Science Writing for general public 書寫科普文章

Scientists like me have spent lots of time in our research. We wrote scientific papers to publish our work in scientific journals. However, these papers are usually too difficult for general public, including my friends and family, to understand. Although most of my friends and family "seem" to know that I have worked on something very interesting and very important. But do they really know what I am doing? Nope. The gap between scientists and the general public is even larger and this gas really needs to be filled up. But how? Today I attended a science writing workshop. We talked a lot about what scientists can do and how we can prepare ourselves to write our own work for general public.

像我這種整天泡在實驗室，偶而出野外採樣，耗了好多的時間跟精力去了解未知的海洋環境，雖然自己覺得自己從事的科學研究很重要、很酷，我的家人跟是我身邊的朋友"似乎"也覺得我做的工作很特別，但老實說，大家對我真的在做什麼，真的不太清楚，更不用說一般大眾對於科學研究的認知，那是一個很大的斷層。

尤其在台灣，即使是國高中的教科書，基本上裡面是沒有的收納台灣先端的研究成果，讓我出來讀海洋博士的一個重要轉捩點，是我看到高中教科書中一張台灣附近的海流圖，用的是1960年代日本科學家的研究成果，天啊，台灣的海洋研究並非停留在1960年代，但是為何教科書裡的資料卻不更新呢？所以我知道在台灣，科學研究跟一般大眾認知間的差距，更是大，所以我常常在想要怎樣才能拉近這個差距呢？

一個很重要的一步，應該是踏出我所熟習的科學術語跟科學文章，用簡單的話語，把真正的科學研究精確無誤的傳達給大眾們知道，可是，要怎麼做呢？對我而言，寫科學文章已經很難了，要盡量不用科學術語，卻得把科學的內容完整又"有趣"的介紹給你們，我覺得更難了。今天我們學院辦了一個關於書寫科普文章的研討會，我有所收穫，因此把一些重要的內容放到部落格與你們分享。

NO JdFR flank expedition on Langseth 航次取消通知-第二發

Final decision about JdF flank expedition on Langseth: **NO**
替代航次取消通知


Since the cancellation of our research cruise using R/V Thomas G. Thompson, our chief scientist, UNOLS(http://www.unols.org/), NSF and the JASON team have been trying really hard to reschedule another backup cruise to retrieve important sampling systems that have been deployed for a year. Unfortunate, there will be a domino effect if they squeeze our cruise in between already fully-scheduled ship and submersible plans so that the final decision is still a "NO." We have to leave those sampling equipment, including our precious GeoMICROBE sled and the samples collected over the past year, on the seafloor for at least another year. Let's hope the best that we get to sail out again.


自從兩個禮拜前，我們的JdFR航次被取消後，首席科學家Dr. Andy Fisher，與美國國科會，美國海洋研究船聯繫網，以及研究潛水艇傑森號的機組人員，不斷的在溝通與協調，希望能夠在挪出幾天的船期與潛水艇時間，讓我們可以取回已經施放在海床上將近一年的採樣儀器。然而，這種決定會產生一連串的骨牌效應，甚至影響到明年一整年的全美的其他研究航次，所以只好決定犧牲，以降低影響的層面，我們只好期待明年我們能夠順順利利的出海，並且把儀器跟樣品成功的收回。這個突發事件其實並不是那麼不可預期的，畢竟我們進行的這種深海研究，所需要的背後支援是相當龐大的，因此，每一次的研究航次，在海上順利作業的每一天，讓我們都是很心存感激的。


Here is the message from our chief scientist.
下面是首席科學家給我們的通知信內容

Hi, Folks,
After a protracted process of discussion and planning, our expedition has been scrubbed for the second time in three weeks. That is not quite accurate, as we were never officially on Langseth...but it sure seemed like we were for a few days...we did our best to get even a few days to recover critical systems, but no joy.
Big breath, let's see what we can do about scheduling for 2013.
Take care, Andy


Below is the message from Dr. James Cowen.
下面是我們家的大老闆柯恩教授寫給我們的信，我把其中一句用紅色標出，那句話是說，閃電不會打在同一個地方兩次，所以我們明年的航次一定可以順順利利的進行的。

Dear colleagues,

The cruise is officially cancelled. We will need to remove the last two pallets from the container tomorrow morning and I will have the empty container picked up tomorrow noonish. Oliver can manage this with Phil's help. We will then all need to remove our gear from Phil's hanger as soon as is practical.
There is still a very outside possibility that we could have the opportunity to send one person on the Tivey/Butterfield cruise to pick up our GeoM sled, but this would involve only a minimum of gear that would FedEx. 
I am sorry that this happened, but what can you do. I greatly appreciate everyone's help in gearing up for this cruise (multiple times) and your patience and flexibility throughout the process. We will be rescheduled for next summer and lightening never strikes twice in the same place.

