SCPD - Assignment 1

The guest in this episode of The Beat is a physicist and oceanographer who studies the sounds made by bubbles underwater. Sound can provide information beyond what we immediately hear, and it plays a role in how we experience the world. The guest is passionate about marine biogeochemistry and climate change, specifically studying the interactions between phytoplankton and seawater. They are currently analyzing data on their computer but hope to be part of a field campaign in the future, collecting measurements at sea. This is The Beat, stories about the people and places at the heart of health and science. I'm your host, Kalina, and today my guest is a physicist and oceanographer who is fascinated by an ephemeral subject, sound. She studies bubbles and the sounds they make underwater, specifically deep in the ocean. But you don't need to be at sea to hear bubbles. Every time you pour yourself a glass of water, the sound you hear is an orchestra of tiny bubbles. Sound contains layers of information that go beyond what immediately hits the air. Sound can bring so much joy, but it can also be a major source of irritation. It's how we experience the world around us. Today's episode is all about sound and how we interact with it. Please introduce yourself to our listeners. My name is Kalina. I use she, they pronouns, and I'm a senior at the University of Chicago studying geosciences. How did you first become interested in science? I first became interested in science when I was a sophomore in high school. I was in a marine biology class, and we went on a field trip to the Catalina Island Marine Institute. I swam in the ocean for the first time. I got to snorkel, hang out on the beach, and learn about a wide range of marine organisms that I never would have had the opportunity to see otherwise. I didn't even know what a scientist was back then, but I wanted to be one. What issues or ideas in science are you most excited about? I am passionate about marine biogeochemistry and climate change. Biogeochemistry is the study of the chemical interactions between organisms and their inorganic environment. In marine biogeochemistry, I study the chemical interactions between phytoplankton and the seawater, such as how the abundance of minerals and micronutrients affect plankton populations. I especially love this field because this is an outlet to study the history of the climate and under present warming conditions, how it will change. When we add minerals to the ocean, which happens through runoff or through other processes, phytoplankton populations may increase, which means they are using more CO2 from the atmosphere to do photosynthesis. This process is called carbon sequestration, and all of the CO2 they capture can be stored in the ocean for millions of years. Now, describe the scientific space you work in so our listeners who have never been there can picture it. Right now, I'm just doing this work on my computer. I am currently studying the effects of wave phenomena on nutrient concentrations, so I'm just gathering data that is available to the public and analyzing it in Python. And because I'm coding on my laptop, I'm just working from home or wherever I choose. But right now, I'm applying for funding to be part of a field campaign where we would go to sea to collect field measurements. And this would look like me and a bunch of other scientists on a ship with lots of equipment on board to lower our tools into the water. One tool is a CTD profiler, which stands for Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth, and it measures all of those things, and it looks like several cylinders all hooked together in a circle, and it's about six feet tall. It's huge. And then we have an A-frame, which is connected to a winch, which are essentially just tools that act as a hook and a lever. The hook hooks onto the CTD profiler, and it lowers it into the water whenever the boat stops. And so right now, I'm just coding, but I hope to be at sea in the future and collecting field measurements.