Well-Rounded Ruminations

March 22, 2019 by Sejal Soni

Long time no blog. 20 months to be exact. I’ve been living life in all (okay – most) of its glory. Generally though, I find my curiosity blooming not only on trips to the giant Pacific Northwest rainforests, but also in the small, everyday sights that inspire trips down internet rabbit holes. To catch you all up since the last blog, here’s a smattering of intriguing images that I’d like to share with you.

velvent ant 2.JPG — 1. Velvet Ants

They’re actually wasps

sleepy cheetah.JPG — 2. This sleepy kitty

These curious little flowers are also known as the toothache plant because if you pop one in your mouth it gives you the tingles and a zesty numbing sensation! They’re like natural pop rocks - without the sugar rush of course. They’re originally from Brazil but nowadays you might find them just about anywhere.

witches butter.JPG — 4. Jelly Fungi

*pokes the fungi*

life finds a way.JPG — 5. Life finding a way…

6. Vanilla!

Many people have heard me say that vanilla is one of the most underrated flavors out there. It’s synonymous with “plain”, but the warm, earthy flavor of true vanilla should be much more appreciated for its uniqueness and complexity.

Vanilla is the sun-dried seed pod from a tropical orchid. Vanilla flowers must be individually pollinated by hand. The seed pods take about 9 months to fully develop - yes, as long as a human fetus. Once harvested the pods must be dried in the sun during the day and wrapped in cloth and stored in boxes at night - yes, swaddled like a human infant. This daily coddling goes on for weeks to months - yes, like (ahem) a human child!

After the seed pods have transformed from these green-bean-looking things to delicate, dark brown sticks, they must be carefully sliced open for the pulp inside to be removed. Each pod produces roughly 15 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract so the price of vanilla is both high and variable.

After all that you would think that the toasted yet floral flavor produced would be considered the finest of flavors for the most delicate of palettes. However, perhaps because producers of packaged foods made vanilla their go-to crowd-pleasing flavor, it’s largely thought of as bland. Just a baking additive, and the most boring ice cream flavor.

7. Sexy Plants

8. Cat’s Eye Comb Jellies

9. “There’s no such thing as blue!”

Ok maybe there is such a thing, BUT the fact remains that a true blue pigment is exceedingly rare in nature. “But Sej, I see blue in the sky, some birds, those pretty blue butterflies, even iridescent blue in beetles!” - that’s you saying that.

What I mean is that many blue-looking things in nature achieve their appearance through a physical manipulation of light or by overlapping other pigments. The blue morpho butterfly infamously uses tiny transparent structures on its wings to reflect light in such a way that it appears a vivid blue. If you were to crumble up dried out blue morpho wings, they would just look grey.

Green is another tough pigment for animals to make so the smooth green snake has to throw together quite an outfit to get the look. It biologically produces a yellow pigment and has similar light reflecting structures on its scales that would look blue on their own. The combo of the yellow pigment and blue reflectors make it look green. But when the poor things die, the yellow pigment fades away quickly leaving the snake with only its blue outer coloring. But I guess you can’t blame a green snake for feeling blue about its own death.

10. The first time you meet a glacier

“Um… Can I get your autograph?”

12. Colonial Hydrozoans

Colonial hydrozoans are pretty common in the ocean, but did you know that they are not one animal but are actually a colony of multiple specialized organisms that are not found in any free-standing form? That’s like if your organs were all actually different animals and together they made a human. Crazy, right?!

Man-o-War “jellies” and By-the-Wind Sailors (velella velella) shown in these photos are examples of colonial hydrozoans. The Man-o-War’s stinging tentacles, digesting tissues, and other parts are made of groups of polyps, that are individual organisms. They are connected, and each group has specific functions that combine to what we think of as one individual animal. It’s actually more like a mothership than a jellyfish.

The Man-o-War and the velella velella are free floating on the ocean surface. They are unable to control the direction they move, and the wind often pushes them up on beaches where they can be stranded en masse. Who would think such a simple looking thing is actually a complex, highly-organized mish-mash of different life forms?

eclipse shadows.JPG — 14. Curvy Eclipse Shadows

15. A Nice Fuzzy Caterpillar

16. A Mural Made of Beans

Tepoztlán, Mexico

17. Weird Ice

Frozen water is another one of those things that seems straightforward and uninteresting until you look really closely. The very fact that ice has a greater volume than the same amount of liquid water is a wee bit mind blowing and leads to all kinds of strange phenomena.

