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Improve concentration with a noisy café

22/7/2013

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Ever wanted to sit in a café to write your journal paper, but think that it'll be too distracting, and you don’t want to look like a pretentious wannabe best-selling writer? Well, it turns out that (a) listening to ambient noise helps the creative process and can boost concentration, and (b) you’re now realising that maybe those wannabe writers aren’t trying to show off their mad writing skillz (yo) in public, but they’ve already cottoned on to the powers of ambient noise. So the joke’s on you!

Alright, maybe you weren’t prejudiced like I was, but at the same time maybe you can’t spend all day in a cute café tapping away on your laptop. What to do?

I came across some solutions via a tweet on the #phdchat forums linking to this article on free ambient noise apps. You can look up these websites and listen to a virtual café for free! Or listen to music, or even white noise! Here’s a mini summary of the most popular sites:
  • Coffitivity: Simply café noise, which they suggest playing in tandem with your own music.

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  • Pandora: (US, Aust, NZ only) Free online radio where you choose an artist/album, and it recommends more free music you may like. Although listening to music lyrics may end up more distracting than muffledcafé  talk.
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  • Rainycafe: The best of café noise and rain, each track playable duelly or on their own. Be warned though, the minimum volume on this website is set quite high, so turn down those speakers!
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  • Simply Noise: I can’t say I totally understand the appeal of listening to white noise, but hey! each to their own I guess.
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  • Soundrown: My favourite thus far, this has the widest selection of ambient noise, from rain, café noise, and trains, to waves, fountains, crickets, and kids playing. The rain is a little more crackle-y sounding than Rainycafe, but at least the volume can be reduced!
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And then there’s OmmWriter Dana (version 1 - free, and version 2 - $4.11), which is actually a minimalistic desktop word processor and an ambient noise generator. This program opens at full screen with the aim of minimal distraction from other programs. Dana 1, the free version, comes with 3 music tracks (one of which is the noise of a train carriage), three keyboard stroke sounds (like ye old typewriter), and four background wallpaper designs. And although I haven’t used it to write any scientific papers (because it doesn’t support cite-while-you-write plugins) it was very relaxing for writing this blog post!
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The minimalistic layout of OmmWriter Dana 1.
A word to the wise: while I’d really love an app that played typewriter sounds as I tap away in MS Word or while writing emails, you have to be wary about what you download. Some keyboard sound programs/apps can secretly use keystroke logging to constantly record what key you’re pressing, whether you’re writing a private email or typing your banking password.
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Who says science isn't art?

15/7/2013

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The crocodile decay experiment has officially ended! I definitely haven't missed the putrid smell of death, although when I look at photos from the experiment I get a whiff of decaying flesh. Damn sensory associations!

The patterns of bone disarticulation are starting to become clear as I outline and colour code the skeletons in Adobe InDesign. It's arty science, but the artist is taphonomy, not the monkey drawing the shapes (haha). Below is a look at the 'before and after' for one of the crocs:  skull and vertebral column (neck, back, and tail) are drawn in various shades of green, left limbs in blue, and right limbs in red.

The degree of scatter of bones in a small, stagnant pool of freshwater is fascinating! You'd be forgiven for thinking that this would only result from scavengers tearing at the carcasses, or water currents pushing bones around. Pity that the water became so cloudy and murky that I couldn't photograph the carcasses sinking, but we work with what we can.
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Hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more of these outlines, along with robust writing, after about 6 months. Maybe longer. Depending on whether the peer review system is feeling kind...
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Obscure D.o.t.W: Qantassaurus intrepidus

10/7/2013

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I've felt too guilty for too long over the demise of my 'Obscure Dinosaur of the Week' posts, so it's time to bring them back from the brink of extinction!
Name: Qantassaurus intrepidus
Etymology: After the Australian airline Qantas for their support of dinosaur research at the time of discovery (1996), and the Greek 'saurus' (masculine, lizard); and the Latin 'intrepidus' (unshaken, undaunted, brave, bold)
Distribution: Early Cretaceous (Aptian) of south-eastern Australia
Type Specimen: Left dentary (jaw), almost complete
Estimated size: ~2 m in length
First described by: Rich and Vickers-Rich, 1999.
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Image courtesy of Wikipedia
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Interesting fact: Dino teeth are very informative
You might think that a fragment of a jaw bone is not enough to describe a dinosaur. But teeth are often very distinct between dinosaur groups, due to differences in evolutionary histories including changes in diet.

