Blending art and science

September 3, 2012

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Editor’s note: This week, Aaron Hartmann is preparing for coral spawning in the Caribbean. He arranged for a guest post from Nayantara Jain, a masters student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.

When I was in high school, I thought science was all about memorizing the order of elements I would never see, figuring out the difference between direct and alternating currents and finding the boiling points of random liquids.

In a physics class once, I was asked to find the boiling point of one such highly-flammable liquid – toluene – and I nearly set my hand on fire. I ran out with a test tube ablaze in my hand. I doused the flame in the toilet outside and never fully entered a lab again.

More than ten years after that unfortunate incident I find myself in a masters program at Scripps.

I have always thought of myself as a humanities sort of person. I never even liked to be referred to as a “social sciences” student, because I thought philosophy – which was the focus of my bachelor’s degree – was about the mind and analytical thought rather than some method-based science involving hypothesis, lab experiments and disproving with a margin of statistical uncertainty.

This was my error, and I think many people share the same. So what changed?

Curiosity. It may have killed the cat, but it gave birth to a scientist. A series of events after my undergraduate degree led to me living and working as a scuba diving instructor in the Andaman Islands. Inspired by the beauty around me, my writing flourished.

I wrote about the different fish I’d see, about interesting dives, about amusing guests I encountered. I worked for a year assisting biologists collecting underwater data at an island ecology research base called the Andaman & Nicobar Environmental Team, and I began asking questions.

I wondered why nudibranches were so colourful. I wondered why the coral was dying in some places but thriving in others. I wondered why sometimes the ocean was murky, and why sometimes the currents were strong. I wondered why the surface was sometimes still as glass, and sometimes frothing and rough. I realized that the questions inspired art, and that the answers were found in science.

So I applied to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD, where scientists were answering questions like mine. I arrived in San Diego only the night before my program began. Compared to a remote island with no running water, scarce electricity and sporadic dial-up internet, San Diego was an enormous change.

And yet what scared me most was not any of the lifestyle changes, but the fact that I was about to be surrounded by, compared to and working with scientists. I had a picture of science in my head, I guess, and while I wanted to know what they did, I was still wary.

What did I find? I found that science was all about finding out more about what you loved. I met a surfer doing a doctoral work on waves. I met a long-haired professor who has the most intriguing coral facts and looks just like a fellow diving instructor (missing only a tan).

I met a guy who has the immensely envious job of flying a small aircraft low over the ocean to photograph whales. I met a professor who tells the most beautiful stories about how life diversified, and knows more about worms than I thought there was to know.

I went on research ships where I held fish that had been brought up from thousands of metres under the sea and saw mola-molas and dolphins and whales at the surface.

The first time I looked under a microscope I saw a teeny-tiny little crustacean, replete with all his arms and legs and organs and colours. When I picked him out of the petridish with tweezers he looked no different than a grain of sand. Yet here he was, from hundreds of meters below the surface, a fully functioning living being with stories of his own to tell.

Stories — one of the main reasons why I am here. I think for every question that is thought of while looking at something dramatic in nature, there is a story waiting to be told. And the best stories are fantastical ones, based on true life. So while I am not quite ready to trade in my pen and my creativity for a Bunsen burner and a data chart, science is helping me bridge the gap between fact and fantasy.

I am working on an educational app for children, where different reef fish will talk to them about their lives, their habits and their threats. I write a blog where I hope to share lessons about life from the deep. I intend to go back to teaching people to scuba dive – and to teach in a way that introduces not only the colourful sights of the sea, but also its deep mysteries.

Science is not about absent-minded, grey-haired, short-trousered professors looking at obscure particles and measuring them in units we’ve never heard of. Well, at least, it’s not all about them.

It is also about incredible creatures, adaptations to extreme conditions, winds, storms, oceans and the atmosphere in which we all live and must all protect. And this is what I hope most to share.

Getting from A to B in a science career

June 4, 2012

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I often hear students say that they want to be marine biologists but they don’t know how to make a career of it. Many are concerned with what and how: What jobs can you get? How much do they pay? What type of a degree do you need? How hard is it?