aloha, Jim

TN-284 **cancelled for 2012** 航次取消通知

7/26 update, TN-284 **cancelled for 2012**

Our research cruise is officially cancelled. Below is the message from our Chief Scientist, Dr. Andy Fisher: 


Hi Folks: 
The best possible outcome is that TGT gets back in the water on 8/8, not enough time for a partial TN-284 program this summer. Our project is deferred to Summer 2013.
I will be back in touch with the co-PI group to gather information concerning what we may wish to do about scheduling for next year. We can get our preferences into consideration, and press for getting a good match to our scheduling needs having been scrubbed from 2012.
I wish this could have ended otherwise.
Best wishes, Andy  

經過幾天的等待，我們得到最新的消息，航次因為研究船湯馬斯號，確定要到八月八號後才會修好，因為八月十一號又得進港，這四天的時間不足夠讓我們進行"短航次"，畢竟到研究地點來回就要花上兩整天的時間，因此今年的研究航次取消了。首席科學家的信中，有提到航次將延到明年暑假，讓我們期待明年的研究航次吧！


航次的取消的確讓人很沮喪，畢竟我們花了將近一整年的時間在準備，但往好處想，我們將會有另一整年的時間可以好好準備下個航次，我們將會作得更好的。

See our team in Scientific Drilling cover

Scientific Drilling cover

Link

Ship-to-Shore webcast guest: Dr. Keir Becker遠端視訊訪問，邁阿密大學貝克教授

Ship-to-shore webcast 遠端視訊連線訪問

Guest: Dr. Keir Becker 契爾·貝克教授

Dr. Keir Becker is a professor at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami. His expertise is in heat flow and hydrothermal circulation in the oceanic crust; permeability and porosity of oceanic crust; borehole hydrogeological observatories. He has participated in many drilling lags of Ocean Drilling Program and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. He has also have lots of dive experiences. Dr. Becker participated in the design of CORK observatory and is a pioneer scientist to use CORK observatory to conduct in situ experiments obtain data for hydrogeological and seismic studies. To know more about CORK, please read his paper “A review of CORK designs and operations during the Ocean Drilling Program” (link provided at the end of the article).

  

貝克教授任教於邁阿密大學大氣海洋學院，他的專長是測量熱流量與水壓的變化，來了解岩石的總孔隙度與空隙的連通度，並將這些資料運用在海洋岩石中的熱液循環的研究，他參與過許多的海洋鑽探航次，以及有許多的使用研究潛水艇的經驗。他是水下觀測井的設計者之一，也是最早使用水下觀測井來作實驗以了解海洋岩石圈中的水文系統的科學家之一，在一篇他撰寫的文章中，他詳細的介紹了過去三十年來，水下觀測井設計與建造的來龍去脈。

Here is a short excerpt of the historic review in this article: The origins of the CORK experiment can be traced back to discussions during a 1987 workshop on wireline reentry of deep-sea boreholes. By that time, considerable experience had been gained in interpreting thermal observations* of vertical flow in Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and ODP holes left open between permeable formation and ocean bottom water (e.g., Hyndman et al., 1976; Becker et al., 1983). However, we recognized that such borehole flow, which seemed to be fairly common in holes penetrating through sediments into oceanic basement, represented serious perturbations to the hydrological systems we were attempting to study via scientific ocean drilling; thus, some sort of sealed-hole experiment was necessary to allow reestablishment of equilibrium in in situ conditions to understand hydrogeologic state and processes. ……The first two installations, …… were successfully completed during Leg 139 in the summer of 1991 (Davis et al.,1992).  

* Back in 1960s, scientists have made calculations based on the cooling of oceanic crust to estimate the temperature of surface sediments on the seafloor. However, the actual measured surface sediment temperatures are much cooler than the estimated values. Scientists proposed that there must be hydrothermal circulation to remove the heat from the oceanic crust. That leads to the discovery of hydrothermal vents in the late 1970s. The more rapid and larger volume of hydrothermal circulation, the faster the cooling.   

