Film

Writing

We have been writing stories in the form of blog posts and e-newsletters.
Read through what we have written. 

Journal Publication

Cheng H., Dove N. C., Mena J. M., Perez T., Ul-Hasan S. In press. The Biota Project: A Case Study of a Multimedia, Grassroots Approach to Scientific Communication for Engaging Diverse Audiences. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 
https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icy091

Blogs

February 25, 2019: Living with Wildfires: Fighting Fire with Fire https://www.gotscience.org/2019/02/living-with-wildfires/

E-Newsletters via MailChimp
We are currently taking a hiatus from releasing monthly newsletters. Stay tuned of our activities via our Social Media.

July 2017: Summer Symbioses: From the Mountains to the Sea

June 2017: Celebrate the Environment and the Oceans!

May 2017: Fueled by Fire

April 2017: Painting the Town "Green"

March 2017: As Spring springs forward, ants come a-"March"-ing

February 2017: Happy Birthday Darwin!

January 2017: As cold as ice

December 2016: 'Tis the Season

November 2016: It's Friday, Friday, Friday Oooh!

October 2016: Inaugural Newsletter

Blog Posts via Tumblr

https://biotatvorg.tumblr.com/

Social Media

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Twitter @thebiotaproject

Instagram @thebiotaproject

Did you know moray eels and cleaner shrimp have a close friendship? 🦐 Earth is filled with fascinating and unique symbiotic relationships. In honor of Earth Day, this week at BIOTA we will be featuring a few of contributing artist’s Helen Cheng’s symbiotic doodles! _______________________________________ Moray eels are largely marine animals that look like huge snakes 🐍 due to their long bodies that posses only one long dorsal fin that extends from the neck to the dorsal fun and allows the moray eel to propel itself through the ocean. Although their large gaping mouths filled with crooked teeth might strike fear into an onlooker’s heart, moray eels are actually shy and solitary creatures that spend most of their time hidden away in burrows and caves. ————————————————- Cleaner shrimp are often some of the moray eels’ only companions! The shrimp 🦐 will assemble into groups, sometimes called a “cleaning station” and move across the body of the host eel, even crawling into the eel’s mouth! The shrimp remove parasites and dead skin from the body of the eel as it provides the shrimp a hearty meal! The cleaning is mutually beneficial as the eel ends up with a whole body facial! Isn’t Earth intriguing?! 🌍 ————————————————- #earthday #earthweek #earthart #symbiosis #science #art #scicomm #communication #biodiversity #naturalhistory
Shake it up! Do you live in a high-risk area for Natural Hazards? Don’t know? Many Earth system interactions create hazardous environments for humans. Interactions between tectonic plates for example can trigger earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which can cause landslides and tsunamis which can lead to collapsing infrastructure, fires, and flooding. Yikes! Tracking the size and location of these types of events can help us to learn about the compounding effects that can happen from one small change in one of the evolving Earth systems. With this knowledge we can be better prepared to lessen or mitigate the impact that such hazardous events can have on humans locally, regionally, and world-wide. Many different organizations and scientists are dedicated to helping our communities in this way. Including the United States Geological Survey (USGS) which makes maps that document Natural Hazards. Here is a snap-shot from an interactive digital map showing the most recent earthquakes that have occurred around the world. The tectonic plates are drawn in red and recent earthquakes are represented as circles of different colors and sizes. The size of the circle indicates the size of the earthquake and the color shows how recent the event happened. Anyone can explore these maps to assess risk in their community: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/ And anyone can contribute useful information to organizations like the USGS by taking pictures, drawing sketches, writing notes, etc. of changes in the local community after a hazardous event. All of these contributions are forms of mapping! Share with us maps of a changing Earth system in your community! #cARTography #ArtisticMaps #EarthDay #EarthWeek #biota #scicomm #CitizenScience
Scrap-booking, blogging, adventuring, oh my! Some people who travel write a blog to keep track of and share their experiences and activities. Some people who go on vacation keep and collect ticket stubs, brochures, and pictures. Some people keep a daily journal to jot down thoughts and memories whether they are going on a long and far adventure or staying close to home. And some people make a map! Scientist, ultimate frisbee player, wine buff, teacher, bicycle enthusiast, daughter, reader, crafter, home chef, amateur gardener, sister, college basketball fan, runner, collector, scotch drinker, Woman…BIOTA member Alyssa Abbey chose to document an epic adventure with a close friend by making a map! This map is a burned free-hand sketch on a thin slab of pine highlighted with water colors to record memories from a 3-week-long bike-packing trip through Scotland. The map includes information about travel methods, historical sites, scotch distilleries visited, and geography. Now decorating her small apartment, she sees this map-art every day and recalls the wonderful memories from this amazing experience. Mapping can take any form and provide a variety of information. Have you made an adventure map, blog-map, or memory-map? Share with us an amazing experience you’ve had in map form! #cARTography #ArtisticMapping #bikepacking #science #earth #maps #earthday #biota
The power of water! The different landscapes we see around us are shaped by the geologic, hydrology, ecologic, atmospheric, and biologic systems on Earth. And sometimes one system outpaces another. Who would have thought that a river (The Colorado River) and the powerful energy of flowing water could create something so magnificent as the Grand Canyon in southwestern North America! This expansive canyon is one-of-a-kind and it’s alluring majesty has brought artists and scientists from around the world to marvel and create maps! An early explorer of the Grand Canyon was Clarence E. Dutton a geologist who was a participant and contributor in the famous John Wesley Powell expeditions down the Colorado River. Dutton was involved with making the first maps of the Grand Canyon by bringing along artists to help depict the landscape in the geologic survey’s he led in the early 1880’s. Here is an example of one of those maps (image downloaded from the Library of Congress website). Illustrated by William Henry Holmes in 1882, this gorgeous hand drawn map is the second panel of a three panel (triptych) panorama view from Point Sublime on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. These early artistic renditions of the canyon inspired the next 130+ years of geologic research on the formation of the Grand Canyon. A topic which is still highly debated among scientists. #cARTography #ArtisticMapping #science #earth #maps #earthday #biota #nonprofit #sciencecommunication