astronomy

Greta Fryxell

Greta Fryxell is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Greta Fryxell rather than just read about it. In short: Greta Albrecht Fryxell (November 21, 1926 – September 24, 2017) was a marine scientist known for her work on the biology and taxonomy of diatoms. In 1996, she was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Key takeaways

Greta Fryxell belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Greta Fryxell to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Greta Fryxell from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Greta Albrecht Fryxell (November 21, 1926 – September 24, 2017) was a marine scientist known for her work on the biology and taxonomy of diatoms. In 1996, she was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Education and career Fryxell graduated summa cum laude from Augustana College in 1948 and then taught in junior high schools in Iowa. She was one of the first women admitted to Texas A&M University where she first earned a masters in education in 1969. In 1975, she earned her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University working on the taxonomy of select diatoms. Fryxell worked at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Research Fryxell is known for her research on phytoplankton, especially diatoms, where she combined investigations of laboratory cultures with samples collected from a variety of locations including the North Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Antarctica. She established a framework for phytoplankton taxonomy and, on her 70th birthday, the Fryxelliella genus of diatoms was named after her to acknowledge her work on diatom taxonomy and biology.

In 1970, Fryxell worked with Grethe Rytter Hasle to describe a means to prepare diatom samples for microscopy. They would go on to jointly publish many species descriptions As a part of her graduate work with Sayed El-Sayed, Fryxell described the diatoms in a sample collected by the Shackelton expedition on 20 August 1908; the sample was collected from 50 to 80 fathoms near Cape Royds, Ross Island. She has described chain-forming diatoms and the evolution of diatoms. In the North Atlantic Ocean, she examined diatoms in Gulf Stream warm core rings and how the warm core rings alter the distribution of diatoms. In Antarctica, she examined phytoplankton found in Antarctic pack ice. Fryxell's research includes investigations into multiple species of Pseudo-nitzschia, and their role in toxin production in the Gulf of Mexico and the west coast of the United States. She has also worked on diatoms that produce domoic acid.

Selected publications Hasle, Grethe R.; Fryxell, Greta A. (1970). "Diatoms: Cleaning and Mounting for Light and Electron Microscopy". Transactions of the American Microscopical Society. 89 (4): 469. doi:10.2307/3224555. JSTOR 3224555. Fryxell, Greta A.; Kendrick, Gary A. (1988). "Austral spring microalgae across the Weddell Sea ice edge: spatial relationships found along a northward transect during AMERIEZ 83". Deep Sea Research Part A. Oceanographic Research Papers. 35 (1): 1–20. Bibcode:1988DSRA...35....1F. doi:10.1016/0198-0149(88)90054-4. Fryxell, Greta A.; Hasle, Grethe R. (1972). "Thalassiosira Eccentrica(Ehrenb.) Cleve,T. Symmetricasp. Nov., and Some Related Centric Diatoms1". Journal of Phycology. 8 (4): 297–317. Bibcode:1972JPcgy...8..297F. doi:10.1111/j.1529-8817.1972.tb04044.x. S2CID 86683111. Fryxell, Greta A.; Villac, M. Célia; Shapiro, Lynda P. (1997). "The occurrence of the toxic diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia (Bacillariophyceae) on the West Coast of the USA, 1920–1996: a review". Phycologia. 36 (6): 419–437. Bibcode:1997Phyco..36..419F. doi:10.2216/i0031-8884-36-6-419.1. ISSN 0031-8884. Survival strategies of the algae. Greta A. Fryxell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-521-18008-5. OCLC 649801905.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

Awards and honors In 1997, the Genus Fryxelliella was named in honor of Fryxell's work on diatoms. Other phytoplankton named after Fryxell include Actinocyclus fryxelliae Barron, Poloniasira fryxelliana I. Kaczmarska & J.M. Ehrman, and Thalassiosira fryxelliae. In 1988, she received the Provasoli Award of the Phycological Society of America for a paper she co-authored with A. Michelle Wood and Russell Lande. In 1996, she received the Phycological Society of America's Award of Excellence. She also received a Distinguished Achievement Award in Research from Texas A&M's Former Students' Association (1991) and was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1996. In 2008, there was a festschrift in her honor.

Personal life She married the botanist Paul Fryxell in 1947. Three of her children contributed to the 2008 festschrift in her honor: Karl J Fryxell, Joan E. Fryxell, and Glen E. Fryxell.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Greta Fryxell

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Greta Fryxell claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Greta Fryxell before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Greta Fryxell ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Greta Fryxell

In research: Greta Fryxell appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Greta Fryxell in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Greta Fryxell is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1926 births, 2017 deaths, 20th-century American botanists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Greta Fryxell outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Greta Fryxell in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Greta Fryxell means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Greta Fryxell out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Greta Fryxell in simple terms?

Why does Greta Fryxell matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Greta Fryxell?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Greta Fryxell.