These ice sticks are formed by melting and refreezing of shallow water. Because ice takes up more room, it squeezes itself as it’s freezing and then fractures into these little spindles. So neat!

The ice coming out of this stick is called hair ice, which would not even be possible unless the wood was colonized by a certain fungus after it died. The mycelium of the fungus (think roots or veins) leaves behind tiny vessels where water can collect. When it freezes, the ice is extruded in very fine strands that look like fluffy hair.

wizard island.JPG — 19. Wizard Island

Crater Lake, OR

20. Wine Diamonds

If you’ve ever opened a bottle of wine that is heavy in sediment, you might notice these little rocks on the bottom of the cork or at the bottom of your glass. Fear not, the wine is (probably) still good. What you’ve found are “wine diamonds”. Before you go rushing off to the bank, they are not actual diamonds, just crystallized potassium bitartrate - AKA cream of tartar - the same stuff you might use while baking or whipping fluffy egg whites.

Large scale wine producers will precipitate the tartar and remove it to have a consistent wine that doesn’t raise any eyebrows. But doing this takes a lot of time energy and does not make the wine any better - some wine makers even think this makes the wine taste worse. Next time you pull a cork, check to see if you’ve mined anything besides a nice glass of wine.

21. The salmon journey

Seen at SeaTac Airport

22. Trees you can fit inside

(Left image by Brittney Muir, center and right by Robert Collins)

All images by Sejal Soni unless otherwise stated; please don’t use them without permission. Thanks for reading!

Poop, Loop, and the Things We Recoup

June 24, 2017 by Sejal Soni

If you're like me, you've thought a lot about where things go when you flush the toilet.

If you're not like me and you're just wondering about it now for the first time - or maybe you've thought about it but never found an answer - that's fine. I'll tell you! If you live in and around Redmond, Bothell, or Woodinville, WA, everything you send down the drain eventually goes to the Brightwater Treatment Plant.

It's a relatively new (2011) wastewater treatment plant that features innovative integrated systems that turn stinky stuff into useful commodities, like energy and fertilizer.

Scenes of Brightwater (Photo by Sejal Soni)

Brightwater treats 25 million gallons of wastewater per day. This includes water from any flushing, handwashing, showering, dishwashing, and laundry you may be doing on any given day. It also includes certain kinds of industrial wastwater but it does not include stormwater or other kinds of runoff (which is water that falls on impervious surfaces when it rains, when sprinklers are on, etc).

After the water is treated at the plant, most of it flows 13 miles downhill to be dishcharged far out into Puget Sound. Before it's allowed to mix with water where our beloved orcas, seals, salmon, anemones, and other PNW marine life live, it must be treated to remove pathogens, solids, nutrients, and many other contaminants - including trash.

The treatment process! (Photo by Sejal Soni)

As you can see in the diagram above, water treatment happens in multiple phases (shown in blue). During preliminary treatment, large and small debris is removed from the influent. Much of this is trash that should not have been flushed - including "flushable" wipes and tampons!

For more on what you should and should not flush, check out the hilarious antics of The Roll Family:

These PSAs are both informative and hilarious! (Source: Queensland Urban Utilities)

After debris and trash are removed and trucked to a landfill, gravity and filtration are used to separate solids from water.

Bacteria and oxygen are introduced into aeration tanks so that the bacteria can consume poop and food that makes it down the drain. After this, teeny tiny membrane-thick straws suck up the water. The bacteria are too big and get stuck to the outside of the straws so all that gets through is water.

As you may have seen in the treatment process diagram, organic solids are removed from water at various stages in the process. These are made up of the bacteria that was introduced, bacteria and food bits that were screened out, any remaining sewage, and anything too big to pass through the membrane filter.

How to turn poop into plant food. (Photo by Sejal Soni) — How to turn poop into plant food. (Photo by Sejal Soni)

What's a water treatment plant to do with all these biosolids? Some plants incinerate their solids and some send them to a landfill, but these options are kind of wasteful because these nutrient-rich biosolids make some pretty primo fertilizer.

At Brightwater, biosolids are dewatered even further by a gravity belt thickener and the addition of a polymer. After that biosolids are processed through anaerobic digestion. This kind of biological processing produces "biogas", which is mostly methane (AKA natural gas) and can be used to generate electricity. In fact, almost all of Brightwater's energy needs are met through the burning of this reclaimed resource!

