Post from a Scientist: “Remember the Big Picture”

Hi everyone! Happy (belated) first day of autumn! My name is Alena Malyarenko and I’m from Moscow. I wanted to go on this adventure because I was desperate to listen to people with different backgrounds, and I haven’t been disappointed. We have in this Summer School the most diverse group I’ve ever been a part of. We have people who studied theoretical Math and Physics, some of whom have gone into environmental fields later. There are people who studied Geophysics and then went into Meteorology or Oceanography. There are also biologists and people who create physical models from scratch. And here I am: I studied Oceanography from a geographical point of view, without using as much Math and Physics as others. So it’s safe to say that we all have different point of view on every topic. 😉

 After I gave my presentation about water masses from a global scale point of view, we had a very heated conversation about using math to go for precise results. The main idea of my presentation was that sometimes you don’t have to use so much math, statistics, or great models that describe every process to learn something about the ocean. You can just look at observations and results, and create a hypothesis about ocean processes. And if you have good experience in the field, your hypothesis will probably be true.

 And this idea can be spread to every area of science. In recent times, our definition of “better” has come to mean “smaller, and more numbers after the period,” instead of meaning “closer to reality.” For example, we look at brain cells, and try to find out how small parts of our bodies work. Some of us actually try to find out how water molecules interact with each other. But sometimes, in all this rush, I fell like scientists can forget about the big picture. There are like a bazillion different molecules in the world’s oceans. Not only do we not have powerful enough computers to calculate all of that, but more importantly, we don’t necessarily need it. There has to be a line drawn of sensible decisions about where to stop. Think about how oceanographers worked in the 1970s. They had a little bit of data about the ocean, but there weren’t very powerful computers for them to use, so they used their imaginations, and created some awesome techniques for analysis of ocean processes. And now we just forget about them in the rush of racing for precision. I think that it would be nice to try to combine the old methods with the new data we can get from modern instruments.

 Personal PS:  Happy Birthday to my first cousin once removed – Arseniy!!! He is 1 year old today!!! Love you!!!

And my dearest family, please answer my emails!

 NOTE TO EVERY FAMILY / FRIEND WHO DIDN’T GET AN EMAIL Check your spam folders, please!!! The address we use ends in  @rambler.ru ! We are all waiting here for your answers!

 – Alena Malyarenko