As I highlighted in an earlier post, marine science jobs are diverse. But what I didn’t talk about was how to get from point A to point B—from school to a career. So for this post I’ll discuss the nuts and bolts of jobs in science. I’ll focus first on career options for those with a Ph.D. degree, and will address masters and bachelors-level options in future posts.

University Professor: Nearly all professorships require a Ph.D., and to get such a job you often also need experience as a postdoctoral researcher, or “postdoc”. During a postdoc, which can last for months to years, the primary goal is to expand your scientific skill set.

At the end of one or two postdocs, the hope is to get hired as a professor. Once this happens you can expect a higher salary with robust benefits and the chance to move up in pay and title. As a professor you’re afforded the opportunity to research the topics that interest you and continue to advance your chosen field. One big advantage is that once you get promoted from the junior (assistant) level, you have tenure and thus job security for the rest of your career.

While professorships are sought-after, they aren’t for everyone. Professors can work long hours to maintain a lab, teach, write grant proposals, perform service for their university, and mentor students. Besides, there just aren’t enough professorships for everyone with a Ph.D. Fortunately, there are other options.

Government Scientists: The government employs scientists at both the state and federal level. At agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, natural resources divisions, US Fish and Wildlife, and the National Science Foundation, scientists conduct work that straddles the scientific and policy realms.

While a number of government scientists do a postdoc term first, there are often openings to move directly into a full-time job. As with most government professions, workers receive a set paycheck, as well as health benefits and pension plans.

From what I know about salaries, many Ph.D. level government scientists receive pay that is comparable to that of university professors. Government scientists seem happy in their jobs, enjoying the stability, set work hours, and steady paycheck, in addition to the intellectual stimulation that comes with their position.

Environmental Consultant: When companies want to build something new — be it an office building, parking lot, or manufacturing plant — they must first assess how construction will impact the environment. To make such assessments they need an outside party to take a look, and this is one of the many roles of environmental consultants.

These experts straddle science and industry, and thus their jobs are influenced by the ups and downs of each. Pay can vary and is in large part determined by the ability of their firm to secure work. My sense from environmental consultant colleagues is that some are better paid than professors and government scientists, and like the latter they enjoy the set work hours of their job. But compared to those professions, environmental consultants have much less freedom to study the scientific questions that interest them.

Biotech: San Diego is a center of biotech research, where scientists develop new medicines and useful materials by tapping into the biology of the natural world. Some Scripps Ph.D. students move on to biotech companies immediately after graduation and many report back that they are happy and very well paid. My sense is that biotech jobs offer much more freedom for scientific discovery than do consulting, but research topics and paycheck size still remains driven by the overall success of the company.

Above are examples of just a few career tracks for those with a Ph.D. degree and I hope I’ve done a fair job of describing some of the pros and cons of each. Remember of course these are just my observations and I imagine those working day-to-day in each area might have a slightly different take on things.

In a couple weeks I’ll put my own spin on it—weighing the pros and cons of a few of my own options as I look toward graduation—and in later posts I’ll detail job options for masters and bachelors degree-level scientists.

Internships launch careers

May 21, 2012

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This past week my parents and I attended my younger brother’s college graduation in Chicago. While we were very proud of him for finishing his degree in film production, we were also celebrating the fact that he’d already taken the next step.

Kevin took part in an internship for school credit during his final semester, doing film and print media for a Chicago-based hospitality company. He worked hard throughout, I’m told, going above and beyond, and impressing his would-be employers with the skills he amassed during his years in college. So when it came time for the internship to end they brought him on full time. The ink was barely dry on his new contract by the time my family arrived for graduation.

During the ceremony, the valedictorian of my brother’s class told his fellow students that each one of them is the “protagonist of their own film,” drawing on the process of screenwriting for an analogy. He likened their collegiate years to the life that a screenwriter must invent for their protagonist before writing a script—establishing their personal histories, as well as their wants and desires, strengths and weaknesses. Then, he went on, at the end of college is where the movie begins.

