All at Sea

I thought this was an appropriate title for a Marine Biological researcher. It sums up so aptly the way the world actually is.

Science is all about asking questions and trying to find out the answers, but you are never quite sure what to expect and have to have an open mind to the unexpected.  At that point you again need to re-evaluate whether the result you obtained is actually reasonable and realistic. In essence – Is it possible?  It is this sense of unknown that attracted me to research and I suspect pulls other  researchers into the field.

To take the above argument further in biological research you often are not faced with a stark yes or no.  If you were to create a circuit, or a computer program it will either work or it won’t. Yes there are several ways to achieve a working end product, but when you flick that switch the lightbulb will the light come on?  The fact that you have a middle ground where your creature will do what you expect In Some Situations (!) makes analysis of results much harder to comprehend.  The usual problem is that it is not simply one factor which is to blame for the movement/feeding/speed of swimming, but a combined effect of several things and teasing apart the factors is a challenge, as is working out which factors are actually to blame.

There are days in my research where I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall and the only result is going to be depression. Finally, if I am lucky, something may click and I’ll suddenly have an enlightened moment and find one of the results. It may even result in several days work to calculate the extent of the effect.  Then I’ll be cast back onto the sea of irritation as I seek to find a new solution to the problem.  The unlucky scenario is that the idea is fruitless for one reason or another and I am back searching for ideas immediately.  Such is life.

While the science in the laboratory and on the computer provides the outputs in the form of scientific publications and reports, it is the time in the field which some of us live for overall.

I suppose the main reason for blogging this idea was to reflect the time I have spent out on the sea. A variety of ships from a small dory right up to the 73m long Cefas Endeavour have kept me afloat as I seek to discover the secrets that lay beneath our vessel.  Being at sea, never knowing what might come up, the long hours, endless horizons, or maybe some land and trying to figure out where you are, is fascinating! I particularly enjoy the magnitude of what we are doing in the middle of the night, when there may be the light of a fishing boat, a handful of stars, or jellyfish drifting past in the stern lights.  You are afloat in a world of your own, dependent only on the people around you, responsible for those who are asleep beneath you. It is frankly awe-inspiring. 

Best of all is the moment as the first light comes across the sky and the sun is within an hour of rising. That magical moment when you look around and remember you really are All at Sea.