Should you take time off after your PhD?

I took time off after my PhD, and here's my thoughts on the matter: 1. I was very tired after my PhD concluded. I really wanted to rest. And this felt like a more important consideration than needing to find a job right away for the sake of being able to have a ready, assured… Continue reading Should you take time off after your PhD?

My 2019 AGU talks

AGU is a conference held in December each year, about a week before Christmas. AGU stands for American Geophysical Union. It's more interesting than it sounds, promise! Usually it's held in San Francisco. I've been a couple of time. This past December, I had three talks at AGU. Two were invited. I felt very special.… Continue reading My 2019 AGU talks

My protoplanetary disk in Blender3D

A protoplanetary disk is, in my opinion, a stupid word that means something very sweet ... it just means a solar system in its infancy, when it's still a baby, still developing. But instead of just calling it a "baby solar system" or, to be more regal, an "infant solar system", they had to christen… Continue reading My protoplanetary disk in Blender3D

Scicomm made polished, part 3

I finished a new animated Twitter thread for work. This one is on planet collisions. Woah! You can see it here. It's nine tweets in all. I wrote about getting feedback on  my animated Twitter threads earlier. I was sad because I was told about how bad and unpolished my work was. Well, after all… Continue reading Scicomm made polished, part 3

Construct3D: Making animations with real-life puppets

I saw a really cool talk the other day. It was the keynote on the opening night of the Construct3D conference. The speaker was Brian McLean from a movie company called Laika. They are in Portland, Oregon. Now, I'd never heard of that company before, but they've won some Oscars, and been nominated for more.… Continue reading Construct3D: Making animations with real-life puppets

Scicomm made polished, part 2

I was bemoaning the apparent lack of polish in my science animations and not quite understanding all the criticisms, but now it's a few days later, and something has dawned on me. I remember now reading people's blogs, and them saying all all their photos are put through pre-sets in Lightroom. Meaning every photo gets… Continue reading Scicomm made polished, part 2

Scicomm on Halloween

I made this short little video for work way back, just in time for Halloween: Here's a very special witch's brew to enjoy this Halloween ... the brew that brought us life. #HappyHalloween from CLEVER Planets@RiceEarthSci @RiceUniversity @RiceSpace @RicePhysAstro pic.twitter.com/fW6LwJk7YF — CLEVER Planets (@CLEVER_Planets) October 31, 2019 I spent the week leading up to Halloween… Continue reading Scicomm on Halloween

Bad audio, all the time

I usually use my trusty laptop to record kids' voices for animations. It usually works out really well, and picks up the kids' voices even when they're speaking softly. But I ran into a problem this time around at the summer camp. There was a super annoying buzzing sound in the hall where I started… Continue reading Bad audio, all the time

Animations of geology

In the last few weeks, I made one of the coolest things I ever made in Blender: these planetary marbles rolling towards each other while swirling inside: planetary marbles in #blender3d #b3d #planetaryScience #evolvingEarth pic.twitter.com/CzKp2Fi7wz — Lila Gardiner (@lilagardiner) June 9, 2019 And before that, I made a volcano and a glacier. I've been blendering… Continue reading Animations of geology