The gravity belt thickener in action. It may not be pretty, but this is an important part of sustainable urban water infrastructure. (GIF by Sejal Soni) — The gravity belt thickener in action. It may not be pretty, but this is an important part of sustainable urban water infrastructure. (GIF by Sejal Soni)

With a bit more dewatering, the biosolids - which oddly enough resemble poop - can be sent off to farms to feed the crops. They are sold under the brand name Loop (does the blog title make sense yet?) because they close the nutrient cycle: plants use nutrients, people eat plants, people poop excess nutrients, nutrients get treated and go back to plants! Apparently, they work especially well on wheat.

Some of the clean water at the end of all these treatment processes is used to water the lawn of a nearby golf course and athletic fields. The rest goes out to sea!

Reclaimed water, energy, and fertilizer are valuable commodities that make this a sustainable process and show why wastewater treatment plants of the future are more accurately called Water Resource Recovery Plants!

Brightwater is a treatment plant, a resource recovery plant, and a public art museum. This is the clean effluent on its way to the Sound. (GIF by Sejal Soni) — Brightwater is a treatment plant, a resource recovery plant, and a public art museum. This is the clean effluent on its way to the Sound. (GIF by Sejal Soni)

Thanks for reading! All photos and GIFs are by Sejal Soni and may not be used without permission.

This display celebrates some of the pathogens that are commonly removed during wasewater treatment. (Photo by Sejal Soni) — This display celebrates some of the pathogens that are commonly removed during wasewater treatment. (Photo by Sejal Soni)

Spring is in the Air... And on my Desk!

March 26, 2017 by Sejal Soni

I think we can all agree that the most notable features of spring's arrival are the little bud and blooms that begin popping up anywhere they can. Inevitably, the new sprouting brings out my inner gardener. I just have to get some dirt under my nails and some plants all to myself. This year I finally got it together to make a desk terrarium!

My new baby on the right! (Photo by Sejal Soni)

My terrarium features a pyramidal container, a handful of succulents, one cacti, a piece of sea glass, and the smallest marimo in the world (unconfirmed).

"What's a marimo?", you ask...

Tiny marimo in tiny glass bulb; quarter for scale (Photo by Sejal Soni)

It's a rare type of algae found in only a few lakes in the world. It is a free-floating algae that gets a spherical shape from being tossed in light currents. They can range in size from my baby one (about 0.5 cm across) to 30 cm across. They were originally found in Austria but have since been found in Japan, Iceland, Scotland, Estonia, and maybe other places. They have become popular aquarium plants (sometimes inaccurately called moss balls) as they only need an occasional water change and some rotation to get light to the entire sphere.

Gotta keep the marimo moving (GIF by Sejal Soni)

Terrariums enjoy a reputation of being beautiful low-maintenance, mini-gardens. No green thumbs or plant knowledge required! The carefree living is possible because terrariums are designed to be free-standing ecosystems where the plants and soil take care of each other.

More of my terrarium (Photo by Sejal Soni)

Shout out to Urban Sprouts and their inspiring terrarium collection (Photo by Sejal Soni)

So hopefully my terrarium and marimo will enjoy a long life basking in indirect sunlight. For now, it's out with the moth balls and in with the moss balls!

Explore the Spores: 10 Types of Fungi

December 13, 2016 by Sejal Soni

[ Note: This post was originally posted on AweSTEM.org ]

Human beings seem to always be fascinated by things that are squishy and things that are funny shapes. Enter: the humble mushroom.

When it comes to eating them, you either love them or pick them off your pizza with disgust, but when you find one out in the world, growing out of grass or mud or a dying tree, I know you feel an overwhelming urge to poke it. You want to find out what exactly this oddly fleshy, plant-y thing is connected to and what it’s doing in the damp darkness.

In the vast wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, mushrooms and many other types of fungi thrive on the mild temperatures, frequent rain, and abundance of decomposing vegetation. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and colors, they use dead matter as fuel, they grow in fairy rings, some glow in the dark, some make you high, and some can kill you if you eat them.

