A few years back, Mary was taking a class in evolutionary biology. One of the lectures was about large mammals that evolved quickly after the K-T extinction event, which killed off the dinosaurs. The point of the lecture was that when an ecological niche suddenly becomes vacant, other organisms can quickly evolve to fill it. One example was some sort of hamster-like mammal which was considerably larger than any modern rodent.
Drew heard about this third-hand, and got the idea that there was an ancient species of house-sized hamsters, which were twenty feet tall with legs bigger than tree trunks. This was the most exciting thing he had heard about all week. The class of giant, mostly non-existent creatures became known as “giant pig-dogs”, and we both stayed on the lookout for more example of huge animals which used to exist and didn’t seem quite possible (insert examples, for instance to the terrorbirds).
The point of this was that it was science, but it was also fun. I think most people want to become scientists because it shows us things that are outside of our everyday experience, which are provably real but don’t seem like they could be. In the everyday experience of being a scientist, however, it is easy to get bored. A project typically lasts several years or more from inception to completion, but I find that the exciting phase, when the project seems new and different and full of possibilities, is often over pretty quickly. It is hard to sense of wonder and eagerness that is the best part of doing science.
The goal of this blog is to have a conversation about things that seem exciting, new, and different. We’re both ocean scientists, from pretty different backgrounds: Mary studies marine ecology; Drew studies the chemistry of organic matter in the ocean, so we’ll keep things more or less focused on the ocean. This blog will be our forum (with contributions from like-minded folk) to maintain that excitement.
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