The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

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oceanography

SONG: Something’s Knocking on the Door

24 July 2025 grant 0

SONG: “Something’s Knocking on the Door”. (OGG version here.)

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: Based on “China’s Bold Plan Unveiled: A Deep-Sea Space Station 6560 Feet… Read the rest “SONG: Something’s Knocking on the Door”

Scientific illustration of a medieval submarine, the "Rotterdam Ship," designed to ram battleships underwater in the Age of Sail.

Science Art: The “Rotterdam Ship” was one of the earliest submarines…, 1934

14 July 2025 grant 0

This image is actually much older than 1934; it’s just that that is when William Beebe published it (courtesy of the New York Public Library) in his book Half Mile Down, which is both… Read the rest “Science Art: The “Rotterdam Ship” was one of the earliest submarines…, 1934”

China’s undersea station.

19 June 2025 grant 0

Someone in China hasn’t watched Kristen Stewart in UNDERWATER… or so Sustainability Times leads me to believe. They’re reporting (rather breathlessly) on a “deep-sea… Read the rest “China’s undersea station.”

Saving the beach with some stick-and-palm-frond engineering.

26 July 2022 grant 0

Reuters reports from Senegal on a new anti-erosion project that uses dirt-cheap, pollution-free materials to defend an island from Atlantic swells that threaten to wash the land away… Read the rest “Saving the beach with some stick-and-palm-frond engineering.”

We just discovered a reef taller than a skyscraper.

14 November 2020 grant 0

How could it stay hidden? Science magazine celebrates the first big reef discovery in 120 years… and it really is big:

At 500 meters tall, the reef surpasses the height of the Empire

… Read the rest “We just discovered a reef taller than a skyscraper.”

Boaty McBoatface’s Big Breakthrough

19 June 2019 grant 0

The Telegraph reports on the internet’s favorite ocean-going vessel, the submersible Boaty McBoatface, and the plucky little robot sub has just been doing some potentially world-saving… Read the rest “Boaty McBoatface’s Big Breakthrough”

Scientific Illustration of an Early Modern or Late Renaissance class for exploration; how sailors got where they were going.

Science Art: favorite image Petrus Plancius Instructing Students in the Science of Navigation, early 17th century

16 June 2019 grant 0

Scientific Illustration of an Early Modern or Late Renaissance class for exploration; how sailors got where they were going. Click to embiggen

The Age of Exploration included at least a little bit of schoolwork. Here are navigation students learning the ways of current and coastline. Their teacher, Petrus Plancius… Read the rest “Science Art: favorite image Petrus Plancius Instructing Students in the Science of Navigation, early 17th century”

There are a lot of viruses in the Arctic ice – and they can show us where carbon is sinking.

1 May 2019 grant 0

Science News has a novel way to map out potential climate change – by tracking where new viruses are showing up in the ocean:

Water samples taken during a three-year expedition around

… Read the rest “There are a lot of viruses in the Arctic ice – and they can show us where carbon is sinking.”

SONG: One of Our Submarines (a penitential Thomas Dolby cover)

16 July 2018 grant 0

SONG: “One of Our Submarines” (penitential cover)

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: This has no scientific source; it’s a penitential cover for being late for the June song. … Read the rest “SONG: One of Our Submarines (a penitential Thomas Dolby cover)”

The Gulf Stream is weaker than it’s been for 1,600 years.

13 April 2018 grant 0

The Guardian looks at one of the less discussed elements of climate change – with a once-dependable ocean current slowing, slowing, slowing down in a way that could change more than… Read the rest “The Gulf Stream is weaker than it’s been for 1,600 years.”

Science Art: The Albatross Dredging, 1883.

13 February 2017 grant 0

Report on the Construction and Outfit of the United States Fish Commission Steamer ALBATROSS", by Lieutenant-Commander Z. L. Tanner, U. S. N. United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Part XI. Report of the Commissioner for 1883. Plate I, p. 111.

This is the science vessel Albatross, a steamship custom-built for the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, what’s now the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service. “The… Read the rest “Science Art: The Albatross Dredging, 1883.”

Science Art: Fig 172 – Results of Dr. Fulton’s Drift-Bottle Experiments in the North Sea, 1912.

29 January 2017 grant 0

An oceanographic map, from https://nemfrog.tumblr.com/post/155745107582/fig-176-results-of-dr-fultons-drift-bottle
Click to embiggen

This is a map of something invisible – ocean currents – made indirectly – by releasing messages in bottles and seeing where they land, based on who sent… Read the rest “Science Art: Fig 172 – Results of Dr. Fulton’s Drift-Bottle Experiments in the North Sea, 1912.”

Well, *anyone* could misplace a 600-mile barrier reef! Right?

22 April 2016 grant 0

The Atlantic (the magazine, not the ocean) just located a giant reef no one knew existed near the mouth of the Amazon River:

A team of Brazilian and American scientists have discovered a new

… Read the rest “Well, *anyone* could misplace a 600-mile barrier reef! Right?”

Once in the ocean, where does the plastic *go*?

16 December 2014 grant 0

Nature surveys the plastic in the seas, expects to see things like detergent bottles and Barbies breaking up into tiny “microplastic” particles, and doesn’t. So the… Read the rest “Once in the ocean, where does the plastic *go*?”

When icebergs floated off Key West…

14 October 2014 grant 0

Nature paints a more vivid picture of climate change – and the related changes in ocean currents – by retracing the paths of prehistoric icebergs in the years when the oceans… Read the rest “When icebergs floated off Key West…”

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acoustics aeronautics agronomy anatomy anthropology archaeology astronomy biochemistry biology botany chemistry climatology computer science ecology economics electrical engineering electronics engineering entomology epidemiology evolution genetics geology linguistics marine biology mathematics medicine meteorology microbiology microscopy nanotechnology neurology oceanography optics paleontology pharmacology physics psychology quantum physics research robotics sociology space exploration theremin zoology
RSS Help Wanted: ScienceCareers
  • Purdue University: Senior Principal Research Scholar, Tooth
  • Purdue University: Senior Principal Research Scholar, Epigenics
  • Endeavor Health: Research Scientist-Center for Psychiatric Genetics
  • Missouri State University: Assistant Professor (Biology Education)
  • UC Irvine - Department of Ophthalmology: 25-26 Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
  • University of Colorado School of Medicine: Department of Neurosurgery Open Rank Faculty in Human Cognition and Neuromodulation
Honorary Troubadours
  • Jonathan Coulton, Contributing Troubadour for Popular Science.
  • Laura Veirs, who knows her way around a polysyllable.
  • Thomas Dolby, godfather of scientific pop.
  • Squeaky, fact-based rock about fusion containment & rocket science.
  • Cosmos II, a.k.a. Boston University astronomer Alan Marscher.
  • Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, astrophysicist who makes music from cosmic radio sources.
  • Dr. Jim Webb, astronomy professor and acoustic guitarist.
  • Artichoke, the band behind 26 Scientists, Vols. I and II.
  • They Might Be Giants, unrelenting proponents of scientific popular song.
  • Symphonies of Science, the people who make Carl Sagan and others sing.
  • Giant Squid, doom metal about the sublime horrors of marine biology.
  • Gethan Dick,6 scientists, 6 musicians, 1 great album
Related Projects
  • Squid Pro Crow
  • Grant Bandcamp
  • Grant Soundcloud
  • Penitential Originals Playlist
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"Is it a fact—or have I dreamt it—that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?"
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, 1851

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