For example, based on the presence of a primary ridge on the inner surface of the teeth (see images below), Rich et al. (1999) described Qantassaurus intrepidus as a hypsilophodontid, a type of ornithopod (bipedal, unarmoured, herbivorous). But closer examination by other researchers found that many types of ornithopods, not just hypsilophodontidae, have primary ridges on their teeth (Agnolin et al., 2010). They also identified secondary ridges next to the primary ridges, and with a tooth count of less than 12, decided that Q. intrepidus was not a hypsilophodontid, but a basal ornithopod (Agnolin et al., 2010).
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Top left and right photos: jaw bone of Q. intrepidus in medial and lateral view respectively.
Bottom photo: close-up of jaw bone in medial view, showing the primary ridge on the lingual surface (Correction: after a kind tip-off from an expert, have replaced original image which showed secondary/subsidiary ridge on labial surface incorrectly marked as 'primary ridge').
Images courtesy of Museum Victoria (Photo: Benjamin Healley)
So why does this matter, in the grand scheme of things? Well, if we don't where a species belongs on the 'family tree' of dinosaurs (like the cladogram shown below), then we won't know what other species it's closely or distantly related too. And then we can't properly observe patterns of evolution. Which as you might know, had huge ramifications when palaeontologists started to realise that birds are actually feathery flying theropod dinosaurs.
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Simplified cladogram of all non-avian dinosaurs. Q. intrepidus was a non-dryomorph ornithopod.
References
Agnolin, F. L., Ezcurra, M. D., Pais, D. F., & Salisbury, S. W. 2010. A reappraisal of the Cretaceous non-avian dinosaur faunas from Australia and New Zealand: evidence for their Gondwanan affinities. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 8 (2), 257-300.

Rich, T. H., Vickers-Rich, P. 1999. The Hypsilophodontidae from southeastern Australia. Proceedings of the Second Gondwanan Dinosaur Symposium, National Science Museum Monographs 15:167-180
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Pompeii-like dinosaurs found in Russia?

2/7/2013

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If this is true, it would be absolutely amazing! According to this article in Truth of Amur, a new fossil site near Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, has been discovered with dinosaur remains preserved in voids, similar to how human remains were preserved at Pompeii. Russian paleontologist Yuri Bolotsky said in the article (poorly translated to English):
We all remember the story about the ancient Roman city, whose residents have been bombarded with live layer of volcanic ash. Because of this, not only survived the voids in the form of figures of people, but also keratin things - nails, hair. Something similar is found on excavations in Chita - voids that will help you understand exactly how dinosaurs looked, also we will be able to recreate the kind of ancient dinosaurs, even see their color. Moreover, we hope that we will be able to find a completely new animal - but it's still a big secret.
According to Google Translate, Bolotsky goes on to say, "Another reason not to dig in the Amur region - the lack of filthy lucre that smells independence". Um. What? I reckon I'll wait for a better translation before I report more on this site, but in the meantime I'm thinking of an excellent idea for a post-doctorate...
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    About the author

    Dr Caitlin Syme is a palaeontologist studying the taphonomy (preservation state) of fossil non-avian dinosaurs, crocodiles and fish from the Winton Formation, Queensland, Australia. Think forensic science or CSI for fossils, and you're on the right track!

    Posts on this blog focus mainly on vertebrate palaeontology and taphonomy, as well early career researcher (ERC) productivity tips and insights.


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