A lab meeting was scheduled for today with all of the people involved in the Alaska experiments. Dr. Natali headed up the meeting from one of her lab rooms at the University of Florida, while Elizabeth and I joined in via a slide presentation on one computer and speaking with everyone on Skype from another computer.
Lab meetings are a very important part of the whole experimental process. It is a way for scientists to share their work with other scientists and lab personnel working in the same building, and many times on similar experiments. Through this sharing of ideas, communication is opened up and everyone is welcome to comment and give suggestions on each other’s work. Many times a scientist will bring up a question on a problem that has been an issue with the experiment or data and someone in the audience will have some prior experience with that particular problem and will be able to offer advice or some insight into a solution.
We can talk and share with everyone in Florida and decide the best way to proceed with the experiment.
We can Skype with the team in Florida while we are communicating and sharing ideas about each others work. Researchers need to be good communicators.
Today, a good friend of mine, Andres, who is a graduate student and has been working in Alaska for several years putting together his research on Thermokarsts and their role in the carbon balance, was presenting an overview of his poster that represents the work he will defend in April to get his Masters Degree. By sharing his poster he received many good questions and ideas that will help him prepare for his defense. A thermokarst is an uneven depression in the ground caused by melting in the permafrost.
This photo of a thermokarst area was taken by Andres. The light sunken in area is the thermokarst. This is one of the places in Alaska he has been studying the past few years.
Another advantage to having lab meetings is to help direct the science that is on-going right now. That is where Elizabeth and I come in. Elizabeth was able to share information about what has been going on in the field and how the data has been collected. Even if you are following a procedure or protocol, many things change in the field due to weather, breakdowns, mistakes, and things you just didn’t plan on. Through Elizabeth communicating her information back to the lab, Dr. Natali was able to understand what is going on and to make suggestions and/or changes as needed. The research can be directed and corrections or changes made before the problem gets too large.
Elizabeth shows a graph of carbon dioxide flux from the warming side of the experiment. She shared her concerns about understanding the data.
You can also learn some interesting facts at lab meetings. I always hear the researchers talking about carbon dioxide and other gases in parts per million (ppm). I kind of understand what that means, but what does a ppm look like? Here are a few things to think about when you hear parts per million from now on. The term literally means 1 piece of something for every 1,000,000 (106) pieces you have. Picture this; if your small car has a gas tank that holds a bit more than 13 gallons of gas and you filled your tank up, and then you added one more drop. That one drop would be 1 ppm out of all the gas in the tank! That isn’t much! Also, out of all the time in one year, 32 seconds would equal 1 ppm. So you can begin to see that when we talk about measuring CO2 in the atmosphere at about 390 ppm, that is a very small amount. But it is that small amount that can add up over time and begin to bring on big changes.
An important part of being a scientist and researcher is that you must be able to communicate your ideas and your work to others. This is how science grows and is controlled, and this is how we all learn from each other.