisely and well, failure to educate, entertain, elucidate, enlighten, and most

important of all, failure to maintain attention and interest should be punishable by

stoning. There is no excuse for such tedium, so why not exact the ultimate penalty?"

 

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[Cris]

I have been on a few of them too.  I signed up for women and reefing but my daughter was here, so I missed it.  I am going to sit in on seahorse and pipefish at 6:00

[treesprite]

I really wanted to participate, but work kept me from doing it :(