Friday, February 3, 2012

#HoosierScientist

Gee whiz, for a state without a sliver of Mesozoic strata, Indiana sure has settled in here. Hope you all are not tired of my use of this space to improve my home state's science communication culture yet. Time permitting, I plan on moving my Indiana content to its own page here; that way it's accessible and updateable, but not intruding so rudely in the main flow of dinosaur content. Thanks to those of you who have offered a word of support in comments as well as on Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook.

I'll keep this quick. In yesterday's post, I bemoaned an apparent lack of a motivated science communication community in Indiana. I asked Tony Martin, he of Great Cretaceous Walk and Life Traces of the Georgia Coast fame and a fellow Hoosier, if he knew of any other Indiana natives communicating science on Twitter. He didn't, which led to him inventing the hashtag #IndianaScientist. I thought it was a good idea, so I cooked up a little graphic.

#HoosierScientist Banner

I really have no clue how to get a hashtag off the ground (in fact, urgently wanting to raise awareness about something I care about this deeply has laid bare just how tiny a reach I actually have). But for now, I'm posting this in hopes that more science boosters, communicators, educators in Indiana get involved on Twitter and other social media networks. Maybe even represent the state in numbers at ScienceOnline 2013! How novel!

I've also started a public list on twitter called Hoosierscientist. I've got four folks on there, including Indiana natives and those who came to Indiana and are contributing to science. I hope to see it swell.

Rectangular web graphic

Once again: my Indiana Anti-Creationism graphics are available on flickr in a variety of sizes, and I will make print-ready files available to anyone who wants them! Please distribute widely. Hell, I've even got a banner for the new Facebook timeline in there.

4 comments:

  1. I didn't know Indiana doesn't have Mesozoic strata. Arizona has very little of it, though we have plenty of Paleozoic and Cenozoic strata. Our Mesozoic strata got weathered away, except in bits of Northern Arizona and around the Petrified Forest area, which has its famous Triassic layers. The Grand Staircase includes Mesozoic strata in Utah and Colorado (one of my favorite road trips).

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  2. We really have nothing between the Pennsylvanian half of the Carboniferous and the Pleistocene. PEFO is one of my dream destinations. Arizona is lucky to have Bill Parker of Chinleana and (though he's in Utah now, I believe) Jeff Martz. Doing good work, and it's great to follow along with folks like Gary Vecchiarelli and Susan Drymala who get to study out there with them.

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  3. I figured the article in this link was worth mentioning for encouragement: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/02/creationist-school-bill-looks.html?ref=hp

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  4. Thanks for doing this, David! Indiana probably did have Mesozoic sediments at one time, but those darned erosional processes took it away. Or Satan. Each theory is equally valid, should be taught in Indiana schools, and then let the kids decide.

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