Category Archives: To Be a Scientist

Michael Jackson Tribute from my Alaskan Spiritual Home

July 12, 2009

Toolik Field Station in Alaska is like none other, and this proves it:

Although I do want to add that, contrary to what the good folks at the Nature blog said, as a founding member of the first EVER Toolik Dance Team (to our knowledge), Arctic Researchers are, in fact, known for our rhythm. As well as general, all-around bad-assedness.

Four years ago this summer a five woman international (thanks Kanchan) dance troupe wore lab coats dyed with permanent marker soaked in buckets of water, with Nepali written along the bottom, and black long underwear shirts on top to  perform a Bollywood dance in the Presentation Tent, with a whole lot of famous and fabulous scientists and field crew members watching. And we rocked it.

How’s THAT for rhythm, Nature?

Also posted in Adventure, Research – 0 Comments

This Moment in Numbers: 12

July 8, 2009

This day is at long last my ‘D’ Day, with the ‘D’ in this case being for Do. It’s time to do it, to go into the field and begin the process of answering all the questions I have spent the last nine months dreaming up. I am excited. I feel energetic and light, full of hopefulness about the speed and accuracy of my data collection (I have a good track record on the latter), and nervous. I lay in bed last night eagerly calculating and recalculating how many days it will take me to get the data, to survey all twelve of my community forests, not able to sleep despite the dark and the long day I had had. I was and continue to be totally jazzed by this moment.

I have 12 community forests to sample, with a whopping nine backup forests selected (one for every sample forest) in case one gets away. The reasons to decide against sampling a forest are diverse, but a few would be if the community didn’t want you there (it’s harvest time, and community members are busy bringing in their crops), if the forest had been dramatically damaged by a fire, flood, or landslide in the last ten years (which would affect the species diversity, a measure of how many species there are, and abundance, a measure of how many individuals from each species are present), or if the forest’s elevation, slope, or topography makes it impossible to survey (the land is very folded here, and many slopes are over a 45 degree angle!)

In addition I have randomly selected an entire backup Range Post, the management unit within which my forests are located. I am sampling three range posts (to see if there’s a difference between them), but I have the back up one selected in case I show up to Pumdi Bhumdi, Lamachaur, or Hemja and the Range Post Officer, whose help I need to get into the forests and work with the local forest watcher, is sick, absent, or just plain irritable.

Did I mention I feel ready?

I had a last talk with my bestfriend/sounding board/president of ye olde kitchen cabinet last night, a last pep talk for the field and also a double-check on my plans, methods, and thinking, from a scientist I greatly admire, and a friend who knows me well. We have worked together in two countries, now, and for all the questions I’ve checked in with him on while here in Nepal, you may as well round it up to three. Incidentally, if you don’t know the ‘kitchen cabinet’ reference, google it – it was originally a pejorative description of one of the former president’s (Andrew Jackson’s?) use of his friend’s as advisors, rather than his official cabinet, and I love the analogy. Your kitchen cabinet members are your go-to people, your last-check-before-I-take-my-swandive folks, the people whose range of experience and perspectives on the world help guide you through your own choices, even though these decisions are ones that you effectively make alone. I like the mental image of opening the cabinet doors and finding all your closest advisors there, the people you respect the most, smiling and reaching in support, willing and able to help and guide you.

Last night I told the cabinet member of note (whose name is Greg) that if by some fluke I managed to discover a new species, I would name it after him, and put an “ii” (pronounced ee-eye) after his name to show him what it would be. It’s common in science to name newly discovered species after famous, well-respected scientists, and since he’ll be one sometime in the next year or so, I’d just be ahead of the curve. I think we were both imagining plants, since that’s what I study, but I also told him, with a wink, that should it be a leech I discover instead, the naming convention will hold.

And now it’s time to rally and leave, as I have one last battle to do with a laggard employee of the forest office here before I can take to the field, and I’m showing up as he starts his day, in hopes of counteracting the laziness, but here are the numbers.

18: randomly selected potential sampling sites, with 18 photocopies of forest operational plans, all in Nepali.

