[Sci Comm] A ‘litter’ of heart urchins off Lazarus Beach, Singapore

26th December 2019, Thursday After almost an 18-month long hiatus from field work (both intertidal and subtidal), I finally made it out to an intertidal walk off Lazarus Beach. Although I was meant to be looking at sea cucumbers for this field trip, I made an interesting observation of the sea urchins on that beach. …

[Sci Comm] Find ’em seashells on our dollar notes!

"Money, money, money Must be funny In the rich man's world!" ~Abba Did you know...? A recent conversation with my boss sparked us on this Googling spree to find out more about our Singapore currency notes. Did you guys know that there's a special marine animal that's depicted in Singapore's Portrait currency series? 😀 Now, take …

[Mothers in Science] Reflections of an Academic Mummy…

A newly minted academic mummy I've officially received a status upgrade: from the Giant Clam Girl to the Giant Clam Mummy! Last March 2019, I delivered my baby girl via caesarean section (or C-section). Being a pair of geeky parents, we named her after a female computer scientist, Ada Lovelace. The name 'Ada' also has …

[Op-ed] Cashing in the clams – A South China Sea ecological crisis

Author's disclaimer: This article was first written and submitted for the Second Edition of the Asian Scientist Writing Prize 2017. Given the recent news on renewed dredging of giant clam shells in the South China Sea, I am sharing this article that was written in 2016's context with investigate work done in Hainan Island (see …

[Op-ed] Celebrating World Oceans Day with my Ocean Heroes

Citizen Science is a way to encourage us all to get outside, hone our senses, and undertake meaningful activity to monitor and maintain our environment, improve scientific literacy and best of all, be happier and healthier. ~ Mara Kerry, David Suzuki Foundation. Here's a picture of me 10 years younger starting out my PhD research, …

[Sci Comm] Unscience the Giant Clams!

I'm a little late to the Twitter party on how to "unscience an animal"! There were some really interesting #UnscienceAnAnimal, but most of the examples were of (cute and cuddly) vertebrates. I thought, why not "unscience" my favourite giant clam? So here's my attempt to "unscience" two species of giant clams in their respective genera: …

Giant Clam Girl’s 2018 Highlights!

All-year round: International Year of the Reefs (IYOR) 2018 + Celebrating Singapore Shores January: Launch of the Code of Ethics for Researchers by the World Economic Forum February: Participation as Lead Author in the GEO for Youth Asia-Pacific publication by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) June: 4th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium (APCRS) 2018 June: Participation …

[Sci Comm] Singaporeans got eat giant clams!?

See-hum. La-la. Chut-chut. These are the common names of some of the popular shellfish eaten by Singaporeans. But when you ask for 'giant clam', many would not know what it is or how it looks like! Despite its popularity around the region, most of the published literature found that there was a limited market for …

[Publication Alert] ‘Two-Face’: giant clams can be badass too!

If you are a fan of Batman DC, then you must know one of his famous archenemy: Two-Face! The depiction of Two-Face that I know is Harvey Dent, Gotham City's former District Attorney, who turned to crime after half of his face became disfigured. His signature is the flipping of his lucky coin that decides …

[Sci Comm] Spying on ‘old’ giant clams…

A blast from the past - Giant clams at the Great Barrier Reef Expedition 1928-29! I love uncovering treasures of the past! When I was researching for my last article on the boring giant clams, I came across a trove of old film photographs made by the expedition team to the Great Barrier Reef in …