2011 Ship to Shore Video

2011 AT18-07 Ship to shore video 西元2011年航次AT18-07海上科學家與台灣惠文高中連線之影片


2011.07.02 R/V Atlantis Expedition AT18-07 - Video1

The evolution of Mobile Pumping System(MPS). 超強採水系統的演進

The evolution of Mobile Pumping System(MPS). 超強採水系統的演進

First generation-2008 
It composed of a large volume bag, a mechanical three way valve and a Seabird pump. Ryan, although was just an undergraduate student helper, put this all together. At that time, we did not realize that the ~300 m long 1/4'' O.D. stainless steel fluid delivery line could generate such a large resistance to prevent over-pressured basement fluid from coming up to the seafloor at a higher flow rate. A pelagic pump was used on our third trial and we were able to collect about 4 L of good pristine basement fluids. The idea of integrating a powerful, clean pump to our pumping system was formed.  
第一代超強採水系統。它包含大體積採樣袋、手動三向閥和小抽水馬達，這些都是由實驗室的大學部助理萊恩所組合起來。此系統是本實驗室第一次用來抽取底夜樣品，由於經驗不足，並不了解內徑僅0.3公分的三百公尺底夜輸送管會造成很大的反壓，因而導致所選用的小馬達只協助採了四公升的樣品。

Questions about subseafloor biosphere research 海下生物圈研究之相關問題

Some students from Taipei First Girls High School are sincere followers of our 
research team and they have asked lots of interesting questions. Many of the 
questions answered by Dr. James Cowen. Let’s see what his answers are. Please also feel free to write down your questions in the “comment” options below and we’d love to answer your questions too.  *click the link below to know more about Taipei First Girls High School http://www.fg.tp.edu.tw/EnglishPage/index.php
By the way, the oceanic crustal fluids that we collected are "SALTY" water. Their salinity is very similar to seawater. The crustal fluids we collected at Juan de Fuca Ridge flank have higher salinity because these fluids were originate from bottom seawater during last glacial maximum (Elderfield et al., 1998).


下面是台灣北一女中的學生們在閱讀我們的部落格後，所提出的一些有趣的問題，而我的指導老師柯恩教授很努力用簡單的英文詳細的回答，希望這些問答也能夠幫助你更瞭解我們的研究。
從學生的問題中，我發現很多人似乎把流動在海洋岩石圈中的水跟陸地的地下水都想成是淡水，請記得，海洋岩石中流動的水，基本上是源自於海水，所以是鹹水，鹽度跟海水很接近，如果是上次冰期時的海水灌入而成的海下地下水，鹽度甚至還會比現在海水還高一點。

1.  What do the microbes in underground water absorb for live?        海下岩石水圈中的生物是吸收什麼物質來生活呢？       Subseafloor microorganisms requirements are similar to microbes from anywhere.  They must obtain carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and a host of other minor and trace elements.       這些生物跟地球上其他的生物一樣，需要主要元素包含碳、氮、磷跟硫，以及其他的次要元素跟微量元素等。
Mascarelli, Nature, 2009

TEAM MEMBERS 團隊成員

Current Team Members 現在成員介紹

林卉婷 Dr. Huei-Ting (Tina) Lin

（哈哈～換我當“老闆”了） Team leader

 

(右邊Right ) 張旭明 Hsu Ming (Miranda) Chang 

勞苦功高的研究助理

Hard working research assistant

楊朝源 Chou-Yuan Yang

常常忘東忘西，卻也聰明絕頂，熱愛海洋的研究生

Ocean lover M.S. student

(右邊 Right ) 謝志強 Chih-Chiang (Oliver) Hsieh

隨傳隨到，超強水下採樣器專家，

兼本實驗室的“義工” 

Volunteer, an underwater sampler expert  

Former Team Members 過去成員介紹

＊Dr. James Cowen

       Research Professor

＊Brian Glazer

       Assoc. Professor 

＊Mike Rappe
       Assoc. Professor 

＊Alberto Robador

       PostDoctoral Researchers

＊Robert (Bob) Bowers

       PostDoctoral Researchers 

＊Huei-Ting (Tina) Lin

       Graduate Students

＊Sean Jungbluth

       Graduate Students 

Females work on a ship 船上工作的女生

Females on the ship 船上工作的女生


It is always an astonishing thing for me to see so many female scientists or ship crew. It is almost impossible to see a female crew in Taiwan. There are only few female oceanographers in Taiwan and most of them do not go to sea very often. I interviewed a female ship crew, our ship’s doctor, and some female scientists who sail with me during this expedition to know more about them.
在台灣，基本上是沒有女生的船員的，所以我在美國的研究船上看到不少的女性船員以及大量的女科學家，我就深深的感受到先進國家對於男女的工作平權上面真的已經突破很多了，這次在瑪麗安上，我對女船醫跟一個女性科學家進行訪問，以借此更了解關於女性在船上工作的情形，我把的回答作了摘錄，細節請看影片。


Dr. Gabriele Wolters (Ship’s doctor)  船醫的專訪

1. Why did you choose to work on the ship?
為什麼你選擇在船上工作？
My husband was a captain. He worked on ships for 45 years. He began to work on a ship since he was 14 years old in 1956. I always like to go to sea. When someone asked me if I’d like to work on the ship as a doctor, I said yes.
我的丈夫在船上工作45年了，他是個船長，他從14歲就開始跑船了，因為他的關係，在加上我也很喜歡搭船去旅遊，所以當有人問我是否有意願到船上當船醫，我馬上就答應了。

GeoMICROBE Sled on the seafloor 海床上的採樣雪橇

                                   (按下圖片可放大)

There is our sled!! JASON team has mounted a “homer” on the sled so that they can track where the sled is. 