15: minutes before I leave campus for the day.

12: forests to sample by August 10.

7: the number of days per week I don’t want to work, but just might have to.

6: forests at or under 10 hectares in size (whoopeee! Thank you, random sampling!)

6: working days in a week.

4: Pieces of fancy schmancy American raingear.

3: Range Posts and Range Post Officers to work with.

3: pm, the time the monsoon starts.

2: Backpacks packed with gear.

1: 90 hectare, or 900,000 sq meter forest to sample (a percentage of).

1: field assistant, with the promise of others if needed.

1: last cup of delicious Costa Rican coffee before I go.

1: Last deep breath.

Namaste,

-M-

Also posted in Adventure, Forestry, Forests, Friendship, Self-Discovery, Trees – 1 Comment

A Quick Update in the Vernacular

July 1, 2009

Whew.

With that, I am at long last up-to-date, and you (faithful readers) are brought into the present tense. I’ve omitted a few posts for dicey content (sorry) that is fine for America but poorly suited for Nepali propriety, in case my friends here ever read this, and one or two for general grumpiness (you don’t want to hear me being grumpy – really).

I’m in Lakeside, at the moment, utilizing internet at a cafe because Ban Campus’ internet is down – the rains have come, and with them all the little inconveniences such a deluge implies. So far, however, no leeches. I give thanks for little things.

My research is behind, for a long series of reasons, and I will in short order decrease the number and length of posts drastically in order to focus more closely on being in the field. I plan to do four, six-day weeks of intense works, coming down from the communities on Friday nights through Sunday mornings only to wash clothes, upload data, sleep in front of a fan in “my own bed,” and update this blog. I hope you’ll bear with me during this slight change in the programming.

To my immense pleasure and surprise, this blog is moving along nicely. The posts are too long but I am loathe to spare the details. Could you understand the gracefulness and beauty of a sari if I excluded the bit about the golden thread? Would you have empathized as the bride cried while Sudarshan applied the tikka if I didn’t explain the implications? How do I tell you why I study trees in fewer than 500 words? These are the challenges. I promise to keep working on them, though, and to be more diligent about doing so.

To date I have written 87 pages of blog posts in a Word document, approximately 80 pages of which have been posted. So no hard feelings if you are not caught up. I read each post three times before it goes up, so – so believe me, I feel ya. I’ve never written so much in my life, and feel like I’m tapping into something that has been waiting a long, long, time to find its way out.

Finally, my thanks to all for the responses to the “Not Quite Pocket Change” post. I received many thoughtful and lengthy responses, mostly by email, which warmed my heart for the generous spirit and informed manner in which my quandary was considered. I still don’t know the answer or what I will do, but I will continue to mull it over. A friend has suggested I wait until the end of the summer and just before my departure before taking any action, so that I not become pressed for more financial support and distracted from my true objective here. I think this is wide counsel, and will heed it. So you have some time if you’re still thinking it over yourselves, but still want to comment.

I apologize for including the bit about starting my own non-profit. I meant to keep that up a sleeve and not disclose it in so public a way, but 750 mL of beer and a lot of soul-searching later, out it came. I will deal with that more later – both the idea and my fear and excitement about it. We’ll see what comes.

But for now what must come (at long, friggin’, aggravation and anxiety-ridden last) is my research. It’s time to head into the field, and I am dying to go. I anticipate leeches, amazing conversations with community members, sweaty days, rinsing off in my clothes at the public water spouts in the evening, mice in my hair and probably biting at my fingertips as I sleep. Lots of humid bus rides, all kinds of adventure. Frustration – especially due to leeches, rain, and the steep slope of the mountains. Fun, working with Nepali students here in the field, on my own project. Undue amounts of anxiety and worry over whether I am doing it right, whether my question is actually any good, whether my data will show what I hope does. All lies ahead.

And with that, I’m back to the grindstone.

Namaste and a Happy 4th of July to All,

-M-

Also posted in Adventure, Charity, Creatures, Forestry, Research, Self-Discovery, Uncategorized – 0 Comments
« Older posts
Newer posts »