The study of amphibians and reptiles. For some, the thought of snakes, frogs and lizards can be repelling, but to Dr. David M. Sever, herpetologist, biology professor and snake lover, it is intriguing.
Just step inside his office, and you’ll notice the large king cobra replica on the corner of his desk, decorated with Mardi Gras beads. This passion and expert knowledge of all things herpetology has paid off, as he has been recognized by the Herpetologist League as the 2013 Distinguished Herpetologist of the Year.
“As a child, I was interested in dinosaurs and you couldn’t find dinosaurs, but you could find these lizards and turquoise beads, things that looked like dinosaurs,” said Sever. “A lot of my acquaintance with [reptiles and amphibians] actually came through Boy Scouts. I’m an eagle scout now, and I worked at a scout camp for five years or so, so I was out there collecting things all the time.”
Sever, a Canton, Ohio native, received his undergraduate and graduate degree from the University of Ohio, then moved on to Tulane University to receive his Ph.D in 1974. Sever taught in the biology department at St. Mary’s College from 1987-2004, and he then moved back down to Louisiana, applied and secured the position as biology Department Head at Southeastern in 2004. This year marks Sever’s 10th year at Southeastern. Currently, he holds the Kenneth Dyson Endowed Professorship. Sever was honored to accept the award.
“It’s a pretty impressive list,” Sever said. “It’s sort of a who’s who of herpetology. They’re recognizing that you’ve had a long and very productive career.”Dr. Stan Trauth, president of the Herpetologist League and biology professor at Arkansas State University, says Sever’s past research projects were the reason he was chosen.
“Early in his studies, Dave’s histological research focused primarily on salamander cloacal anatomy and, specifically, the spermatheca or sperm storage structure in these animals,” said Trauth. “His numerous papers on these structures have dominated the international literature on this subject for decades.”
The former department head has been published in over 100 different scholarly journals. Sever has also been elected to the editorial review board of the Journal of Herpetology and the Journal of Morphology, and in 2011 co-edited “The Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Snakes.”
According to Trauth, Sever’s articles have helped herpetologists immensely, mainly because of the amount of detail he puts into his work. Overall, he has published almost 1,000 figures and over 3,000 micrographs in his papers.
“By combining ultra-structural studies along with his histo-chemical and light microscopic analyzes, he has reached countless numbers of researchers through his 140 or China beads,” Trauth said. “What are truly remarkable to me are his 32 papers published in the “Journal of Morphology.” Most of these he first authored, but as a co-author his influence on the writing style, overall figure design and number, and micrograph selection in those articles is unmistakable. A typical Sever paper will have about 2 tables with 8 to10 figures and each figure normally has 3 to 4 light and/or electron micrographs.”
Sever’s most recent research study, titled “Observations on Variation in the Ultrastructure of the Proximal Testicular Ducts of the Ground Skink, Scincella Lateralis,” was published in the Journal of Morphology. The conclusion was “that the ducts are absolutely homologous,” Sever said.
The writing on top of teaching can be hard to manage, but what makes everything worthwhile are Sever’s enthusiastic students, especially the graduate students, says Sever. With them anything is possible.
“A lot are from Louisiana, but we also get them from all over the country, and they’re a pretty carefree group of individuals,” Sever said. “They love to go to Mardi Gras and all the social life we have around here, but they’re also very serious, good students.”
In the future, Sever hopes to continue his teaching and research at Southeastern after his retirement. The main message of the speech he gave after receiving his award was professors can break remarkable ground in herpetology research even without Ph.D level students. A small, intimate school such as Southeastern does not mean one must limit their potential to do substantial, meaningful research.
“One could have a productive career teaching and doing research at an institution that’s primarily an undergraduate facility,” Sever said. “You can involve undergraduate students in your work. Even though you’re at an undergraduate school, you can still get grants. And I tried to encourage graduate students and professors to make the best of the situation.”
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Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Climb into a Victorian ice well to discover
Clamber down the two ladders that lead into the Victorian ice wells of London's Canal Museum until 20 October and you'll be greeted by a shimmering mass of perspex discs suspended from the ceiling. The 380 floating discs that make up Covariance, the art installation current displayed in the wells, are studded with 28,000 glass beads and are arranged into around 20 different designs, representing the work of particle physics detectors.
Particle physicist Ben Still from Queen Mary University London and artist Lyndall Phelps have collaborated on the installation for the Superposition project through the Institute of Physics' artist in residence programme. Covariance has been nine months in the making altogether, including three months of fourteen-hour days to complete its construction.
The pair were introduced by the Institute and given the brief of creating a physics installation for public display. Rather than focusing on one particular area of agate beads, they decided instead to look at the machines that make the science happen -- particle physics detectors.
"These [are] massive machines used to see the smallest bits of nature," Still tells Wired.co.uk. The installation aims to show the way in which the detectors build up a picture of how these tiny particles interact with each other on a larger scale, as well as reflecting the way the electronic data collected by the detectors is then used to create plots on computers.
Still showed Phelps many pictures of particle detectors, which are generally huge and impressive structures, and she "fell in love" with one in particular called Super-Kamiokande, which is buried under Mount Kamioka in Japan.
"I showed her some of the plots I was making for an analysis I was developing and again she was quite struck by how we took data from this massive machine and made these colourful plots to try and extract information." The colour running through the installation, says Still represents "the way in which the data is presented finally".