While I liked the speech a lot, I disagreed with him on this final point. I don’t think it’s enough to worry only about getting good grades, college is also a time to build your hands-on skills and personal contacts. Through a job, internship or volunteer position you can get your foot in the door and show a would-be employers that you not only have book smarts, but that you’re also a hard worker.

In the context of science, research experience in college or even high school is critical for getting into graduate school or going directly into a job. So here are a few of the many ways to gain experience:

Natural resource management: Walking beaches to monitor the nests of rare birds, tagging wild animals and removing invasive species are just a few of the great outdoor activities of a natural resource manager. My best friend spent his college summers getting paid to do just that on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Massachusetts and New Jersey, and the expertise he built landed him a job with the state of Vermont after graduation. Click here and here for two natural resource management job boards.

Internship programs: A number of programs connect undergrads with scientists at universities, and many of them even pay students for their time. One such program is funded by the national government and is called Research Experienced for Undergraduates. Click here to see the wide range of disciplines and find a site near you.

Working in a lab for school credit of as a volunteer: Labs at universities and private institutions are always looking for volunteers to help with research. Often these opportunities aren’t advertised widely, so if you come across an interesting research topic or hear about a lab doing exciting work then look them up on the internet. A short email introduction can often lead to volunteer position, and be sure to try a few possibilities until one sticks.

Volunteering at aquarium or zoo: Zoos and aquariums rely heavily on volunteers for everything from taking care of animals to educating visitors. Volunteers can be a wide range of ages and both high school and college students are welcome. My girlfriend used to work at an aquarium and told me that they often hired their best volunteers when paid positions opened up. Click here to find out how to apply to be a volunteer at Birch Aquarium here in San Diego.

This list offers just a few suggestions for avenues to look down for hands-on research and outreach experience. Each one offers the chance to impress potential employers, all the while giving you a first-hand look at a potential career.

Dissertation comes slowly into focus

April 30, 2012

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Friends and family often ask me what it means to be a Ph.D. student. Some wonder if it’s just more years of classes, while others think it involves a lot of teaching. While both are part of it, a Ph.D. is at its core all about our research.

At the end of five, six or even seven years of grad school, all of our research goes into a dissertation. The document can be more than 100 pages in length and is broken up into chapters, each detailing individual projects that we conducted. In the end, the quality of our dissertation is used to decide whether we’ve achieved the knowledge necessary to be called a “Dr.”

When I started grad school, I had little idea what my dissertation topic would be. I had many interests: microbial geochemistry, tropical aquaculture, and coastal pollution, along with a background in biology. But none of the topics excited me enough on their own, nor were they easy to connect.

Thankfully, my mind was put to ease from the get-go. Before I even applied to Scripps a professor here gave me some great advice: Don’t come into grad school thinking you’ve got your topic figured out. There are things that you will learn here that you didn’t know existed.

He was essentially saying that grad school is a process of intellectual growth—your knowledge will grow, and your dissertation will come into focus and continuously improve as you learn new things.

In my first year at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, I helped on a project looking at pollutants in Venice lagoon sediments (Italy that is), and then studied skeletal isotopes in corals collected from small islands in the Caribbean.

Both of these projects utilized my background in geochemistry and I liked the opportunity to dig my hands into familiar territory. But I wasn’t getting my hands dirty enough. While I was studying samples that came from incredible places, I wasn’t the one out there designing the research and working in the field.

My first opportunity to visit Curaçao came in my second year. While there I assisted with on-going projects and performed small experiments of my own. My early research question was somewhat rudimentary: how do coral babies react to fertilizer? But as I kept going back to the island, trying new things and asking new questions, my work became more refined.

The health of baby coral piqued my interest and I began throwing ideas around with my colleagues on the island and at Scripps. I wondered whether healthy adult corals make health babies, and whether health babies are better able to tolerate polluted environments. As my excitement, knowledge and experience grew, my dissertation topic came into focus.