The fascinating world of fungi goes a lot deeper than I, a non-mycologist and novice “mushroamer”, can tell you. There is just so much to know! I’ve done some research and tried to identify all the fungi I’ve seen in the wilderness, but these little dudes can get pretty complicated…

Common Puffball

This odd one is found all over the world and is known for the crazy way it releases spores. As you can see in this gif, the mushroom releases a tiny waft of spores when poked with a twig. But the puffball does not rely on people with twigs to disperse its trillions of precious spore babies. Instead, it uses the rain. When a fat raindrop hits the outside of the puffball, the spores inside are pushed out through the little hole at the top. And voilà! The spores are released while the ground is wet from rain so they can float around until they find a suitable place to settle down and grow up.

PSA: Try not to breathe in the spores if you find one of these (Gif by Sejal Soni)

Pine Cone Mushrooms (some kind of Psilocybe)

Here we have (what I think are) Pine Cone Mushrooms. They are called this because you can often find them growing out of fallen pine cones. They use all that delicious decomposing plant matter to grow and pop up all over the woods.

Delicate mushies in the woods! (Photo by Sejal Soni) — Delicate mushies in the woods! (Photo by Sejal Soni)

Seen here peeking out from behind a leaf (Photo by Sejal Soni)

Amanita muscaria

This is the classic Alice in Wonderland mushroom that is known for its color, distinctive shape, and hallucinogenic effects. Amanita muscaria is found in many parts of the world. I found this one growing in the parking lot of Seattle’s largest public park.

The cap was about 5 inches across (Photo by Sejal Soni)

A bird’s eye view shows off the Amanita muscaria’s characteristic white warts (Photo by Sejal Soni)

Lichen

Lichen is technically only part-fungus. It is a fungus/algae combo that you might find growing on tree trunks or rocks. In these photos, the top side of the lichen is bumpy and white, while the algae-covered bottom side looks like the inside of avocado skin crossed with seaweed. This hardy combo of two separate life forms is found all over the planet, sometimes looking like a crust, sometimes more like stringy filaments, sometimes, in this case, more like weird slimy leaves.

Fading Scarlet Waxy Cap

These little ones growing out of a dead tree trunk may or may not be Fading Scarlet Waxy Caps (Hygrocybe miniata).They are named for the fact that they are initially a bright scarlet color when they first emerge from whatever dead thing they are growing out of. Over time, however, their color fades and they become more and more orange until eventually the mushrooms themselves begin to decompose. If I have identified these correctly, I think it’s safe to assume that they will soon be on their way to nature’s great compost pile.

A whole colony of these little orange ones are growing out of a decomposing tree stump (Photo by Sejal Soni)

Shelf Fungi

These are polypores, AKA shelf fungi, AKA bracket fungi… AKA conks. They grow horizontally out of dead or living tree trunks. They are often easy to spot and come in many different colors and styles. Artists have been known to paint or etch on large, thick shelf fungi, and it is interesting how much these look like clam shells. I found these unique polypores within about 20 feet of each other.

This odd looking, squiggly, orange polypore is hanging out on a log that is not even connected to the ground because it’s being supported by a thick vine (Photo by Sejal Soni)

This one is growing out of a fallen log (Photo by Sejal Soni)

The polypores on this tree are making friends with their mossy neighbors (Photo by Sejal Soni)

Guepinia helvelloides

Look how cute this little mushie is! It’s appropriately known as the Apricot Jelly Mushroom. Just adorable.

Pseudohydnum gelatinosum

According to mushroomexpert.com, “It is a Jelly Fungus that looks like a Toothed Mushroom”. This may be why is it known as the Toothed Jelly Fungus. However, it is also known as the false hedgehog mushroom, the cat’s tongue mushroom, and the white jelly mushroom. What would you name this translucent little buddy?

Bird’s Nest Fungus?

This may be some type of Bird’s Nest fungus, but it may not actually be a fungus at all. The tiny squishy bits attached to this twig look like cups that Thumbelina might drink from. But they don’t really resemble any type of fungus that I’ve heard of… So if you have information about this mystery, please leave a comment.

But really... What is this?? (Photo by Sejal Soni) — But really... What is this?? (Photo by Sejal Soni)

Some type of Peziza

This is a very floral looking type of cup fungi – likely a variety of Peziza. They are supposedly edible, although they do not look very appetizing.

Most of these fungi were seen in Whistler’s Bend Park in Douglas County, OR. Thanks for reading about the fungus among us!