採樣雪橇靜靜的在海床上迎接我們的到來。

Everything looks good. The sled is not covered by the sediment.

看起來一切都很完好，而且也沒有太多的沈積物覆蓋在上面。

JASON helps to transport the sled to the CORK well head. Note the donut shape HOV/ROV plate form. That is where sled is going to sit on.  

傑森號幫我們把採樣雪橇移動到水下觀測井，井口的地方有圓形的平台，可以讓研究潛艇停泊，也是我們即將放置採樣雪橇的地方。平台看起來好像很小。

Arrive at the well head. Position the sled on the plate form. 

到達觀測井了，傑森號幫忙把採樣雪橇固定在平台上。我們的設計是恰好讓雪橇可以好好的放置在平台上。

Work on Maria S. Merian 在瑪麗安號上的工作

Sorry about the delay but we have been very busy preparing samplers. Let me show you some photos of our preparation wok during the past 10 days.

Receiving University of Hawaii equipment (收到我們的貨櫃了)

                                   (按下圖片可放大)

See the big “ALOHA” sign on the container. After so many days of waiting, we have finally got our container on April 13, 2012. That was a long trip for our container from Hawaii to Freeport.
看到貨櫃上面的”ALOHA”了嗎？ALOHA是夏威夷文的歡迎、你好，真經過漫長的等待，我們終於收到我們的器材了。

We packed our container with equipment and lab ware. There is no space for people to walk in. Our super responsible and supportive port agent in Freeport, Kent Wards, had to stand on top of our equipment to help to secure items to the forklift.
我們寄了好多好多的器材，把整個貨櫃給裝滿了，船運公司在巴哈馬的承辦人，肯特先生，必須爬到我們的器材上，才能幫忙固定東西讓堆高機把器材運下來。

Lots of items to be unload. We have shipped pretty much the entire lab.
超多東西的吧！右後方的女士是巴哈馬的海關人員，她一直問我說這些都是妳的？

The most important items are our GeoMICROBE instrumented sleds. We are so happy that they are here and we get to deploy them. The two sleds are going to collect very precious crustal fluids for scientific analysis. The data will help us to understand how microbial community and fluid chemistry change with space (two study sites) and time (20-months deployment). Please note that the GeoMICROBE is build using titanium, fiber glass and plastic sheets.
從夏威夷運來最重要的器材就是我們的採樣雪橇了，這次要施放兩個採樣雪橇在兩個不同的水下觀測站，然後在未來的20個月內，每經過2 ～3個月採一次樣品，每次會有水跟顆粒的樣品。

FOLLOW Team GeoMICROBE on Maria S. Merian 追隨在 Maria S. Merian 研究船上的 GeoMICROBE 地質微生物研究團隊

Juan de Fuca Ridge Flank: Jul. 29-Aug. 11, 2012
We will sail out from Seattle and come back to Seattle. Our study site is marked with a yellow star. It will take us about one day to sail from Seattle to our study site. There will be 7 JASON dives. Each dive will probably last more than 24 hours. 我們下個月底就會從西雅圖出發，到水下觀測井群進行採樣工作，航行時間為一天，目前預計會有7個傑森號潛水計畫，每次的下潛後的工作時間大概會超過24小時。

(Click to enlarge
點選圖片可放大）

North Pond: Apr. 11-May 10, 2012
The Location We Embarked and Our Study Site North Pond
我們登船的地點與目的研究站 North Pond：

(按下圖片可放大)

Live-Time Tracking of Our Research Vessel  Maria S. Merian
Maria S. Merian 研究船的即時位置追蹤：
FOLLOW Team GeoMICROBE on Maria S. Merian
追隨在 Maria S. Merian 研究船上的 GeoMICROBE 地質微生物研究團隊

Deployment and Recovery of GeoMICROBE Sleds 地質微生物採樣雪橇浮力的部署與計算

This PPT uses authentic numbers. It is the sled we deployed in North Pond this past April. All the weights are real and it was a very successful deployment. 這個教案是利用我們今年四月在大西洋航次施放的採樣雪橇作範本，裡面的重量都是精準量測過的。