Many professors I’ve spoken with lament the fact that some students enter grad school highly focused on one area of research, but they also fear the student who jumps from project to project. From my experience, it seem that there are no true rules for picking a topic—be it a senior or masters thesis, or a Ph.D. dissertation. It’s really about keeping an open mind, finding something that interests you, and seeing it through to the end.

Marine biologist stays dry

April 30, 2012

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I’m a tropical marine biologist but I don’t SCUBA dive. Sound crazy?

While true, it’s not the whole story. I am not allowed to SCUBA dive. Knowing my medical history of heart and lung issues my doctors think it’s too risky. But even when I take the time to explain this to people, some still scoff.

“Aaron, how do you think you can work with corals if you can’t dive? I just don’t understand,” a professor from another university once asked.

“You don’t dive?” A tourist once exclaimed while in Curaçao on a dive vacation. “That makes no sense,” she laughed. “What are you thinking?”

While their comments stung, I’ve learned to smirk them away because I can confidently tell them: I make it work, and it’s not even that hard.

Their questions are practical, I suppose—the animals I study live in water that’s at least ten feet deep, so I can’t very well collect them or run experiments in their natural habitat. But my naysayers forget one key thing: science is collaborative; I don’t have to be the one dropping below the surface.

To get past my limitation I’ve linked up with two highly skilled SCUBA diving scientists, Kristen Marhaver and Mark Vermeij, who make the collections necessary for me to do my work—or better said: to do our work.

Conducting research as a group is the norm, not the exception. When people bring different expertise and ideas together the outcome can be bigger than the sum of the parts. In other words, cool things happen.

While it’s rare for a team member to be medically barred from completing part of a project, it’s common for individuals to have certain skills and lack others. That’s the whole point of working together, and this is true in just about every field of science.

Kristen and Mark are much more than expert divers, they’re coral reef ecologists. Through sharing their expertise with me, the three of us have discovered some really interesting things about what make corals tick. But our work wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t contribute.

At the field station in Curaçao I set up complex aquarium systems, collect and rear baby corals, run experiments and take samples. I then process the samples and analyze data back in San Diego. While Kristen and Mark taught me some of the techniques we use, many others I’ve learned, practiced and developed on my own.

Looking back, I wouldn’t say that I had an unusually large amount of determination or perseverance, I just believed in what I was doing and wanted to keep doing it.

Many of us have experienced someone telling us that we aren’t capable of something. Just like how I was told to forget marine biology, people may have said you can’t do something because you’re a girl, a boy, a C student, too short, too tall, and on and on.

What matters is how you respond. And I don’t mean in that moment—my encounters with naysayers left me angry and venting to friends afterward—I mean in the long-term. I could have let their comments get to me and turned away from studying corals, but I didn’t.

In many ways I was lucky to link up with Mark and Kristen: they’re great at what they do and welcomed me in as mentors and friends. But none of it would have happened had I not first proved myself as a scientist and hard worker. They didn’t offer me the opportunity on a whim, I had to work hard to build our collaboration, excelling at what I could do and accepting what I couldn’t.

How I became a marine biologist

April 30, 2012

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One of the most common questions students ask me is how I became a marine biologist. This week I focus on five lessons drawn from my own experiences.

1) Do what’s fun. If what you are doing is not fun, find something you like more.

I had a number of surgeries as a teenager, and my understanding of what patients feel lead me to believe that I’d make a good doctor. So, in high school I shadowed a brain surgery team and during college I worked as a research assistant studying multiple sclerosis. While I liked that the research benefited people, I felt confined by the lab and hospital. Eventually I realized that medicine just wasn’t for me.

As a high school or college student, many of you have the time and freedom to intern or volunteer in different work settings that seem interesting. By doing so you’ll learn what you like, as well as what you don’t. That’s valuable information to gain early when your life has some flexibility.

2) Keep an open mind.

After growing tired of medical research, I read a few books on the natural sciences. What I learned got me excited about the water cycle, leading me to email a geology professor at my school who specialized in a related topic. He had a different idea.