9 Ways You Can Help Out Your Local Recycling Facility

February 15, 2016 by Sejal Soni

Recently, I had the pleasure of touring the Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility in Brooklyn, NY run by Sims Municipal Recycling. This state-of-the-art facility has been in operation for 2 years and has a 20-year contract with the city of New York to manage all the glass/metal/plastic recycling and half the paper recycling from Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. The property itself is home to bioswales, artificial reefs, a large wind turbine (which provides 4% of the facility’s energy), and many solar panels (which provide a further 15% of the facility’s energy).

Here are some tips I learned on my adventure that can help YOU be a better recycler!

1. Recycle Your Aluminum Foil

Sunset Park gets only get 10% of NYC’s foil! From take out to baking, foil is pretty ubiquitous, and even if there’s a bit of food residue on there, it is still one of the most important things to recycle. Mining bauxite (aluminum ore) and refining it into foil, cans, and other material takes a lot of energy so recycling aluminum is very financially viable. As long as the crust of your sandwich or your burrito leftovers isn’t in there, throw that foil in the glass/metal/plastic bin. Heavy food waste is no good because recycling is often separated by air jets that blow lighter things away from heavier things.

2. Keep the Lids on Containers

I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe because lids are small and can get stuck in machines or sorted incorrectly. But if the container and the lid are made from the same material, keep them together.

I had great fun with the timelapse feature on my phone! This claw crane is moving recyclables from a barge to the facility. Source: Sejal Soni.

3. Food & Recycling

Many avid recyclers thoroughly wash their recycling along with their dishes before throwing it into a bin. While cleaning is great, have you ever wondered whether the water used to clean recyclables is worth it?

Well, apparently it’s not. Residue of oils and other foods on recyclables is normal and expected. The people at Sunset Park will be the first to admit that the materials they sell to be made into new products are not clean. In fact, they say that the biggest concern with food in recycling is rats and other pests because recyclables will stay in your apartment/garage/back alley/kitchen for longer than trash will. Again, heavy food waste is no good because recycling is often separated by air jets that blow lighter things away from heavier things.

4. Cartons Are Not Paper

Cartons, like milk, juice, sometimes soup, and other things are cardboard on the outside, plastic on the inside, and sometimes have a layer of freshness-preserving foil in between. So are they even recyclable? YES. But not if you put them in the paper bin. In the city of New York, these types of containers are recycled as glass/metal/plastic, even through the paper part is all you see.

5. The Infamous Pizza Box

Here we have an interesting equation where cardboard + pizza grease = trash, right? Wrong! Well, sometimes.

Pizza boxes still contain a bounty of recyclable cardboard material, even if a few square inches of it is soaked in grease. When the cardboard is processed into new material, it goes through a bath of detergents and other chemicals that will separate the greasy bits from the clean bits, and the clean bits will be sent off to become new pizza boxes or packaging or paper or coffee cups.

6. Don’t Put Plastic Bags in the Recycling

As someone who collects recycling in a plastic bag and deposits the lot in her apartment building’s recycling bins, this was a newsflash. Plastic bags (and other non-rigid plastic like wrappers) get soaked in all the garbage juices from the collected recycling. This means they are dirty, wet, smelly bits of plastic that can clog machines and are so difficult to clean that facilities like Sunset Park can’t sell them to other companies, but have to pay other companies to take them (the facility receives 30 tons of plastic bags every day!).

The Slow-Mo feature is fun too! Source: Sejal Soni. — The Slow-Mo feature is fun too! Source: Sejal Soni.

7. Electronics Are Not Recyclable on the Curbside

Many electronics, like cathode ray tube televisions (non-flatscreen), contain toxic components. This makes recycling problematic and expensive. Leaving them on the curbside can result in a fine for improper disposal, which probably makes it more cost-effective to drop electronics off at an electronics store, even if they charge you $10-$25 to do so.

8. HDPE (AKA #2 plastic) Is the Most Valuable Plastic

A 1-foot wide, 2-feet long, 1-inch thick sheet of High-Density Polyethylene sells for $45 on Amazon. This is one of the most economically viable things to recycle as it is often white or clear, which means that when it is recycled it can be dyed. Things like milk jugs and laundry detergent containers are HDPE so remember to recycle them, especially if they are white or clear.

It's tough to sort out different colors of glass so much of it gets broken into cullet that can be use under asphalt on roads. When rounded off a bit more, the cullet can be used in place of gravel as seen outside of Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility.

9. Visit, advocate, and RECYCLE

When in doubt: recycle. If you are unsure whether something can be recycled, do it anyway. Because if it’s not recyclable, the ballistic separators, eddy current separators, and optical sorters at your local recycling facility will funnel it off to where it needs to go.

