Citations

Citations are a very important part of any significant scientific work. The inclusion of citations in writing establishes credibility within various works by providing independent sources that can be used to verify and support claims that the author makes. In addition, citations can make a piece of writing more helpful to others, as it refers them to other information sources that may prove helpful. In the type of writing that we plan to do, citations allow arguments to be built upon by taking multiple sources and implementing them into a single work. These sources make an argument exponentially stronger, because the information does not only come from our brains, but also the brains of other accomplished writers and scholars. As a standalone group of bloggers, one of our goals is to maintain a high level of credibility; to do this, a standard format that we can use in citing other sources will be vital.

For our blog, we will use the Council of Science Editors (CSE) Style of citation. As a blog that is science-based, CSE format was a logical choice that will convey information in the best way to our readers. Though we debated upon using MLA style, Chicago style, and others, the CSE style seemed to be the best choice and does not require the use of a bibliography. Not only is it simple to use, but it also is the favored citation style among many scientific scholars. Most sources we cite will be online articles and books, so the following example shows what to be expected from the citations we will use.

Example citation:

Last Name Initial . Publication Year. Article Title. Journal Name (Edition) [Internet]. [Last updated, cited Date Retrieved] Vol(Issue): Location. Available from: URL


Give the last name and initials of the author (example:  Yaniero W).  Multiple authors are separated by a comma.

Year the source was published

Give the article title using sentence capitalization (example:  Introduction to environmental science)

Name of the journal or work followed by the edition, if applicable

Date the article, document, or website was last updated

Date the work was retrieved

For an article, give the volume, issue number, and where in the publication it is located, such as page numbers (example: 42(234): 46-73)

Give the full URL

The Contributors

My name is Ali Iyoob, and I am a biology student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All my life, I have been fascinated by biology, particularly animals and ecology, and hope to devote my life to this worthwhile and fulfilling field of study. I have been active in a number of ornithological and herpetological research projects, allowing me to experience methods such as DNA analysis and radio telemetry. I worked at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science in the ornithology department, where I conducted independent Buteo jamaicensis studies, and eventually made a few breakthroughs regarding the far-west subspecies of the bird. Through Project Simus, I was able to use radio telemetry to track the movements of the Northern Pine Snake. I also keep and breed venomous snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas, and hope to start milking venom from them for use in anti-venoms that are in consistent demand.  By traveling to Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Texas, and the Carolinas, I now have a better understanding of population ecology and the reasons for environmental speciation. 

My name is Whitney Yaniero and I am currently enrolled as a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Living on the shores of Lake Norman as the only child of two Duke Energy employees, the environment and issues surrounding it have always been a part of my life.  However, it wasn’t until a good friend convinced me to take an environmental science course in high school that I became passionate about the subject.  Since then I have assisted in running a school wide recycling program, a creek cleanup, and created and maintained a hydroponic garden for my high school senior project.  I especially have an interest for food science, sustainability, and problems surrounding agriculture and the looming global food crisis. 

My name is Scott McLaughlin, and I’m a biology major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You could say I’m what could be called a typical college student: a food moocher, a guy who loves naps, and a person seeking to continue developing into my future self with college as a catalyst. What sets me apart, however, is that I’m one of those quirky people who have a love for the natural sciences. I've had many real-life experiences in this field, such as studies conducted within forests and more, and all of them have been wonderful. This subject isn’t the strong suit of some people, but for me, it’s something that I hope to learn more and more about as I grow older. Not only do I love learning about it, but I also love explaining it and teaching it to other people. Though many people aren’t particularly strong in the subject of the natural sciences, they still have at least a small amount of interest in it. I have a slight knack for simplifying things into 3rd-grade language while still getting a full point across, so I hope to put that skill to use in this blog by educating these curious people who aren’t all too familiar with the in-depth science jargon. If you have any questions about subjects I happen to write about, just comment or contact me and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can!

My name is Will Teachey and I am currently a sophomore undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am studying Chemistry with the end goal of attending Medical School. I really got interested in Chemistry my senior year of high school because of an awesome AP Chem teacher I had, and from then on, I have been fascinated by science in general and specifically Chemistry. This summer I had the incredible opportunity to work at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama, which is also my hometown. I was directly involved in cancer research, specifically breast and colon cancer, and this experience only further solidified my plans. I love reading science blogs and articles to stay on the cutting edge of what’s going on in the world of research. Hopefully I can pass on some useful knowledge to all the readers, and if not...well, yeah that would be bad!

Intro post!

Hey everyone!!! We hope to educate others about the wonderful, mind-boggling insights that science has to offer. We’re a band of science-loving college students who have come together to jot down our thoughts on the Internet. However, we’re not going to go about doing this in those boring old textbook ways; we want to bring excitement and an ecstatic sense of discovery into the readers of our blog, whether this be through a direct description of a topic or a clever explanation that we managed to devise on our own. Our blog is going to have three main topics over the next few months, including the natural sciences, behavioral psychology, and the humanities. Obviously, we are going to focus on the science behind all these topics, and yes, even the science behind the humanities. That might be slightly difficult, but hey, we’re learning, too! Our thoughts aren’t going to be an easy read for the weak at heart; if we manage to catch your interest, then we have done our job. The interest-catching will lead you on to learn about more discoveries being made in the field of science! Though we’re not going to use unnecessarily difficult terminology or ridiculously hard-to-understand thought processes, a basic idea of some science terms will be required to fully understand our thoughts. People around our age, in fact, are who we are directing our time and valuable insight toward. Other college students will have around the same amount of general knowledge that we do, so they will be readily available to absorb what we have to say. Young children, on the other hand, wouldn’t be able to read our blog with the same amount of understanding. In order to get the full experience of our works, we suggest that you be around the average college-student age. Through all this, we hope that we’ll spark your interest in the fantabulous field of science!