“Do you know about the algae bloom problem in Lake Champlain?” He asked me in our first meeting. I sure did.

I spent summers going to that very lake in northern Vermont. A few times each year I watched as large swaths of the water’s surface turned green, like split pea soup. Later I learned that the culprit was cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, which can be toxic. Seeing an opportunity to get out of the lab while investigating a problem that hit close to home, I decided to help the professor.

As it turned out, taking algae, water and sediment samples from boats got me excited about aquatic research and I haven’t looked back. My time on the lake gave me real experience in science far beyond what I could learn from books. If I’d stuck to my guns—wanting to study the water cycle—I would have missed this fun opportunity that ultimately put me on the path to where I am today.

3) Work to become a better writer.

Unlike many, I enjoy writing. This led me to a job reporting medical discoveries in a newsletter for a cancer research institute. It was a nice change from penning lab reports for school and I enjoyed it so much that I went on to take creative writing classes in college.

Written communication is critical to being successful at most jobs, in particular those in the sciences. We have to produce research articles, and while the form is somewhat rigid, one must have strong writing abilities in order to do it well. I’m forever working to improve my scientific writing and the tools I learned in my English classes are a big help.

4) Learn new skills.

For example: statistics. This sounds boring, I know, but it’s fundamental. Stats provide the grounds on which we as scientists can say what we say, as nearly all hypotheses are formally tested using these tools. I didn’t learn enough about how to use stats during college and I’ve had to catch up. The more you learn early on, the better off you’ll be.

5) Be persistent.

No matter what I was doing, I worked hard at it. If I got to the end of a project and realized that it wasn’t for me I moved on, and if I liked it I kept going.

To get these opportunities I had to be persistent. I checked websites, sent emails and knocked on doors, much like my friend Aly. After I made contact, I provided resumes and writing samples, which I followed up with emails and calls. While you don’t want to pester a potential employer, follow-up shows that you’re serious about the job, whether it’s as a research assistant, an intern or full-time employee.

In the end, I found that grad schools professors liked my diverse resume and I saw that grades alone wouldn’t have gotten me to the next level. A range of experiences can be key to building your resume and make you a strong candidate for an advanced degree or job in any field of science.

 

Marine biologist gives inside look at life, job

April 30, 2012

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It sounded like the perfect opportunity: Tall host needed for a nature television show, knowledge of biology is a plus. Check and check.

I’m a 6-foot 8-inch tall Ph.D. student studying marine biology. After excitedly emailing the show’s producers, I filmed a short clip of myself talking about coral, my research subject, and uploaded it to YouTube per their request. Then I heard crickets. They never wrote me back.

I shrugged it off—I’m no actor and am a bit awkward on camera—and assumed that nothing would ever come of my video “The Life of a Marine Biologist.” But ever so slowly people started watching it, and questions about my unique job started flowing in from students all over the world.

They had general questions: Is marine biology fun? Do you make a lot of money? What jobs are out there? They had specific questions: What should I major in if I want to be a marine biologist? What are the best colleges to go to? Are my grades good enough? They had practical questions: What if I can’t swim? What if I have tattoos?

And then there was my own personal favorite: “I Am Twelve But When I Grow Up I Want To Study Narwhals, Turtles, And Birds. Is That Possible??”

I did my best to answer them all.

The nature of their inquiries made me realize that students are often excited about science but fear getting involved because of grades, a lack of opportunities, or low confidence. It also became apparent that many of the barriers students are concerned with could easily be overcome through exposure to what being a scientist is really like.

With this in mind I’m writing this weekly blog to provide insights into what it means to be a scientist on a day-to-day basis. In addition to highlighting the exciting frontiers of marine research — local and worldwide — I’ll give practical tips on how high school and college students can get involved.

I’ll discuss what it’s like to work at a field station in the tropics, what writing a scientific paper really entails, and whether all marine biologists really are strong swimmers. Through my posts I want to open a discussion, so please leave me comments. With an open dialogue I hope to make the world of science more accessible to students, parents and teachers alike.

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