Tuesday, October 2, 2012

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。



Friday, August 10, 2012

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

Monday, July 30, 2012

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。





Sunday, July 22, 2012

See our team in Scientific Drilling cover

Scientific Drilling cover

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


Thursday, July 12, 2012

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。