Many particle physics detectors, especially the ones in neutrino physics -- the field in which Still works -- are buried deep underground to try and negate the impact of the cosmic rays and particles constantly showering down on us, which creates "quite a turbulent environment" on the Earth's surface.
"To see very rare things, you have to get rid of that first, so you have to go deep underground," says Still. "We're trying to hear a faint whisper above a rock concert, so if you go underground the rock concert is muffled so much that you can actually start hearing that whisper coming through, and that's exactly how we're trying to see these neutrinos."
Detectors aren't just buried under the ground, but also under ice and water, making the underground ice wells, which used to store ice and are below the waterline of the canal, the perfect location to host Covariance.
It depends on the severity. If you feel severe dehydration, nausea and severe blistering, you need medical help. Often the effects of Sunburn aren't felt until 5 -6 hours after exposure. Cool the skin down with a cool flannel, ideally the cool water should have a couple of drops of pure lavender in to help reduce inflation, cool skin and help with Beads factory. Calamine lotion also helps to reduce itching and the irritation that accompanies it. Pure aloe vera (not perfumed) hydrates and cools and nourishes the skin. Painkillers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen help reduce inflammation. Stay out of the sun until the blistering has healed and no other symptoms remain.
Keep covered in the sun. Wear a sun screen every day, including the winter months. If you have sun damage on the face and neck area wear at least a broad spectrum SPF 25 daily. Exfoliate gently.
Some people opt for 'chemical peels' to remove the layer of skin cells including top layer of brown spots. Glycolic acid is an active ingredient that removes several layers of dead cells. Other treatments include Botulinum toxin type A, dermabrasion, intense pulsed light therapy. Generally these would only be available privately.
A natural approach would be to use natural exfoliators such as jojoba beads and ground apricot kernel .Face oils will help as they tend to be omega rich in oils so nourish and protect the skin whilst you sleep if used at night when the skin is not exposed to UV light and environmental pollutants
Superfoods are just as important to feed your skin from the inside so Omega 3, 6 & 9 oils, lots of fruit, vegetables, lean protein all help to restore the lusture to skin. Supplements may help depending on age and overall health and eating habits.
Read the full products at http://www.bestjewelrybeads.com/!
Particle physicist Ben Still from Queen Mary University London and artist Lyndall Phelps have collaborated on the installation for the Superposition project through the Institute of Physics' artist in residence programme. Covariance has been nine months in the making altogether, including three months of fourteen-hour days to complete its construction.
The pair were introduced by the Institute and given the brief of creating a physics installation for public display. Rather than focusing on one particular area of agate beads, they decided instead to look at the machines that make the science happen -- particle physics detectors.
"These [are] massive machines used to see the smallest bits of nature," Still tells Wired.co.uk. The installation aims to show the way in which the detectors build up a picture of how these tiny particles interact with each other on a larger scale, as well as reflecting the way the electronic data collected by the detectors is then used to create plots on computers.
Still showed Phelps many pictures of particle detectors, which are generally huge and impressive structures, and she "fell in love" with one in particular called Super-Kamiokande, which is buried under Mount Kamioka in Japan.
"I showed her some of the plots I was making for an analysis I was developing and again she was quite struck by how we took data from this massive machine and made these colourful plots to try and extract information." The colour running through the installation, says Still represents "the way in which the data is presented finally".
Many particle physics detectors, especially the ones in neutrino physics -- the field in which Still works -- are buried deep underground to try and negate the impact of the cosmic rays and particles constantly showering down on us, which creates "quite a turbulent environment" on the Earth's surface.
"To see very rare things, you have to get rid of that first, so you have to go deep underground," says Still. "We're trying to hear a faint whisper above a rock concert, so if you go underground the rock concert is muffled so much that you can actually start hearing that whisper coming through, and that's exactly how we're trying to see these neutrinos."
Detectors aren't just buried under the ground, but also under ice and water, making the underground ice wells, which used to store ice and are below the waterline of the canal, the perfect location to host Covariance.
It depends on the severity. If you feel severe dehydration, nausea and severe blistering, you need medical help. Often the effects of Sunburn aren't felt until 5 -6 hours after exposure. Cool the skin down with a cool flannel, ideally the cool water should have a couple of drops of pure lavender in to help reduce inflation, cool skin and help with Beads factory. Calamine lotion also helps to reduce itching and the irritation that accompanies it. Pure aloe vera (not perfumed) hydrates and cools and nourishes the skin. Painkillers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen help reduce inflammation. Stay out of the sun until the blistering has healed and no other symptoms remain.
Keep covered in the sun. Wear a sun screen every day, including the winter months. If you have sun damage on the face and neck area wear at least a broad spectrum SPF 25 daily. Exfoliate gently.
Some people opt for 'chemical peels' to remove the layer of skin cells including top layer of brown spots. Glycolic acid is an active ingredient that removes several layers of dead cells. Other treatments include Botulinum toxin type A, dermabrasion, intense pulsed light therapy. Generally these would only be available privately.
A natural approach would be to use natural exfoliators such as jojoba beads and ground apricot kernel .Face oils will help as they tend to be omega rich in oils so nourish and protect the skin whilst you sleep if used at night when the skin is not exposed to UV light and environmental pollutants
Superfoods are just as important to feed your skin from the inside so Omega 3, 6 & 9 oils, lots of fruit, vegetables, lean protein all help to restore the lusture to skin. Supplements may help depending on age and overall health and eating habits.
Read the full products at http://www.bestjewelrybeads.com/!
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