Meaghan Rates the Best Snugs

In honor of Meaghan's third paper being accepted (COMING SOON TO A PAYWALL NEAR U), Meaghan is going to do a slug and snail rating post - or, as her old roommate Shannon's mom refers to them, snugs. Why, specifically, slugs and snails? Because that's what Meaghan's paper is on.

Yes.

A vertebrate paleontologist had a paper accepted on modern species of snugs, because variety is the spice of science life (and also, she worked for years as a field biologist finding these stupid things, and then the data was never used for anything so she thought... well shit, might as well, right?). This new paper, called "The correlation between topographically-derived relative wetness and terrestrial mollusk presence and abundance," was co-authored with a bunch of reluctant geologists and three awesome undergraduates, and gave Meaghan an excuse to talk about snugs and how cute they are.

Cuz they are really cute you guys! (Photo from Cal Photos)

Meaghan's favorite thing about snugs is the epic names given to them by biologists, like if by naming them like viking warriors you can somehow make them cool to non-malacologists. So in honor of Meaghan getting a paper accepted on snugs, Meaghan will now rate and discuss her favorite Oregon snug species, a la this most excellent twitter feed about foxes and the great hashtag #rateaspecies.

The Whale Rap Battle You Didn't Know You Needed

Amy and Meaghan were in the same place for several consecutive days, and from the loins of their cohabitation sprung this glory - Basilosaurus vs Killer Whale. Turn on closed captions to see our witty witty lyrics.

One Lady, Many Beards

Recently Amy started a new job as the Collections Manager at the Museum of the Rockies, marking the end of her time as a graduate student! Yay for Master Atwater! But now that Amy is a professional, she suddenly has all this FREE TIME during her nights and weekends that she is 100% not used to. Does this mean that Amy is using her newfound freedom for exploring her new state and/or exercising and adventuring, or perhaps promoting the public good?

NOPE.

She is embracing her generation and spending most of her time on Snapchat.

Now, for those of you ancient decrepit fools who are not familiar with Snapchat, it is a form of social media based on video/image messaging with facial recognition, allowing for all sorts of strange filters for your face. Or as Scott Williams at the Museum of the Rockies calls it, "that other thing that Millennials use."

How can you not love this?!

Do I Even Want To Go To This Grad School?

Congratulations! You are considering going to graduate school in some sort of STEM field*. Ahead of you are a mountain of applications and decisions, and just think - that sensation you have of maybe I'm not worthy? Yeah, get ready for a LOT OF THAT. It can be really intimidating to apply for graduate school, and lots of people get too stuck in the mind set of "well what if I'm not good enough" when what they really need to be focused on is whether or not the place they are going is good enough for them. There will be plenty of time for self-doubt once you get into graduate school, but trust us, this absolutely is a key time to be picky.

But graduate school is a big life choice, and whether you have one school in mind or many different schools you now get to ask yourself the really awkward questions that will help you decide: Do I Even Want to Go to This Graduate School?

WHAT IS THIS?

Interview with the Premiere Geology Doodle Humorist, Alana McGillis

Alana McGillis is an awesome and hilarious paleoartist whose recently published book, “Daring to Dig: Women in American Paleontology” is the best book you’ll read all year. It’s an awesome combination of amazing facts, stories, and gorgeous illustration and it’s available now from the Paleontology Research Institution in Ithaca, New York! Alana is a graduate of Smith College in Massachusetts, where she fell in love with geology and storytelling, and now works in outreach at San Francisco Maritime National Park. Meaghan sat down with her for a Skype interview. Read the below interview for information about Alana, information about the book, and some really, really good cat geology puns - and for more of all three of those things, you can visit her website at https://www.alanamcgillis.com, or follow her on twitter at @GilisDoodles!

THE BOOK IS SO GOOD YOU GUYS

Meaghan was so excited she spontaneously grew extra chins

...wait u guys don't do that when ur excited?