To find out more, check out your city or town government website for info on where your recycling and trash goes once it leaves your curb. Take a minute to look into it because you might even be able to take a tour of your local facility to see and smell recycling in action!

Our group at Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility

Special thanks to the Columbia Environmental Law Society and Eadaoin Quinn of Sims Municipal Recycling.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Sims Municipal Recycling or Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility

Thanks for reading!

Let's learn about a federal bill for ecological management of the Great Lakes!

February 08, 2016 by Sejal Soni

As part of my graduate studies in Environmental Science & Policy at Columbia, we conduct a simulation where my team (of 9 other wonderful students) and I (pretend) we work for the federal government on a piece of proposed legislation.

In the summer semester, we analyze the science behind the problem and proposed solution. In the fall semester, we conduct a simulation where the legislation has passed and we are creating an implementation plan that includes a staffing plan, budget proposal, and recommendations on other aspects of implementing the legislation to maximize public benefit and feasibility.

My team and I spent two semesters working on the Great Lakes Ecological and Economic Protection Act of 2015, which provides funding and federal administration for Phase II of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. At the end of every semester, we present a final briefing to our colleagues, faculty, and other guests. I had the pleasure of presenting the fall semester final briefing, so here it is in all its youtube glory:

Please take a look and if you would like to know more, check out our final report here.

I will admit that this is not my first appearance in an educational video on youtube... And since you asked so nicely, here is 15-year-old-me in a video about frog watching produce by the Mystic Aquarium!

I hope you enjoyed my teenage enthusiasm for amphibians! Thanks for watching!

My Life in Sunrises by Manju Soni

December 25, 2015 by Sejal Soni

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, dear readers! Please enjoy this video of wonderful sunrises by the wonderful Manju Soni.

Click here to see the video!

PS: the music is Moon Queen by the most talented artists I know, Scarlet and Andy of the band Finally Aliens! Please support them at Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/1OkT0Ua

Christening of the USS Illinois, Ft. Michelle Obama.

October 22, 2015 by Sejal Soni

I became an U.S. citizen four years ago this October. But only recently, on October 10th, 2015 did I get the chance to experience an American military celebration. Yes, this was a few weeks ago, but I had midterms...

That's me at the Christening in front of the sail of the Illinois. (Photo by Robert P. Collins)

The USS Illinois, a Virginia-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine that was commissioned by the Navy, was being christened by none other than First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, who is the ship’s sponsor.

A highly zoomed-in shot of the FLOTUS, Michelle Obama, with Jeffrey Geiger, President of General Dynamics Electric Boat. (Photo courtesy of Julie Signa)

Being a naturalized American with no military connection, this type of celebration is completely foreign to me and I felt privileged, not only to have the possibility of meeting Ms. Obama (I didn’t…), but to gain insight into one of the U.S. government’s most costly investments in defense.

This submarine apparently cost the American taxpayers $3 billion. But apparently it was worth it, because as Ms. Obama said herself at the keel laying ceremony last June, “Wow. All right, can I just break with protocol and say, this is really cool.”

The First Lady smashes the ceremonial champagne! It took her three tries... But only because it's wrapped in a metal mesh and skin that keeps glass shards from injuring her and other Navy personnel. (Photo by S. Soni)

The Christening ceremony included remarks from the Secretary of the Navy, 3 U.S. House Representatives, 4 U.S. Senators, and the Governor of Illinois.

Special thanks to Robert P. Collins for inviting me to the Christening as his plus 1.

Experience the Sea in NYC

October 06, 2015 by Sejal Soni

The big apple. The city that never sleeps. Metropolis by day, Gotham by night.

I live in New York City. For the first (and maybe only) time in my life, I can call it home. So naturally, I’ve done some neighborhood exploring and some tourist-oriented activities: late night pizza, authentic Japanese ramen, bottomless brunch in Brooklyn.

Ok… most of these revolve around food, but recently I experienced one of the coolest non-food-related activities in the city: the Seaglass Carousel at the Battery.

The building itself looks like a fish tank that looks like a chambered nautilus. It’s filled with 30 enormous fiberglass fish that spin on turntables that each rotate while orbiting the whole room! It’s set to custom-mixed classical music, and the fish glow in different colors while the room is dappled in blue light for an underwater effect.