PowerPoint File  PowerPoint檔案
Excel File  Excel檔案

Team GeoMicrobe 地質微生物研究團隊

Team Geomicrobe is a research team led by Dr. James Cowen, my Ph.D. adviser. We investigate the microbes live in the “groundwater” circulating in the basaltic crust underneath the ocean floor. Just like we have groundwater circulating inside the continental crust, there is also ground water circulating underneath the ocean. In order to get access to groundwater, what should we do? We drill a hole and install a well, like our ancestors do. Scientists do similar things in order to obtain the “groundwater” circulation underneath the ocean floor. Deep ocean drilling project have drilled lots of borehole on the world’s ocean floor and for a limited numbers of the boreholes, underwater “wells” are installed. A more technical term is Circulation Obviation Retrofit Kit or simply, CORK observatory. About 15 years ago, Dr. Cowen spot this opportunity and he uses CORK observatory to collect oceanic crustal fluids (fluid circulating through oceanic rocks, another technical term for “groundwater”) to investigate the unexplored micro-biosphere. Ever since then, he has been working on how to improve the sampling method to obtain pristine crustal fluid. And I am part of his team.
柯恩教授帶領的研究團隊主要是探討海床下，海洋岩石圈裡的微生物圈。海底沈積物下的岩石，就像是陸地上的岩石圈一樣，在某些水層是可以有地下水可以流通的，而且海底下的岩石，不需要等待雨水的到來，海水就可以在沒有沈積物覆蓋的區域源源不絕的灌入海下的岩石圈。但是比起在陸地上直接鑽井即可以取得地下水來作研究，要在水深數千米的海床下鑽井，並且要鑽穿數百米的沈積物，再鑽進岩石裡，聽起似乎複雜多了，而且即使井鑽好了，海水不就可以透過我們鑽的動一直灌進去嗎？這樣我們要怎麼採得海底下的地下水來作研究呢？經過幾十年的努力，海洋鑽探計畫，已經克服種種困難，而成功的在水下裝設水下觀測系統，而柯恩教授的團隊，就是利用這種觀測井，取得海洋岩石圈中的地下水，來作地質微生物方面的研究。我們這次的航次，主要利用裝置在大西洋西部側翼”年輕”（其實也已經一百五十萬年那麼老的）的觀測井，把我們的採樣儀器下放到水深四千米的海床，然後經由觀測井，把海床下方六百米深的岩石中的水抽到採樣器中，其中會經過有三百米厚的沈積物。我希望利用這個部落格，把這次航次發生的事情記錄下來與你們分享，你們有任何的問題，請email到Dr. James Cowen的信箱jcowen@soest.hawaii.edu，我們會盡量幫你們回答，尤其有任何想問科學家的問題，也可以問。此外，我會把一些我們必須克服的問題放上來，你們也可以幫我們一起想想解決方法喔！


This cartoon shows the relative depth of the circulating crustal fluids. The seafloor depth is 2600m in Juan de Fuca (our other study site). The seafloor depth in North Pond is about 4000 m. Remotely-operated-submersible vehicle JASON is used to help us connect subseafloor sampling systems (GeoMicrobe and MPS) to the fluid delivery line a CORK. Here you can see the CORK penetrate through sediment and into oceanic basaltic rocks.
研究船是停留在海水面上的，我們必須利用遠端遙控研究潛水艇JASON（傑森號）是下放到海床上協助採樣作業，既然是遠端遙控，就代表JASON跟位在船上控制室之間需要有纜線讓我們可以相互溝通。CORK（水下觀測系統）的一端是突出於海床上，方便我們把儀器或是採樣器連結上去，海床下方是厚厚的沈積物，目前海洋鑽探計畫裝置CORK的技術能只能在有厚沈積物的地方，因為沈積物可以把那麼細長但卻相當重的觀測井，好好的固定在海床上，就像把牙籤插入起司蛋糕中，牙籤可以乖乖的直立在那邊一樣。觀測井主要目的是要研究在海洋岩石中流動的水，因此，觀測井當然是要穿過沈積物，深入岩石中囉！目前我們採樣過最深入海洋岩石150公尺深的觀測井，這次我們要挑戰採樣深入海洋岩石中300公尺深的觀測井。我們必須在船上的操控室，控制放置在深達4000米的海床上的儀器，然後把海下的地下水從海床下600公尺深的岩石中打出來，裝在海床上的採樣袋，你能列舉出一些你覺得我們必須克服的挑戰有哪些嗎？