The overall experience is like being caught in a shallow ocean current from the perspective of a bioluminescent fish. As a scuba diver and ocean-enthusiast this is absolutely thrilling considering it costs $5 plus a metro card swipe.

Don’t believe me? Check it out yourself and find out more at seaglasscarousel.nyc

All photos by S. Soni.

Super Blood Moon: a (probably) thrice-in-a-lifetime opportunity

September 27, 2015 by Sejal Soni

Sunday, September 27th, 2015. This date not only marks my fantasy football win over a world-renowned chemistry professor, but also marks a rare appearance of a super blood moon (...spooky).

What's that you ask? It's a phenomenon in the Earth-Moon-Sun system where the moon is at perigee, the point in its orbit when it's closest to the Earth, while also being in the Earth's shadow because of a total lunar eclipse!

Basically, the moon will appear unusually large and remarkably reddish. In other words, it will hit your eye like a big pizza pie. Thats amore!

Unfortunately, Manhattan does not present optimal viewing conditions and my phone does not have the optimal photographic capacity, so the photos I got just show the visible sliver of moon getting slightly smaller. The red hue was hard to see and even harder to capture due to clouds and light pollution. Thankfully, there were some nice smelling flowers nearby to take photos of as well!.

Large, medium, small moon slivers and pretty white flowers.

All photos by S. Soni.

Update: Here are some better photos of the eclipse taken in non-light-polluted Mystic, CT by Manju Soni. Special thanks to Manju!

The Earth's shadow getting in the way of the sunlight trying to reflect off the moon (M. Soni)

AweSTEM ebooks: Pizza Pizzazz

September 12, 2015 by Sejal Soni

This post was originally posted on www.awestem.org. It is intended to engage middle-school readers in a STEM topic.

Pizza Pizzazz: Where does food get its deliciousness?

What do pizza, burgers, apple pie, and French fries all have in common? They are very popular and delicious foods! If you cooked any of these foods differently, they would have a very different taste. Imagine if you cooked a pizza by boiling it in water. Would it still have the same yummy melted cheese and crispy crust? Probably not. This is because the Maillard Reaction would not have occurred.

Mmm... Hot Cross Buns get their golden brown color from the Maillard reaction. (S. Soni)

This chemical reaction happens between amino acids and simple sugars and produces a diverse range of complex (and mouthwatering!) molecules. The Maillard reaction (pronounced my-YAR) gives bread, meat, and many other foods their typical brown color.

You may have noticed that bread baking, steak searing, and potatoes being fried don’t taste or even smell the same. This is because the Maillard reaction takes simple sugars and amino acids and rearranges them into ring-shaped molecules, which become rearranged again into different molecules, and again and again until unique flavors and aromas are created. Each combination of amino acids and sugars in various foods, as well as how long you cook them, will give you distinct tastes.

It’s one of the most common reactions in cooking and it only happens within a certain temperature range — higher than the boiling point of water and lower than the burning point of the food you’re cooking.

The Maillard Reaction can also occur outside of the kitchen. Did you know it is one of the chemical reactions that make sunless tanners work?

Click here to read more.

All photos by S. Soni.

Slimy-Shelled Alien Spotted Once Again

August 30, 2015 by Sejal Soni

A generally fat, disk shape, pinhole eyes, shimmery slime covering most of it, and a flap that looks like the arm of a sea star covering a dozen small tentacles… What exactly is this animal?

Allonautilus scrobiculatus, of course, a type of nautilus so rare that it doesn’t even have a common name. It has been sighted recently in Papua New Guinea for the first time in 30 years.

First illustration of internal anatomy of Allonauticus scrobiculatus, 1912 (Public domain)

This remarkably rare species is considered a “living fossil” because it shares similarities with species seen in the fossil record. Today, these bizarre animals are threatened by something that would never be seen in the fossil record, homo sapiens. Specifically, illegal fishing and the trade in nautilus shells are leaving this population vulnerable to extinction.

Chambered Nautilus shells on display at Hoga Island Marine Research Station, Indonesia (S. Soni)

The marine world is genuinely such an alien place. It still amazes me that the organisms seen there are so different, sometimes even in their basic biological functions, from familiar land organisms.

I’ve always loved exploring the ocean, understanding and interacting with this most fascinating of places. Knowing that there are creatures as elusive as this slimy nautilus makes it all the more thrilling!

For more info on this sighting, see here.